in the street and had told her plainly that her fiance ́had asked him to visit
her, but that he had decided not to do so. Nor would Kierkegaard visit
Boesen’s sick father; it had been a long while since they had last seen each
other, and thus “it would take some coincidence to get me going again.”
On the other hand, he could certainly give Boesen a little advice about the
art of finding a good theme for a sermon. One ought not attempt to do this
sort of thing in a direct manner—no, “for this sort of thing, you must ar-
range your life in reasonable fashion. Every day you must set aside at least
half an hour’s free time for incidental reading in the N. T. or a religious
writing. When you go for a walk, let your thoughts wander aimlessly,
snooping about here and there, experimenting first with one thing, then
with another. That is how you should organize your housekeeping.” The
advice was well-meant and would surely have worked, but for the fact that
there was an entire “horse market” whinnying right under the windows.
A couple of weeks later, on April 29, a reply arrived from Boesen, who
had apparently been reunited with the Louise of his life: “Dear friend! I
hereby wish to invite you to my wedding on Wednesday afternoon (May
- at six (or seven) o’clock in the Church of Our Lady. I am not calling on
you myself, because I have caught a serious cold and must see to it that I
get over it quickly. R.S.V.P. and it would give us great pleasure if you
would come. Yours, Emil Boesen.” It cannot be denied that this was a
rather confused invitation, and Kierkegaard was not in fact among the wed-
ding guests. He had conveniently enough caught a cold of his own and was
therefore legitimately excused. As we know, at that time Rasmus Nielsen
was also going around with the sniffles, so that summer there must really
have been something in the air that had a powerful effect on thoughtful
theological minds. Or perhaps they all simply had allergies.
While the newlyweds celebrated their honeymoon and so on, Kierke-
gaard celebrated his thirty-seventh birthday in complete obscurity. Several
days later (thoughbearing the date “May 5”) anempty little greeting arrived
from Henrik Lund, who was then living in Odense. That was all. Kierke-
gaard himself commemorated the day by attending vespers at the Church
of Our Savior, where the preacher was a theological graduate named Clem-
mensen. The sermon he preached was certainly no great piece of theology;
Kierkegaard called it “simple,” but on the other hand, he added, this unos-
tentatious and ordinary style was exactly what a sermon ought to have.
Happily,asaspeciallittlebirthdaygifttoKierkegaard,a“bitofhighlypoetic
beauty” had crept past the preacher. Clemmensen had preached about “life
as a going-forth from the Father and a going-home to the Father, as in the
Gospel text. Then came the usual stuff about life as a path. Then there was
ametaphoraboutaFatherwhosendshissonoutintotheworld,verypretty.