A certain emptiness in Heine's conception of love strikes us here again. This love has no real substance, no spiritual significance. It was not till shortly before he lay down upon his death-bed that Heine began to describe a love that has real inward substance. The love of the _Buch der Lieder_ is for the most part wrath excited by coldness or faithlessness, an unfruitful thing, that awakens no sympathy. The later of the love-poems are frequently sensual or frivolous, and the more exaggerated the expression, the less are we affected by the value of the feeling: "Mein Herz ist wie die Sonne, So flammend anzuseh'n. Und in ein Meer von Liebe Versinkt es gross und schön."[15] 15: My heart is like the sun, dear, Yon kindled flame above; And sinks in large-orbed beauty Within a sea of love. (E. LAZARUS.) There is too much self-observation and too much boastfulness in this youthful rodomontade. And it is the same with: "Ich hab' dich geliebet und liebe dich noch, Und fiele die Welt zusammen, Aus ihren Trummern stiegen doch Hervor meiner Liebe Flammen."[16] 16: I have loved thee long, and I love thee now, And, though the world should perish, O'er its dying embers still would glow The flames of the love I cherish. (LELAND) Admitting that this is probably so expressed for the sake of artistic effect, we must also admit that the style is a good, perfectly modern style. We can see it all with the mind's eye. The heart sinks like the sun into a sea. From the ruins of the world rise the flames of love. And still more powerful and much more picturesque is the scene in which the name of Agnes is written on the vault of heaven. What is wanting is substance in the feeling. Think, for the sake of comparison, of those profoundly human lines of Goethe's: "Kanntest jeden Zug in meinem Wesen, Spähtest, wo die reinste Nerve klingt, Konntest mich mit einem Blicke lesen, Den so schwer ein sterblich Aug' durchdringt."[17] [17] Thou knewest every impulse of my nature, thine eye detected where the nerve thrilled keenest, thou couldst read me at a glance, me, so impenetrable to mortal eye. --or of the following, which complete the impression: "Tropftest Mässigung dem heissen Blute, Richtetest den wilden, wirren Lauf, Und in deinen Engelsarmen ruhte Die zerstörte Brust sich wieder auf."[18] [18] The hot blood by thee was tempered, the wild, aimless course by thee directed; and in thine angel arms the torn breast found rest and healing.