Belle and the dragon. An elfin comedy

"You are worn out with monotony and commonplaces," inferred the Great Mystic, who was a paradox of spiritual contradiction.

"I am sick of the work and the worry; it is impossible to have anything respectable here."

"That is due to the structure of the universe, which does not strive for respectability any more than it strives for righteousness."

"I declare the Gadfly gets more intolerable every day—what with his photography and his tricycles, his pipes and his pin-holes, and the horrid fumes of his tobacco."

"Those are only a variety of nearly innocent distractions by which he tries to ignore the boredom of the universe."

"And then there is the cook and the dressmaker."

"If you would only realize that creation is essentially lighthearted! While material existence has been produced on a scale of unprecedented magnificence, at the same time its law is anticlimax bathos: an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood, and its mode of operation is cross-purposes."

"Look how this gown fits! It is the first time I have worn it, and I’ll take care it is the last."

"If I were not a committed optimist, even this magnificent drawing room—"

"Oh, it is all very well—thanks to the fact that I permit no one in the house to enter it!"

“I repeat,” said the Mystic deliberately, “that if I were not securely grounded on the foundation of an undeniable optimism, not even the elegance surrounding me would prevent me from agreeing with your views on the squalor of Ravendale.”

“I will not live any longer with the Green Dragon. I might put up with her paints and her worship of many gods, but to be haunted eternally by the presence of a double-named idiot and the fanaticism of a clumsy fool—I declare it is too atrocious!”

“The Dragon would be unworthy of her title were she anything other than infinitely wicked.”

“But she is infinitely stupid as well.”

“That is natural, and philosophical too—for once. The unpardonable sin must, of course, be a gross blunder.”

“Yet you know that I am just and reasonable.”

“You are the living standard of all that is sweet in reason, and all that is reasonable in sweetness.”

“And am I not just, as well?”

“You are a symbol of the Pillar of Benignity, which is the balance between Mercy and Severity Chesed (Mercy) and Geburah (Severity/Strength) are two of the ten sephirot in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Pillar of Benignity is the central column representing balance.—the mercy and severity of the Kabbalists.”

“I believe you are laughing at me.”

“Impossible, Fastrada!”

“Infamous Magician!”