An Imposing Scene

an-imposing-scene

In Madame Bovary, a novel by Gustave Flaubert, there is a conversation between Monsieur Leon and the eponymous heroine (Part Two, Ch-2) where Mme Bovary says: “Do you not feel that the mind drifts unfettered upon the immensity (sunset by the sea), where contemplation raises up the soul, and feeds a feeling of infinity, of the fabulous”, to which Leon replies: “Such sights as these (the poetry of lakes, the magic of waterfalls, the gigantic sight of glaciers) must be an inspiration, an incitement to prayer, to ecstasy!