A work of art like _Tristan und Isolde_ can never be understood
by the norms which prevail in society. By the social theory, marriage
is a contract between two parties for their mutual advantage; it is
inspired by a refined form of selfishness. That spontaneous
self-immolation which marks the love of pure and vigorous natures lies
beyond its intelligence. The law is satisfied if only the parties
subscribe their names in solemn agreement before a proper civil or
ecclesiastical authority. It could not well be otherwise, for the
true-born _Aphrodite Ourania_ will not submit to any bonds but
her own. I should be indeed misunderstood if it were thought that I
was advocating licence in any form whatever. What is called
"free-love" is pure sensuality, the bastard _Aphrodite Pandemos_.
Nothing is more sacred to me than the marriage vow, but I hold that
the marriage vow itself needs the sanction of love, and that when this
is absent, or has broken down in the stress of life, I say--not that
sin is justified, but that love will take vengeance upon those who
have insulted her name. Lovers whose object is sensual enjoyment with
as little personal inconvenience as possible, who break the law while
wishing to escape the legal penalty, have nothing in common with
Wagner's _Tristan und Isolde_. Those who love for the sake of
loving, whose love is stronger than life, who readily and cheerfully
accept death as the due penalty of sin, these, and these alone, are
beyond the pale of human conventions; they can only be judged by the
laws of a higher morality than that of human tribunals.

Some details of the story we must construct for ourselves, and are
entitled to do so when they are not essential. The poet is himself not
always conscious of all the bearings of what he composes; he works by
inspiration, not by reason, and we know that Wagner himself was