"There'll be bluebells in there before long--you can see the shoots now," I told him.
He stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: "What is it about the English countryside--why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?"
He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening--I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly.
-- from I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
oh, I love this book so.
ReplyDelete"It is the blight man was born for,/It is Margaret you mourn for."
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