The Three Matters

There are but three matters of interest to the cultivated man:
That of France, that of Britain, that of Rome the Great!
And of these three matters the one doesn’t at all resemble the other.
The matter of Britain is light and entertaining,
That of Rome sagacious and instructive,
That of France is true and made manifest everyday!--Jean Bodel

Myth and Society

The rains had come, the rains had gone, and the sun was back on its throne like an absolute monarch kept off it for a week by his subjects' barricades, and now reigning once again, choleric but under constitutional restraint. The heat braced without burning, the light domineered but let colors live; from the soil cautiously sprouted clover and mint, and on faces appeared diffident hopes.--Giuseppe di Lampedusa