Quote from "'Beautiful'" (1859)

Registered motifs in this quote

Alfred wept and the Mother wept, and both went into mourning. The black dresses became Mamma very well, so she wore her mourning the longer. Moreover, she soon experienced another grief, when she saw Alfred marry again. And he married Sophie, who had no looks at all!

"He has gone from one extreme to the other!" said Mamma-in-law. "Gone from the most beautiful to the ugliest! How could he forget his first wife! Men have no constancy. Now, my husband was entirely different, and he died before I did."

"Pygmalion got his Galatea," said Alfred. "Yes, that's what the wedding song said. I really fell in love with a beautiful statue, which came to life in my arms, but the soul mate that heaven sends down to us, one of its angels who can comfort and sympathize with and uplift us, I have not found or won till now. You came to me, Sophie, not in the glory of superficial beauty – but fair enough, prettier than was necessary. The most important thing is still the most important. You came to teach a sculptor that his work is only clay and dust, only the outward form in a fabric that passes away, and that we must seek the spirit within. Poor Kala! Ours was but a wayfarer's life. In the next world, where we shall come together through sympathy, we shall probably be half strangers to each other.

"That was not spoken kindly," said Sophie, " not like a true Christian. In the next world, where there is no marriage, but where, as you say, souls find each other through sympathy, where everything beautiful is developed and elevated, her soul may attain such completeness that it may resound far more melodiously than mine. Then you will again utter the first exciting cry of your love, 'Beautiful, beautiful!'"

Registered motifs in this quote:

  1. Angels
  2. Belief in reunion with the dead
  3. Faith in Providence
  4. To die and go to heaven
  5. Wedding

Keywords: Women, man, marriage, sorrow, love