Page:Selections from the writings of Kierkegaard.djvu/54

 in vino—when the wine is a defense of the truth and the truth a defense of the wine.

The place had been chosen in the woods, some ten miles distant from Copenhagen. The hall in which they were to feast had been newly decorated and in every way made un- recognizable; a smaller room, separated from the hall by a corridor, was arranged for an orchestra. Shutters and cur- tains were let down before all windows, which were left open. The arrangement that the participants were to drive to the banquet in the evening hour was to intimate to them —and that was Constantin's idea—what was to follow. Even if one knows that one is driving to a banquet, and the imagination therefore indulges for a moment in thoughts of luxury, yet the impression of the natural surroundings is too powerful to be resisted. That this might possibly not be the case was the only contingency he apprehended; for just as there is no power like the imagination to render beautiful all it touches, neither is there any power which can to such a degree disturb all—misfortune conspiring— if confronted with reality. But driving on a summer even- ing does not lure the imagination to luxurious thoughts, but rather to the opposite. Even if one does not see it or hear it, the imagination will unconsciously create a picture of the longing for home which one is apt to feel in the evening hours—one sees the reapers, man and maid, returning from their work in the fields, one hears the hurried rattling of the hay wagon, one interprets even the far-away lowing from the meadows as a longing. Thus does a summer even- ing suggest idyllic thoughts, soothing even a restless mind with its assuagement, inducing even the soaring imagina- tion to abide on earth with an indwelling yearning for home as the place from whence it came, and thus teaching the insatiable mind to be satisfied with little, by rendering one content; for in the evening hour time stands still and eter- nity lingers.

Thus they arrived in the evening hour : those invited; for Constantin had come out somewhat earlier. Victor Eremita who resided in the country not far away came on horse- back, the others in a carriage. And just as they had dis-