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September 24, 2007
the heights of mountains
At the moment of his deepest satisfaction, on top of Ventoux, Petrarch is overcome by doubt. As he tells it, he picked up his copy of Augustine’s Confessions, which he had taken along, as I had taken along his writing, and by chance, he says, his eyes fell on a passage chastising people who wonder at “the heights of mountains” when they should recognize God’s presence in humbler circumstances. “I closed the book, angry with myself that I should still be admiring earthly things, I who long ago should have learned from even the pagan philosophers that nothing is wonderful but the soul. I was satisfied that I had seen enough of the mountain, I turned my inward eye upon myself, and from that time not a syllable fell from my lips until we reached the bottom again.”
Michael Kimmelman - The Accidental Masterpiece
Posted by amin at September 24, 2007 11:48 AM