"
"Is it so absolutely certain that man is superior? For my part I envy
the butterfly and the flower, which perish in the full glory of youth,
beauty, and love. That is the way I have always imagined an existence
worth living. A dazzling display of fireworks. A sudden flashing,
flaming, crackling, and detonating amid the darkness. A triumphant
ascent of glittering balls and serpents, before whose splendid hues the
stars of heaven pale. At every rain of fire and explosion, a rapturous,
ah! and a thunder of applause from the gaping Philistines, who are in a
tumult of ecstasy at the sight, and thus, without cessation, have flash
follow flash, and report report, in a continual increase of magnificence,
until the closing piece on whose marvellous splendour darkness must fall
with no transition. That is life. That is happiness. But the rockets
must always be fully charged. Otherwise they will not fly upward amid
universal admiration to the stars, but fizz a little, hop up with
ridiculous effort, fall plump, and go out pitifully in a malodorous
smoke. A dismal end.
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