Among the Ruins

“A spell of peace lives in the ruins of ancient Greek tem­ples. As the trav­eller leans back among the fallen cap­i­tals and allows the hours to pass, it emp­ties the mind of trou­bling thought and anx­i­eties and slowly refills it, like a ves­sel that has been drained and scoured, with a quiet ecstasy. Nearly all that has hap­pened fades to a limbo of shad­ows and insignif­i­cance and is pain­lessly replaced by an inti­ma­tion of radi­ance, sim­plic­ity and calm which unties all knots and solves all rid­dles and seems to mur­mur a benev­o­lent and unim­pe­ri­ous sug­ges­tion that the whole of life, if it were allowed to unfold with­out hin­drance or com­pul­sion or search for alien solu­tions, might be lim­it­lessly happy.”

 Mani: Trav­els in the South­ern Pelo­pon­nese, by Patrick Leigh Fer­mor. New York Review Books 1958