PREFACE
Every one of those impressions is
the impression of the individual in his isolation,
each mind keeping as a solitary prisoner its own
dream of a world

It is with this movement, with
the passage and dissolution of impressions,
images, sensations, that analysis leaves off—that
continual vanishing away, that strange, perpetual
weaving and unweaving of ourselves… some mood of passion or insight or intellectual excitement is irresistibly real and attractive for
us,—for that moment only …

How shall we pass most swiftly from
point to point, and be present always at the focus
where the greatest number of vital forces unite
in their purest energy?

To burn always with this hard, gemlike
flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life (Walter Pater, “Conclusion” to The Renaissance (1873) )