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Novalis: Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia
Whatever else occurs to me will also be written down in the universal brouillon. The remaining time will be partly devoted to the novel, partly to miscellaneous readings—and to chemistry and encyclopedistics in general.98 The mineral cabinet of Heynitz and Hofmann will be first studied after the preparatory section of oryctognosy is completed.99 Mechanics comes after the theory of gravitation. 232. 1 hour is to be devoted to chemical preparations. (Preparations of processes, of life of every kind.)100 1. chemical preparations of chemical forces etc.—of fire, light—coldness, fermentation, denotation etc. of electricity, magnetism. (Preparation of processing organs—of organs of every kind) 2. Preparations of chemical substances. 233. One hour of encyclopedistics in general. This includes scientific algebra—equations. Relationships—similarities—equalities—effects of the sciences on each other. These hours are in the morning, from 6–12. In the afternoon, if none of the morning hours have been lost, the novel and readings. Letters punctuate every hour. The other hours in the morning can be spent in exercise and breaks. E.g. from 9–10 walking, riding, or from 11–12. If I happen to spend time reading in the morning, say from 6–7, I can catch up in the afternoon. [234.] ROMANTICISM ETC. Fairy tales. Nessir and Zulima.101 Romanticization of Aline.102 Novellas. Thousand and One Nights. Dschinnistan.103 La Belle et la Bête.104 Musäus’s German Folk Fairy-tales.105 Romantic spirit of modern novels. Meister. Werther.106 Grecian folk fairy tales. Indian fairy tales. New, original fairy tales. In a true fairy tale everything must be marvelous—mysterious and unconnected— everything must be animated. Everything in a different fashion. The whole of Nature must be interwoven in a wondrous manner with the entire spirit world. The age of general anarchy—lawlessness—freedom—the natural state of Nature—the age prior to the world (State). This age prior to the world yields, as it were, the scattered features of the age after the world—just as the state of Nature is a singular image of the eternal kingdom. The world of fairy tales is the absolutely opposite world to the world of truth (history)—and for this reason so remarkably similar to it—as chaos is to completed creation. (On idylls). In the world of the future everything is just as it is in the former world—and yet everything is utterly different. The world of the future is rational chaos—chaos suffused with itself—inside and outside of itself—chaos2 or . A true fairy tale must be at once a prophetic representation—an ideal representation—and an absolutely necessary representation. The true poet of the fairy tale is a seer of the future.