The agreeable eye

an eudæmonistarchives

fructification

The reproductive instinct urges the poet to scatter his seeds beyond his boundaries.

I repeat it: poorly transmitted, they fructify. Certain species (Pushkin) refuse transmission. But this does not prevent them from scattering at large and even when reduced to insignificance, from fructifying.

Shakespeare remains the model of the explosive plant. His seeds have taken advantage of wings, and storms. Beauty is hurled across the world on tongues of fire.

—Jean Cocteau (‘On Beauty,’
The Difficulty of Being, p. 137)


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