The Lilly of the Valley by Balzac

"A new soul, a soul with iridescent wings, had burst its chrysalis within me. My favorite star, dropping from the blue waste where I had admired it, and became a woman, while presenting its light, its sparkle, and its brilliancy."

Beautifully describing the embodiment of an idea, a common motif in the classics. The fact that the "woman" comes from the stars, the sky, "where I had admired it", gives the "woman" a sort of divinity- something beyond this world.

"Past sorrows, broodings, despair, and melancholy- past, but not forgotten- are so many bonds by which the soul clings to its sister soul."

It's interesting how the negative parts of life bond human beings together... ironic.

"How enchanting for a young man to see the woman he loves the most beautiful person present and the object of passionate admiration, while he knows the light of those chastely modest eyes is for him alone, and is familiar enough with every tone of her voice to find in her speech, superficially trivial or ironical, proofs of an ever-present thought of him"

"A true passion is like a beautiful flower, which it is all the more delightful to find when the soil that produces it is barren and wild."

A sort of virginity

"When words failed us, silence served us faithfully our souls entered into each other...each enjoying the charm of pensive torpor, they floated together in the river, and came forth like two nymphs as closely one as even jealousy could wish, but free from every earthy tie."

The description is fantastical... i love the way it gives the impression of flowing into each other...

"(...)it struck that there was a harmony in their hues and foliage, a poetry that found its way to the understanding by fascinating the eye, just as musical phrase arouse a thousand associations in loved and loving hearts. If color is anymore light, must it not have its meaning, as vibrations of their air have?"

Color is poetry to the eye!

"Nature has certain effects of boundless meaning, rising to the level of the greatest intellectual ideas...a long forest avenue, like the nave of a cathedral where the pillars are trees, their branches meeting like the groins of a vault, and at the end a distant glade seen through the foliage, dappled with light and shade, or glowing in the ruddy beams of sunset like the painted glass window of a chancel, filled with birds of choristers."

This analogy I've only come across a non-classic incidentally- Freckles by Gene-Stratton Porter... it refers to nature as being the ultimate "church", which is a very interesting concept concerning spirituality in general. Because agreeing to this would affect much of one's outlook on the spiritual...

It is as if nature worships God in its own way, creating cathedrals in the dark, deep forests, honoring its Creator...

"And still, in harmony with my thoughts, the valley under the dying yellow rays of the warm sun presented to me a responsive and living image of my soul."

How well nature knows us... Because the beauty of nature and its mysteries is all perceived through the effect it has upon us, upon our souls.

"The swirl of passion, with its suppressed longings, harmonizes with that of the river; the flowers, unforced by the hand of man, express his most secret dreams; the delicious see-saw of a boat vaguely repeats the thoughts that float in the brain."
Our words, strung to the diapason of nature, were full of mysteries grace, and our eyes shone with brighter beams, as they caught the light so lavishly shed by the sun on the scorching shore."

"I may say that we loved each other in every creature, in every object that we saw about us; we felt outside us the happiness each longed for;"

"(...)the source of the beams that shone from our eyes lay in our souls, for which they were as a pathway, leading from one to the other, so that they might visit, become one, separate, and play:"

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I think Balzac is the best from the french. Such beautiful poetry! And he uses it so artfully, mixing it with society and nature... marvelous. Of course, genius.

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Pub by Gebbie Publishing Co