登陆注册
4607100000104

第104章

If anything tempted the boy to write sonnets to a little girl, it must have been the chivalric element in society at that period, when even boys were required to choose objects of devotion, and to whom they were to be loyal, and whose honor they were bound to defend. But the grave poet, in the decline of his life, makes this simple confession, as the beginning of that sentiment which never afterwards departed from him, and which inspired him to his grandest efforts.

But this youthful attachment was unfortunate. Beatrice did not return his passion, and had no conception of its force, and perhaps was not even worthy to call it forth. She may have been beautiful;she may have been gifted; she may have been commonplace. It matters little whether she was intellectual or not, beautiful or not. It was not the flesh and blood he saw, but the image of beauty and loveliness which his own mind created. He idealized the girl; she was to him all that he fancied. But she never encouraged him; she denied his greetings, and even avoided his society. At last she died, when he was twenty-seven, and left him--to use his own expression--"to ruminate on death, and envy whomsoever dies."To console himself, he read Boethius, and religious philosophy was ever afterwards his favorite study. Nor did serenity come, so deep were his sentiments, so powerful was his imagination, until he had formed an exalted purpose to write a poem in her honor, and worthy of his love. "If it please Him through whom all things come," said Dante, "that my life be spared, I hope to tell such things of her as never before have been seen by any one."Now what inspired so strange a purpose? Was it a Platonic sentiment, like the love of Petrarch for Laura, or something that we cannot explain, and yet real,--a mystery of the soul in its deepest cravings and aspirations? And is love, among mortals generally, based on such a foundation? Is it flesh and blood we love; is it the intellect; is it the character; is it the soul; is it what is inherently interesting in woman, and which everybody can see,--the real virtues of the heart and charms of physical beauty?

Or is it what we fancy in the object of our adoration, what exists already in our own minds,--the archetypes of eternal ideas of beauty and grace? And do all men worship these forms of beauty which the imagination creates? Can any woman, or any man, seen exactly as they are, incite a love which is kindred to worship?

And is any love worthy to be called love, if it does not inspire emotions which prompt to self-sacrifice, labor, and lofty ends?

Can a woman's smiles incite to Herculean energies, and drive the willing worshipper to Aonian heights, unless under these smiles are seen the light of life and the blessedness of supernatural fervor?

Is there, and can there be, a perpetuity in mortal charms without the recognition or the supposition of a moral beauty connected with them, which alone is pure and imperishable, and which alone creates the sacred ecstasy that revels in the enjoyment of what is divine, or what is supposed to be divine, not in man, but in the conceptions of man,--the ever-blazing glories of goodness or of truth which the excited soul doth see in the eyes and expression of the adored image? It is these archetypes of divinity, real or fancied, which give to love all that is enduring. Destroy these, take away the real or fancied glories of the soul and mind, and the holy flame soon burns out. No mortal love can last, no mortal love is beautiful, unless the visions which the mind creates are not more or less realized in the object of it, or when a person, either man or woman, is not capable of seeing ideal perfections. The loves of savages are the loves of brutes. The more exalted the character and the soul, the greater is the capacity of love, and the deeper its fervor. It is not the object of love which creates this fervor, but the mind which is capable of investing it with glories. There could not have been such intensity in Dante's love had he not been gifted with the power of creating so lofty and beautiful an ideal; and it was this he worshipped,--not the real Beatrice, but the angelic beauty he thought he saw in her. Why could he not see the perfections he adored shining in other women, who perhaps had a higher claim to them? Ah, that is the mystery!

And you cannot solve it any easier than you can tell why a flower blooms or a seed germinates. And why was it that Dante, with his great experience, could in later life see the qualities he adored in no other woman than in the cold and unappreciative girl who avoided him? Suppose she had become his wife, might he not have been disenchanted, and his veneration been succeeded by a bitter disappointment? Yet, while the delusion lasted, no other woman could have filled her place; in no other woman could he have seen such charms; no other love could have inspired his soul to make such labors.

I would not be understood as declaring that married love must be necessarily a disenchantment. I would not thus libel humanity, and insult plain reason and experience. Many loves ARE happy, and burn brighter and brighter to the end; but it is because there are many who are worthy of them, both men and women,--because the ideal, which the mind created, IS realized to a greater or less degree, although the loftier the archetype, the less seldom is it found.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 快穿攻略:男神,你别跑!

    快穿攻略:男神,你别跑!

    夏倚歌为了能重生,只能帮女配们完成心愿,还带了附加任务攻略目标男神。夏倚歌:“我们的口号是什么?”沐沐:“搞事,搞事,搞事!”夏倚歌:“我们的任务是什么?”沐沐:“拆CP,打渣男,虐贱女!”夏倚歌:“错,是攻略男神,扑倒男神,吃掉男神。”只是,在某个黑灯瞎火的夜晚,她却发现床上多了个男人,竟然还跪求被扑倒。“不行,你颜值不够。”屋里骤然一亮,某男勾唇一笑:“够吗?”“够够够!”突然瞥到他的身上:“不行,你的体力肯定不行!”某男瞬间化身为狼,与她大战三天三夜,还要再来一遍时她哭着同意:“你的体力最好了。”某男躺床上:“现在我是男神了?”她点头,随后某男诱惑一笑。“那你来扑倒我吧!”
  • 国民校草宠上瘾

    国民校草宠上瘾

    她被欺负,他解围:“世上敢欺负她的人,一种还没出生,一种已经死了,你要当哪种?”她被告白,他找到那男生:“你被开除了!”她告白:“时城,我喜欢你。”时城故作正经:“刚刚风太大,你再说一遍。”
  • 我在哈佛的最后一堂课

    我在哈佛的最后一堂课

    一位哈佛老教授,将毕生的智慧留在书中,作为赠送世人的礼物。霍华德是哈佛商学院的传奇人物,然而,有一天,他的生命之钟卡了一下,这位传奇人物差点因心脏骤停而长眠于哈佛的那片被精心修剪过的草坪上。人们猛然发现,必须把霍华德的智慧留存,于是,有了这本经典、充满人生智慧的书。他是一位老师,一位长者,同时,他也拥有富可敌国的资产。他洞察商业社会的秘密,全世界一流的企业家在遇到重大决策的时候,会选择去倾听霍华德的意见。霍华德不但拥有人生的智慧,还具备惊人的商业眼光,《我在哈佛的最后一堂课》为大家带来霍华德创造富足人生的十四个实用策略。
  • 阿Q狗打工记

    阿Q狗打工记

    机会是自己创造的,想获得一份好工作,除了主动争取机会外,更要具有基本能力,使命感,谦卑的心态,比别人更认真努务,不要怕吃苦,不要怕付出。
  • 第一佣兵女王:斗破姻缘

    第一佣兵女王:斗破姻缘

    “师父,您是喜欢徒儿的柔情似水,还是迷恋徒儿的性感身材呢?”洛倾城嗲嗲的问道,眼神含情脉脉的。“为师喜欢扑倒你!”“.......”某人黑线,无语,风中继续凌乱去了!她本是现代一绝世高手,杀人如麻,素有玉罗刹之称。一朝穿越不但沦为他人解蛊的肉鼎,被人骗身又骗情。遭人陷害,被人拍卖也罢了全拿当她废物?修魂废材?爹爹要杀她?族人鄙视她?狠好!一鞭挥出,气势如虹,打尿你们这群狗眼看人低的废物们!天不容她,好,那她就逆之。人要杀她,行,那她便诛之。既然非要逼她走上一条绝境,不让她安生的过日子,那她便——翻手为天,覆手为雨。笑看苍生,割地为王。成为一代绝世女奴王吧!
  • 我胆小如鼠

    我胆小如鼠

    收入了中国当代经典名著《活着》作者余华在1986-1998年创作的中短篇小说:《我胆小如鼠》《夏季台风》《四月三日事件》共3篇。
  • 重生之我是鬼脚七

    重生之我是鬼脚七

    S9,那个男人的瑞兹如同魔神一般,让自己的梦再一次破碎在巴黎。“我的职业生涯,到头了吗?”心灰意冷的明凯坐在窗前看着外面的景色,喃喃自语,他其实并不甘心。“我给你个机会,你要吗?”窗外阵阵金光闪烁,一阵洪亮的声音传来,明凯的生活也不再平凡。
  • 歌德谈话录

    歌德谈话录

    本书是歌德的助手爱克曼辑录的关于歌德的言论和活动的集子,很多人自然地把它当作歌德的传记来阅读;但是我认为,它更加直接和突出地显现出了歌德关于文艺、美学、哲学、自然科学等等方面的思想,所以还可以称得上是“歌德的谈话录”——就如《论语》体现着孔子的博大思想,以“谈话”的形式,更加灵活、多方面地体现“作者”(在这里,真正的作者应该是歌德了)思想,不受时空体式的限制,没有逻辑思维的束缚,是作者精神面貌的直接呈现,也是我们来阅读歌德、理解歌德的最贴近的一扇窗户。
  • 丰子恺散文

    丰子恺散文

    本书选入《剪网》、《渐》、《艺术三昧》、《立达五周年纪念感想》、《自然》、《颜面》、《儿女》、《闲居》、《从孩子得到的启示》等丰子恺著名散文八十余篇,是“中华散文插图珍藏版”系列之《丰子恺散文插图珍藏版》的升级版。读者可从中一窥丰子恺散文创作的风格及真髓。
  • 至尊武帝

    至尊武帝

    我有一剑可灭苍天,我有一刀可断轮回,我有一眼洞穿幽冥,我若成仙,则天地无仙,我若为魔,则天地无魔。