How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things . . .
Source: Aur?lia, pt. 2, ch. 6 (1855; repr. in Selected Writings, ed. and tr. by Geoffrey Wagner, 1958).
-- Gerard de Nerval, (May 22 1808-1855), French poet, translator, author; He was a major influence on symbolists, surrealists through his use of fantasy in works: Sylvie, 1853.