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Pretty much everything in this letter, from the very end of The Count of Monte Cristo (the book, not the movie, which has half the characters and less of the plot), is philosophically false; and yet, in a younger year, this letter did more for me to mark the nature of our hope, through evil times, than many another, more useful thing. Dantes is, of course, more devil than God; and yet we hope our own visions are reflected more accurately in the ending, in the “Wait and Hope,” than in the course of the Dumas novel.

My Dear Maximilian, –

There is a felucca for you at anchor. Jacopo will carry you to Leghorn, where Monsieur Noirtier awaits his granddaughter, whom he wishes to bless before you lead her to the altar. All that is in this grotto, my friend, my house in the Champs Elysees, and my chateau at Treport, are the marriage gifts bestowed by Edmond Dantes upon the son of his old master, Morrel. Mademoiselle de Villefort will share them with you; for I entreat her to give to the poor the immense fortune reverting to her from her father, now a madman, and her brother who died last September with his mother. Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny, Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man, who like Satan thought himself for an instant equal to God, but who now acknowledges with Christian humility that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom. Perhaps those prayers may soften the remorse he feels in his heart. As for you, Morrel, this is the secret of my conduct towards you.

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.

Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words, — `Wait and hope.’ Your friend,

Edmond Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo.

I said philosophically false–and yet, on a very strict construction of “in the world,” the reduction of all to difference et ne plus ultra does not entirely miss the mark, either.

We choose between summum nihil est and consummatum est! daily, and in person; the person of Christ.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 1:31 am and is filed under philosophy, quotations, literature, Christian.