[19] The contradiction between the tireless tendency of Eros to spread
ever further and the general conservative nature of the instincts
here becomes very noticeable; it would serve as the starting-point of
enquiries into further problems.
[20] In Goethe’s Mephistopheles we have a quite exceptionally
striking identification of the principle of evil with the instinct of
destruction:
‘All entities that be
Deserve their end—nonentity.’
* * * * *
‘So all that you name sin, destruction—
Wickedness, briefly—proves to be
The native element for me.’
As his adversary, the devil himself cites not what is holy and good,
but the power in nature working towards the creation and renewal of
life—that is, Eros.
‘From air, from water, germs in thousands,
As from the soil, break forth, break free,
Dry, wet, warm, cold—a pullulation!
Had I not laid on flame a reservation,
Nothing were set apart for me.’
[21] Our present point of view can be roughly expressed in the
statement that libido participates in every instinctual manifestation,
but that not everything in that manifestation is libido.
[22] And we may probably add more precisely that its form was
necessarily determined after some definite event which still remains to
be discovered.