Sadness

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Looking for Alaska (2005)

  And then I fell deeply, endlessly asleep and slept until three in the morning, when the Colonel woke me up. “She dumped me,” he said. “I am concussed,” I responded. “So I heard. Hence my waking you up. Video game?” “Okay. But keep it on mute. My head hurts.” “Yeah. Heard you puked on Lara. Very suave.” “Dumped?” I asked, getting up. “Yeah. Sara told Jake that I had a hard-on for Alaska. Those words. In that order. And I was like, ‘Well, I don’t have a hard-on for anything at this moment. You can check if you’d like,’ and Sara thought I was being too glib, I suppose, because then she said she knew for a fact I’d hooked up with Alaska. Which, incidentally, is ridiculous. I. Don’t. Cheat,” he said, and finally the game finished loading and I half listened as I drove a stock car in circles around a silent track in Talladega. The circles nauseated me, but I kept at it. “So Alaska went ballistic, basically.” He affected Alaska’s voice then, making it more shrill and headache-inducing than it actually was. “‘No woman should ever lie about another woman! You’ve violated the sacred covenant between women! How will stabbing one another in the back help women to rise above patriarchal oppression?!’ And so on. And then Jake came to Alaska’s defense, saying that she would never cheat because she loved him, and then I was like, ‘Don’t worry about Sara. She just likes bullying people.’ And then Sara asked me why I never stood up for her, and somewhere in there I called her a crazy bitch, which didn’t go over particularly well. And then the waitress asked us to leave, and so we were standing in the parking lot and she said, ‘I’ve had enough,’ and I just stared at her and she said, ‘Our relationship is over.’” He stopped talking then. “‘Our relationship is over?’” I repeated. I felt very spacey and thought it was just best to repeat the last phrase of whatever the Colonel said so he could keep talking. “Yeah. So that’s it. You know what’s lame, Pudge? I really care about her. I mean, we were hopeless. Badly matched. But still. I mean, I said I loved her. I lost my virginity to her.” “You lost your virginity to her?” “Yeah. Yeah. I never told you that? She’s the only girl I’ve slept with. I don’t know. Even though we fought, like, ninety-four percent of the time, I’m really sad.” “You’re really sad?” “Sadder than I thought I’d be, anyway. I mean, I knew it was inevitable. We haven’t had a pleasant moment this whole year. Ever since I got here, I mean, we were just on each other relentlessly. I should have been nicer to her. I don’t know. It’s sad.” “It is sad,” I repeated. “I mean, it’s stupid to miss someone you didn’t even get along with.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  d 6:22 One of the many titles of Darius king of Persia, in the sense that Persia had conquered territories that were previously Assyrian. Ezra 7 a 7:21 Lit beyond and so throughout. Ezra 8 a 8:2 I.e. descendants, and so throughout. b 8:13 Or Jeuel . c 8:14 Or Zakkur . d 8:21 Lit little ones . e 8:27 Perhaps copper. f 8:36 Lit beyond . Ezra 9 a 9:2 Lit seed. b 9:2 Historically, intermarriage with other nations led the Jews into pagan practices which brought God’s wrath and judgment upon all the people. Ezra 10 a 10:11 The severity of Ezra’s policy is justified considering Israel’s tragic experiences resulting from marriages to pagan women. The consequent idolatry, first of King Solomon, and then of the whole nation, was fatal. God’s wrath had been so great that He not only took the kingship from Solomon, but eventually turned the Israelites over to their enemies and left the promised land desolate, while the people mourned their fate as captives in a pagan country. Ezra, to whom the keeping of God’s law was of constant concern, had been born in captivity among exiles who grieved for the country, peace and prosperity which God had once given them. Leading the exiles to give up their foreign wives and children was the only way to avoid God’s wrath. b 10:15 No reason is given for this opposition, though it would hardly seem strange if some of the people were concerned about the severity of Ezra’s instructions. On the other hand, the ancient rabbis understood the Hebrew text to mean, “stood up in regard to this,” as in volunteering to begin the task in support of Ezra. So instead of opposing the reform, this interpretation has the four men showing great zeal for it, and in v 16 the former exiles then follow their lead. The Book of Nehemiah Nehemiah 1 Nehemiah’s Grief for the Exiles 1 T HE WORDS of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: N ow it happened in the month of Chislev, in the a twentieth year [of the b Persian king], as I was in the c capitol of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them about the surviving Jews who had escaped and survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its [fortified] gates have been burned (destroyed) by fire.” 4 Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying [constantly] before the God of heaven.

• From Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995)

  Auma sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe because he was older, Mark came to share Ruth’s attitudes and had no contact with us after that. But for some reason, once David was a teenager, he began to rebel against Ruth. He told her he was an African, and started calling himself Obama. Sometimes he would sneak off from school to visit the Old Man and the rest of the family, which is how we got to know him. He became everybody’s favorite. He was so sweet, you know, and funny, even if he was sometimes too wild. “Ruth tried to enroll him in a boarding school, hoping it would settle him down. But David ended up running away instead. Nobody saw him for months. Then Roy happened to bump into him outside a rugby match. He was dirty, thin, begging money from strangers. He laughed when he saw Roy, and bragged about his life on the streets, hustling bhang with his friends. Roy told him to go home, but he refused, so Roy took David to his own apartment, sending word to Ruth that her son was safe and staying with him. When Ruth heard this, she was relieved but also furious. She begged David to come back, but when he again refused, she tacitly accepted the arrangement with Roy, hoping that eventually David would change his mind.” Auma sipped on her tea. “That’s when David died. While he was living with Roy. His death broke everybody’s heart—Roy’s especially. The two of them were really close, you see. But Ruth never understood that. She thought we had corrupted David. Stolen her baby away. And I don’t think she’s ever forgiven us for it.” I decided to stop talking about David after that; I could tell that Auma found the memories too painful. But only a few days later, Auma and I came home to find a car waiting for us outside the apartment. The driver, a brown-skinned man with a prominent Adam’s apple, handed Auma a note. “What is it?” I asked. “It’s an invitation from Ruth,” she said. “Mark’s back from America for the summer. She wants to have us over for lunch.” “Do you want to go?” Auma shook her head, a look of disgust on her face. “Ruth knows I’ve been here almost six months now. She doesn’t care about me. The only reason she’s invited us is because she’s curious about you. She wants to compare you to Mark.” “I think maybe I should go,” I said quietly. Auma looked at the note again, then handed it back to the driver and said something to him in Swahili. “We’ll both go,” she said, and walked into the apartment.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The closing scenes of the earthly life of our Lord and the beginning of his heavenly life took place in Jerusalem and the immediate neighborhood, where every spot calls to mind the most important events that ever occurred or can occur in this world. Jerusalem, often besieged and destroyed, and as often rebuilt "on her own heap," is indeed no more the Jerusalem of Herod, which lies buried many feet beneath the rubbish and filth of centuries; even the site of Calvary is disputed, and superstition has sadly disfigured and obscured the historic associations.169 "Christ is not there, He is risen."170 There is no more melancholy sight in the world than the present Jerusalem as contrasted with its former glory, and with the teeming life of Western cities; and yet so many are the sacred memories clustering around it and perfuming the very air, that even Rome must yield the palm of interest to the city which witnessed the crucifixion and the resurrection. The Herodian temple on Mount Moriah, once the gathering place of pious Jews from all the earth, and enriched with treasures of gold and silver which excited the avarice of the conquerors, has wholly disappeared, and "not one stone is left upon another," in literal fulfilment of Christ’s prophecy;171 but the massive foundations of Solomon’s structure around the temple area still bear the marks of the Phoenician workmen; the "wall of wailing" is moistened with the tears of the Jews who assemble there every Friday to mourn over the sins and misfortunes of their forefathers; and if we look down from Mount Olivet upon Mount Moriah and the Moslem Dome of the Rock, the city even now presents one of the most imposing, as well as most profoundly affecting sights on earth. The brook Kedron, which Jesus crossed in that solemn night after the last Passover, and Gethsemane with its venerable olive-trees and reminiscences of the agony, and Mount Olivet from which he rose to heaven, are still there, and behind it the remnant of Bethany, that home of peace and holy friendship which sheltered him the last nights before the crucifixion. Standing on that mountain with its magnificent view, or at the turning point of the road from Jericho and Bethany, and looking over Mount Moriah and the holy city, we fully understand why the Saviour wept and exclaimed, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!

• From Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics (1932)

  The perennial tragedy of human history is that those who cultivate the spiritual elements usually do so by divorcing themselves from or misunderstanding the problems of collective man, where the brutal elements are most obvious. These problems therefore remain unsolved, and force clashes with force, with nothing to mitigate the brutalities or eliminate the futilities of the social struggle. The history of human life will always be the projection of the world of nature. To the end of history the peace of the world, as Augustine observed, must be gained by strife. It will therefore not be a perfect peace. But it can be more perfect than it is. If the mind and the spirit of man does not attempt the impossible, if it does not seek to conquer or to eliminate nature but tries only to make the forces of nature the servants of the human spirit and the instruments of the moral ideal, a progressively higher justice and more stable peace can be achieved. CHAPTER TEN — THE CONFLICT BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL MORALITYA REALISTIC analysis of the problems of human society reveals a constant and seemingly irreconcilable conflict between the needs of society and the imperatives of a sensitive conscience. This conflict, which could be most briefly defined as the conflict between ethics and politics, is made inevitable by the double focus of the moral life. One focus is in the inner life of the individual, and the other in the necessities of man’s social life. From the perspective of society the highest moral ideal is justice. From the perspective of the individual the highest ideal is unselfishness. Society must strive for justice even if it is forced to use means, such as self-assertion, resistance, coercion and perhaps resentment, which cannot gain the moral sanction of the most sensitive moral spirit. The individual must strive to realise his life by losing and finding himself in something greater than himself. These two moral perspectives are not mutually exclusive and the contradiction between them is not absolute. But neither are they easily harmonised. Efforts to harmonise them were analysed in the previous chapter. It was revealed that the highest moral insights and achievements of the individual conscience are both relevant and necessary to the life of society. The most perfect justice cannot be established if the moral imagination of the individual does not seek to comprehend the needs and interests of his fellows. Nor can any non-rational instrument of justice be used without great peril to society, if it is not brought under the control of moral goodwill. Any justice which is only justice soon degenerates into something less than justice. It must be saved by something which is more than justice. The realistic wisdom of the statesman is reduced to foolishness if it is not under the influence of the foolishness of the moral seer.

• From The Divine Comedy (1950)

  1. In 1288 the Guelfs were paramount in Pisa, but they were divided into two parties, led by Ugolino della Gherardesca and by his grandson, Nino de’ Visconti (for whom see Purg. viii), respectively. The head of the Ghibellines was the Archbishop of the city, Ruggieri degli Ubaldini. In order to obtain supreme authority, Ugolino intrigued with Ruggieri, and succeeded in expelling Nino. He was, however, in his turn betrayed by the Archbishop who, seeing that the Guelfs were weakened, had Ugolino and four of his sons and grandsons imprisoned. When Guido of Montefeltro took command of the Pisan forces in March of the following year, 1289, the keys of the prison were thrown into the river and the captives left to starve.2. The Monte di S. Giuliano.3. Leading Ghibelline families of Pisa.4. Sons. Of Ugolino’s four companions, only two were actually his sons—Gaddo and Uguccione; Nino and Anselmuccio being his grandsons.5. This verse has given rise to much controversy. The meaning obviously is, not that Ugolino was forced by the pangs of hunger to feed on the bodies, but that hunger brought about his death.6. The islands of Caprara and Gorgona, north-west of Elba and south-west of Livorno, respectively, were at that time under the dominion of Pisa.7. In 1284, after the defeat of the Pisans by the Genoese at Meloria, Ugolino yielded certain castles to the Florentines and Lucchese. Some hold that his motives were loyal, and that his only object was to pacify these enemies of Pisa. But Dante evidently knew more of the circumstances. Besides, if the Count is atoning his treachery against Nino rather than this action, how does he come to be in Antenora?8. Dante often alludes to the stones of bloodshed, hate and vengeance for which Thebes was notorious (see Cantos xxvi and xxx).9. The name of this division is almost certainly derived from Ptolemy, the captain of Jericho, who “inviteth Simon and two of his sons into his castle, and there treacherously murdereth them” (1 Maccabees xvi).10. See the following canto.11. In a dispute relating to the Iordship of Faenza, Alberigo, a member of the Manfredi family and one of the Frati Gaudenti, was struck by his younger brother, Manfred (1284). Alberigo pretended to forget all about this, but in the following year he invited Manfred and his son to a banquet, and, at a given signal (the words “Bring the fruit”), they were both murdered. The evil fruit of Friar Alberigo passed into a proverb.12. Atropos—the Fate that severs the thread of life.13. Branca d’Oria, member of a famous Ghibelline family of Genoa, aided by a nephew, murdered his father-in-law, Michel Zanche (for whom see Canto xxii), at a banquet to which he had invited him.C A N T O X X X I VThe Judecca, or Last Circlet of Cocytus, takes its name from Judas Iscariot, and contains the souls of those “who betrayed their masters and benefactors.” The Arch Traitor Satan, “Emperor of the Realm of Sorrow,” stands fixed in the Centre of it; and he too is punished by his own Sin. All the streams of Guilt keep flowing back to him, as their source; and from beneath his three Faces (Shadows of his consciousness) issue forth the mighty wings with which he struggles, as it were, to raise himself; and sends out winds that freeze him only the more firmly in his ever-swelling Marsh. Dante has to take a full view of him too; and then is carried through the Centre by his Mystic Guide—“grappling on the hair of Satan,” not without significance; and set down on “the ether face of the Judecca.” And now the bitter journey of our Pilgrim is over; and a tone of gladness goes through the remaining verses. Hell is now behind him, and the Stars of Heaven above: he has got beyond the ‘Everlasting No,’ and is “sore travailled,” and the “way is long and difficult,” but it leads from Darkness to the “bright world.” After some brief inquiries, “without caring for any repose,” by aid of the heaven-sent Wisdom he “plucks himself from the Abyss”; and follows climbing, till they see the Stars in the opposite hemisphere.

• From Nothing Was the Same

  For students who are depressed or who have other mental illnesses, the contrast between how they feel and the energy and high spirits they observe in their fellow students is razor-sharp. Colleges and universities are incapable of handling the number of students with psychiatric disorders. Usually, administrative awareness of the problem is short-lived and ineffectual, stirred only by campus violence or the suicide of a student. Once the immediate crisis is past, there is little of a constructive nature put into place. On every campus at which I have spoken, students described to me not only the pain and the hopelessness they felt from their psychiatric illnesses, but also the lack of understanding they felt from their professors and college administrators; the lack of adequate health insurance; their fears about being asked to go on medical leave and not being allowed to return to campus; and how aware they are that their behavior is frightening and disruptive to their roommates (and the guilt they feel and are made to feel as a result of this). Always, I am struck by how far-reaching depression’s presence is: a secretary or a department chairman; a football player; the university president or a trustee; a music student, a premed; a business student in suit and tie—anyone might be affected. When I talk to students, so many of whom have tried to kill themselves, I usually ask them, Did you talk with your parents about this? Few say they have. They invariably ask me, Do you worry about getting sick again? How have you stayed well?, and I tell them, Yes, of course I worry. I worry every day. But it is good to worry. I tell them that it is hard to get well and that it is hard to stay well, but that it can be done. I find myself using Richard’s words: Take your medication. Learn about your illness. Question your doctor. Watch your sleep. Use common sense about recreational drugs and alcohol. Reach out to others. I tell them that bipolar illness is a bad illness to get, but that now is a great time to get it. Science is moving fast, and public understanding is better than it has ever been; they are lucky to have been diagnosed and treated early. I have been deeply touched by the courage of these students, struggling as they do to study and to compete, to love, and to stay alive. I admire how they have played the hard, unpredictable cards they have been dealt. They take less for granted and appreciate life more than do so many others of their age. I have enjoyed and learned from my time talking with these students over meals, in seminars, after lectures and before.

• From The Iliad of Homer (1999)

  Scope: This lecture focuses on the meeting of Achilles and Priam, and the final resolution of the Iliad. Even after he kills Hektor, Achilles still is unreconciled to Patroklos’ death; at the request of Patroklos’ ghost, Achilles gives him a funeral, but remains unconsoled and isolated from humanity. Only the visit of Priam to ransom Hektor’s body can reintegrate Achilles into the human community. We look closely at the meeting between these two enemies, Achilles and Priam, and discuss the impact of their encounter for our understanding of the nature of mortality, the underlying theme of the Iliad. Outline I. After he has killed Hektor, Achilles still cannot reconcile himself to Patroklos’ death. A. Patroklos’ ghost appears to Achilles, and asks him to bury Patroklos’ body, so that the ghost may pass into the Underworld. B. Achilles complies with the ghost’s request and holds an elaborate funeral for Patroklos (Book XXIII). However, even after the funeral Achilles continues to fast, to refrain from bathing, and to drag Hektor’s corpse around Patroklos’ tomb. II. Finally the gods decide to intervene. A. Apollo addresses the other gods and says that it is time to force Achilles to give Hektor’s body back to his family. B. Zeus agrees. He sends Thetis to speak to Achilles, and Iris to urge Priam to visit Achilles and ransom Hektor’s body. 1. Thetis informs Achilles of Zeus’ will. Achilles accepts this information with indifference. 2. Iris takes Zeus’ message to Priam. Despite Hekabe’s objections, Priam decides to go. III. Priam visits Achilles and offers ransom for Hektor’s body. ©1999 The Teaching Company. 46

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The price of labor went up, and the cost of the necessaries of life became "very high."222 The effect upon the Church was such as to interrupt its ministries and perhaps check its growth. The English bishops provided for the exigencies of the moment by issuing letters giving to all clerics the right of absolution. The priest could now make his price, and instead of 4 or 5 marks, as Knighton reports, he could get 10 or 20 after the pestilence had spent its course. To make up for the scarcity of ministers, ordination was granted before the canonical age, as when Bateman, bishop of Norwich, set apart by the sacred rite 60 clerks, "though only shavelings" under 21. In another direction the evil effects of the plague were seen. Work was stopped on the Cathedral of Siena, which was laid out on a scale of almost unsurpassed size, and has not been resumed to this day.223 The Black Death was said to have invaded Europe from the East, and to have been carried first by Genoese vessels.224 Its victims were far in excess of the loss of life by any battles or earthquakes known to European history, not excepting the Sicilian earthquake of 1908. In spite of the plague, and perhaps in gratitude for its cessation, the Jubilee Year of 1350, like the Jubilee under Boniface at the opening of the century, brought thousands of pilgrims to Rome. If they left scenes of desolation in the cities and villages from which they came, they found a spectacle of desolation and ruin in the Eternal City which Petrarch, visiting the same year, said was enough to move a heart of stone. Matthew Villani225 cannot say too much in praise of the devotion of the visiting throngs. Clement’s bull extended the benefits of his promised indulgence to those who started on a pilgrimage without the permission of their superiors, the cleric without the permission of his bishop, the monk without the permission of his abbot, and the wife without the permission of her husband. Of the three popes who followed Clement, only good can be said. Innocent VI., 1352–1362, a native of the see of Limoges, had been appointed cardinal by Clement VI. Following in the footsteps of Benedict XII., he reduced the ostentation of the Avignon court, dismissed idle bishops to their sees, and instituted the tribunal of the rota, with 21 salaried auditors for the orderly adjudication of disputed cases coming before the papal tribunal. Before Innocent’s election, the cardinals adopted a set of rules limiting the college to 20 members, and stipulating that no new members should be appointed, suspended, deposed, or excommunicated without the consent of two-thirds of their number, and that no papal relative should be assigned to a high place. Innocent no sooner became pontiff than he set it aside as not binding.

• From The John Dominic Crossan Essential Set (Jesus; The Birth of Christianity; The Power of Parable; The Greatest Prayer) (2004)

  “No, I’m not.” “So you don’t read the newspapers?” “No.” “Bravo! I’m here all the way from Lau [image "image" file=Image00011.jpg] , and here’s the songbook with this song in it. The way I read it, you haven’t made a single mistake.” There the stage is fully set for the eventual triumph of literacy over orality. At a first stage, with Homer, for example, there was only the tradition of rhythmic epic narrative, and while it was, of course, traditional in story, theme, and formula, it was pluriform in composition, combination, and performance. At a next stage, writing and literacy have entered the picture, but the oral poet still treats a written text as just one among many possible performances. But ambiguities now abound, and intrusive scribal questioners ask not whether that performance is better or worse but whether it is verbatim or not. Finally, writing triumphs, and even oral creativity defends itself as verbatim exactitude. There is something terribly sad about Avdo Meðedovi [image "image" file=Image00009.jpg] ’s pride in recounting a compliment that dooms his craft to inevitable irrelevance. But, of course, there would be sadder events than that in store for the Balkans and for the town of Sarajevo, where Hivzo D [image "image" file=Image00011.jpg] afi [image "image" file=Image00009.jpg] bought his songbooks. Memory in a Cambridge Laboratory Oral stories in their written form may be unusually schematic or even summarized versions of any given retelling. The schema only preserves the overall form of the story while allowing an individual narrator to elaborate details according to individual interests and purposes. Jean M. Mandler and Nancy S. Johnson, “Remembrance of Things Parsed,” p. 113, note 1 I turn now from Milman Parry to Frederic Bartlett in this tale of two professors studying memory inductively in the early thirties of this century. What Parry discovered about the memories of illiterate singers operating in an oral, epic, and rhythmic tradition has, for all practical purposes, nothing whatsoever to do with the memories of illiterate peasants operating within the Jesus tradition. In fact, the very term “oral tradition” cannot be used of the two transmissions without inviting serious misunderstanding and misapplication. To propose that Jesus and his first companions, precisely because they were illiterate peasants, would have shared special memory capacities akin, for example, to Parry’s Balkan bards, is to ignore the presence of centuries-old tradition in the Balkan case and of total newness in the Jesus case. If, on the other hand, the traditions about Jesus had stayed alive for centuries primarily among illiterate Galilean peasants, their transmission might well have developed procedures analogous to those used by a Homer or a Meðedovi [image "image" file=Image00009.jpg] . In this case, however, Bartlett’s experiments may be more useful than Parry’s in assessing correctly the role of memory in the transmission of Jesus materials. And, with Bartlett, I return once more to a severely critical assessment of memory’s accuracy, even (or especially) when it is most emphatic, assured, certain, and secure of itself.

• From The Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes (2020)

  In order to please his lonely wife, Cupid instructed Zephyrus (ZEFF a russ), the god of the west wind, to blow the sisters up to the palace. Alas, when they saw Psyche’s mansion and her gleaming wardrobe, they were filled with envy and plotted how they could destroy her happiness. “Your husband,” they whispered, “is not a god but a serpent. Tomorrow night, bring with you a lamp and a razor. When your husband is asleep, use the lamp to reveal his true serpentine form and then cut off his head with the razor.” Poor, innocent Psyche did as she was told, but when she saw the beauty of Cupid’s face, she could only stand still and stare. She stood and stared until a drop of hot oil fell from the lamp and landed on Cupid’s shoulder. The moment the oil touched his immortal skin, Cupid leapt from the bed and scolded Psyche for her unfaithfulness. Then he flew off, leaving Psyche to wander the world in sadness and torment. As for the evil sisters, they, fooled into thinking that Cupid would offer them love, jumped off the cliff in hopes that Zephyrus would again carry them safely to Cupid’s palace. Instead, he let them fall, and they were dashed to pieces on the rocks. In her despair, Psyche went to Venus, but the angry goddess scourged her mercilessly and set her three penitential tasks to perform: separate wheat from barley, gather wool from a man-eating sheep, and fetch a cup of water from a high waterfall. Though all three tasks were impossible, Psyche, with the help of nature, succeeded in completing them. Ants separated the wheat from the barley, while an eagle took her cup in his talons and filled it with water from the waterfall. A lowly reed, meanwhile, instructed her to pluck pieces of wool from the thickets and brambles that clustered along the riverbank rather than confronting the terrifying sheep itself. Although Psyche succeeded in performing all three tasks, the still jealous and angry Venus assigned her a fourth and final one: to bring back from the underworld a box containing the beauty of Persephone. Psyche failed, for she foolishly looked in the box and fainted away. But she would not be punished for this failure. Instead, Cupid rescued her from her wanderings and made her his immortal queen. —Apuleius, The Golden Ass , Books IV–VI R eflections I have chosen to end with the myth of Cupid and Psyche as a way of bringing my book full circle. I began, in my introduction, by retelling the story of C. S. Lewis’s conversion and how it was initiated by Tolkien’s challenging Lewis to view Jesus as the myth that became fact.

• From Sense and Sensibility (1811)

  “Yes. But I did not love only him; and while the comfort of others was dear to me, I was glad to spare them from knowing how much I felt. Now, I can think and speak of it with little emotion. I would not have you suffer on my account; for I assure you I no longer suffer materially myself. I have many things to support me. I am not conscious of having provoked the disappointment by any imprudence of my own, I have borne it as much as possible without spreading it farther. I acquit Edward of essential misconduct. I wish him very happy; and I am so sure of his always doing his duty, that though now he may harbour some regret, in the end he must become so. Lucy does not want sense, and that is the foundation on which every thing good may be built. And after all, Marianne, after all that is bewitching in the idea of a single and constant attachment, and all that can be said of one’s happiness depending entirely on any particular person, it is not meant—it is not fit—it is not possible that it should be so. Edward will marry Lucy; he will marry a woman superior in person and understanding to half her sex; and time and habit will teach him to forget that he ever thought another superior to _her_.” “If such is your way of thinking,” said Marianne, “if the loss of what is most valued is so easily to be made up by something else, your resolution, your self-command, are, perhaps, a little less to be wondered at.—They are brought more within my comprehension.”