Ice in warm water

Meaning

Ice in warm water supplies the comparison for a gentle, intimate mingling of the two things described in Part II: matter and the work · unit 17. The printed form is Eiβ, with a final Greek beta character, not German ß, preserved from the supplied reading text; it is not evidence for an egg, despite the nearby comparison of a vessel to an egg. The English correctly renders the present image as “ice.” The sentence moves from bodily dissolution into conjunction, then to bride and bridegroom imagery. These comparisons describe the desired character of union rather than identify ordinary ice as a substance to be added to the work.