Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
To H. Oswald
Dear Frau Oswald, 11 November 1954
I would gladly accept your invitation to devote myself to Holderlin’s work if I still felt up to this task.
Unfortunately I am no longer energetic enough and am too old-in my 8oth year-to do it justice.
I know the lines you quote from Holderlin only too well.
But I have worked so hard in these last decades that I must be wary of even relatively minor mental Exertions.
It is now up to the younger generation to open a few locked doors, perhaps with the help of the keys I have wrought.
In any case I see no one at present who could tackle Holderlin.
Such a work is reserved for a distant future.
A person carries the torch only a stretch of the way and must then lay it down, not because he has reached a goal but because his strength is at an end.
It would be most unseemly to grab Holderlin by the hair in senile impatience.
I cannot deny that all sorts of thoughts run through my head, but that traitor the body leaves me in the lurch.
Nevertheless I thank you for your pious wish, for which there is every justification.
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 192-193.