Gobineau, A: Renaissance -

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Résumé :
Excerpt from The Renaissance: Savonarola, Cesare Borgia, Julius II., Leo X., Michael Angelo

But what is that strange sight yonder? The sand and the water and the froth and the pebbles are disappearing fast before our eyes, but Some firm rocks, which no one has ever yet seen, or even suspected, are left standing in lonely majesty between the receding waves. They seem to be firmly established, and like everything firm and self-centred, they are respected by the waves and the sands, which are ?owing round them as if in awe and veneration, nay, which seem to ?ee from them as fast as they can as if frightened by a bad conscience. And well might they have a bad conscience, for while the ?ood was reigning, they had hidden from every body's view these mighty rocks, pretending they were not there, they had danced merrily over them, roaring out Of their myriad throats: they, the little pebbles, and the microscopic sands, and the babbling waves. But they could only hide for a time those mighty rocks, they could not move them - and now, when the ebb has set in, these rocks spring into everybody's Sight, and grave and erect they stand above their surroundings, smiling grimly at the tiny pebbles and the loquacious waters at their feet. Away with you, ye ephemeral Waters, away with you-and make room for the eternal rocks!

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