The Sand-Man | Page 6

may
probably have become rather indifferent to his family, as so often
happens in the case of such experimentalists. So also it is equally
probable that your father brought about his death by his own
imprudence, and that Coppelius is not to blame for it. I must tell you
that yesterday I asked our experienced neighbour, the chemist, whether
in experiments of this kind an explosion could take place which would
have a momentarily fatal effect. He said, "Oh, certainly!" and described
to me in his prolix and circumstantial way how it could be occasioned,
mentioning at the same time so many strange and funny words that I
could not remember them at all. Now I know you will be angry at your
Clara, and will say, "Of the Mysterious which often clasps man in its
invisible arms there's not a ray can find its way into this cold heart. She

sees only the varied surface of the things of the world, and, like the
little child, is pleased with the golden glittering fruit, at the kernel of
which lies the fatal poison."
Oh! my beloved Nathanael, do you believe then that the intuitive
prescience of a dark power working within us to our own ruin cannot
exist also in minds which are cheerful, natural, free from care? But
please forgive me that I, a simple girl, presume in my way to indicate to
you what I really think of such an inward strife. After all, I should not
find the proper words, and you would only laugh at me, not because my
thoughts were stupid, but because I was so foolish as to attempt to tell
them to you.
If there is a dark and hostile power which traitorously fixes a thread in
our hearts in order that, laying hold of it and drawing us by means of it
along a dangerous road to ruin, which otherwise we should not have
trod--if, I say, there is such a power, it must assume within us a form
like ourselves, nay, it must be ourselves; for only in that way can we
believe in it, and only so understood do we yield to it so far that it is
able to accomplish its secret purpose. So long as we have sufficient
firmness, fortified by cheerfulness, to always acknowledge foreign
hostile influences for what they really are, whilst we quietly pursue the
path pointed out to us by both inclination and calling, then this
mysterious power perishes in its futile struggles to attain the form
which is to be the reflected image of ourselves. It is also certain,
Lothair adds, that if we have once voluntarily given ourselves up to this
dark physical power, it often reproduces within us the strange forms
which the outer world throws in our way, so that thus it is we ourselves
who engender within ourselves the spirit which by some remarkable
delusion we imagine to speak in that outer form. It is the phantom of
our own self whose intimate relationship with, and whose powerful
influence upon our soul either plunges us into hell or elevates us.to
heaven. Thus you will see, my beloved Nathanael, that I and brother
Lothair have well talked over the subject of dark powers and forces;
and now, after I have with some difficulty written down the principal
results of our discussion, they seem to me to contain many really
profound thoughts. Lothair's last words, however, I don't quite

understand altogether; I only dimly guess what he means; and yet I
cannot help thinking it is all very true. I beg you, dear, strive to forget
the ugly advocate Coppelius as well as the weather-glass hawker
Giuseppe Coppola. Try and convince yourself that these foreign
influences can have no power over you, that it is only the belief in their
hostile power which can in reality make them dangerous to you. If
every line of your letter did not betray the violent excitement of your
mind, and if I did not sympathise with your condition from the bottom
of my heart, I could in truth jest about the advocate Sand-man and
weather-glass hawker Coppelius. Pluck up your spirits! Be cheerful! I
have resolved to appear to you as your guardian-angel if that ugly man
Coppola should dare take it into his head to bother you in your dreams,
and drive him away with a good hearty laugh. I'm not afraid of him and
his nasty hands, not the least little bit; I won't let him either as advocate
spoil any dainty tit-bit I've taken, or as Sand-man rob me of my eyes.
My darling, darling Nathanael, Eternally your, &c. &c. NATHANAEL
TO LOTHAIR.
I am very sorry that Clara opened and read my last letter to you; of
course the mistake is to