for the sake of the moment; he enjoys it for the sake of the flag.
The cause which the flag stands for may be foolish and fleeting;
the love may be calf-love, and last a week. But the patriot thinks
of the flag as eternal; the lover thinks of his love as something
that cannot end. These moments are filled with eternity;
these moments are joyful because they do not seem momentary.
Once look at them as moments after Pater's manner, and they become
as cold as Pater and his style. Man cannot love mortal things.
He can only love immortal things for an instant.

Pater's mistake is revealed in his most famous phrase.
He asks us to burn with a hard, gem-like flame. Flames are never
hard and never gem-like--they cannot be handled or arranged.
So human emotions are never hard and never gem-like; they are
always dangerous, like flames, to touch or even to examine.
There is only one way in which our passions can become hard
and gem-like, and that is by becoming as cold as gems.
No blow then has ever been struck at the natural loves and laughter
of men so sterilizing as this carpe diem of the aesthetes.
For any kind of pleasure a totally different spirit is required;
a certain shyness, a certain indeterminate hope, a certain
boyish expectation. Purity and simplicity are essential to passions--
yes even to evil passions. Even vice demands a sort of virginity.

Omar's (or Fitzgerald's) effect upon the other world we may let go,
his hand upon this world has been heavy and paralyzing.
The Puritans, as I have said, are far jollier than he.
The new ascetics who follow Thoreau or Tolstoy are much livelier company;
for, though the surrender of strong drink and such luxuries may
strike us as an idle negation, it may leave a man with innumerable