Chapter 2 original sequence

In the National Gallery in Emerald there is a white stone statue called "Victor" by Michelangelo.It was a naked young man with a beautiful body and curly hair hanging down his low forehead.Standing tall, his knees are bent on the back of a bearded prisoner who is crouched with his head stretched forward like an ox.But the victor did not look at him.The moment his fist was about to hit, he stopped, his mouth full of gloom and hesitant eyes turned away.Arms turned to shoulders: body thrown back; he no longer wants victory, victory loathes him.He has conquered, but is also conquered. This bewildered image of the hero, this victory with its wings folded, is the only one of Michelangelo's oeuvre to remain forever in his studio, after which Danielle de Voltaire thought Put it on Mi's tomb. AA Daniele Te Voltaire (1509?-1566), Italian painter and sculptor, one of Michelangelo's close friends and one of the most talented followers. ——It is Michelangelo himself, the symbol of his whole life.

Suffering is infinite and it takes various forms.Sometimes, it is due to material abuse, such as disaster, disease and wrongful fate, the malice of human beings.Sometimes, it is hidden in the human heart.Suffering in such a situation is just as pitiable and just as irremediable; for man cannot choose his life for himself, man neither asks to be born nor to be what he has become. Michelangelo's suffering is of the latter kind.He was mighty, he was born to fight and to conquer; and he conquered. — But he doesn't want to win.That's not what he wants. —What a Hamletian tragedy!Endowed with heroic genius, but without will; endowed with arbitrary passion, but without passionate desire: what a sad contradiction!

Let us not think that we find here one greatness, besides many others!We would never say that because a man is too great, the world is not enough for him.Mental boredom is not a sign of greatness.That is, in great men in general, lack of harmony between being and all things, between life and the laws of life is not greatness: it is a weakness. ——Why hide this weakness?Is the weakest man the least worthy of love? ——He is more worthy of love, because his need for love is more urgent.I will never create an unattainable hero paradigm.I hate that cowardly idealism, which only teaches people not to pay attention to the suffering of life and the weakness of the soul.We should say to the people who are too easily deceived by dreams and sweet words: the lies of heroes are just a sign of cowardice.There is but one kind of heroism in the world: to see the world as it is--and to love it.

The tragedy I am here to describe is an innate pain, emanating from the very core of life, which eats away at it without interruption until it is completely destroyed.This is one of the most striking representatives of the great human being, whose pain and cry of faith have filled our West for more than nineteen hundred years—and this representative is the Christian. Someday, at the end of ages,--if our earthly deeds are preserved in human memory--the day will come when those who live, for this vanished race, will lean on their fallen Next to the abyss, like Dante leaning over the fire pit on the eighth floor of hell, it is full of wonder, disgust and pity.

But for this feeling of shock, admiration, evil and pity, who can feel it more vividly than us?For we have been imbued with these sorrowful sentiments from childhood, and have seen dearest ones fighting, and we have always known the bitter and intoxicating taste of this Christian pessimism, and we have expended so much effort in doubting and hesitating hours, Only then can I stop myself from falling into the illusion of nothingness like so many others. God!Eternal life!This is the shelter of ordinary people who cannot survive in this world!Faith is often just a disbelief in life and the future, a disbelief in oneself, a lack of courage and joy!

Christians, it is for this that I love and applaud you.I lament for you, and I sigh for your sorrow.You make the world miserable and make it more beautiful.When your pain is gone, the world will be drier.In an age full of cowards—who tremble before pain, and clamor for their happiness, which is often the misfortune of others—we must dare to face pain and respect it!Joy is worthy of praise, but pain is also worthy of praise!These two are sisters, and both are saints.They train human beings to develop great souls.They are strength, life, and gods.Whoever cannot love both pleasure and pain loves neither pleasure nor pain.Those who can appreciate them can understand the value of life and the sweetness of leaving life.