It is the problem put forward in “Tannhäuser.” We have Tannhäuser, Wolfram, Venus, and Maria. The fact that two lovers, who have found each other once for all--Tristan and Isolde--choose death instead of the bridal bed, is just as absolute a proof of a higher, maybe metaphysical, something in mankind, as the martyrdom of a Giordano Bruno. “Dir, hohe Liebe, töne Begeistert mein Gesang, Die mir in Engelschöne Tief in die Seele drang! Du nahst als Gott gesandte: Ich folg’ aus holder Fern’,-- So führst du in die Lande, Wo ewig strahlt dein Stern.” Who is the object of such love? Is it woman, as she has been represented in this work, who lacks all higher qualities, who gets her value from another, who has no power to attain value on her own account? Impossible. It is the ideally beautiful, the immaculate woman, who is loved in such high fashion. The source of this beauty and chastity in women must now be found. The question as to whether the female sex is the more beautiful, and as to whether it deserves the title of “the” beautiful, has been much disputed. It may be well to consider by whom and how far woman is considered beautiful. It is well known that woman is not most beautiful in the nude. I admit that in pictures or statues the nude female may look well. But the sexual impulse makes it impossible to look at a living woman in a nude condition with the purely critical, unemotional eye, which is an essential feature in judging any object of beauty. But apart from this, an absolute nude female figure in the life leaves an impression of something wanting, an incompleteness, which is incompatible with beauty. A nude woman may be beautiful in details, but the general effect is not beautiful; she inevitably creates the feeling that she is looking for something, and this induces disinclination rather than desire in the spectator. The sight of an upright female form, in the nude, makes most patent her purposelessness, the sense of her purpose in life being derived from something outside herself; in the recumbent position this feeling is greatly diminished. It is evident that artists have perceived this in reproducing the nude.