Page 542 - swanns-way

was peculiar as he would know of the Princesse de Clèves,
or of René, should either of those titles occur to him. Even
when he was not thinking of the little phrase, it existed,
latent, in his mind, in the same way as certain other con-
ceptions without material equivalent, such as our notions
of light, of sound, of perspective, of bodily desire, the rich
possessions wherewith our inner temple is diversified and
adorned. Perhaps we shall lose them, perhaps they will be
obliterated, if we return to nothing in the dust. But so long
as we are alive, we can no more bring ourselves to a state
in which we shall not have known them than we can with
regard to any material object, than we can, for example,
doubt the luminosity of a lamp that has just been lighted,
in view of the changed aspect of everything in the room,
from which has vanished even the memory of the dark-
ness. In that way Vinteuil’s phrase, like some theme, say,
in Tristan, which represents to us also a certain acquisition
of sentiment, has espoused our mortal state, had endued a
vesture of humanity that was affecting enough. Its destiny
was linked, for the future, with that of the human soul, of
which it was one of the special, the most distinctive orna-
ments. Perhaps it is not-being that is the true state, and all
our dream of life is without existence; but, if so, we feel that
it must be that these phrases of music, these conceptions
which exist in relation to our dream, are nothing either. We
shall perish, but we have for our hostages these divine cap-
tives who shall follow and share our fate. And death in their
company is something less bitter, less inglorious, perhaps
even less certain.

542 Swann’s Way