Collected Works of A. I. Herzen, Volume 4

...Elixirs, the monk Medardus. Hoffmann was not satisfied with one life; he took four generations, inheriting villainy from one another, and gathered them all upon the head of Medardus. Hoffmann was not satisfied with one life: he presented an entire family, born of vile incest, and struck it with the blind sword of fate, which he placed into the hands of Medardus. This fate draws Medardus from crime to crime, and there is no mercy for anyone; this fate caused the pure blood of Aurelia to splatter in turn upon the altar of God, like the blood of an innocent sacrificial victim of redemption. Hoffmann was still not satisfied: he bifurcated, he split the very...

^1^) You know that the body is a dungeon,

^2^) "The Uncanny Guest," translated in Teleskop, 1836, books 1 and 2.