If I were asked the most agreeable thing in life, I should
say it is the pleasure of contrast. One
cannot imagine anyone but an angel sitting with a harp in Paradise forever. The ordinary human being needs a change. This is the secret charm of the oasis,
usually an indifferent patch of greenery made precious solely by surrounding
sands. The celebrated fountains of the
world—Helicon, Bandusium, of the water of Salsabil which Solomon gave to the
Queen of Sheeba—all spring in arid places.
The beauty of an Alpine dawn lies half in the sleeping world below. A warm chair by the fire after a day with
hounds, a shuttered room when the wind is tossing, belong to this category of
pleasures. The Greek shepherd knew the
joy of the safe pinewood when storms tear the open sea; and a woman I know told
me she had married her husband because what he said was always unexpected—a
good adventurous reason for matrimony, I thought.
Quotation: The Southern Gates of Arabia. Freya Stark. 1936
