Soren Kierkegaard

of them happen b yhappening, butwhenthe yhappen the ygive existence
its fullness.
For example, at one point Constantin Constantius is reminded of how,
six years earlier, he had stayed at a country inn and enjoyed a fine meal. Just
as he had been standing there enjoying a steaming cup of coffee he had
suddenl ylooked through the window and seen a young woman on her wa y
into the courtyard of the inn, from which he drew the “conclusion” that
she was on her wa ydown to the garden. “One is young. So I bolted down
m ycoffee, lit a cigar and was just about to follow fate’s beckoning and the
young woman’s footsteps when there came a knocking at my door, and in
stepped—the young woman.” She nodded most winsomely and inquired
sweetl ywhether she might have a ride to Copenhagen with Constantin
Constantius in his carriage, and the spontaneous trust with which she made
her inquir yso surprised him that he immediatel ylost “sight of the interest-
ing and the piquant,” and without the least ulterior motive he offered the
young woman a ride back to town. Indeed, he was convinced that even a
“more irresponsible person” than himself would have forgotten his sl yde-
sires: “The confidence with which she entrusted herself to me is a better
defense than all feminine cunning and cleverness.” Thus his own strategy
of seduction had been vulnerable to a sudden displa yof trust that had de-
stroyed the “conclusion” he had been in the process of reaching and had
caused him to forget his original, manipulative motives. The young woman
did not become Constantin Constantius’s victim. On the contrary, it was
he who became the victim of her trust, after which he could conclude: “A
young woman who wishes for the interesting becomes the trap in which
she herself is caught. A young woman who does not wish for the interesting
believes in repetition.”
One can no morewilltrust than one canwilla repetition or a chance
event, just as the self does not have control over the factors that bring about
the action, the situation, the phenomenon. And Constantin Constantius
tells a moving stor yabout a couple of little girls in a bab ycarriage who
suddenl yfound themselves in a clearl ydangerous situation when a coach
bore down on them at full speed. Thanks to the nursemaid’s quick-thinking
maneuver with the bab ycarriage, however, the yjust barel yescaped catas-
trophe. Everyone had been full of anxiety, excepting only the little girls
themselves, for one of them had been sleeping soundl ywhile the other,
without batting an eye, had continued to pick her nose. “She probably
thought, what business is it of mine? It’s the nursemaid’s responsibility.”
Here again, the point of the stor yis the relation between human initiative
and the inevitable, whose essence, of course, is to happen b yhappening.