Delphi Works of Ford Madox Ford (Illustrated) (678 page)

Life is so good, life may be so pleasant; must I not taste of it, and my publisher, and my newspaper proprietor, and my literary editor, and my advertisement canvasser? All of us? Yes, assuredly, we are all of us going to the Alhambra, and the Prime Minister will be of the company.

Life is good nowadays; but art is very bitter. That is why, though the light whirls and blazes still over Piccadilly, this book has become a jeremiad. For upon the one side I love life. On the other hand, Hokusai in his later years was accustomed to subscribe himself:
The old man mad about Painting. So
I may humbly write myself down a man getting on for forty, a little mad about good letters. For the world is a good place, but the letters that I try to stand up for are about to die. Will any take their place? Who knows? But as for anything else, let me put down the words of the Ritter Olaf, who was also about to die. He had married the king’s daughter and was to be beheaded for it when he came out of church. But he begged his life till midnight so that he might dance amidst the torches of his bridal banquet. Then he went to death saying:

“Ich segne die Sonne, ich segne den Mond

Und die Sterne, die am Himmel schweifen;

Ich segne auch die Vögelein

Die in den Lüften pfeifen.

“Ich segne das Meer, ich segne das Land,

Und die Blumen auf der Aue;

Ich segne die Veilchen, sie sind so sanft

Wie die Augen meiner Fraue.

“Ihr Veilchenaugen meiner Frau,

Durch euch verlier’ ich mein Leben!

Ich segne auch den Holunderbaum,

Wo du dich mir ergeben.”