"Sometimes, I dreamed of a system of knowledge based on human ' erotic : a theory of contact, in which the mystery and dignity consists precisely in offering to our I this landmark of a different world. In this philosophy, the pleasure would be a more complete form, but even more marked in touch with the 'Other , a technique more in the service of not I . Even in relationships more alien to the senses, emotion is or is implemented in its contact: the hand of that nasty old woman I shall submit a petition, his brow moist with my father in his last moments, cleansed the wound of an injured person, even relationships more intellectual or more anodyne is set up through this system of body signals: the flash of understanding that illuminates the eyes of the Tribune which explains a maneuver before the battle, a subordinate of the impersonal greeting as we passed that froze in an attitude of obedience , friendly eyes of a slave whom I thank for bringing me a tray, the expression of a connoisseur of an old friend before the gift of a cameo greek. With most human beings, the subtlest, the most superficial of these contacts are sufficient, or even exceed the expectation, but if they are repeated, they multiply around a single wrap it entirely up to be, if every particle d ' a human body soaks many meanings for us disturbing as there are features of his face, and if a single being, rather than inspire, at most, irritation, pleasure, or boredom, like music is behind us and haunts us as a problem, if it passes the ends of the center of our universe, and Finally, there becomes more imperative that we, here is the amazing miracle occur, who sees much more in a spirit of encroachment in the flesh than a mere fun of it. "
by Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian
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