A CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN TWO CORNERS
Did he believe in the immortality of the soul?
If
he did, this faith
was to him neither a comfort nor a hope; on the contrary, it must have
eneveloped him in the deepest gloom.
But while within him stark despair crushed
His mind, and the darkness ·Of the Hospitable Temple
Filled his dream with fright-
In his sinews ripened energy like the sun
And as it fed his arteries with joyous life,
"I am immortal" sang his very blood.
This is genuine belief in immortality, is it not? From all your prem–
ises it follows that the first perfect and true ideal is the instinct with its
immanent theology (for it is in accord with nature). That is why you
have no wish to make use of "the freedom of speculation" that he
nevertheless demanded-and, faithful to yourself, you begin our present
correspondence with the declaration that "about things such as God
and immortality, one must neither speak nor think."
Excuse this typological exploration of your psychic and intellectual
structure.
Amico licet.
But can one answer differently to him who
declining the devices of persuasion (except one, and perhaps, the strong–
est-the beauty of words) proclaims
hoc volo-such
is my will, such is
my thirst; and
ut sentio sitioque, ita sapio.
We must still investigate the
sources of the will and the nature of the thirst. But such an examination
would be insufficient, if we failed to locate the investigated will as an
essential phenomenon, connected with the general change that we are
experiencing.
What then is taking place in our day? Is it the abrogation of cul–
tural values in general? Or their disintegration, which bears witness to
their complete or partial paralysis? Or, finally, the transvaluation of the
former values? However that may be, the values of yesterday are deeply
shaken, and you are virtually one of those who rejoice in the earth–
quake, for according to you,
if
the old Egypt is not destroyed, the image
of perfection that once illumined the cradle of each of its creations will
remain buried forever in the inner vaults, under the wind-swept blocks
of the pyramids. However, it seems that history is not being made under
your banner, but stubbornly insists upon remaining history, a new page
in the annals of cultured Egypt.
We shall not consider the accidental, unpredictable, irrational
element in the course of events; let us cast a glance at the state of men's
minds. The anarchistic tendencies are not the prevalent ones: they
seem essentially to be correlate and shadow of the bourgeois order. The
so-called conscious proletariat stands entirely on the ground of cui-
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