HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

82 J^ehtf,
HEINE AND ROMAN
CATHOLICISM.
In my youth I was often overpowered
by the infinite sweetness, the mysterious
and blessed effluence, the delirious
death-ecstasy, of Catholicism.
THE
PARISIENNE.
There are people who fancy they can
accurately examine a butterfly when
they have fastened it to a piece of paper
with a pin through it. This is as
absurd as it is cruel. The pinned,
motionless butterfly is no longer a butterfly.
One must observe the butterfly
as it flutters from flower to flower, and
one must study a Parisian woman, not
in her domestic sphere as she sits with
the needle fastened in her bosom, but
in the drawing-room, at soirees, at iDalls,
as she flutters about with wings of embroidered
silk and gauze under the
sparkling chandeliers. Then it is that
she reveals her eager love of life, her
yearning for the sweet stupor of
pleasure, her craving for intoxication,
through which she becomes almost
terribly beautiful, and wins a charm
that delights yet troubles our souls.