What people see is the title, not the subject. & the subject contradicts the title. “I was inspired,” said Magritte. “The subject to be painted: a bicycle on a cigar.” Or to put it even more bluntly, a bicycle riding roughshod over another object — no state of grace in that. Ex- cept . . .The objects float, & perhaps a belief hovers that the laws of gravity are defied when things are in a state of grace. Which brings in Simone Weill, who wrote: “All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception.” ‘Analogous to’ is the escape clause that allows St. Thomas Aquinas to come on board & point out that grace builds upon, not contradicts, nature. Then, once all parties are on stage, lined up like ten pins in a state of grace, Magritte reappears, wearing his bowl- er hat, & with a solid verbal cast, scatters the skittles with his addendum: “A bike sometimes runs over a cigar down in the street.” No gravity, no grace inherent.
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