Vicioso y discreto, sibarita y
hombre de talento, aspirando a la erudición de todos los goces y con
bastante buen gusto para espiritualizar las cosas materiales, no podía
contentarse con gustar la belleza comprada o conquistada, la gracia, el
donaire, la extravagancia; quería gustar también la virtud, no
precisamente vencida, que deja de serlo, sino la pura, que en su pureza
misma tenía para él su picante.
4
A man of vice and discretion, a refined epicure and a man of talent—aspiring to the erudition of every pleasure and possessing the taste to spiritualize material things—he could not content himself with merely savoring beauty that was bought or conquered, or with grace, wit, and extravagance; he also desired to savor virtue—not virtue vanquished and thus stripped of its nature, but virtue in its purity, for in that very purity lay its piquancy for him.
Translated by
markvanroode 8346
5 days, 11 hours ago
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