Maxim ('Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great')

“Wild winds are death to the candle”

Community readers offer a further source for the candle image: the maxim attributed to Roger de Bussy-Rabutin that absence is to love what wind is to fire, extinguishing the small flame and feeding the great one. Read this way, the wise men's warning is that the romance is a small love, easily snuffed out, and best avoided.