The following passage is from Ch. 19 of A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS by David Lindsay:
Maskull and Sullenbode sat down on a boulder, facing the open country. The moon was directly behind them, high up. It was almost as light as an Earth-day.
‘To-night is like life,’ said Sullenbode.
‘How so?’
‘So lovely above and around us, so foul underfoot.’
Maskull sighed. ‘Poor girl, you are unhappy.’
‘And you – are you happy?’
He thought awhile, and then replied – ‘No. No, I’m not happy. Love is not happiness.’
‘What is it, Maskull?’
‘Restlessness . . . unshed tears . . . thoughts too grand for our soul to think . . .’
‘Yes,’ said Sullenbode.
After a time she asked – ‘Why were we created, just to live for a few years and then disappear?’
‘We are told that we shall live again.’
‘Yes, Maskull?’
‘Perhaps in Muspel,’ he added thoughtfully.
‘What kind of life will that be?’
‘Surely we shall meet again. Love is too wonderful and mysterious a thing to remain uncompleted.’
She gave a slight shiver, and turned away from him. ‘This dream is untrue. Love is completed here.’
‘How can that be, when sooner or later it is brutally interrupted by Fate?’
‘It is completed by anguish . . . Oh, why must it always be enjoyment for us? Can’t we suffer – can’t we go on suffering, for ever and ever? Maskull, until love crushes our spirit, finally and without remedy, we don’t begin to feel ourselves.’
Maskull gazed at her with a troubled expression.
‘Can the memory of love be worth more than its presence and reality?’
‘You don’t understand . . . Those pangs are more precious than all the rest beside.’ She caught at him. ‘Oh, if you could only see inside my mind, Maskull! You would see strange things . . . I can’t explain. It is all confused, even to myself . . . This love is quite different from what I thought.’
He sighed again. ‘Love is a strong drink. Perhaps it is too strong for human beings. And I think that it overturns our reason in different ways.’
They remained, sitting side by side, staring straight before them with unseeing eyes.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Sullenbode at last, with a smile, getting up. ‘Soon it will be ended, one way or another. Come, let us be off!’
Maskull too got up.