Two for Tuesday

The Good Soldier probably isn’t the saddest story I, at least, have ever heard, though I am enjoying it a great deal. It is the source of this week’s Fort Kantian two-fer, posted on Wednesday because I fell asleep at the computer last night (late July Maine humidity; a fourteen-hour day at Leaps and Bounds; a vigorous Dance Dance Revolution session during Free Time (the neon arrows are still cascading through inner space)).

1.) And at the top there is a castle—not a square castle like Windsor—but a castle all slate gables and high peaks with gilt weathercocks flashing bravely—the castle of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. It has the disadvantage of being in Prussia; and it is always disagreeable to go into that country; but it is very old and there are many double-spired churches and it stands up like a pyramid out of the green valley of the Lahn.

2.) And it was pleasant to get out in the great big spectacular Prussian station with the hammered bronze ornaments and the paintings of peasants and flowers and cows.