“The more I think of the problems of our lives, the more I am
persuaded that we ought to choose Irony and Pity for our assessors
and judges as the ancient Egyptians called upon the Goddess Isis
and the Goddess Nephtys on behalf of their dead.
“Irony and Pity are both of good counsel; the first with her smiles
makes life agreeable; the other sanctifies it with her tears.
“The Irony which I invoke is no cruel Deity. She mocks neither love
nor beauty. She is gentle and kindly disposed. Her mirth disarms
and it is she who teaches us to laugh at rogues and fools, whom but
for her we might be so weak as to despise and hate.”
And with these wise words of a very great Frenchman I bid you farewell.