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But the third sister, who is also the youngest! Hush! Whisper
whilst we talk of her! Her kingdom is not large, or else no flesh should
live; but within that kingdom all power is hers. Her head, turreted
like that of Cybele, rises almost beyond the reach of sight. She droops
not, and her eyes rising so high might be hidden by distance. But,
being what they are, they cannot be hidden; through the treble veil
of crepe which she wears, the fierce light of a blazing misery, that
rests not for matins nor for vespers, for noon of day or noon of night,
for ebbing or for flowing tide, may be read from the very ground. She
is the defier of God. She is also the mother of lunacies and the
suggestress of suicides. Deep lie the roots of her power, but narrow
is the nation she rules. For she can approach only those in whom a
profound nature has been unheaved by central convulsions, in whom
the heart trembles and the brain rocks under conspiracies of tempest
from without and tempest from within. Madonna moves with uncertain
steps, fast or slow, but still with tragic grace. Our Lady of Sighs
creeps timidly and stealthily. But this youngest sister moves with
incalculable motions, bounding, and with a tiger's leaps; She carries
no key, for though coming rarely amongst men, she storms all doors
at which she is permitted to enter at all.
-- Thomas de Quincey (who was doubtless tasting opium at the time),
from Suspiria de Profundis
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