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Page 1 of 21928 · PDF PAGE 110
XXX THE ROPE TO EDOUARD MANET ILLUSIONS, my friend was saying, are per- haps as innumerable as the relations of men between themselves or those of men with things; and when illusion disappears, that is to say, when we see the being or the fact as it exists outside ourselves, we experience a curi- ous sentiment; complex, half of regret for the vanished phantom, half of pleased surprise at the novelty before the actual fact. If there be one evident, trivial phenomenon invariably like itself, and about whose nature it is impossible to make a mista…
1928 · PDF PAGE 21
…TH the great gray sky, in a vast and dusty plain that hath no road nor grass, with- out one thistle, without one nettle, I met sev- eral men walking, bowed over. Each of them bore upon his back an enor- mous chimera, as heavy as a sack of corn or coal, or the heavy marching of a Roman infan- tryman. But the monstrous brute was not a dead weight. On the contrary, it wrapped round and oppressed the man with its powerful and elas- tic muscles. It clutched with its two great claws at the breast of its mount, and its fables head crowned the forehead…
1928 · PDF PAGE 58
… know all that I see, all that I feel, all that I hear in thy hair! my soul goes journeying upon the wings of perfume like that of other men upon the wings of music. Thy hair contains a world of dream, full of sails and masts; it holds great seas whose winds bear me to charming climates, where space is bluer and deeper, where the atmos- phere is scented with fruit, with leaves, and with the skin of man. In the ocean of thy man I see a harbour, bust as an ant-heap with melancholy songs, with vigorous men of every nation, and with ships of every …
1928 · PDF PAGE 136
…where thou art not, the lover that thou knowest not, mon- strous flowers and delirious perfumes, cats that swoon at music and groan as women do with harsh, soft voice. And thou shalt be loved of my lovers, courted by my courtiers. Thou shalt be the queen of those men whose eyes are green and whose throats I have clutched in my nocturnal caresses: of those who love the sea, the vast, tumultuous sea, the shapeless water that hath many shapes, the place where they are not, the women whom they know not; the sinister flowers that resemble the thuri…
1928 · PDF PAGE 176
…phlet which he has doubtless forgotten and which I, and pos- sibly Sainte-Beuve still remember to-day. Where do dogs go? do you say, O men of little observation? They go about their busi- ness. A business appointment; a love appoint- ment. Across the fog, across the snow, across the mud, beneath the burning dog-star, be- neath the rustling rain, they go, they come, they trot, they pass under carriages; excited by fleas, passion, necessity or duty. Like our- selves they rise early, and seek their livelihood or pursue their pleasures. There are…
1928 · PDF PAGE 25
…yes towards the pedestal, lifts tear-filled eyes towards the immortal goddess. And his eyes say: I am the least and the most solitary of men; deprived of love and friendship, and in that respect how far below the least of brutes! Yet I am made, I too, to understand and to feel beauty immortal. Ah, Goddess, have pity of my sadness, of my madness! But the implacable Venus looks afar off upon I know not what, with marble eyes.
1928 · PDF PAGE 142
… cannot see yourself there but with displeasure? Sir Ugly answers me, Sir, ac- cording to the immortal principles of the year 89, all men have equal rights; ergo, I possess the right of looking at myself,whether with pleasure or chagrin is no ones business but my own. In the name of good sense, I was doubtless right; but from a legal standpoint he was cer- tainly not wrong.
1928 · PDF PAGE 165
…he love of hor- ror in order to turn my heart to Thee, like the cure which follows the knife; Oh Lord, have pity, have pity upon the mad men and women that we are! Oh Creator, is it possible that monsters should exist in the eyes of Him alone who knoweth why they exist, how they have made themselves, and how they would have made themselves, and could not?
1928 · PDF PAGE 55
… was mingled. This sight hard darkened the landscape for me, and the calm joy, in which my soul danced before it saw these miniatures of men, had vanished utterly. On that account I remained sad for a long while, saying to myself over and over again, There is then a sublime country where bread is called cake, and is so rare a delicacy that it may beget war between broth- ers.
1928 · PDF PAGE 185
…y-eyed, or preen Yourself in gold-laced evening, veiled in full, I love you, infamous Capital! To quean And highwayman, you tender ravishment Which lurks unknown to those of common men. PIERRE LOVING.
1928 · PDF PAGE 134
by the hurtling clouds. Not the peaceful and discreet moon that visits the slumber of chaste men, but the moon, torn from heaven, con- quered, yet in revolt, that Thessalian witches force by their strong spell to dance on the af- frighted grass. Beneath her narrow brow dwell tenacious will and lust of prey; and yet on this disquiet- ing countenance, where the mobile nostrils sniff up the unknown and the impossible, there breaks forth with ineffable grace the laughter of a great mouth red and white and delicious; as who should dream of the mirac…
1928 · PDF PAGE 144
XLII PORTRAITS OF MISTRESSES IN a mans boudoir, that is to say, in the smoking-room of a fashionable gambling hell, four men were smoking and drinking. They were not precisely old or young, they bore that unmistakable distinction which belongs to the veterans of Marshal Joy, that indescribableI know not what to call itthat cold and banter- ing sadness which clearly says, We have lived strongly, and we seek something to admire and to respect. One of them turned the conversation to the subject of women. It would have been more philosophical …
1928 · PDF PAGE 90
…ard our two souls should be no more than one. A dream which has nothing original about it, after all, unless it be that, imagines by all men, it has been realized by none. In the evening you were a little tired, and wanted to sit down in front of a new café at the corner of a new boulevard; still full of rub- bish, and already proudly displaying its unfin- ished splendours. The café sparkled; the gas itself flamed with all the enthusiasm of a first night, and lighted up with all its power the walls blinding with whiteness, the glittering
1928 · PDF PAGE 32
…nd strengthen the barricades that separate me from the world. Horrible life; horrible town! Let us go over the days work. I saw several men of letters, one of whom asked me if it was possible to go to Russia by land. He doubtless thought Russia was an island. I disputed enthusiastically with the editor of a review who replied to every ob- jection: This is an honest newspaper; implying that all other newspapers were edited by scoundrels. I saluted a score of people, of whom I do not know fifteen. I scattered hand-
1928 · PDF PAGE 117
XXXI THE JOYS OF THE SOUL IN a fair garden, where the rays of the au- tumnal sun seemed to linger in enjoyment, be- neath a sky already greenish where golden clouds floated like travelling continents, four lovely children, boys, tired without a doubt of playing, were talking among themselves. One of them said: Yesterday Papa took me to the theatre. There are big, sad palaces, beyond which one sees the sea and the sky, and in them there are men and women very serious and very sad too; but much more beautiful and better dressed than the people w…
1928 · PDF PAGE 41
munion. He who easily weds himself to the crowd becomes acquainted with feverish en- joyments, of which the egotist, closed up like a strong-box, and the idle man, shut up in his shell like a mollusc, are eternally deprived. He adopts as his own all the professions, all the joys, and all the miseries which chance brings under his notice. What men call love is very small, very re- stricted, very weak compared with this ineffa- ble orgy, this holy prostitution of the soul, which gives itself altogether, all its poetry, all its good will, to every…
1928 · PDF PAGE 150
…le. My sense of justice is too strong to allow me to beat, insult or dismiss an irreproachable servant; but I had to reconcile this sentiment with the horror with which this being inspired me: to disencumber myself without lacking in respect. What would you that I should do with her, since she was per- fect? The three other men looked at their com- panion with a vague and slightly stupefied
1928 · PDF PAGE 163
Wait a moment, said she; those are the house-surgeons, and in this packet are stu- dents. And she spread out like a fan a whole lot of photographs representing much younger faces. When we see each other next you will give me your portrait, wont you darling? But, said I to her, pursuing in my turn my own fixed idea, why do you think I am a doc- tor? Because you are so nice, and so kind to women. Singular logic, said I to myself. Oh, I am hardly ever deceived, I have known ever so many of them. I love doctors so much, that although…
1928 · PDF PAGE 74
…with the images of a crowd of little moving figures to represent the innumerable forms of universal wretchedness. There were little lank men who had hung themselves from a nail; there were little mis-
1928 · PDF PAGE 94
…sionate lover of the fine arts, and more- over an excellent connoisseur, he was truly in- satiable of pleasure. Indifferent enough where men and morals were concerned, himself a true artist, he knew no enemy so dangerous as boredom, and the bizarre efforts that he made to flee from or to conquer that tyrant of the world would certainly have endowed him (on the page of a severe historian) with the epithet of monster; if in his dominions it had been permitted to write anything at all whose sole tendency was not towards pleasure, or towards wonder…