After its opening metaphor of the
subreptive relationship between mind and world, the poem turns not to the mountain but to the negative space of the "Ravine of Arve," the "dark, deep Ravine--/ Thou many-coloured, many-voiced vale" (12-13).
But despite reason's need for a faculty of feeling its need, it is, properly speaking, numb: "Reason does not feel; it acknowledges its deficiency and weaves |wirkt^ the feeling of need using the cognitive drive."(55) The regulative principle is the "guiding line" (Richtschnur) of the proper use of pure reason, always in danger of the
subreptive entanglement of Hirngespinst (the brain tying itself in knots; AA VIII, 137) and speculative Sprachverwirrung (linguistic confusion).