OF INFATUATION
The most fastidious spirits are very given to curiosity and
prepossession: this is to be seen, especially, in beings in which that
sacred fire, the source of the passions, is extinct--in fact it is one
of the most fatal symptoms. There is also the infatuation of schoolboys
just admitted to society. At the two poles of life, with too much or
too little sensibility, there is little chance of simple people getting
the right effect from things, or feeling the genuine sensation which
they ought to give. These beings, either too ardent or excessive in
their ardour, amorous on credit, if one may use the expression, throw
themselves at objects instead of awaiting them.
From afar off and without looking they enfold things in that imaginary
charm, of which they find a perennial source within themselves, long
before sensation, which is the consequence of the object's nature, has
had time to reach them. Then, on coming to close quarters, they see
these things not such as they are, but as they have made them; they
think they are enjoying such and such an object, while, under cover of
that object, they are enjoying themselves. But one fine day a man gets
tired of keeping the whole thing going; he discovers that his idol is
_not playing the game_; infatuation collapses and the resulting shock
to his self-esteem makes him unfair to that which he appreciated too
highly.
[Pg 67]