ABSTRACT
What rare and strange creatures they are, those spirits who can speak to us across the centuries ! Their voices sound uncanny, for the messages they resonate appear to remain universally and immutably true, or at least meaningful, yet in a quite inexplicable way. And if those verities persist in their sameness when all other things have changed and have even become unrecognizable, then there must be a core of human life, or a remnant of compelling attitudes, which has an indestructible, timeless constancy. Why should this be so surprising? The old saw seemed to say it as it always is and was: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, etc.
