The influence of one idea on the relations between two others

A rail beginning with the terms “Nature is a corrupt temple…” will transform the internal thought of the sonnet far too much to be a porterage. However it will be useful to understand properties which have so far escaped us owing to the constraints of the structure within which the combinations of appearances were sought. The two collisions rb(Nature~temple) and rb(temple~corrupt) work against each other in the rail just described. The gloss rb(Nature~temple) loses the advantage of a plausibility of 1 since the slide for «temple» goes up to 2, which brings down the plausibility of the relation.

Comparing the values is made easier by the new procedure. Regarding “Nature is a temple and all incenses are corrupt…” each of the collisions rb(Nature~temple), rb(incenses~corrupt) has a gradient of 1, while “Nature is a corrupt temple…” gives a plausibility of ½ to rb(Nature~temple) because of rb(temple~corrupt).

Without any modification of the punctuation, a twisted way of thinking could take the phrase «…forests of symbols
Which observe him with familiar eyes» as indicating the forests’ own willpower.

No block or tandem appears with rb(Nature~temple) rb(temple~corrupt) since we no longer have rb(corrupt~incense).

The glosses rb(Nature~temple), rb(corrupt~incense) each have a gradient of 1. With “Nature is a corrupt temple…” the gradient of rb(Nature~temple) becomes ½. Since the temple appears shameful, the shock “Nature-temple” is weakened. A landing “desecrated sanctuary” appears in the significance of “temple”, which gives us j’=2 instead of j=1.

Once the relations have been changed, these thought processes may often go beyond the previous interpretations although conserving them in appearance. If a rail arises in the form of “Nature is a temple and all incenses are corrupt…” we obtain again rb(Nature~temple), rb(corrupt~incense), collisions with a gradient of 1, since the gloss rb(corrupt~incense) protects rb(Nature~temple) from many potential significances within “corrupt”.

Using paradoxes to bring meanings to light leads to a rapid revelation of relations between the significances and Baudelaire’s poem shows this among other things. However the poem does not take us into the realms of tragedy since for tragedy there must be a drama created by some power hidden from the victims, while the poet here accentuates above all the acceptance of changes in the soul [[1103]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1103]]: «Whether it be in the night and in solitude,
Whether it be in the street and in the multitude,
Her ghost dances in the air like a flaming torch.»

A weak latch such as (-And others,-#rb(cool~corrupt)) should, however, be studied.

To study the influences of the ensigns «Which observe him» on the jack rb(symbols~eyes) no claw is required. By removing the bulk we obtain: “…there man passes through forests of symbols with familiar eyes.” The impression of a notion of simple friendship among natural beings makes us think of the writings of Wordsworth and the Romantics whose inspiration Sainte-Beuve attempts to describe thus [887]: «In these silent solitudes, on the bosom of the lakes, in the half-light of these forests, it seems to them that their souls merge into the universal soul; they feel an invisible and ineffable influence that exalts, delights and purifies them. It is a mysticism which is somehow related to Pythagorus’ pantheism. For them, all that is visible, all that is endowed with movement or with a voice, no longer merely provides obscure symbols or weird emblems, but true revelations.»

Given “it is better to associate than dissociate «corrupt» and «incense»”, the weaker negation “it is better not to associate «corrupt» and «incense»” is very different from “it is better to dissociate «corrupt» and «incense»”. As for the corruption itself, it can even be perceived in the agitation of the vain graces, and Baudelaire can only admire a dandy if he is invested with some significant rebelliousness, rejecting such levels of emptiness of mind which sometimes even impressed Balzac [63]: «He organized his idleness in order to be busy. Victurnien visited the Duchess every morning from midday to three; from there he met her again in the Bois de Boulogne, he on horseback, she in a carriage. If these two charming partners went riding, it was on sunny mornings. In the evenings the young Count’s time was shared between society, balls, parties, shows. Victurnien shone wherever he went, sowing the seeds of his wit, judging men, things, events with profound words: you would have called him a fruit tree that gave only blossom. He led this tedious life, where perhaps even more soul than money is squandered, where the greatest talents are buried, where the most incorruptible probity is lost, where the most hardened wills are softened.»

Instead of analysing the harm done to rb(Nature~temple) by rb(temple ~corrupt) with reference to a rail including the beginning “Nature is a corrupt temple…”, “temple” is quoted once only in (corrupt-µrb(Nature~temple)). Baudelaire, without going to the extremes of the rail used here employs the permanent evocation of evil to complicate an angelic lyricism tending towards the ridiculous [609]-[[1013]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1013]]: «You are a lovely autumn sky, clear and pink!
But the sadness in me rises like the sea,
And in ebbing leaves on my sad lips
The smarting memory of its bitter silt.»

The list takes on a more concrete look in the case of (Nature-#rb(living~pillars)), (forests-#rb(living~ pillars)),I; (Nature-µrb(living~pillars)), (forests-µrb (living~pillars)),II; (Nature-#rd(living~pillars)), (forests-#rd (living~pillars)),III; (Nature-µrd(living~pillars)), (forests-µrd(living~pillars)),IV. The idea of a natural temple was very common in the thinking at the time the author lived, even outside exclusively artistic circles. An English doctor even used it, some twenty years before the birth of Baudelaire, as the title of one of his didactic poems [245]. 67

As the value of the influences is assessed by eliminating the bulk, it becomes important to put together «,», «colours», «and», «sounds» in order to test their influence on rb(answer~Perfumes) since otherwise, after taking away «colours», we would be left with «sounds» and several indications that did not fit in with the new significance. Conversely, care must be taken with the claw so the text remains intelligible. As the text will become unclear if the words are slit up badly, we cannot just put our faith in an enormous capacity to find a meaning for any words [907]. Moreover if it is true that telegraphic language is the limit of that which is easily understandable, if we want to speak correctly this must be rejected so that finally the claw must be prescribed [196]-[197].

Related more or less closely to the idea considered here, it is often said that a certain pupil who knew Baudelaire told long afterwards he had peculiar tendencies. Claude Pichois however has some doubts about this [588]. The young man’s dandy propensities may mean the image retained of him is somewhat tainted with bitterness [605].

As far as the grammar is concerned, in „Correspondences“ the eleventh line is followed by the second tercet, while the line break is a strong mark of separation, showing that all the ways of understanding the meaning of a poem are not provided by its organization. The breaks in the text facilitating its study expose another danger, that of allowing a glimpse of a different ending. Balzac reflected on a similar problem [81]: «Often perfection in works of art prevents the soul from magnifying them. Is this not the lawsuit won by the sketch against the finished painting, in the court of those who finish a work by thought, instead of accepting it ready made?» It must be accepted that critics are not able to extricate a meaning that arises from too many backgrounds. The novelist conceives of a musician thinking of this [82]: «I see the melodies face to face, beautiful and fresh, coloured like flowers; they shine, they resound, and I listen, but infinite time is needed to reproduce them.» Memory organizes ideas or images in a new way [83]: «The radiant goddess rises up from the depths of the chasm of the mind, she runs to her marvellous compartments, touches them lightly like an organist his keys. Suddenly Memories soar, they bring the roses of the past, divinely preserved and still fresh.»

Before «corrupt», the terms «answer», «familiar», «eyes», «observe» and «words» prepare us for the idea that inanimate beings may have vices and virtues. We can easily see that the confusion arises from the usage which slips from the freshness of early morning to newly opened flowers, for example. Yet it remains difficult to attribute this point of view with any certainty to Baudelaire, who did not hide his admiration for Maistre making fun of Locke [514]-[679]: «What a smell of shop!» wrote the aristocrat from Savoie. However, it is not certain either that it was the doctrine of the weight of experience in its entirety that repelled the poet, for the English empiricist deserved this mockery when he declared that his book on the function of mental images was worth its price because of the advantages it brought to daily life [505]. Baudelaire’s amusement could also result from this confusion between abstract mental metaphysics and the practice of everyday life.

«Nature is a temple» takes on a new meaning when we are able to write rb(corrupt~incense) but this analysis may fail to measure anything in this respect.

Here rd(cool~children) will have a lower gradient than that of rb(cool~children) and for other ensigns the (d) case will prove better than its opposite. With the peaceful beginning of the sonnet associated with a bitter or demonic ending, Baudelaire may have wanted to suggest a correspondence that has become ill at ease with human beings in the natural world. Seemingly lacking in constancy, he is described as having had a political career not without its surprises, but it is not easy to reconstitute and follow the route of his thinking which led him to deplore certain transformations, even if Barbey, who became his friend, ventured further, concerned for the awe-inspiring moor situated not far from the family château [96]: «In the thrall of the idea of profit, society, this old housewife whose needs are the only young thing remaining to her and who witters on about her enlightenment, no more understands the divine ignorance of the mind, this poetry of the soul which she wants to exchange for poor and always incomplete knowledge, than she admits the poetry of the eyes, hidden and visible under the apparent futility of things.»

Thus the latch (man-#rd(Nature~temple)) will have a weak gradient owing to the slight plausibility of its jack which will be counted within the acre. The schoolboy bending over the problems of the relationship between the artist and the world must have undergone many transformations to produce the poet [[1081]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1081]]: «How many times must I jingle my little bells
And kiss your low forehead, dull caricature?
To hit the target, mystique quadrature,
How many shafts, oh my quiver, must I lose?

We will wear out our souls in subtle plotting,
And we will demolish much heavy armour,
Before we may contemplate the great Creature
For whom, wracked with infernal longing, we sob!»

The latch (symbols- #rb(words~green)) gives us a jack whose significance is unclear inspite of the amusing effect of the connection between the terms. This obscure nature of the gloss, whose shift in meaning we examine, also immediately hampers the process of appreciation since the object affected is largely unknown. The author, at the moment of creation, has a completely different perspective, arranging the words, moreover, with beauty as his aim [496]-[590]-[[1114]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1114]]: «…I will practise my strange fencing alone,
Sniffing out the chances of rhyme in every corner,
Stumbling over words as over paving stones,
Striking at times on long-dreamed lines of verse.»

Let us examine the latch (of- #rb(flesh~children)). Once the bulk has been taken away, the gradient resulting for rb(flesh~children) can only be increased, since the uncertainty now touches the internal relations in the jack. The supposition of a moral risk could not prevent the recognition of the many merits of women’s bodies [115]: «Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat. Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin…» Baudelaire, addressing a female friend, celebrates in his turn this power [[1108]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1108]]: «David, dying, would have demanded the health
Emanating from your enchanted body!»

Let us look at the latch (parfums¹, les-#rb(parfums²~répondent)) (Perfumes-/-perfumes²- answer) with «parfums» taken from the eighth and then ninth lines. When the jack is a collision, with the bulk, the slides are g=1 and j=2 since the meaning “balance” acts as a landing in «répondent». If there is no bulk, the jack falls into the category of a problem gloss without a collision. The slides become g’=2 and j’=1 because the term «répondent» with its two significances is more problematical than «parfums» for a simple commentary. Therefore, through the adaptor, it must be accepted that everything takes place as if g=1 and j=2 were still valid. The risks of counting a modification of the analysis as a drastic alteration of the text seem too great to allow any other choice.

The latch (-And others,-#rb(corrupt~cool)) straightaway seems almost absurd. The author, with his taste for corruption, was right to salute Gautier as a master [4]-[5]-[407]: «…In Seville, in the great hospital, are displayed,
Two remarkable pictures by Juan Valdes Leal.
This artist, the Young of painting, possessed
The secrets of death and the grave;
Just as Titian cherished the splendid colours,
Valdes loved the shades of green, the wan and pallid tones,
The blood and puss of wounds,
The martyrs in rags stretched on the rack,
The rotting corpses, and on silver dishes,
In the midst of the clotted blood, the heads of Saint John…» The idea of a secret also reminds us of one of Baudelaire’s constant preoccupations [406]: «You spurn nothing that is despised;
You reject no rags, Ribera:
The truth, always the truth, is your only motto!

And you succeed in giving a strange beauty
To those three abject monsters, terror of classical art,
Pain, Poverty and Mortality.

…From where does this murderous instinct come, Ribera?
What tooth has bitten you, making you rabid,
Thus to twist and crush mankind?

What has the world done to you, and, in all this carnage,
What secret enemy of your blows are you pursuing?
For what insult was so much blood spilt?» The author to whom Baudelaire pays tribute also compares two painters with these words [408]: «Beside these, Lesueur, your monks are insipid.
Zurbaran of Seville has rendered better than you
Their eyes leaden with ecstasy and their sick heads,

The divine vertigo, the inebriation of faith
Which makes them shine with a feverish light,
And their strange dread-inspiring aspect.»

The latch (forests-#rb(living~pillars)) is so clear that a flat corner of 1 is required, as is also necessary with (Nature- #rb(living~pillars)).

Thus first we skim through the latches (triumphant-#rb(corrupt~incense)) and (rich-#rb(corrupt~incense)) to see for each if the other is not a much more plausible lining than itself. The similarity of the smells of hashish and incense have often been pointed out. Corruption can even adversely affect the ability to find one’s bearings in everyday life, especially when a narcotic is involved. Something happens to our ways of distinguishing between objects and perceiving changes in them. The objective sense of space and the separation between merging or different things is modified. The relationship between the changes perceived as internal and those seen as external is also altered, principally as regards time [24]. Baudelaire readily described some of the effects of substances that act in this way [75]-[654]: «The proportions of time and of being are upset by the countless numbers and by the intensity of sensations and ideas. One lives the lives of several men within the space of an hour. This indeed is the subject of "the Wild Ass’s skin". There is no longer any equation between organs and pleasures. From time to time the personality disappears. The objectivity that makes certain poets pantheistic and makes some people great actors becomes such that one becomes confused with external beings. One becomes a tree wailing in the wind and singing vegetable melodies to nature.»

For (the voice of the divinity-#rb(N~Nature)) and a rail beginning with: “In Nature the voice of the divinity models a temple…” we obtain q=1 in that “divinity” provides a commentary on N without being part of a collision. When the bulk is subtracted we have q’=2 because the notion of unknown power helped the jack rb(N~Nature), and this result justifies q*=1. The natural echo makes us think of the caverns where the beautiful and terrifying initiation ceremonies of many an ancient sect took place, convinced they could reveal the highest truths in the bright light of the fire through thought processes sometimes in conflict with the lovers of daylight [747]-[749].

A rail beginning with the words “Majestic Nature is a temple…” gives us the latch (Majestic-µrd(N~temple)). By removing the bulk, the carver of N is increased from 1 to 2. This gives us some proof that “Majestic” favours the plausibility of the jack and so q*=2 must be accepted. In any case the gradient will be so low, that the overall result could not be outstanding. The awe-inspiring aspect of natural appearances plays a role in the notion of "temple-Nature". Seneca describes the feelings thus aroused [914]: «If you come to an ancient forest of extraordinary height, a sacred wood in which the tracery of so many branches hides any view of the sky, the grandeur of the trees, the loneliness of the place, the impressive spectacle of such deep and continuous shade in the midst of open country will make you believe in a divine presence. This cavern holds a mountain suspended over deeply eroded rocks; it is not man-made; natural forces have excavated the huge cavity: the feeling of a religious mystery will seize your soul. We worship the sources of the great rivers; altars mark the place where a subterranean river suddenly bursts forth. We revere thermal springs. The dark colour, the unfathomable depths of their waters have given some pools a sacred character.» 72

The ensign “problem” in “…man, the problem is here, passes there through forests of perfumes…” allows rb(forests~Perfumes) to benefit from p=1, since the rail itself states that there is a difficulty. Once “, the problem is here,” has been removed, p’=2 becomes necessary, and so for the latch (, the problem is here,- #rb(forests~Perfumes)), the conclusion p*=1 proves inevitable. For anyone taking a general look into the cultural background of the author, it is clear that the relation between perfumes and forests cannot be considered of secondary importance, inspite of the reputation he built as the poet of love in the modern city. Certainly Robert Kopp rightly stresses that we do not know the exact contents of the school curricula of the time, but we suspect that it laid heavy emphasis on the humanities [482]. It should also be noted that young pupils could learn indirectly through the knowledge and culture of their teachers, imparted during lessons [594]-[597]. The young latin scholar taking part in the "Concours Général" (competition for lycée students in their final years) had to write in verse on «Philopoemen at the Nemean Games» and Claude Pichois reports that the future poet, born in 1821, won a first certificate of merit in 1836 [596]-[790]. He sums up the prize list of «17th August 1836» for Baudelaire, a secondary school pupil this time [596]: «1 st Prize for Latin Verse; 2nd Prize for Greek Translation; 3rd Certificate of Merit for Latin Prose; 3 rd Certificate of Merit for Greek Prose; 3rd Certificate of Merit for Drawing; 1 st Certificate of Merit for English Language.» The appeal of the bustling outside world may have quickly drawn the young poet, but the attraction he felt for classical studies left an easily recognizable mark on his memory [99]. Passing from one investigation to another, Pliny gives this introduction [768]: «Until now, we have only considered the smells coming from the forests. Each of them, in itself, was already marvellous. The luxury was to mix them all among themselves, and to take a single scent from the whole. Thus were perfumes invented. Tradition has not preserved the name of their inventor. In the times of the Trojan Wars, they did not yet exist, and incense was not used in sacrifices. They only knew how to burn the branches of trees…And yet rosewater was already known, since it was named in the Iliad as a precious oil.» The same author shows how the sequence of delicacy came about [773]: «…luxury, which boasts of having conquered nature by creating perfumes, has also, with cloth, defied the flowers whose colours give them value.» The same tendency [772]«…made such progress that only crowns of petals sewn together were prized, or those from India or beyond, for the ultimate in elegance is to present crowns of valerian leaves or of multicoloured silk cloth soaked in perfume.»

With (penetrating-µrb(things~infinite)) a rail using the words “…having the expansive and penetrating force of infinite things…” the bulk in no way enables the jack to be a collision. However, the suppression of “penetrating” will leave “expansive” to make the gloss intelligible and this will again prevent a collision. Furthermore, with no problem noted which would authorize p=1, we must accept to write p=2=p’ which justifies the starred pole p*=1. Psychological forces were a subject of passionate interest at this period which was marked by the discoveries of Galvani [253]-[589]. Insinuating itself into the body, perfumes bring the sweetest transports of emotions. The individual abandons himself in the midst of triumph, becomes as lascivious, lazy and intoxicated as several hours previously he had been energetic, hard and merciless with his own desires. All inner strength has been used up by the effect that is the positive equivalent of that of torture or bad luck acting negatively. This point greatly interested Balzac [69]: «Iron yields at certain degrees of beating or under repeated pressure; its impenetrable molecules, purified by man and made homogenous, disintegrate; and, without fusing, the metal no longer has the same powers of resistance. Blacksmiths, locksmiths, tool-makers, all those who work with this metal express its state then with a word from their technology: "The iron is retted!" they say, taking up this word used exclusively when talking of hemp, which is broken down by retting. Well, the human soul, or if you prefer, the three-fold energy of the body, the heart and the spirit can be found in a similar state to that of iron after certain repeated shocks.» Balzac notes that the opposite route, leading from dejection to action-inspiring triumph, is also obscure [68]: «As for me, went on the doctor, I no longer dare to place limits on nervous strength. Moreover it is in this way that mothers, to save their children, mesmerize lions, climb down, in fires, along ledges where even cats could hardly venture, and endure tortures in childbirth. Therein lies the secret of attempts by prisoners and convicts to regain their liberty… We do not yet know the capacities of the vital forces, they take their very strengths from Nature, and we draw them from unknown reservoirs!» Prarond has related how Baudelaire, stressing the closeness of his thinking to the novelist’s own, spoke to him of a spontaneous conversation, that was perhaps purely fictional [604]: «Balzac and Baudelaire were walking towards each other along the river (on the Left Bank). Baudelaire stopped in front of Balzac and began to laugh as if he had known him for ten years. Balzac stopped as if he had found an old friend. And these two spirits, having recognized each other at a glance and greeted each other, walked along together, talking, discussing, delighting each other, not managing to surprise each other.»

Let us look at f* for (incense-#rb(corrupt~temple)). As there is no buffer to connect clearly the ensigns «corrupt» and «temple», it must be accepted that f=2. Since «incense» has strictly nothing to do with the absence of absolute link between the traces of the gloss f’=2 and so f*=1. Of course a line of thought “incense-corrupt-temple” exists, but the last bond has no buffer. Having the power to weaken even the deities, incense is used as a means of salvation from sickness or crime. At the time of the misfortunes of Thebes, when Oedipus reigned, the supplicants directed their feet to the altars [921] «…And the city is full of incense,
full of paeans and of lamentations.»

For (y-#rb(Nature~homme)) (There -/-Nature-man), since the gloss, once the «y» (There) has disappeared, shows an interior spacing of 2+(1(10/10))=3=z’ instead of z=1 as previously, due to the break in meaning, the conclusion must be that z* is 1. The relationship “Nature-man” reminds us of the idea that the archetypal pole in the “male-female” relationship is, in nature, the feminine one and Baudelaire uses this concept on many occasions in his poetry [[982]] in Index II (Poems)">[[982]]: «You brush against the sorrowful passer-by
And he is dazzled by the health
That flashes like a bright light
From your shoulders and from your arms.»

With (y-µrb(Nature~homme)) (there-/- Nature-man), since once «y» (there) has gone the jack shows that z’=2+(1(10/10))=3 instead of z=1 as before, it is seen that «y» favoured it. Since we are now looking for the harmful nature of the influence, the conclusion must be that z*=3. The strong “man-Nature” relationship in the text makes it so clear the search has gone off course that the latch will have little plausibility as z*=3 makes a considerable contribution to the moderation of this value. The man of whom Baudelaire speaks may not understand the symbols at all in spite of their familiarity, due to the fact that they reflect the bases of his thinking. Maistre dreamed of the development of these thousands of obscure indications in real life [52]-[516]: «One can form a perfectly true idea of the universe by seeing it as a vast room in a natural history museum shaken by an earthquake: the door is open and broken, there are no windows left, whole cupboards have fallen over while others still hang from hinges that could come away any minute; shells have rolled into the minerals room, and a hummingbird’s nest is resting on the head of a crocodile. Yet only a fool would have any doubts about the original intentions for the building or think that it had been constructed like that. All the great sets are already together; in the smallest splinter of glass from a window, it can be seen in its entirety…order is as visible as disorder; and the eye, running over this vast temple of nature, restores without difficulty all that a catastrophic agent has broken, or distorted, or sullied or displaced. There is more; look closer, and already you will recognize a restorative hand: a few beams have been propped up, paths have been made through the ruins, and amid the general confusion, a crowd of "analogues" have already taken their places and are in contact with each other.»

If the bulk consists of a pivot “colour of paper”, given that for the latch (colour of paper-#rb(pillars~green) the distance between the traces “green” and “pillars” remains the same when the bulk is removed, once again z*=1. The creator of an imaginative text frequently tries to demonstrate something symbolic and deeply moving to his audience, but for this he does not necessarily use a support. Nerval excelled in this method of portraying the limits of mental balance with sobriety [553]- [664]-[781]: «…objects without form or life lent themselves freely to the calculations in my mind; -from combinations of pebbles, from the shapes of angles, slits or openings, from leaf cuttings, from colours, smells and sounds I saw hitherto unknown harmonies emerge.»

The latch (infinite-#rb(corrupt~incense)) allows two starred pre-slides G*=1=J* because of the constant g’=g, j’=j, due to «infinite», which inspite of a possible theological connotation, hardly touches the significance of rb(corrupt~incense). The rough corner s* of this latch is equal to 2 because «triumphant», with its moral sense, seems intuitively much more capable of affecting the collision in question. Thus to write t*=1, s*=2 and then g*=G*s* as well as j*=J*s* allows us to accept s*g*j*=(2)(2)(2)=8 and therefore a plausibility of a maximum of ⅛ for the influence exerted by «infinite» on rb(corrupt~incense). Baudelaire’s idea of infinity is also interesting and leads us to wonder whether he knew in depth the debate of the time on the existence of atoms [255]-[256]. When he mentions certain perfumes having the «…expansion of infinite things…» he seems discreetly to set his thinking within a framework in which the endless divisibility of objects is envisaged. However, the volatile nature of the fragrant particles might have lead him to speak of them in rapid hyperbole as minute things, apart from any metaphysical thought hostile to atomistic ideas. Another poem bears witness to his way of thinking [[1038]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1038]]: «There are some strong perfumes for which all matter
Is porous. They seem to seep through glass.» The reference to the “correspondences” for its part seems to take the path of betting on an unknowable world, but Baudelaire reaches such depths, avoiding paying allegiance to any minor trends in thinking, that many scholars find the idea of natural law in this notion [666]. If the absolute core of things has a single and ultimate constituent, correspondences link many related or complementary objects, varying in form and quantity but not in the essentials.

A rail which no longer contains «triumphant» gives g’=2 in respect of rb(corrupt~incense) and not g=1 as with the present text, since henceforth the idea “chemically degraded” is introduced as a landing of “corrupt”. Therefore G*=1 must be accepted for (triumphant-#rb(corrupt~incense)). Perfume stimulates like an animal look [[1018]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1018]]: «Come, my fine cat, to my amorous heart;
Draw in your claws,
And let me plunge into your beautiful eyes,
Blend of metal and agate.

When my fingers freely stroke
Your head and your elastic back,
And my hand becomes drunk with the pleasure
Of feeling your electric body,

I see my woman in my mind’s eye…» Baudelaire commented elsewhere on these distant but familiar beings [[1021]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1021]]: «Their fertile backs are full of magic sparks,
And particles of gold, like fine sand,
Sparkle vaguely in the mystical pupils of their eyes.» The often unrecognized humorist in Baudelaire reverts to the singular when he writes [[1015]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1015]]: «In my mind walks,
As if at home there,
A beautiful cat, strong, sweet and charming…»

When we remove the ensigns «comme» (as) from the ninth line, «Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants…» (There are perfumes as cool as the flesh of children…), we are left with “Il est des parfums frais des chairs d'enfants…” or, with a complementary claw, “Il est des parfums frais de chairs d'enfants…” The problem, which is now very close to the inconsistency of rb(chairs~parfums²) (flesh-perfumes²), has slides of g’=2=j’ while previously g=1, j=2 was justified. The latch (comme-µrb(chairs~parfums²)) (as…as-/-flesh-perfumes²) merits therefore G*=2, due to the increase of the slide. If now the bulk becomes «comme des», the rail gives “Il est des parfums frais chairs d'enfants…” (There are perfumes cool flesh of children…) and the problem rb(chairs~parfums²) (flesh-perfumes²) becomes a collision. The modification allows us to perceive that the suppression method does result in some clarity. The meaning of the lines in question inspires us to imagine licentious banquets in honour of victorious conquerors. Love and battle were formerly complementary among the most common manly occupations of the upper classes and this justifies grouping together the notions of woman and war. Dom Juan declares [536]: «We taste an extreme sweetness in reducing the heart of a beautiful young woman by one hundred tributes, to see there daily the progress we make, little by little, fighting by transports of emotion, by tears and by sighs, the innocent modesty of a soul hardly able to surrender her arms, forcing inch by inch all the scanty resistance she puts up against us…and on this subject I have the ambition of the conquerors, ever rushing from victory to victory, never able to resolve to limit their desires.»

When studying „Correspondences“ to discern what Baudelaire meant, critics provide the most commonly understood meaning since the significance, dating back to the origin of the poem around which the many interpretations revolve, remains fixed. In the cloud of disparate commentaries, some of which appear irreconcilable, a main tendency comes to light which proves to be the will of the creator and is impossible to ignore, as long as criticism has existed for long enough. This may be applied even to the most cheerfully provocative and disorientating writings [[1083]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1083]]: «In a slimy soil, full of snails
I want to dig for myself a deep grave,
Where I will be able to spread my old bones…» The poet is having fun, concurring with the severity of many paintings [[1139]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1139]]: «Remember the object we saw, my soul,
On that so sweet and beautiful summer morning:
At the bend in the path a vile decaying carcass
On a bed strewn with stones…»

Let us concede that the significance of the ensigns «cool» and «corrupt» overlaps, and this spreads over into all the rest when the poem is known by heart. A sort of fusion of ideas operates also in the distant memory that someone has of the poem. This does not however require any renunciation of the exterior appearances of the text since the creator himself wanted these discontinued units and moreover situated them in two different lines.

Lucan, describing a queen, wants to keep for posterity a major example of corruption [508]: «She spends a whole shameful night with her judge, whom she has seduced. Once peace has been assured by the chief and paid for with tremendous gifts, a feast will celebrate the joy of such a great event, and Cleopatra flaunted a showy display of wealth which roman society had not yet adopted. The place was like a temple to luxury, such as would hardly be erected even in a more corrupt age…» The victorious Caesar incurs comparable disapproval [509]: «Caesar is learning how to squander the riches of a plundered world…»

In the case being studied, «triumphant» seems gratuitous when applied to «incense» since military activity is rarely accompanied by the use of perfumes. On the contrary, the relationship of perfumes with luxury is obvious. The Bible condemns opulence because it seems unchanging [136]-[158]: «Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.» It is no better to count on hidden triumph [148]: «For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.» The implicit negation of the divinity seems close to rivalry [129]-[132]: «The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.» 78

If the acre of (triumphant-µrd(corrupt~incense)) were equal to (triumphant-#rb(corrupt~incense)) our immediate thought would be gratified, but this would prevent us from penalizing the rejection of associations wanted by the author: “corrupt-incense”, “living-pillars”, “Nature- temple”, “answer-Perfumes”. All these images merged together remind us of a text by Maturin [528]-[603]: «The tamarind, the cocoa, and the palm-tree, shed their blossoms, and exhaled their odours, and waved their leaves, over the head of the trembling votarist as she approached the ruin of the pagoda. It had been a massive square building, erected amid rocks, that, by a caprice of nature not uncommon in the Indian isles, occupied its centre, and appeared the consequence of some volcanic explosion. The earthquake that had overthrown it, had mingled the rocks and ruins together in a shapeless and deformed mass, which seemed to bear alike the traces of the impotence of art and nature, when prostrated by the power that has formed and can annihilate both. There were pillars, wrought with singular characters, heaped amid stones that bore no impress but that of some fearful and violent action of nature, that seemed to say, Mortals, write your lines with the chisel, I write my hieroglyphics in fire. There were the disjointed piles of stones carved into the form of snakes, on which the hideous idol of Seeva had once been seated; and close to them the rose was bursting through the earth which occupied the fissures of the rock, as if nature preached a milder theology, and deputed her darling flower as her missionary to her children.»

The capital N easily conveys the notion of immensity.

Diderot wrote of a blind woman [277]: «When she heard singing, she could distinguish "brown" voices and "blond" voices.» In a more playful mood, he approached the same problem with similar audacity [274]: «Does Madam remember a certain very eccentric black Brahmin, half sensible, half mad? -Yes, I remember him…one day I asked him to translate a minuet of sound into a minuet of colours; and he managed very well.» This type of instrument does not only accept consecrated hands [275]: «Your elder sister goes to the ball; but you, do you not go to the temple…-Quite right; and that is why I want you to play me something very charming. -Well! replied the companion, put on your fire- coloured gauze dress, and I will fetch the rest of the accompaniment…See, Mademoiselle…it will go marvellously with your Bohemian topaz earrings…»

The triumph of the flesh full of desire seems to provide a possible key to the word «triumphant» used by Baudelaire at the end of the first tercet. However two possible meanings come from this idea since victories can be won over oneself or over others. In both cases the proximities between perfumes and love-potions may be referred to. A closely-related line of interpretation can focus on the debauchery which unites the thoughts about leaders, for the worse sometimes [67]: «Endowed with a tremendous power over tender souls, they attract them and crush them. It is great, it is beautiful in its way. It is the rich-coloured poisonous plant that fascinates children in the woods. It is the poetry of evil.»

The gloss rb(perfumes~flesh) does not put forward anything paradoxical and so it remains a secondary problem inspite of the apparent possibility of rb(perfumes~flesh) vb(colours~ flesh) rvb(perfumes~colours) vb(sweet~colours) vb(perfumes~sweet). Moreover the tension rb(corrupt~ mind) has the benefit of the breadth but the sketchy canvas rb(corrupt~mind) vb(incense~mind) rvb(corrupt ~incense) vb(senses~incense) vb(corrupt~senses) does not seem valid since vb(incense~mind) vb(senses ~incense) suggests a contradiction. We are fascinated by the intelligence a great corruptor devotes to achieving his ends. Baudelaire, who admires in Don Juan the calm inner triumph of persistence rather than his lack of belief, imagines thus the bold libertine in hell [228]-[229]-[231]-[[1030]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1030]]: «Sganarelle laughingly asked him for his wages,
While Don Luis with trembling finger
Showed to all the dead wandering on the shore
The bold son who mocked his white brow.

Shivering in mourning, the chaste and thin Elvira,
Near the perfidious husband who was her lover,
Seemed to demand a final smile from him
In which the sweetness of his first pledges would shine.

Upright in his armour, a tall man of stone
Stood at the helm and cut through the black waters,
But the calm hero, bent over his rapier,
Contemplated the wake and deigned to see nothing.» 80

The initial rail only authorizes (d), with the words «…green as meadows, -And others, corrupt…» Without the bulk, the second text provides us with the means of imagining a complete link or quite the reverse, a modulation within the list of perfumes. Baudelaire is very careful never to employ already well-used ideas, but he pays for this ambitious intention in the absence of the ready-made style found in the thousands of examples published at the time. Wishing this difficulty on himself, he thinks he has identified an aspect of corruption there [[1076]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1076]]: «Oh lazy monk! when will I be able to make
Of this living spectacle of my sad misery
The labour of my hands and the love of my eyes?»

Once the bulk has gone, the text is “Nature is a temple where living pillars let forth at times confused words; man passes through forests of symbols…” A clear break in the grammatical propositions effects a simple juxtaposition which no longer guarantees the inner link within the rail and so (z’) is fixed by counting the fronts from “temple” to “man”. The setting of the poem reminds us of Eden where the evil of the flower and man’s weakness were accomplished [104]: «And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil…And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die…And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.»

The rail which was «…Perfumes, colours and sounds answer each other.

There are perfumes as cool as the flesh of children…» becomes “…Perfumes, colours and sounds answer each other: there are perfumes as cool as the flesh of children…” which suggests more clearly a comparison between the glow of the skin and perfume. In several languages a young girl, in the words of a lover, is called by names commonly used for children. A glimpse of bright skin is so much more attractive when it is unexpected and this led Baudelaire to his licentious praise of a beggar girl [[986]] in Index II (Poems)">[[986]]«…with auburn hair,
The holes of whose dress
Show her poverty
And her beauty…»

The withdrawal of «y» (There) leads the calculation z=1 to the result z’=2+ (1(8/10))=2.8 regarding rb(homme~temple) (man-temple) since the fronts «est» (is) and «temple» which were counted with rb(homme~Nature) (man-Nature) can no longer be so. A human being could choose a life of knowledge or of ignorance in respect of the symbols offered to him by the natural world. Plato represents something like this through a myth [752]: «Proclamation of the Virgin Lachesis, daughter of Necessity. Ephemeral souls, you will begin a new career and be reborn as mortals. It is not a spirit who will draw lots for you, it is you who will choose your spirit. The first to be designated by fate will be the first to choose the life to which he will be bound by necessity. As for virtue, it has no master; each will possess it to a greater or lesser extent, according to whether he honours or neglects it. Each is responsible for his choice, there is no question of the deity.» Thus from within ourselves, we should know the type of events to which we are likely to be subject. Baudelaire imagines the situation of his mind in these lines [[1145]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1145]]: «There I lived in calm and voluptuous pleasure,
In the midst of the azure skies, the seas, the splendours
And the naked slaves, all so fragrant,

Cooling my brow with their palm leaves,
And whose only care was to deepen
The painful secret which caused me to languish.» As an imaginary gypsy, the poet understands those who see the reflection of myths everywhere. The goddess never fails to prepare the next day for the bohemians [[1012]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1012]]: «…Before these travellers, for whom is open
The familiar empire of their future darkness.»

With the latch (incense-# rb(corrupt~temple)) a very different result will be found for the starred slide of the term noted on the right since the relation between «corrupt» and «temple» will be broken off when the bulk is suppressed. The term «incense» is required for rb(corrupt~temple) to be a possible description of Baudelarian ideas, but on the contrary «temple» is of little use in making rb(corrupt~incense) plausible. When we look at how perfumes are condemned, we see the levels of severity vary. Socrates does not use them himself [980]. Pliny takes the strongest moral stand [769]: «And now, dear gods, there are citizens to be found who mix them into their drinks, and their bitterness is such that the body, both inside and out delights in the fragrance thus spread. It is known that Lucius Plotius, brother of Lucius Plancus, twice consul and censor, proscribed by the triumvirate, was betrayed in his hiding place in Salerno by the smell of his perfume, a depravity that sufficed in absolving the entire proscription. Who indeed could find the death of such people undeserved?»

Manipulating the verse and using these arid calculations concerning many appearances gleaned from a poem, we could be suspected of being naively utilitarian, were it not for our ultimate aim of achieving a greater insight into the functioning of the human spirit. Gautier protested in a mischievous way [403]: «I would rather give up potatoes than roses, and I think in this world only a utilitarian would be capable of tearing up a bed of tulips to plant cabbages.»

The perspective of the poem is made harsher by its transformation, even if Baudelaire almost always seems to feel it his duty to verge on the paradox [678]: «The Illuminati were the greatest of men. Why should they be punished for their greatness? Was not their ambition the most noble? Will man be eternally so limited that one of his faculties may not increase except to the detriment of the others? If the desire to know the truth at any price is a great crime, or at least can lead to great transgressions, if foolishness and lack of concern are a virtue and a guarantee of equilibrium, I think we should be very indulgent towards these illustrious culprits since, as children of the 18 th and 19th centuries, this same vice is attributable to all of us. I say so without shame because I feel that it comes from a deep sense of pity and tenderness; I prefer Edgar Allan Poe, drunkard, poor, persecuted, pariah, to a calm and "virtuous" Goethe or W. Scott. I would readily say of him and of a particular class of people that which the catechism says of our God: "He suffered greatly for us." It could be written on his grave: "All you who have sought fervently to discover the laws of your being, who have aspired to the infinite, and whose repressed feelings have had to seek for relief in the awful wine of debauchery, pray for him. Now his bodily being, purified, drifts among those beings whose existence he had glimpsed, pray for he who sees and knows, he will intercede for you."»

The latch (corrupt-µrb(Nature~temple)) thus has the freight 1/1 for the rail beginning with “Nature is a corrupt temple…” Baudelaire is attracted to awe in the face of corruption because it obliges us to confront the importunate aspect of our feeling, as evoked well before him and in a different guise, by Sappho jealous of a boy [2]-[660]-[899]-[1068]: «That one appears to me to be the equal of the gods, that man who, sitting opposite you, very close, is listening to your sweet voice

And this enchanting laughter which, I swear, has melted my heart in my breast; for, as soon as I glimpse you an instant, I can no longer utter a word;

But my tongue breaks and, under my skin, slides a sudden subtle fire; my eyes are without expression, my ears buzz,

Perspiration streams from my body, a shiver runs all over me; I become greener than the grass, and I almost feel myself dying…» Baudelaire, expert in troubled passions, also knew how to turn to cold cruelty [[1004]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1004]]: «I am beautiful, oh mortals! like a dream in stone,
And my breast, where all in turn are bruised,
Is so fashioned to inspire love in the poet
Eternal and silent as matter.»

We have used the beginning and end of the sonnet a great deal here, even though it is mainly celebrated for the eighth line «…Perfumes, colours and sounds answer each other.» However it should not therefore be concluded that we disagree in some way with generally held views. It is just that the collisions have been the main subject of our research and those with a gradient of 1 were simpler to use for the study than the others such as rb(answer~Perfumes) which only has a plausibility of ½.

Except when the acre is equal for the two latches, a decision will be made that one is more plausible than the other, but their ideas will be placed on the scale of possibility. Baudelaire carefully balanced against each other the two notions, «rich» and «triumphant». At first the greatest danger appears to be greed, but on a deeper level the appetite for triumph appears more general. We think of the choice of Achilles, since this son of an immortal mother had to chose just one life for himself, either one of long-lasting obscurity or one leading from one exploit to another to a rapid conclusion [443]. In his novels, Balzac imagines the typical hero in the throes of a fire of passion that leads him to catastrophe in which he is like a receptacle in which the elements are being constantly consumed by some powerful reaction [57]-[78]-[91]. The energy animating him transports and delights him while dissipating in the course of a process which devours its container.

We preferred to use the easier calculation with just true and false, but were then obliged to adapt the model to fit the situations met in „Correspondences“.

A reader with a thorough background knowledge of the lines of descent between the various epochs, bringing with it a fuller awareness of any remarkable work on Baudelaire or any other creator will be able to measure the components or perforators more clearly. Rousseau wrote [876]: «In this delightful temple
Where my devotion takes me,
What sudden agitation
Makes all my senses so precious to me?
Brilliant illumination,
Paintings by a wise hand,
Perfumes destined for the Gods…»

Intuition and habit soon come to our assistance when an ordinary problem gloss is to be distinguished from a collision, the pole of which has to be 1, such as rb(corrupt~incense), which, with «triumphant» also allows the gradient to be 1. Furthermore this term evokes the audacity acquired by domination when the prospects of pleasure are increased. Sometimes, but more rarely, this situation provokes a challenge to social mores and a certain pride among those few reckless souls who, in standing out from the crowd, earn the reputation of corrupting the bonds of society [[1071]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1071]]: «What do the laws of the just and the unjust mean to us?»

“Is incense corrupt” gives us z=1 and f=2 concerning rb(corrupt~incense) since d(corrupt~incense) remains possible. Baudelaire has often been accused of wanting to surprise, like in a game, but through an excessive description of the corrupting powers of the soul. Having seen too many marvels, the reader’s thoughts would unceasingly seek some new stimulus. Concerning how the works of a famous author were received, Sainte-Beuve considers the moods of his contemporaries [888]: «At a time when we are tired of all sensations and when it seems we have exhausted the most ordinary ways of painting and touching the emotions, at a time when the wide tracks of nature and of life have been beaten, and where the flocks of imitators hurrying on the trail of the masters, only manage to raise clouds of suffocating dust, when we had every reason to believe that the circumnavigation of the world had been completed in art, and there remained no doubt much to transform and revise, but nothing very new to discover, Hoffmann arrived and, at the limits of the visible and on the edge of the real universe, found I do not know what corner, obscure, mysterious and hitherto unnoticed, in which he taught us to discern particular reflections of the light here below, strange projected shadows and subtle cogwheels, and a complete and unexpected reverse side of the natural perspectives and human destinies to which we were the most accustomed. In his best stories, where he is at his most inventive and original, by making the most startling of fortuitous rapprochements, by an almost supernatural combination of circumstances that are only just in the realm of the possible, he succeeds in exciting and caressing all the superstitious inclinations of our spirit, without too violently shocking our stubborn good sense; what he tells us then can no doubt be explained by human means, and does not necessarily demand the intervention of a higher law; but although our common sense is obviously not reduced to silence, and can always flatter itself by finding the answer to the riddle at the end, there is something within us that unwittingly rejects this tiresome and commonplace explanation, and which prefers the mysterious solution the illusion of which is held out to us from a distance as from behind a cloud.»

Without «triumphant», rb(corrupt~ incense) would have a lower gradient than rb(Nature~temple) and this makes us think about the power exerted by the term in question. As far as the background is concerned, the movements of his partner’s body are as important to the creator as those of a captain’s weapons [[1009]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1009]]: «…She had kept on only her resounding jewellery,
Which rich array gave her the look of a conqueror
As in happy times have the slaves of the Moors.

When, dancing, it sheds a bright and mocking noise,
This radiating world of metal and stone
Ravishes me…» The skin’s glow is sometimes enough [[1000]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1000]]: «I want to tell you, oh soft enchantress!
Of the many beauties adorning your youth;
I want to paint your beauty,
In which childhood goes hand in hand with maturity.»

The audience, getting its bearings from «incense», then sees the poet upset the hierarchy of perfumes, as elsewhere he goes against the ordinary meaning of love [[1053]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1053]]: «What this heart, deep as an abyss, needs
Is you, Lady Macbeth, a soul steeped in crime,
Aeschylus’ dream, born in the northern climes,

Or you, Great Night, Michelangelo’s daughter,
Calmly twisting in a strange pose
Your charms wrought for the Titans’ mouth.»

The term «rich» attenuates the opposition by mixing the moral and physical images regarding rb(corrupt~incense) and so it has an influence that rules out the gradient of 1, while «triumphant» moves the notions markedly towards the conflict between scruples and immorality. The strength of the words of benediction distributed with the incense reminds us of a triumph over death which comes from the resources expounded according to two traditions, the north and the south, that Nerval excels in using together [552]: «…I dreamt in the cave where the mermaid swims…

And twice victorious I crossed the Acheron:
Modulating in turn on Orpheus’ lyre
The sighs of the saint and the cries of the fairy.» 86

In paragraph 53 this value of 1 was explained in detail. The shock of meaning in rb(corrupt~incense) constitutes one of the least easily deniable paradoxes in the text and so we have used it as a model to calibrate the other measurements.

This transient clear-sightedness joins the muddling of ideas, as happens with pleasure [[1110]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1110]]: «How I adore to see, my indolent love,
Your beautiful body,
When, like a glistening cloth,
Your skin shimmers!» Lively reflection animates a host of ideas [[996]] in Index II (Poems)">[[996]]: «With the pearly shimmer of her rippling garments,
Even when walking it seems she dances,
Like those long serpents that sacred charmers
Wave in rhythmical movement on their sticks.»

«-And others,» is then in no way a bulk separated from «others» and the latch (others-µrb(corrupt~cool)) is not a lining of (-And others,-µrb(corrupt~cool)). For the contrast marked by «others», let us imagine that it is not without any nuances: the real and unique "temple-Nature" would open up to engender elementary perfumes and then, as their effects became increasingly complicated, interacting with each other, corrupt fragrances would be produced. The concrete or the evil would only be this development, emerging far away from the simple or the good, and like an image in which it would be lost. The absolute would be exhausted on its periphery, where there would be an area of opposing extremes but also of many entities who would be found in the middle region of being. Plotinus wrote of the One [788]-[789]: «…when we look to him, there is our end and our rest; our voice no longer detonates and we really dance round him in an inspired dance.» Plato, fearing for his conceptions of metaphysics or astronomy confided thus [763]: «I must therefore speak to you of this, but in riddles, so that if this letter has an accident on land or sea, no-one could understand it if they read it. Here is what it is: round the King of the Universe gravitate all beings; he is the end of every thing, and the cause of all beauty…»

Baudelaire varies the style of his pieces, from corruption to freshness, calling on such and such a memory or incident. The naïve tone has its role to play in this [[1117]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1117]]: «I am as the king of a rainy land…» Sometimes he uses, but not without gravity, the words of a pampered child, who is listened to attentively [[1113]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1113]]: «The kind-hearted servant of whom you were jealous,
-Does she sleep her sleep under the humble turf?-
We should already have taken her some flowers.
The dead, the poor dead, have great sorrows,
And when October blows, pruning the old trees,
Its melancholy wind blowing round their marble tombs,
They must indeed find the living truly ungrateful,
Sleeping, as they do, warm in their sheets…»

Even a parody remains dependant on the thing it is mocking, in the same way as a daring interpretation clings to some aspect of the text. We can imagine in this way that the sonnet describes a forest walk becoming pastoral at the end, and the love for this takes the poet to the heights of pleasure. Or in a very different way we can dream of the congregation of the faithful generating drunkenness, amidst the meadows on the stained glass windows, in the church where peals of bells and hymns sound together. Chateaubriand noted [193]: «The Christian architect…by means of the organ and suspended bronzes…has managed to attach to the gothic temple even the sound of the wind and the thunder, rolling in the depths of the woods.»

In the new version, the corruption is just quoted after the freshness without any clear mark of opposition. The disloyalty to the poet remains only partial as an evil accompanied by a subtlety of appreciation is supposed, encouraging the immediate search for the lost naivety [[1107]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1107]]: «Angel of gaiety, do you know the anguish,
The shame, the remorse, the sobbing, the troubles,
And the vague terrors of those awful nights
Which compress the heart like a crumpled paper?» Desire opens the field of illusion here, as Balzac describes with these words [59]: «…she seemed to him slight, slender as a swallow. The heady sweetness of her eyes, the delicate and silky tissue of her skin under which he thought he could see the blood flow…he remembered everything…»

In this respect, it should be noted that there are such a variety of traditions that the only difficulty for the poet is that of choosing between them. We understand that «La Nature» describes a woman, from the N and the gender of the word in French. Then that her perfume corrupts. Finally that this leads to an obvious conclusion. Hesiod indicates an important train of thought here [435]: «With some earth, the illustrious Cripple, made a model of a being resembling a chaste virgin, by the will of the son of Cronus…And when, in place of good, Zeus had created evil of such beauty, he took it to where gods and men were found, superbly adorned by the Virgin with the sea-green eyes, the daughter of the powerful god; and immortal gods and mortal men marvelled on seeing this deep trap, from which there was no escape, destined for human beings.»

The creator, digging into the depths of his imagination, can very swiftly arrange a balance between the images in his text, but the commentary, unfortunately in ignorance of the original thoughts, has the very slight advantage of being able to study the text methodically to release a number of possible interpretations. Moreover with Baudelaire, the critics’ efforts have the benefit of their knowledge of his taste for paradox when orienting their research. Thus should be considered alongside the recollections of an old classmate who wrote, with that cruel memory exacerbated sometimes by bitterness [913]: «For me, and for many of those studying with him, his brain was upside down!» Claude Pichois shows his readers how to grasp the changing reality of the man who participated in the revolutionary movements of 1848 and yet fought against the ordinary notions of progress, the result perhaps of a corruption more real than that of sensuality [276]-[627]: «More than anyone or as much as Nerval, Baudelaire is a polyphile. He touches lightly on ideas and then challenges them.» Barbey, to whom he considered himself close, feared a time which [95]: «…claims to banish all kinds of wasteland and undergrowth both from the world and from the human spirit.» However, degradation struggles against an inner force of will [97]: «…imagination will continue to be, for a long time from now, the most powerful reality that exists in the life of men.»

On the other hand, questioning Baudelairian ideas to understand the relationship of significance between the senses of smell, sight and hearing seems risky. The best key is our intuition of the thoughts of the audience since the creator has these in mind as he tries to influence and develop them. The authors of the same historical period teach the commentator to become familiar with such an approach. Murger writes two lines of invitation to a small party [544]: «At half past eight, M. Alexandre Schaunard, the distinguished virtuoso, will play on the piano "the Influence of blue in the arts", an imitative symphony.» The other dialogue, that of the temple, interested Stendhal [941]: «The pure virtue of Madame de Bonnivet was above calumny. Her imagination was occupied only with God and the angels, or at least some intermediary beings between God and mankind who…flutters around a few feet over our heads. It is from this elevated and yet not too distant position that they "magnetize our souls"…»

It has to be admitted that this artifice, designed to avoid misinterpreting appearances excessively is not fully justified. A second inconvenience, this time for the highly erudite specialist in literature and connoisseur, will come from seeing an amateur with no experience of manuscripts using „Correspondences“ without ever consulting the originals. However, it seems a desirable way of sharing out the burdens for the one to employ his intellect in the library, poring over the venerable tomes to finalize an edition, while the other relies on the notes thus provided with the aim of carrying out some new analyses.

As the meaning of N belongs to the term “Nature”, d(N~Nature) would be an entirely untrue description of “Great Nature is a temple…” So, b(N~temple) is needed and this allows f¹=1. In a similar way «There are perfumes as cool…» condemns d(cool~perfumes), making f²=1 necessary. Reality as dangerous as it is holy, absorbing the contribution of humanity, reminds us of these lines of Chateaubriand [189]: «Ancient and smiling Italy offered me the multitude of its masterpieces. With what holy and poetic horror did I wander in these vast buildings devoted by the arts to religion! What a labyrinth of columns! What a succession of arches and vaults…One day, I climbed to the summit of Etna, the volcano which burns in the centre of the island. I saw the sun rise in the vastness of the horizon below me, Sicily gathered tightly together like a dot at my feet, and the sea spread out in the distance in great spaces. In this perpendicular view of the picture, the rivers seemed no more than geographical lines drawn on a map; but while on the one hand my eyes noticed these objects, on the other they looked deep into the crater of Etna and discovered its burning entrails, between puffs of black steam…this is how all my life I have had before my eyes a creation both immense and imperceptible, and an open abyss at my side.» 90

The possible personification of Nature, indicated by N, makes us think first of the animal world, strange, sweet, calm, terrible. Toussenel offered one of his works to Baudelaire, who replied some time later [640]: «There are some words which resemble the words of the great masters…such as: "Each animal is a sphinx"…» Germaine de Staël noted [939]: «How can we reflect on animals without being engulfed in the wonder that their mysterious existence provokes in us? One poet called them "the dreams of nature, of which man is the awakening." With what aim were they created? What is the meaning of these looks which seem covered in a dark cloud, behind which an idea is waiting to be born? What relationship do they have with us?» Baudelaire, admiring a woman’s body, proceeds in the opposite way [[1111]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1111]]: «Burdened with your idleness
Your childlike head
Waves with the limpness
Of a young elephant…» In other circumstances he writes [[1003]] in Index II (Poems)">[[1003]]: «Your arms, which would dupe precocious Hercules,
Are the strong emulators of glistening boas,
Made to stubbornly crush to your breast,
As if to print your lover in your heart.»

The initial intuition accompanied by the calculation makes us notice some details of the poem which are often neglected. Using a magnifying glass allows us to see various things in insects and plants that were inaccessible at first, but such an exercise also teaches us to look more carefully even without this instrument.

The tenderness of the pleasure from the sense of smell evokes this "garden-woman" where the poet felt he had suffered from an atmosphere of mockery woven around him by reality [[984]] in Index II (Poems)">[[984]]: «And the spring and its greenery
Have so humiliated my heart,
That I punished a flower
For the insolence of Nature.

Thus I would wish, one night,
When the time for pleasure is come,
Towards your body’s treasures,
Like a coward, silently creep…» The author’s perspective, while his imagination develops, remains more or less stable. Deep within he keeps many a memory of his schooldays or his first years as a poet which he then excavates as if they were the many different layers in a quarry [619]-[636]-[649]-[650].

The rail imagined above surprises because of the oddity of a "perfume-flesh", while Baudelaire in the original text does no more than approach this parallel. Germaine de Staël wrote [934]: «Each plant, each flower contains the entire system of the universe; an instant of life holds in its heart eternity, the smallest atom is a world and the world perhaps is but an atom. Each portion of the universe seems to be a mirror where all creation is represented, and we do not know what inspires more admiration: the ideas, which are ever the same, or their form, ever different.»

The relationship between perfumes and colours of the flesh belong to the “synaesthesia” or “horizontal correspondence”, to formulate this idea rather rashly [666]. These are the fusions between sensations taking place here on earth, on a merely human level, while “vertical correspondences” have a higher role to play since they «…turn man towards God…» notes Claude Pichois, summing up a traditional idea for his readers [666]. However, we should add to this the words of Louis Ménard, one of those who conversed with Baudelaire when very young [624]: «Modern science, […] which explains mineral life by affinity, as if this word explained a fact, smiles disdainfully at the Greeks who dreamt of a Dryad in each of the Dodona oaks, and an Oceanid in each wave of the sea; however the concepts of antiquity contain a fairer idea of universal life than all our dead abstractions, and furthermore have the advantage of providing types for painting and statuary. Where we see forces and principles, in ancient times they saw gods; we call attraction what they called Venus; it is just a question of words and one is not clearer than the other. According to the difference in form given to the same ideas, physical laws are formulated or works of art created. It is permitted, I think, to agree both with Newton and Phidias.» A similar reflection leads this unusual character to write [625]: «The ideal temple to which my prayers go
Contains all the Gods that the world has known.»

The image of flesh, which allows a parallel between the senses of smell and sight, also makes possible a secondary link with the sense of touch. The notions «frais» (cool) and «Doux» (Sweet) have words of one syllable so we can easily imagine Baudelaire hesitating whether to put “doux” (sweet) in the ninth line and “Frais” (Cool) in the tenth in order to establish more markedly the succession touch-sound-sight through the relationships sweet-flesh, Cool-oboes, green-meadows.

The latch (corrupt- µrb(Nature~temple)), the acre for which was calculated in paragraph 214, has a plausibility of ((freight) (gradient of rb(Nature~temple) without the bulk))=1. If on the contrary for this influence we had calculated ((freight)(gradient of rb(Nature~temple) with the bulk)) the result would have been just ((1)(½))=½. Part IV: THE PLAUSIBILITY OF ANALOGIES