Soren Kierkegaard

scoundrel, politely saying, ‘Wouldn’t you be good enough to turn this in
ifyoushouldby chancegopastapolicestation?’”
NoteverypersonwithwhomKierkegaardtookwalksleftawrittenrec-
ord of it. One of the more prominent members of this silent group is the
poet,physician,andamoristEmilAarestrup,whomadehishomeinNysted
ontheislandofLollandbutwholovedtocometoCopenhagenand,among
other things, go for a stroll. It is not known how the two men became
acquainted—KierkegaardneverwritesasinglewordaboutAarestrup—but
their relationshipdates fromat least themid-1840s, whenAarestrup asked
one ofhis friends toconvey his greetingsto Grundtvig andKierkegaard if
he runs into them “and has nothing better to say.” At one point in 1848,
AarestrupjourneyedhometoNystedandwasinhighspiritsthankstokisses
froma pairof ladiesandto “thelong walkwithSøren Kierkegaard.”And
in 1852, when he was planning a trip to the capital, Aarestrup promised
PastorAndreasKroghthathewouldcertainlyconveyhisgreetingstoKier-
kegaardwhenhemeetsthemagister“onthelastday,asismycustom.”On
their walks together, the rotund Aarestrup and the linear Kierkegaard
looked like an ambulatory number “10,” but the two very heterogeneous
men, hypersensitive as they both were, profoundly self-conscious and un-
compromising loners, surely enjoyed each other’s company. Aarestrup
speaks of Kierkegaard as one of his “favorite authors” and, like him,
Aarestrup was truly tired of Hans Christian Andersen’s “infinity of senti-
mental confectioner’s sugar.” Kierkegaard must certainly have been at-
tracted by the Renaissance man Aarestrup’s voracious lust for life and his
intrepidparticipationinthelifeofthecity.AccordingtothepoetChristian
Winther,afterPoulMartinMøllerdied,Aarestrupwasthebestpersonwith
whomonecoulddiscussaestheticmatters.
AtonepointinhisOn the Concept of Irony,KierkegaardcalledSocratesa
“virtuosoofthecasualencounter”onthestreetsandalleysofAthens,where
healways“spokewithequalfacilitytohidetanners,tailors,Sophists,states-
men, and poets, with young and old, spoke with them equally well about
everything.” In a journal entry from the beginning of 1850 Kierkegaard
madethisretrospectivecomment:“Inordertoendureintellectualexertions
suchasmine,Ineededdiversion,thediversionofcasualencountersinthe
streetsandalleys.”Foralltheirphysicaldissimilarities,thelikenessbetween
the two peripatetics was unmistakable—Kierkegaard was a Copenhagen
Socrates and Socrates was an Athenian Kierkegaard—but his virtuosity in
“casual encounters” was notonlyphilosophically or psychologically moti-
vated,italsostemmedfromafundamentalneedforcontact,bothcommuni-
cative and physical. Kierkegaard quite simply needed his daily “people
bath,” as he called it. According to Vilhelm Birkedal, it was “his custom