The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-02-20
SOLITUDE.

Avenue des Champs-Elysess?
And we started down the long prose,
made, walking slowly, under the treet
which were as yet scarcely clad with theil
spring foliage. No noise, except that vague
and everlasting murmur that Paris makes
A cool wind breathed in our faces; and
the legion Of the stars sprinklel the black
sky with dust OF gold.
My companion said:
~ can not tell why, but can breathe
freer here at night than anywhere else.
1t seems that my thoughts become larger
here, AT times there comes to my mind
those singular CLEANS which make man
think Tor second that lie has discovered
the divine secret Of things. Then the
window closes again. That Is the end OF
It,"
At intervals we could $50 a pair Of
gliding along the line OF trees, OF
We. would pass by bench where two
being, seated side by side, made a single
silhouette against the night.
My companion muttered:
"Poor thingsl Taey do not inspire me
with contempt, but with an immense pity,
Among all the mysteries Of human lite.
there Is Just one that have been able to
penetrate. 1t Is this-that our Who'll.
life comes from the fact that
we are elernally alone, and that all our
edorts, all cur actions, are inspired by the
desire TO escape from this solitude. Those
folks there-thos0 lovers sitting on
benches In the open air-are bimply try,
ing like ourselves, and like all living
creatures, to get rid Of their isolation
even II ii Ia only for u minute. But they
remain-they will remain always alone,
and we also.
1--WE can perceive each other more or
LEES; we can do nothing more.
For . long time have endured this
abominRble torture-thc torture OF having
been able to learn, to discover the fright.
full solitude in which live--and l know
that nothing can change that solitude -
nothing, 10 you understand?
whatever We striVeto do, whatever we
manage to accomplish, whatever be the
aspirations Of our hearts, the appeal OF our
lips, the embrace OF our arms, We remain
always alone.
~ asked you to take this walk with me
tonight 30 that might not DO obliged to
90 home, because | suffer horribly now
from the loneliness OF my lodgings, What
good will it do me, wonder? Now | ain
speaking to you; you are listening TO me
and still We are both Of US alone. Do you
understand me9
"Blessed arc the poor Ia spirit, says
the Scripture. They have the delusion Of
happiness. Those people DO not feel our
miserable solitude. They DO not wander
through life, as do, feeling no other con.
tact but that OF elboWs--no other Joy than
the selfish satisfaction OF Comprehending,
seeing, divining and eteTnally suffering
from the knowledge Of our endless isol&.
tion.
"fou think | an slightly crazy, don't
HLipten to mel Ever since l lirst felt
tho solitude Of 10y existence, It has seem.
ed to me that advance each day, further
and further into some dark snbterranean
place, whose sldnRI can not feel, whose
end | do not know, and which, perhaps,
Is without endp advance without any
companion, without anyone near me,
without feeling that any other living being
Is following the same phRdowy path. That
sui. arranean way Is Life. Aometimes !
hear Bounds-yoices, cries. Igroupe my
way to those strange noises. But Inever
know exactly from whence they come; !
never met 4 soul; / never feel another
hand In tho blaOknepl that surrounds mo.
Do Won understand mef
"some other men have also OWNED this
atroCious suffering.
"MuBset cried out:
Who Comes9 Who calls mel None.
lam alOne-'TlS the hour that Strikes
OEOlltudel D WretchVdneSs
"But with him, 1t was only a passing
doubt-not positive gertrude, as II ID
with me. He was a poet--he peopled his
life with phsntoms, with dreams. He
was never truly alone. IL am alone
"Gnstave Flaubert, one Of the greatest
Of unhappy men Of this age, because he
was also one OF the most lucid, wrote to a
woman friend this despaiTiuR phrase
we all live in desert. No one person
understands any other person.
mo; no one understands anybody nc
matter what may be thought, or said, OF
tried. Does tho Earth herself understand
what Is going on among those stars up
there, scattered like seeds Of Gre through
space, 80 far away that we can discern the
light Of few Only, while the innumerAblG
multitudes oil the others Is lost in the In
AAite, aud nevertheless 80 relatively neal
TO each other that they may form out
whole, like the molecules Of a body7
DWELL, man knows Just IS little con
corning whit is going on In the mind o
another man. We arc still further away
from each other than those stArs--we are
above all, moro isolated, because though
is uniathompble.
"Can you imagine anything more fright
full than this continual neutrality-suspicious. o
creatures impenetrsbly by our thought
We love hs II we we're enChained--Close
Close-our arms held ont 10 embrace; ye
we Gan never he united. Atotluring thiFs
for union consumes US but all ptir eIIot
remain sterile-our Acknowledgement
ifuitless, our condolences uslsbs, on
CAtesses impotent, our embraces vain
When we wish 10 mingle together, ou
rush 10 each other only results In bruisinl
ourselves against each oLhsy
~ never feel more utterly alone thar
when ! open my heart TO some friend, DO
cause IL Is then that best undarBlant
the insufmDuntable barrier between 10
He Ia there before ms-that man III sex
bic clear eyes Upon me but his soul, The
something that Is behind those eyes,
know nothing about II. lie Is listening 4
me. But what Ia he thinklngY Yes, wha
is he thinking You do not understand
that tofment2 lie hates me, perhapsY Of
deopises tne2 or secretly noCfs mech
lie reflects upon what ! say; he Judge
me he rails Of inc he condemns me HI
holds me 10 he llresome or stupid. How
lind out what he thlnks7 How know |
lie loves me as / love hlm2 How know
what is going on In that little round head
What greater mystery than the score
thought Of a fellow beipg2-the bidder
and absolutely free thought, which we cal
IA a Il al ia