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Authors: Italo Svevo
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be received with kisses. The old man was not very severe, not from embarrassment this time, but from indifference. By now he loved all youth of both sexes, including the dear girl in old clothes and even this doll, so proud of her dresses that she would talk about them in front of a looking-glass.
Indeed, she had developed to such an extent that she complained that the money was no longer enough and asked him to increase her allowance.
This called up the old man’s business instinct. “What makes you think I owe you money?” he asked, smiling.
“Was it not you who seduced me?” asked the poor girl, doubtless carrying out the instructions she had been given.
The old man remained calm. The rebuke did not really affect him in the slightest. He argued the point, saying that it needed two to make love, and that for his part he had used neither force nor cunning.
She gave way at once and did not insist. Probably she was sorry and annoyed that she had spoken as she did, she who had always done her best not to appear mercenary.
To put her into a better frame of mind and in the hope of experiencing once again even a little of the old emotion, he told her that he had remembered her in his will.
“I know and thank you,” she said. The old man did not point out the strangeness of the fact that she believed that she knew about his will, which had been kept secret, and accepted her thanks.
The talk was such a disillusion to him that he thought of making a fresh will and leaving the rest of his property to some charitable institution.
He did nothing simply, simply because theorisers are very slow when it comes to acting.
X
That is how the old man found himself alone, face to face with his theory.
Meanwhile the very long preface to his work was finished and was to his mind a magnificent success, so much so that he was always reading it over as a stimulus to further efforts.
In the preface he had only set out to prove that the world needed his work. Though he did not know it, this was the easiest part of his treatise. In fact every work that proposes to build up a theory consists of two parts. The first is devoted to demolishing previous theories, or, better still, to criticizing the existing state of affairs, whereas to the second falls the difficult task of building up things on a new foundation, and this is far from easy. It has been the fate of a theoristto publish in his lifetime two whole volumes to prove that things were thoroughly bad and unjust. The world was out of joint and refused to mend itself even when his heirs published the third posthumous volume, the object of which was to show it the way it should go. A theory is always complex and in developing it it is impossible to see it at once in all its bearings. Theorists appear preaching the destruction of a particular animal, cats, for instance. They write and write and do not at first notice that round their theory, as a necessary corollary, rats spring up wholesale. It is a long time before the theorist stumbles against this difficulty and asks in despair: “What am I going to do with these rats?”
My old man was still a long way from these troubles. There is nothing nicer or more fluent than the preface to a theory. The old man found that youth in this world lacked something which would make it even more attractive, a healthy old age to love it and help it. Plenty of work and thought had gone into the preface, because there he had to state the problem in all its aspects. So the old man began with the beginning, like the Bible. Old men—when they were still not so very old—had reproduced themselves in the young with great ease and some pleasure. As life was passed on from one organism to another, it was difficult to be sure whether it had been raised or improved. The centuries of history behind us were too short to give us the necessary experience. But afterreproduction there might be spiritual progress if the relations between old and young were
Indeed, she had developed to such an extent that she complained that the money was no longer enough and asked him to increase her allowance.
This called up the old man’s business instinct. “What makes you think I owe you money?” he asked, smiling.
“Was it not you who seduced me?” asked the poor girl, doubtless carrying out the instructions she had been given.
The old man remained calm. The rebuke did not really affect him in the slightest. He argued the point, saying that it needed two to make love, and that for his part he had used neither force nor cunning.
She gave way at once and did not insist. Probably she was sorry and annoyed that she had spoken as she did, she who had always done her best not to appear mercenary.
To put her into a better frame of mind and in the hope of experiencing once again even a little of the old emotion, he told her that he had remembered her in his will.
“I know and thank you,” she said. The old man did not point out the strangeness of the fact that she believed that she knew about his will, which had been kept secret, and accepted her thanks.
The talk was such a disillusion to him that he thought of making a fresh will and leaving the rest of his property to some charitable institution.
He did nothing simply, simply because theorisers are very slow when it comes to acting.
X
That is how the old man found himself alone, face to face with his theory.
Meanwhile the very long preface to his work was finished and was to his mind a magnificent success, so much so that he was always reading it over as a stimulus to further efforts.
In the preface he had only set out to prove that the world needed his work. Though he did not know it, this was the easiest part of his treatise. In fact every work that proposes to build up a theory consists of two parts. The first is devoted to demolishing previous theories, or, better still, to criticizing the existing state of affairs, whereas to the second falls the difficult task of building up things on a new foundation, and this is far from easy. It has been the fate of a theoristto publish in his lifetime two whole volumes to prove that things were thoroughly bad and unjust. The world was out of joint and refused to mend itself even when his heirs published the third posthumous volume, the object of which was to show it the way it should go. A theory is always complex and in developing it it is impossible to see it at once in all its bearings. Theorists appear preaching the destruction of a particular animal, cats, for instance. They write and write and do not at first notice that round their theory, as a necessary corollary, rats spring up wholesale. It is a long time before the theorist stumbles against this difficulty and asks in despair: “What am I going to do with these rats?”
My old man was still a long way from these troubles. There is nothing nicer or more fluent than the preface to a theory. The old man found that youth in this world lacked something which would make it even more attractive, a healthy old age to love it and help it. Plenty of work and thought had gone into the preface, because there he had to state the problem in all its aspects. So the old man began with the beginning, like the Bible. Old men—when they were still not so very old—had reproduced themselves in the young with great ease and some pleasure. As life was passed on from one organism to another, it was difficult to be sure whether it had been raised or improved. The centuries of history behind us were too short to give us the necessary experience. But afterreproduction there might be spiritual progress if the relations between old and young were
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