They have their own inspirations. Young Powell's
inspiration consisted in being "enthusiastic" about Mrs. Anthony.
'Enthusiastic' is really good. And he was amongst them like a child,
sensitive, impressionable, plastic--but unable to find for himself any
sort of comment.
I don't know how much mine may be worth; but I believe that just then the
tension of the false situation was at its highest. Of all the forms
offered to us by life it is the one demanding a couple to realize it
fully, which is the most imperative. Pairing off is the fate of mankind.
And if two beings thrown together, mutually attracted, resist the
necessity, fail in understanding and voluntarily stop short of the--the
embrace, in the noblest meaning of the word, then they are committing a
sin against life, the call of which is simple. Perhaps sacred. And the
punishment of it is an invasion of complexity, a tormenting, forcibly
tortuous involution of feelings, the deepest form of suffering from which
indeed something significant may come at last, which may be criminal or
heroic, may be madness or wisdom--or even a straight if despairing
decision.
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