When Hanno has urged Richelieu to accept his request and offer:
"Silence fell again, except for the wind, the river, a ticking clock and the kitten..." (p. 233)
Silence underlines a significant stage in the dialogue. The wind is present because it always is. A ticking clock explicitly means the passage of time. Time has been compared to a river. The kitten is a trademark of the Cardinal as also indicated by this chapter's title.
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Welcome everyone to the month of February.
3 comments:
Silence also means "deep thought", in this context. And when Richelieu thought deeply, he thought -deeply-.
Yes. The silence is a pause and the pause is for thought. While the wind blows, the river flows, the clock ticks and the kitten plays, something deeper happens. And the greatest philosophical mystery is the relationship between the empirical world, which includes electrically firing, electrochemically interacting neurons, and the consciousness which is somehow caused by neurons.
Kaor, to Both!
And a part of that deep thought by Richelieu was devoted to prayer and meditation.
Ad astra! Sean
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