The cities are deserts where people are alone and lonely.
In the big city the twin spirits Romance and Adventure are always abroad seeking worthy wooers.
When a man rides a long time through wild regions he feels the desire for a city.
The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.