,a ,,night ,,in ,,the ,,luxembourg      
,,by    ,,remy ,,de ,,gourmont    ,,with
 ,,preface    ,,and ,,appendix    ,,by  
,,arthur ,,ransome    ,,john ,w4 ,,luce 
,,and ,,company    ,,boston  ,,mcmxii   
,,contents      ,,translator',s         
,,preface4 ,by ,arthur ,ransome    ,a   
,night in the ,luxembourg4 ,by ,remy de 
,gourmont    ,preface    ,a ,night in   
the ,luxembourg    ,final ,note         
,,appendix3 ,,remy de ,,gourmont4 ,by   
,arthur ,ransome    ,,autographs--      
,,koph    ,reduced facsimile of the last
 page of ,m4 ,rose's ,manuscript        
,,translator',s ,,preface      ,a       
general1 but necessarily inadequate1    
account of the personality  and works of
 one of the finest intellects of his    
generation will be  found in the        
,appendix4 ,i am here concerned only    
with ,une ,nuit au  ,luxembourg1 which1 
though it is widely read in almost every
 other  ,european language1 is now for  
the first time translated into ,english4
    ,this book1 at once criticism and   

romance1 is the best introduction  to   
,m4 de ,gourmont's very various works4  
,it created a sensation in  ,france4 ,i 
think it may do as much in ,england1 but
 ,i am anxious lest  this sensation     
should be of a kind honourable neither  
to us nor to  the author of a remarkable
 book4 ,i do not wish a delicate and    
subtle  artist1 a very noble            
philosopher1 noble even if smiling1     
nobler  perhaps because he smiles1 to be
 greeted with accusations of indecency  
and blasphemy4 ,but ,i cannot help      
recognising that in ,england1 as in     
many other countries1 these accusations 
are often brought against such          
philosophers as discuss in a manner     
other than traditional the subjects  of 
,god and woman4 ,these two subjects1    
with many others1 are here the  motives 
of a book no less delightful than       
profound4    ,the duty of a translator  
is not comprised in mere fidelity4 ,he  
must  reproduce as nearly as he can the 
spirit and form of his original1 and1   

since in a work of art spirit and form  
are one1 his first care must be  to     
preserve as accurately as possible the  
contours and the shading of  his model4 
,but he must remember 7and beg his      
readers to remember7 that  the          
intellectual background on which the    
work will appear in its new  language is
 different from that against which it   
was conceived4 ,when  the new background
 is as different from the old as        
,english from ,french1  he cannot but   
recognise that it disturbs the          
chiaroscuro of his work  with a quite   
incalculable light4 ,it gives the       
contours a new quality  and the shadows 
a new texture4 ,his own accuracy may    
thus give his work  an atmosphere not   
that which its original author designed4
    ,i have been placed in such a       
dilemma in translating this book4       
,certain  phrases and descriptions were1
 in the ,french1 no more than delightful
  sporting of the intellect with the    
flesh that is its master4 ,in the       

,english1 for us1 less accustomed to    
plain-speaking1 and far less  accustomed
 to a playful attitude towards matters  
of which we never  speak unless with    
great solemnity1 they became wilful     
parades of the  indecent4 ,it is        
important to remember that they were not
 so in the  ,french1 but were such      
things as might well be heard in a story
 told in  general conversation--if the  
talkers were ,frenchmen of genius4      
,there is no ugliness in the frank      
acceptance of the flesh1 that is a      
motive1 one among many1 in this book1   
and perhaps more noticeable by us  than 
the author intended4 ,no doubt it never 
occurred to ,m4 de ,gourmont  that he   
was writing for the ,english4 ,we are   
only fortunate listeners  to a          
monologue1 and must not presume upon our
 position to ask him to  remember we are
 there4    ,the character of that       
monologue is such1 ,i think1 as to      
justify me  in tampering very little    
with its design4 ,not only is ,une ,nuit

 au  ,luxembourg not a book for children
 or young persons--if it were1  the     
question would be altogether            
different--but it is not a book for     
fools1 or even for quite ordinary       
people4 ,i think that no reader who  can
 enjoy the philosophical discussion that
 is its greater part will  quarrel with 
its ,epicurean interludes4 ,he will     
either forgive those  passages of which 
,i am speaking as the pardonable        
idiosyncrasy of a  great man1 or        
recognise that they are themselves      
illustrations of his  philosophy1       
essential to its exposition1 and raised 
by that fact into  an intellectual light
 that justifies their retention4    ,the
 prurient minds who might otherwise peer
 at these passages1 and  enjoy the      
caricatures that their own dark lanterns
 would throw on  the muddy wall of their
 comprehension1 will1 ,i think1 be      
repelled by  the nobility of the book's 
philosophy4 ,they will seek their       
truffles  elsewhere1 and find plenty4   

,m4 de ,gourmont is perhaps more likely 
to be attacked for blasphemy1 but  only 
by those who do not observe his piety   
towards the thing that he  most         
reverences1 the purity and the clarity  
of thought4 ,he worships in  a temple   
not easy to approach1 a temple where the
 worshippers are few1  and the worship  
difficult4 ,it is impossible not to     
respect a mind that1  in its consuming  
desire for liberty1 strips away not     
fetters only but  supports4 ,fetters    
bind at first1 but later it is hard to  
stand without  them4    ,his book is not
 a polemic against ,christianity1 in the
 same sense as  ,nietzsche's            
,anti-,christ1 though it does propose an
 ethic and an  ideal very different from
 those we have come to consider         
,christian4  ,when he smiles at the     
,acts of the ,apostles as at a fairy    
tale1 he adds  a sentence of            
incomparable praise and profound        
criticism3 ,these men  touch ,god with  
their hands4 ,it may shock some people  

to find that the  principal speaker in  
the book is a god who claims to have    
inspired1  not ,christ alone1 but       
,pythagoras1 ,epicurus1 ,lucretius1 ,st4
 ,paul and  ,spinoza with the most      
valuable of their doctrines4 ,it will   
not1 ,i  think1 shock any student of    
comparative religion4 ,he will find it  
no  more than a poet's statement of an  
idea that has long ceased to disturb    
the devout1 the idea that all religions 
are the same1 or translations  of the   
same religion4 ,we recognise in the     
sayings of ,confucius some  of the      
loveliest of the sayings of ,christ1 and
 we find them again in  ,mohammed4 ,why 
not admit that the same voice whispered 
in their ears1  for this1 unless we     
think that the ,devil can give advice as
 good as  ,god's1 we cannot help but    
believe4 ,and that other idea1 that the 
gods  die1 though their lives are long1 
should not shock those who know of      
,odin1 notice the lessening ,christian  
reverence for the ,jewish ,jehovah1  and

 remember the story1 so often and so    
sweetly told1 of the voices  on the     
,grecian coast1 with their cry1 ,great  
,pan is dead6 ,great ,pan  is dead6     
,turning from particular ideas to the   
rule of life that the  book proposes1 we
 find a crystal-line ,epicureanism4     
,virtue is1 to be  happy2 and sin is1   
where we put it4 ,human wisdom is to    
live as if one  were never to die1 and  
to gather the present minute as if it   
were to  be eternal4 ,this is no        
doctrine that is easy to follow4 ,the   
god does  not offer it to the first     
comer1 but to one who has schooled his  
mind  to see hard things1 and1 having   
seen them1 to rise above them4 ,m4 de   
,gourmont will tell no lies that he can 
avoid1 especially when speaking  to     
himself1 but1 if he burn himself1       
,phoenix-like1 in the ashes of a        
sentimental universe1 he has at least   
the hope of rising from the pyre  with  
stronger wings and more triumphant      
flight4 ,he will start with no  more    

than the assumption that the universe as
 we know it is the product  of a series 
of accidents4 ,he will not persuade     
himself that man is the  climax of a    
carefully planned mechanical process of 
evolution1 nor will  he hide his origin 
in imagery like that of ,genesis1 or    
like that which  certain modern         
scientists are quite unable to avoid4   
,he turns science  against the          
scientists with the irrefutable remark  
that only a change  in the temperature  
saved us from the dominion of ants4     
,instinct for him  is arrested          
intellect1 and he is ready to imagine   
man in the future  doing mechanically   
what now he does by intention4 ,such    
ideas would  crush a feeble brain or    
bind it with despair4 ,they lead him to 
the  ,epicureanism that is the only     
philosophy that they do not overthrow4  
,our roses and our women make us the    
equals of the gods1 and even envied  by 
them4    ,all his criticism1 not of one 
or two ideas alone1 but of the history  

of  philosophy1 the history of woman1   
the history of man and the history  of  
religion1 is made with a mastery so     
absolute as to dare to be  playful4 ,the
 winter night was changed to a spring   
morning as the god  walked in the       
,luxembourg1 and the wintry cold of     
nineteenth-century  science melts in the
 warmth of a spring-time no less        
magical4 ,the book  might be grim4 ,it  
is clear-eyed and sparkling with dew1   
like a sonnet  by ,ronsard4    ,comme on
 voit sur une branche au mois de mai la 
rose1    so one sees the philosophy of  
,m4 de ,gourmont1 not quarried stone1   
but  a flower1 so light1 so delicate1 as
 to make us forget the worlds that  have
 been overthrown in its manufacture4    
,i remember near the end of ,the        
,pilgrim's ,progress there is a passage 
of dancing4 ,giant ,despair has been    
killed1 and ,doubting ,castle           
demolished4 ,the pilgrims were very     
jocund and merry4 ,now ,christiana1  if 
need was1 could play upon the viol1 and 

her daughter ,mercy upon the  lute2 so1 
since they were so merry disposed1 she  
played them a lesson1  and              
,ready-to-halt would dance4 ,so he took 
,despondency's daughter1  ,much-afraid1 
by the hand1 and to dancing they went in
 the road4 ,true1  he could not dance   
without one crutch in his hand2 but ,i  
promise you he  footed it well2 also the
 girl was to be commended1 for she      
answered the  music handsomely4 ,just   
so1 in this book1 on a journey no less  
perilous  among ideas1 there is an      
atmosphere of genial entertainment1 a   
delight  in the things of the senses    
illumined by a delight in the things of 
the  mind4 ,and in this there is no     
irreverence4 ,only those who have ceased
  to believe have forgotten how to dance
 in the presence of their ,god4         
,perhaps the technician alone will      
observe the skill with which ,m4  de    
,gourmont has handled the most difficult
 of literary forms4 ,in  translating a  
book one becomes fairly intimate with   

it1 and not the  least pleasure of my   
intimacy with ,une ,nuit au ,luxembourg 
has been  to notice the ease and the    
grace with which its author turns1      
always  at the right moment1 from ideas 
to images1 from romance to thought4     
,the exercise of thought is a game1 he  
says1 but this game must be  free and   
harmonious4 ,and the outward impression 
given by this subtly  constructed book  
is that of an intellect playing         
harmoniously with  itself in a state of 
joyful liberty4 ,m4 de ,gourmont is a   
master of  his moods1 knowing how to    
serve them2 and no less admirable than  
the  loftiest moment of the discussion1 
is the ,callot-like grotesque of the    
three goddesses1 seen not as divinities 
but as sins1 or the ,virgilian          
breakfast under the trees4    ,it is    
possible that ,une ,nuit au ,luxembourg 
may be for a few in  our generation what
 ,mademoiselle de ,maupin was for a few 
in the  generation of ,swinburne1 a     
golden book of spirit and sense4 ,ideas 

are  dangerous metal in which to mould  
romances1 because from time to time     
they tarnish4 ,voltaire has had his     
moments of being dull1 and ,gautier's   
ideas do not excite us now4 ,m4 de      
,gourmont's may not move us to-morrow4  
,let us enjoy them to-day1 and share the
 pleasure that the people of the  day   
after to-morrow will certainly not      
refuse4    ,,arthur ,,ransome4          
,,by ,,remy ,,de ,,gourmont             
,,preface      ,there appeared in ,le   
,temps of the #acth of ,february1       
#aijf3--    ,,obituary    ,we have just 
learned of the sudden death of one of   
our confrres on  the foreign press1 ,m4 
,james ,sandy ,rose1 deceased yesterday1
 ,sunday1  in his rooms at #ad ,rue de  
,mdicis4 ,notwithstanding this ,english 
name1  he was a ,frenchman2 born at     
,nantes in #ahfe1 his true name was     
,louis  ,delacolombe4 ,he was brought up
 in the ,united ,states1 returned to    
,france  ten years ago1 and from that   
time till his death was the highly      

valued  correspondent of the ,northern  
,atlantic ,herald4    ,on the following 
day1 the #adth of ,february1 the same   
journal printed  this note among its    
miscellaneous news3--    ,,the ,,mystery
 ,,of ,,the ,,rue ,,de ,,medicis    ,we 
announced yesterday the sudden death of 
,m4 ,james ,sandy ,rose1 our  confrre on
 the foreign press4 ,his death seems to 
have taken place  under suspicious      
circumstances4 ,at present a woman of   
the ,latin  ,quarter1 ,blanche ,b----1  
is strongly suspected of having been at 
least  an accomplice to it4 ,this woman 
is known for her habit of dressing in   
very light colours1 even in mid-winter1 
and it was this that made the  concierge
 notice her4 ,she lives1 moreover1      
behind the house of the  crime--assuming
 that there has been a crime--in the    
,rue de ,vaugirard4  ,this is what is   
said to have happened3--    ,because ,m4
 ,j4 ,s4 ,rose1 who was of fairly       
regular habits1 had not been  seen for  
some days1 his door was broken open1 and

 he was discovered  inanimate4 ,he had  
been dead for a few hours only1 a fact  
which does  not agree with the length of
 time during which he had remained      
invisible1 and still further complicates
 the question4 ,it is supposed  that the
 woman ,b----1 after passing the night  
with him1 put him to  sleep by means of 
a narcotic 7from which the unhappy man  
did not  awake71 or strangled him at a  
moment when he was defenceless2 then1   
her theft accomplished1 she would seem  
to have fled precipitately4 ,an         
extraordinary circumstance is that in   
her haste she forgot her dress1  and    
must have gone out enveloped in a big   
cloak4 ,at least there is no  other     
explanation of the presence of an       
elegant white robe in the rooms  of ,m4 
,rose1 who lived alone4444    ,on the   
next day again1 there was a third       
echo3--          ,,the ,,mystery ,,of   
,,the ,,rue ,,de ,,medicis      ,it     
appears that the young woman at first   
implicated in this affair  has been for 

a fortnight at ,menton with ,m4         
,pap----1 a deputy from the  banks of   
the ,danube4 ,they have both written    
from that place to mutual  friends4 ,the
 inquiry makes no progress2 on the      
contrary444    ,other papers1 that ,i   
then had the curiosity to examine1 had  
embroidered  my friend's death with     
still madder tales4 ,as the police1 with
 very  good reason1 made no             
communications to the press1 the        
journalists  pushed unreason to         
insanity2 then1 as their imaginations   
could go no  further1 they were silent4 
,in reality1 the mixing up of ,blanche  
,b---- with the story was due  solely to
 the chatter of a young clerk1 a        
neighbour of ,m4 ,james ,sandy  ,rose1  
who had noticed a woman's dress of white
 material in the  room4 ,i recount1 at  
the end of the volume1 the facts which  
disturbed  this pubescent imagination4  
,neither the police1 who immediately    
lost  interest in the affair1 nor       
justice1 which had never taken any1     

would  have been able to implicate      
anybody in a mystery which1 if it is    
really a mystery1 is not one of those   
that police or magistrates can  resolve4
    ,for some days following1 ,le ,temps
 left the ,rue de ,mdicis alone4 ,at    
the end of a fortnight1 a very talkative
 young journalist1 accompanied  by an   
old gentleman who1 like him1 took notes 
in a pocketbook1 but  said nothing1 came
 and rang at my door4 ,he came with the 
intention of  questioning me4 ,i was    
willing enough to reply that ,m4 ,james 
,s4 ,rose had  died of apoplexy1 or1 at 
least1 suddenly2 that ,i was his friend1
 and  that he had made me his heir2 that
 the rumours of crime were absurd1  and 
the rumours of mystery ridiculous4      
,what is there1 ,i said1 more normal    
than death8    ,the old gentleman       
acquiesced1 while the young journalist  
murmured--    ,and yet4444    ,the only 
thing of interest1 ,i continued1 in this
 banal story1  sad1 perhaps1 for me     
alone1 is that ,m4 ,james ,sandy ,rose  

leaves an  unpublished work which in his
 will he has charged me to bring out4 ,i
 am  going to do this4444    ,i threw a 
persuasive glance at the young          
journalist4    ,it is one of the most   
curious books ,i have ever read1 and1   
though the  author was my familiar      
friend1 it is a revelation to me4444    
,really8    ,it is indeed so4 ,the      
public1 without knowing what there is in
 the  book1 await it with impatience4   
,ah6    ,when you have read it1 when you
 have merely seen it1 you will agree    
with me4    ,this innocent advertisement
 was duly inserted in ,le ,temps and in 
,le  ,nouveau ,courrier des ,provinces1 
to which the old gentleman had been     
asked to contribute4 ,i gained some     
moments of amusement1 nothing more4     
,here is the book1 of course without    
commentaries4 ,in accordance with  the  
imperative requirements of the will1 ,i 
have not corrected its  style1 but      
revised it where that was necessary1 for
 ,louis ,delacolombe1  educated in      

,english1 had retained some traces of   
his school-years in  his language4 ,i   
think that it was written as fast as the
 pen would  move1 and with a feverish   
hand1 in the space of a few days4    ,i 
have summarised in a final note the     
results of my personal inquiry4  ,there 
is no need to read it1 but ,i think1    
however1 that it will  interest those   
whose curiosity is aroused by my        
friend's enigmatical  narrative4    ,p4 
,s4--,the drawing below1 which is from  
the hand of ,m4 ,sandy  ,rose1 and which
 ,i have inserted at the place that he  
had indicated1  may have a meaning1 but1
 if so1 ,i have been unable to penetrate
 it4 ,it  seems to represent a ,greek   
medal dedicated to the goddess ,core4   
,but  ,,koph means also young girl1 and 
even doll4 ,besides1 are such medals    
known8      ,illustration3 ,koph    ,a  
,,night ,,in ,,the ,,luxembourg444      
,i am certainly drunk1 yet my lucidity  
is very great4 ,drunk with love1  drunk 
with pride1 drunk with divinity1 ,i see 

clearly things that ,i do  not very well
 understand1 and these things ,i am     
about to narrate4 ,my  adventure unrolls
 before my eyes with perfect sharpness  
of outline2 it  is a piece of faery in  
which ,i am still taking part2 ,i am    
still in the  midst of lights1 of       
gestures1 of voices4444 ,she is there4  
,i have only  to turn my head to observe
 her2 ,i have only to rise to go and    
touch her  body with my hands1 and with 
my lips4444 ,she is there4 ,a privileged
  spectator1 ,i have carried away with  
me the queen of the spectacle1 a  proof 
that the spectacle was one of the days  
of my actual life4 ,that  day was a     
night1 but a night lit by a ,spring sun1
 and1 behold1 it  continues1 night or   
day1 ,i do not know4444 ,the queen is   
there4 ,but ,i  must write4    ,the     
abridged story of my adventure will     
appear to-morrow morning in  the        
,northern ,atlantic ,herald1 and will   
soon make the circuit of the  ,american 
press1 to return to us through the      

,english agencies3 but that  does not   
satisfy me4 ,i telegraphed1 because it  
was my duty2 ,i write1  because it is my
 pleasure4 ,besides1 experience has     
taught me that news  gains rather in    
precision than in exactitude in its     
journeys from cable  to cable1 and ,i am
 anxious for exactitude4    ,with what  
happiness ,i am going to write6 ,i feel 
in my head1 in my  fingers1 an          
unheard-of facility4444    ,on the first
 intelligence of the pious riots that   
transformed into  fortresses our        
peaceful churches1 peaceful after the   
manner of old  haunted castles1 the     
newspaper that ,i have represented for  
ten years  asked me1 with a certain     
impatience1 for details4 ,as ,i live in 
the  ,rue de ,mdicis1 having a          
long-standing passion for the           
,luxembourg1  its trees1 its women1 its 
birds1 ,i went down towards the ,place  
,saint-,sulpice4 ,the square was        
occupied by children1 playing as they   
returned from school2 round it rolled   

great empty omnibuses2 now and  again a 
tramcar widowed of a horse left with    
difficulty1 while another  struggled up 
and turned round without grace4 ,my     
prolonged stay in ,paris  has made me an
 idler like every one else4 ,nothing    
astonishes me1 and  everything amuses   
me4 ,besides1 ,i am by nature at once   
sceptical and  inquisitive4 ,that is    
why1 when ,i lifted my eyes towards the 
church1 my  attention was vividly       
excited by the fact that the windows on 
the side  towards the ,rue ,palatine    
seemed lit by the rays of a brilliant   
sunset4  ,but the sun had not shone that
 day1 and1 even if the sky had been     
clear1 no reflection could1 at that late
 hour1 light the south side of  the     
church of ,saint-,sulpice4 ,i thought of
 a fire1 but no trace of one  was to be 
seen in the sky4 ,something unusual was 
certainly going on  inside4 ,i hurried  
towards the door in the ,rue ,palatine4 
,as ,i advanced1  without losing sight  
of the windows1 ,i perceived that the   

light seemed  to be coming down the     
length of the church1 as if blazing     
torches were  being carried about in    
this transept of the nave4 ,at the      
moment when ,i  went in1 the windows by 
the choir began to shine1 while those   
nearer  the front of the church were now
 obscure4    ,pushing open the door1 ,i 
went towards the chapel of the ,virgin1 
behind  the high altar4 ,it seemed lit  
up as if for a feast-day1 and yet ,i    
heard  no chanting1 no music1 ,i        
perceived no noise4 ,i advanced with    
steps that  ,i thought precipitate1 but 
which were1 on the contrary1 very slow1 
for1  to my great shame1 ,i felt myself 
trembling2 in the deep silence of  this 
mournful basilica my heart1 it seemed to
 me1 beat like a bell4 ,at  one moment  
the lights of the chapel shone with such
 brilliance that ,i  had to shut my     
eyes4 ,when ,i reopened them1 it was    
dark1 and some lamps  alone shed their  
vague1 accustomed lights in the now     
complete obscurity4    ,a man stood     

upright1 his hand resting on the closed 
railings of the  chapel4 ,he seemed in  
every way ordinary4 ,nothing was        
remarkable but  the profound attention  
with which he was observing the statue  
of the  ,virgin4 ,i wished to keep on my
 way1 anxious to question some priest   
or sacristan1 first on the luminous     
phenomenon1 which puzzled me very  much1
 and then1 as was my duty1 on the events
 which were doubtless  preparing for the
 next day2 ,i wished to keep on my way1 
,i was in a  hurry to finish my         
business1 for ,i do not find churches1  
especially at  evening1 agreeable       
resting-places2 ,i wished to go away1 ,i
 wished to  speak1 but ,i felt that ,i  
was fastened to the flag-stones1 ,i     
trembled  more and more1 and1 finally1  
,i could not prevent myself from        
observing  the unknown man4 ,i saw him  
in profile4 ,his hair1 worn short1      
slightly  curled1 seemed to me to be    
chestnut1 like his beard1 which was     
full1  not very thick on the cheeks1 and

 of moderate length4 ,his clothes  were 
much like my own2 they were those of a  
gentleman1 correct but  unpretentious4  
,i felt ,i was going mad1 in my         
inability to explain the  interest that 
stopped me before so common a sight4 ,i 
understood no  better the attention with
 which the unknown stared at the        
,virgin4    ,a connoisseur of art would 
have quickly passed on2 a devotee would 
have  knelt4 ,i was beginning to lose my
 head1 to think that ,i was ill1 when   
the man1 so ordinary and yet so         
singular1 turned his eyes towards me4   
,these eyes1 extremely brilliant1       
completed my discomfiture4 ,i lowered   
my own1 not before ,i had observed that 
the very pale face was one of  the      
gentlest and most understanding ,i had  
ever seen4 ,i even thought  that ,i     
discerned on those delicate features a  
smile of infinitely  benevolent irony1  
like those ,i have seen in certain      
portraits of  beautiful ,lombard women4 
,this smile enchanted and intimidated me

 at the  same time4 ,it would be a great
 happiness1 ,i said to myself1 my eyes  
still lowered1 if ,i could once again   
enjoy that smile1 but ,i dared  not look
 at the unknown1 who1 ,i divined1 was   
still observing me4 ,i no  longer       
trembled1 but felt myself in that state 
of happy confusion which  one           
experiences in the presence of a woman  
whom one loves and fears4 ,i  expected  
nothing1 and yet it seemed to me that   
something was going to  happen4    ,we  
were about three paces from each other4 
,by stretching our arms we  should have 
been able to touch each other's hands4  
,come1 said he4    ,this single word    
sufficed to put an end to all my        
disquietude4 ,the  voice was very       
agreeable4 ,it filled me with a gentle  
emotion4 ,at the  same time ,i became as
 free and as content as in the presence 
of a very  old and dearly loved friend4 
,it seemed to me that ,i had known from 
all  time this unknown of a moment      
before4 ,i found that ,i was familiar   

with  his face1 his manner1 his look1   
his voice1 his mind1 his very clothes4  
,an irresistible force moved me to      
answer him1 and to answer him in  these 
words3--    ,i follow you1 my friend4   
,all my surprise had disappeared1 and1  
although ,i was perfectly  conscious    
that the adventure was singular1 ,i was 
in such a state of  mind that ,i did not
 feel its singularity4    ,i went up to 
him4 ,he took my arm1 and the action    
seemed quite natural4  ,were we not old 
friends8 ,had ,i not known him since ,i 
was three or four  years old8 ,yes1 and 
although he was certainly much older    
than ,i1 he  had played with me in my   
cot4 ,all this settled itself clearly in
 my  head4 ,i repeat1 from that moment  
until sunrise the next morning1 that  is
 to say1 all the time ,i spent with him1
 ,i had not one moment of  astonishment4
 ,what happened1 what ,i heard1 what ,i 
said1 the unusual  phenomena1 everything
 seemed to me to be perfectly in place4 
,so ,i went up to him1 and1 when his arm

 was passed under mine1 which ,i  folded
 very respectfully and with a lover's   
joy1 a long and precious  conversation  
began between us4      ,,he    ,it is   
this that they call my mother6 ,they are
 full of such good  intentions4 ,admit1 
my friend1 that they are good people4   
,i    ,very good people4 ,you do not    
think your mother well portrayed8       
,,he    ,i have had so many mothers that
 this image doubtless resembles one of  
the women who have believed that they   
gave birth to me2 it is their  innocence
 that makes me smile1 their virginal    
conception of maternity1  the white     
robe1 the blue scarf4 ,and yet1 this    
church1 one of the  ugliest in the whole
 world1 is one of the least puerile4    
,the priests  who serve it have         
preserved some intellectual illusion4   
,they have a  scrupulous and            
argumentative piety4 ,the miracles      
anciently described  seem to them proved
 by their very antiquity4 ,they know    
that ,i walked on  the waters1 one      

tempestuous evening1 but1 if they had   
seen the windows  of their church on    
fire with lights1 would they have       
believed their  eyes8 ,you saw1 you     
believed1 and you came1 my friend4 ,that
 light shone  for you alone4    ,i      
,oh1 my friend6    ,,he    ,to speak to 
mankind ,i need a man as intermediary1  
and ,i chose you1 ,i  gave you a sign4  
,you were not obliged to respond4 ,my   
power is not such  as to compel men's   
wills4 ,i can seduce2 but ,i cannot     
command4    ,i    ,i was greatly        
surprised1 ,i was frightened1 but ,i    
walked as if to  happiness1 as if       
towards a moment of love4 ,but why did  
the light go  out1 at the moment when ,i
 came near you8    ,,he    ,because your
 curiosity had become desire4 ,no longer
 could anything stop  you4 ,the iron was
 on its way towards the magnet4 ,are you
 happy8    ,i    ,it seems to me that my
 life is being fulfilled2 it seems to me
 that my  past days were only a         
preparation for the present hour4       

,,he    ,then you are happy8 ,you are   
going to be much more so4 ,there are    
things  of which mankind have always    
appeared to be ignorant4 ,when you have 
heard them from my lips you will1 in    
that moment1 have received the  courage 
to repeat them1 and that will win you an
 eternal glory1 a  glory that will last 
as long as the earth itself1 perhaps as 
long as  the civilisation of which you  
are a part4    ,i    ,is there not      
another eternity1 a true eternity8      
,my master--for ,i now felt that this   
old friend was my master still more     
than my friend--my master was kind      
enough to smile1 looking at me with     
tender irony1 but he did not answer my  
question4    ,let us go1 he said1 after 
a moment's silence1 and walk in the     
,luxembourg4    ,i    ,not really8      
,this time1 he laughed indeed4 ,he      
laughed softly4    ,we walked all round 
the sombre church1 and left it by the   
,rue  ,palatine4 ,i noticed that he took
 no holy water1 and1 even1 as ,i        

stretched out my hand towards the stone 
shell1 he murmured3    ,useless4    ,it 
was now night4 ,we reached the ,rue     
,servandoni in silence4 ,the rare       
passengers met or passed us without     
emotion1 without curiosity4 ,a  young   
woman1 however1 who was coming slowly   
down the street1 observed  my companion 
with eyes that seemed on fire4 ,perhaps1
 if he had been  alone1 she would have  
been still bolder4 ,an idea1 madder than
 the young  woman's glance1 crossed my  
mind4    ,she looked at you1 ,i said1 as
 if she knew you4    ,,he    ,everybody 
recognises me1 when ,i wish it4 ,that   
young woman does not know  who ,i am4   
,she thinks me a man like other men1 and
 yet1 if ,i had been  alone1 her glance 
would have been much more lively1 for   
she desires  soft words1 she desires    
kisses4 ,but what would be her destiny1 
if ,i  yielded to her mute sympathy6    
,the women whom ,i love lose all        
reasonable  notions of life1 and ,i have
 no sooner touched their hands1 caressed

  their hair1 than all their flesh weeps
 with pleasure4 ,if ,i insist1 they     
melt like figs in my sunlight4 ,sweet   
flavour and cruel6 ,if ,i withdraw      
myself from them they die of grief1 and 
if ,i stay with them they die of  love4 
,i    ,the mystics have said something  
of that4    ,,he    ,something of it    
they have shown1 but wrapped in the     
withered herbs of  their piety4    ,i   
,saint ,teresa 444    ,,he    ,she      
believed that ,i loved her with passion4
 ,that fatuity made me leave  her4 ,hers
 was the solidest woman's heart ,i have 
ever met1 and with it  what facility in 
self-deceit4 ,she really thought she    
died in my arms3  ,i was far away4      
,however1 in that supreme moment1 ,i    
consoled her with  a thought1 for she   
had earned it by her constancy4 ,what   
she wrote  herself is not without       
interest for mankind1 but the priests1  
who set  themselves to excite her       
genius1 inspired her with many follies1 
such  as her vision of hell4 ,i shall   

not tell you1 my friend1 who are the    
women ,i have most loved4 ,scarcely one 
of them has left a name among  you4 ,a  
woman who is loved and loves does not   
pass her time1 like the  illustrious    
,teresa1 in describing the stations of  
love4 ,she lives and  she dies1 and that
 is all4    ,while ,i was considering   
these words1 which a little troubled my 
understanding1 we had arrived before the
 railing of the garden4 ,there ,i       
stopped1 observing the sombre drawing of
 the great naked trees4 ,heavy  black   
clouds were passing in the sky1 that was
 very feebly lit by an  invisible       
crescent of moon4    ,how gloomy1 ,i    
said1 is this park on a winter evening1 
and gloomier  still through these bars4 
,but the gate opened a little way1 and  
we went in4 ,i had seen so many  strange
 things1 heard so many strange words1   
felt so many strange  emotions1 that    
this new miracle gave me but a mediocre 
surprise4 ,we  were in the garden4      
,let us go1 he said1 towards the roses4 

,i    ,towards the rose-trees4    ,,he  
,towards the roses4    ,a soft and clear
 daylight was born as we advanced4 ,the 
trees1 suddenly  in leaf1 the chestnuts 
blossoming in shafts of white and red1  
were  filled with the songs of birds4   
,blackbirds1 on the topmost branches1   
launched their shrill calls4 ,bees were 
already murmuring by2 a fly  settled on 
my hand4    ,the great flower-bed was in
 full bloom4 ,a perfume enveloped me    
with a  precious sweetness4 ,we         
disturbed a cat that was stalking two   
cooing  pigeons4 ,my friend plucked a   
red rose1 then a white1 then a yellow4  
,at  this moment it seemed to be five   
o'clock in the morning of a beautiful   
summer day4    ,i    ,i am happy4 ,i am 
happy4    ,,he    ,roses1 these roses1  
are enough to make me jealous of men4   
,the rose of  your gardens1 the woman of
 your civilisation1 these are two       
creations  that make you the equals of  
the gods4 ,and to think that you still  
regret the earthly paradise6 ,eve6 ,eve1

 my friend1 was a milkmaid1 the         
pleasure of a bird-catcher or an        
early-rising oxherd4 ,eve1 when you     
have all these real young women to      
enchant your eyes and make desperate    
your dreams6    ,i    ,she was1 however1
 a divine work4 ,your father 444    ,but
 ,i said no more1 trembling with        
happiness4 ,three young women were      
coming towards us4 ,they were dressed in
 white4 ,delicate garlands of  flowers  
adorned their corn-coloured hair4 ,they 
walked slowly1 holding  each other's    
hands2 their smiles made a light within 
the light4 ,at  the sight of the new    
roses1 they all cried out together like 
children1  and stayed1 stretching their 
arms towards the rose-trees1 timorous   
and  troubled by desire4    ,i watched1 
a prisoner of the spell1 but my friend1 
with the ease of a  king1 made a few    
steps towards them1 and offered them the
 roses he had  plucked4 ,they took them1
 blushing1 and slipped them into their  
girdles4  ,she who was the tallest1 who 

had the most beautiful hair1 and the    
most  beautiful eyes1 thanked him with a
 smile and a few words1 and then        
added3--    ,we were looking for you4   
,,he    ,they say that when one looks   
for me1 he always finds me4    ,then    
there was charming laughter1 laughter   
that made my heart laugh4    ,,she      
,how beautiful are the roses on this    
earth6    ,oh6 ,i love this big red one6
    ,,he    ,take it for your hair1 my  
friend4    ,,she    ,i am happy4    ,i  
too dared to pluck a rose4    ,the one  
which is red and yellow1 the one with   
many thorns1 said close  to me the voice
 of another of the young women4    ,she 
had rightly divined that ,i was thinking
 of her4    ,i    ,the one that makes   
the hands bleed1 and the heart1 perhaps4
    ,,the ,,other    ,do not prick your 
fingers4 ,i should be wretched4    ,i   
,and what if ,i pricked my heart8       
,she lowered her eyes without answering1
 took the rose and rejoined her         
companion4 ,she was more feminine1 more 

human4 ,she who had my friend's  favour 
seemed of a higher nature1 and her very 
childishnesses could not  but be divine4
    ,the third young woman was not      
forgotten4 ,she was small and frail1    
timid1 with a heaven of innocence in her
 eyes4 ,she did not leave the  tallest1 
whose sister or chosen friend she seemed
 to be4 ,she was not  forgotten2 but she
 disdained the flower ,i meant for her1 
and1 going  into the flower-bed1 plucked
 herself a whole bouquet of roses4 ,my  
friend observed her with complacency4   
,,he    ,spoilt child4    ,,the ,,little
 ,,one    ,i have them of all colours4  
,for me6 ,for me6 ,for me6    ,and      
taking them one after another1 she      
inhaled their scent with a  selfish     
delight4    ,my friend walked on with   
two of the young women4 ,i followed him 
with  the other1 with her who seemed to 
have chosen me4    ,,the ,,other        
,look6 ,are you bleeding8 ,i warned you4
    ,a drop of blood had been crushed on
 my finger4 ,i looked at the young      

woman without answering4 ,she had not   
the ironic air of which ,i  suspected   
her4 ,reassured1 ,i came up to her      
again2 she laid her hand on  my arm4    
,while these charming scenes were       
occurring1 ,i was adapting myself to my 
singular circumstances4 ,the            
continuation of the adventure soon      
seemed  most natural4 ,we were walking  
in the morning in a beautiful1 solitary 
and flowery park4 ,such things happen in
 life as well as in dreams1 and  ,i was 
soon quite at my ease4    ,we were now  
walking in a wood of young chestnuts4   
,red stalks fell now  and again at our  
feet4 ,we went down steps and climbed   
others2 we saw  ponds and pools1 stone  
statues and orange-trees1 a cyclop and  
the  nakedness of a nymph1 flowers of   
every colour1 trees of all forms1       
bushes of all leaves1 and pigeons which1
 with slanting flight1 dropped  on the  
lawns amid the fluttering of startled   
sparrows4    ,,the ,,other    ,my name8 
,what an idea6 ,you will learn it if you

 are destined to know  it4 ,it is not   
mysterious4 ,call me friend2 for this   
day1 ,i will permit  you to do so4    ,i
    ,are we to have a whole day8        
,,the ,,other    ,does a day seem long  
to you8    ,i    ,long and short at the 
same time in your company4    ,,the     
,,other    ,you will see that it will be
 short4    ,i    ,alas6    ,,the ,,other
    ,where are they8 ,i have lost sight 
of them4 ,ah4 ,there they are4 ,yonder1 
under the cherry-tree in bloom4    ,i   
,and she8    ,,the ,,other    ,what do  
you mean8    ,i    ,her name8    ,,the  
,,other    ,she8 ,she is ,,she1 she is  
life1 she is youth1 she is beauty1 she  
is love4  ,she6    ,i    ,i ask nothing 
further4 ,i am happy4    ,,the ,,other  
,already8    ,i    ,i am happy1 and ,i  
still desire1 but without anxiety4 ,i   
desire with  delight1 with calm4 ,i feel
 a divine peace1 a peace full of present
  pleasures and of pleasures to come4   
,,the ,,other    ,with him one is always
 happy1 one becomes accustomed to one's 

happiness1 and yet one feels it         
continually increase4 ,i said already4  
,do not interpret that word according to
 your ideas of yesterday4    ,i    ,none
 the less1 it gave me something to dream
 of4    ,she lowered her eyes1 as she   
had lowered them before1 without        
confusion1 with more than human         
coquetry4 ,when her eyelids lifted1     
slowly1 it seemed to me that ,i saw in  
her look a dawn of tenderness4  ,she    
took my hand and hurried me along4      
,,the ,,other    ,come quickly1 they are
 waiting for us4    ,under a green      
arbour1 rustic chairs were arranged     
round a heavy table  of axe-hewn wood4  
,a bowl of milk1 cups of flowers1 brown 
bread1  strawberries2 it was ,virgilian4
 ,the little one spread the petals of a 
red rose on the milk into which she was 
dropping the strawberries4    ,,the     
,,little ,,one    ,they are my lips4 ,i 
give you my kisses4    ,she blushed     
deeply as she said it1 and her big      
friend drew her into her  arms and      

kissed her eyes4    ,when we had begun  
to take this matutinal repast1 my       
friend1 taking  no further notice of the
 young women1 renewed the conversation  
their  arrival had interrupted4 ,we were
 seated facing each other1 two of our   
companions together on one side1 and on 
the other the little one1 who  was      
busied in arranging according to their  
shades all kinds of flowers  that she   
had picked in the course of the walk4   
,,he    ,my father 444 ,you were        
speaking of my father4 ,i am afraid you 
have  an exaggerated idea of him4 ,he   
was certainly very powerful1 fairly     
intelligent1 just1 but1 admit it1 he was
 not good 444    ,i    ,you speak as if 
he no longer existed4    ,,he    ,he is 
not dead1 but he is old4 ,the gods end  
by growing old4 ,he  has retired into   
the eternal silence of disabused        
intellects4 ,he  still gives advice1 he 
alone is capable of explaining certain  
human  evolutions1 but the indifference 
of age has dried up his heart4 ,he has  

never much loved mankind1 and now has   
turned from them entirely4 ,i1 on  the  
other hand1 love them4444    ,i         
,lord4444    ,i rose1 to fall on my     
knees4 ,he calmed my emotion with a     
gesture4    ,,he    ,why ,lord8 ,i am   
not your lord4 ,listen to me1 and       
reassure yourself4  ,observe these      
beautiful young women1 their quiet1 and 
their smiles4  ,they play with flowers1 
they watch you with amused eyes3 are you
 afraid  of them8 ,and yet1 would you   
not say that they were goddesses8 ,ah6  
,how  your women are nearer than you men
 to nature1 nearer to the divine6 ,if   
you had had a mistress1 ,i should have  
asked you to go and fetch her3  she     
would have looked at me without         
timidity4    ,the young women began to  
laugh4 ,all three were now on the same  
side of  the table1 and1 as they leaned 
over their scented harvest1 murmuring   
like bees1 stirring like lilies where   
the wind passes1 one did not know  if   
they were listening to the words of the 

master or to the words of  the flowers4 
,this spectacle helped to reassure me1  
after my friend's sayings1 which1       
however1 ,i did not understand4    ,,he 
,the religious conception of the world  
that you now have1 the conception  that 
you call ,christian1 from the name that 
was given me on the  occasion of one of 
my earthly visits1 is one of the        
feeblest that  humanity has ever        
imagined4 ,practical intelligence has1  
in a certain  sense1 made progress since
 the ,greek philosophers before         
,socrates1  but speculative intelligence
 has almost consistently gone backward4 
,to make a system that should have some 
distant relation to the truth1  the     
cinematic philosophy of ,epicurus would 
have to be poured into the  fables of   
pagan mythology4 ,take1 if you like1 if 
,latin thought is more  familiar to you1
 the poem of ,lucretius1 and ,ovid's    
,metamorphoses2  attempt an             
interpretation which should derive part 
from universal  determinism1 and part   

from divine caprice4444 ,it is          
difficult8 ,why8 ,are  not men apt in   
appearance to initiative1 though ruled1 
as you know1 and  very narrowly1 by     
fatal physical laws8 ,you are free1 when
 you think  yourselves free4 ,it is the 
same with the gods1 but the liberty of  
the  gods is exercised on a very much   
more extensive material1 a material     
which1 without being infinite 7infinity 
does not exist71 is immense4  ,their    
power1 superior though it is1 is of the 
same order as human  power4 ,greece     
touched the knot of the question1 and1  
if she did not  untie it1 it is that it 
is not to be untied3 the creator of the 
world1  the regulator of the world1 is  
,destiny4 ,fatality rules over the gods1
  as the gods rule over men1 and under  
her hand1 my friend1 we are all  equal1 
exactly as you are under death1 genii1  
kings1 and beggars alike4    ,to        
dissimulate the trouble into which these
 words threw me1 ,i turned  towards the 
young women4 ,there were but two of     

them4    ,,she    ,the little one has   
gone off to look for more flowers4 ,some
 of them fade  so quickly4 ,one would   
say that the warmth of the earth is     
enough to dry  them up4    ,,the ,,other
    ,how many times love has been killed
 by kisses4    ,i    ,do not say so1 my 
friend2 that was not love1 but caprice4 
,,the ,,other    ,caprice and love hide 
under the same dress4    ,i wanted to   
lay my hand on hers4 ,she took it away1 
and ,i had but a  finger1 but ,i pressed
 it unresisted4    ,,the ,,little ,,one 
,here are other flowers4    ,,the       
,,other    ,they will fade too4    ,,he 
,no1 they will not fade4    ,,the       
,,little ,,one    ,there1 you see4    ,i
    ,i have needed this diversion1 my   
friend1 to accustom myself to your      
discourse4    ,,he    ,yes1 you are a   
man1 and such you will remain4 ,it is   
necessary that you  should remain a man4
    ,i    ,shall ,i not become superior 
to other men1 when ,i have heard1 when  
,i  have understood8    ,,he    ,yes1 if

 you understand4    ,i    ,the          
,christian phase1 then1 has been an     
error of humanity8    ,,he    ,humanity 
has never lived but in error1 and1      
besides1 there is no  truth1 since the  
world is perpetually changing4 ,you have
 acquired the  notion of evolution1     
which1 within certain limits1 is        
correct1 but  you have wished at the    
same time to preserve the notion of     
truth3  that is contradictory4 ,if you  
were to succeed in constructing1 in     
your intellect1 a true image of the     
world1 it would be already untrue  for  
your grandchildren4 ,for1 if the world  
evolves1 you likewise  evolve1 and man1 
from one generation to another1 is not  
the same man4  ,you ceaselessly struggle
 to find the likeness of the old man in 
the  portrait of the child4 ,it is a    
game4 ,after all1 it is something for   
you  to do4    ,i    ,yes1 the search   
for truth is one of the great           
occupations of men4 ,one  is held happy 
when one has found it2 and1 if one is   

unable to find it  oneself1 one shares  
in a neighbour's discovery4 ,the        
neighbour never  refuses4 ,this need of 
truth torments men about the time that  
their  carnal passions let them rest4   
,,he    ,nature was cruel in allowing   
her creatures to survive the period of  
physical expansion4 ,but of this very   
cruelty you have taken advantage1  and  
,i think that many old men among you are
 happier than many of the  young4 ,in   
,truth1 at last1 they find a faithful   
mistress4    ,as he said this1 ,i could 
not prevent myself from glancing at the 
young  woman whom ,i have called ,the   
,other4 ,she looked at me1 too1 but     
lowered her eyes1 blushing4    ,,he     
,i cannot modify even for an instant the
 form of your human brain1  the habits  
of your understanding4 ,that is why ,i  
enter into all your  fantasies of       
language1 and use even your abstract    
words4 ,do not let  that dupe you4 ,it  
is not approval4 ,truth is an illusion1 
and illusion  is a truth4    ,i    ,none

 the less1 your presence here1 your     
words4444    ,,he    ,you will no longer
 believe in me when you no longer see   
me1 and you  will never know if this    
night1 this winter night1 clear and warm
 as a  summer morning1 if this night of 
happiness was a truth or an illusion4   
,it seemed to me1 for the space of less 
than a second1 that the whole  spectacle
 before me went back into the           
nothingness of dreams1 but my  eyes1    
that ,i had not closed1 found the light 
again1 and ,i was comforted4    ,,he    
,i shall1 then1 not tell you the truth1 
because no concordance is  possible     
between your mind1 served by your       
senses1 and that which is  outside your 
senses4 ,there is a representation2 it  
is inexact1 because  it is fragmentary  
and momentary4 ,a few little cubes of   
mosaic have  fallen from the vault2 you 
put them in the palm of your hand1 you  
set  their tints side by side1 and you  
believe you have reconstructed the      
drama of the world4 ,i shall not tell   

you the truth2 ,i shall tell you  what  
you wish to know4 ,when you know it1 you
 will know no more of it1  but you will 
be satisfied4    ,i    ,master of       
enigmas and of parables4444    ,,he     
,the gospels1 my gospels6 ,poor and     
happy books6 ,what a strange fate  had  
these pious dreams of some ,jews        
disturbed by drunken prophets6          
,imposture has made in them such nave   
arabesques with faith6 ,have you  read  
the ,acts of the ,apostles8 ,it is not  
as good as ,aladdin and the  ,marvellous
 ,lamp1 but how moving it is6 ,these men
 touch ,god with their  hands4 ,and it  
is pastoral and fairy tale at once4 ,it 
is a pantheism of  ingenuous conjurors4 
,behold me a carpenter1 a fisherman1 a  
prophet1  a magician2 ,i am hanged and  
buried2 ,i am resuscitated and mount to 
heaven2 thence ,i re-descend in the form
 of tongues of fire4 ,i am one1  ,i am  
two1 ,i am three2 ,i am a dove1 ,i am a 
lamb1 ,i am ,god1 and all  at once4 ,and
 the nations understand2 the doctors    

explain4 ,everybody  believes4 ,truth   
reigns4 ,happiness is poured into       
pacified hearts4    ,i    ,is not that  
what you intended8    ,,he    ,jesus1   
whom ,i inspired with some elementary   
ideas1 made a mistake in  taking twelve 
disciples4 ,he would have done wrong to 
take a single one4  ,my ideas1 falling  
into these twelve heads1 became twelve  
different  kinds of folly4 ,it was then 
that ,i interested myself in ,paul4 ,it 
was  too late4 ,besides1 ,i abandoned   
him almost at once4 ,none the less1 the 
,church that he founded has become a    
curious institution4    ,i    ,men have 
thought it divine4    ,,he    ,for      
nearly twenty centuries ,i have watched 
with sorrow its ironical  development4  
,it has made me curse1 it has made me   
scorn4444    ,i    ,it has also made you
 love4    ,,he    ,with what love6 ,ah6 
my beautiful feast-days of ,ephesus and 
,corinth6    ,i    ,what are you saying8
    ,,he    ,you hear in this moment the
 confession of a god4 ,a moment unique  

in  your life1 and rare in the life of  
humanity4 ,take the hand of your        
friend1 and carry it to your lips4 ,you 
will listen to me more wisely  if your  
heart is at peace4 ,call her ,elise2 she
 will answer your smile  with a smile4  
,i obeyed with joy4 ,elise let me take  
her hand1 and ,i tenderly kissed  it4   
,her friend watched us with an air of   
kindly complicity4 ,delightful          
betrothal6    ,i    ,i love you1 ,elise4
 ,do you love me8    ,,elise    ,i love 
you1 my friend4 ,but give me my hand    
again1 that ,i may arrange  these       
flowers for the feast-day of our hearts4
 ,let us listen to our  master and be   
wise4    ,i let fall ,elise's hand1     
after kissing it once more4 ,a very     
sweet smile  thanked me1 and ,i saw1    
under the white robe1 her bosom swell   
with love4    ,the little one1 tired of 
running about1 had sat down on a low    
chair1  leaning her head against the    
knees of her comrade1 who1 absently1 was
  playing with her yellow hair4 ,my     

master1 his eyes on this charming       
picture1 whose emotion he seemed to make
 his own1 said nothing4 ,after  several 
moments of a silence that enriched my   
life1 he spoke again3--    ,,he    ,if  
,i have sometimes come to visit men1 it 
has been for love of their  women4 ,not 
that1 like the gods whose stories are   
written by the poets1  ,i desire a      
multiplicity of embraces4 ,i come less  
to love than to let  myself be loved4 ,i
 belong to those who wish to make me    
theirs1 and ,i  make myself for their   
hearts the ideal man whom earth refuses 
them4    ,for you have created woman1   
you men1 and you have remained inferior 
to  your creation4 ,you have not known  
how to acquire the gifts that would     
have completed the miracle1 and your    
loves are always lame4 ,you take1  and  
you do not give2 you impoverish the     
fields that are fertilised by  your     
desire1 and the women you have loved die
 of thirst as they look at  the dryness 
of your eyes4    ,all three were        

listening1 very attentively4 ,elise1    
however1 was good  enough to take my    
fingers and press them1 while her two   
friends rose1  and were going to kiss   
the hand of the master4 ,but he opened  
his arms1  and they fell on his breast  
as fall two flowers plucked by the wind4
  ,elise and ,i watched with pleasure   
this charming episode1 and ,i said to   
myself1 navely3 ,he welcomes these two  
women as he would have welcomed  all    
women1 and ,i understand that he can    
belong at the same time to all  at once 
and to each one in particular4 ,elise's 
hand1 meanwhile1 began  to grow restless
 in mine4 ,she said in a whisper and    
unevenly1 these  enigmatic words3--     
,,elise    ,friend1 friend1 are we not  
more beautiful than women8    ,yes1     
,elise was more beautiful than a woman4 
,i thought ,i was looking at  a         
divinity4 ,i thought ,i was becoming a  
god4 ,my mouth took possession  of her  
mouth1 and my left arm supported her    
head1 while my right hand  sought under 

the agitation of her bosom the beating  
of the heart that  ,i desired4 ,it      
became dark night except in my head and 
in my senses1  and it seemed to me that 
,elise was mine1 and that cries left our
 moist  and trembling mouths4 ,but      
perhaps it was only an illusion4 ,and   
yet1 ,i  perfectly remember that1 when  
the light came back1 our eyes were full 
of gratitude and of understanding4      
,moreover1 we were now so close to  one 
another that we seemed but a single     
body4    ,insensibly we recovered our   
former attitudes4 ,the little one1 when 
once  more we looked at the external    
world1 was sleeping on her friend's     
knees1 and our master was meditating1   
his head on his hand4 ,what had  passed 
before us1 what mysterious              
accomplishment1 ,i did not then think   
of asking myself1 and now1 if ,i were to
 ask1 ,i should not know what to        
answer4 ,illusion had doubtless buried  
us all alike in a rain of roses1  and   
the magician had not escaped his own    

magic4    ,the great happiness ,i felt  
quickened my intelligence4 ,when our    
master  began to speak again1 ,i felt   
that a soft beam of sunlight was falling
  upon me4    ,,he    ,i told you that  
the religion of the ancient ,greeks was 
that which  translated with least       
ugliness and least falsity the true     
state of  the world which is invisible  
to you4 ,there are gods1 that is to say1
 a  race of men as superior to other men
 as you are superior to the most        
intelligent or the best domesticated    
animals4 ,you have conquered the  earth2
 my ancestors conquered space1 and      
colonised the greater number  of the    
planets that gravitate round the sun4   
,our possible domain does  not extend   
beyond the solar system2 our actual     
domain does not stretch  beyond         
,jupiter1 where my father dwells1 and   
its limit in the direction  of the sun  
is this earth upon which we are4 ,for a 
great number of  centuries ,i have      
chosen ,mars as a resting-place1 and    

this brought me  near you1 and gave me  
certain humane inclinations4 ,the other 
planets1  by reason either of their     
distance from or of their nearness to   
the  sun1 are inaccessible to me1 almost
 as much so as to yourselves4 ,i do  not
 know what goes on in them4 ,as for the 
infinite worlds which are  spread beyond
 our sphere1 they are for me as for you 
the unknown and  the unknowable4        
,what ,i have just told you will not    
seem very new4 ,many of your            
philosophers have had imaginations that 
at some point touched this  truth4      
,voltaire made ,micromegas to tease you2
 but1 submitting to the  appearances of 
physical laws1 he made an immoderate    
giant of him4 ,why  so8 ,are not the    
ants1 next to men1 the most intelligent 
of terrestrial  animals8 ,i think ,i    
remember that at a far-distant epoch1   
that your  geologists call1 ,i believe1 
the coal age1 the termites displayed on 
your globe a sort of genius4 ,these     
little beings1 so fragile1 were cut     

short in their development by the       
lowering of the temperature4 ,they no   
longer live but with a slackened        
vitality1 like other insects2 their     
intelligence1 no longer nourished by an 
abundant physical activity1 has         
congealed2 they stopped at a point      
thenceforth impassable for them1  and   
what they once accomplished by choice   
and will1 they now no longer  do except 
mechanically4 ,but let us leave         
,micromegas4444    ,i ,micromegas has   
almost ceased to interest us4 ,you have 
said1 a little  quickly for my          
intelligence1 many things that would    
delight me if ,i  better understood     
them4 ,this slackened life 4444    ,,he 
,terrestrial life is precarious since it
 is at the mercy of  atmospherical      
circumstances4 ,animals that have not a 
very high  temperature are destined to  
expend their strength in a perpetual    
labour of adaptation4 ,if the original  
heat had increased instead of           
diminishing1 the termites and the ants  

would perhaps be two great  nations1    
sharing between them the empire of the  
world1 and man would  be one of their   
preys4 ,but you discovered the art of   
fire and raised  yourself above all     
other animals4 ,fire1 in giving you a   
constant  summer1 also gave you leisure4
 ,thence your civilisations1 proud      
daughters of idleness1 who deny their   
mother4 ,it is from idleness that       
everything has been born among men4     
,from the year in which one of  your    
ancestors was able to pass the winter   
beside his fire1 date the  arts1 the    
sciences1 games1 love1 all delights4    
,leisure is indeed the  greatest and the
 most beautiful of man's conquests4     
,but1 though you  have known how to     
conquer1 though you have known how to   
create1 you  have scarcely ever known   
how to use your conquests or your       
creations4  ,after conquering leisure1  
you disdained it1 and slaves1 ashamed of
 the  inactivity of their domesticated  
hands1 set themselves to preach among   

you the sanctity of labour4 ,poor       
madmen6 ,and are you not already on  the
 way to spoil woman8 ,have you not      
already succeeded in insinuating  into  
her heart the shameful principles of    
,jewish morality8 ,have you  not        
resolved1 in your narrow masculine      
pride1 to undo the work of your         
ancestors and to reduce to the position 
of mean and lesser men these  creatures 
who used to dominate you with all their 
beauty and with  all their tenderness8  
,you educate them2 you teach them the   
useless  stupidities that make your own 
brains ugly2 soon you will forbid them  
ornament1 you will forbid them love1 you
 will forbid them to make you  happy6   
,but ,i will take up this discourse     
later4 ,it is a digression due  to your 
curiosity4 ,we were speaking of         
,micromegas4 ,well1 ,i am1 if you  will1
 ,micromegas1 reduced to our human      
proportions4 ,no more than he  have ,i  
absolute power over men2 ,i cannot even 
crush them1 like that  ,titan1 in       

absent-mindedness or in pleasure4 ,i    
have scarcely any power  over men3 ,i   
can1 when ,i strongly wish it1 insinuate
 into them some  few of my ideas4 ,it is
 this that men have called my           
incarnations4 ,i  have never become     
incarnate4 ,my own flesh1 almost        
immortal1 and almost  incorruptible1    
suffices me4    ,i    ,almost4444       
,,he    ,the gods are born and die1 so  
my father has told me4 ,i have not seen 
one die1 ,i have not seen one born4 ,but
 ,i was born1 since ,i have a  father   
and a mother4    ,i    ,your mother     
,mary4444    ,,he    ,credulous and     
inattentive child6 ,what matter the     
successive names that  are given us by  
men8 ,the ,greeks called my mother      
,latona2 they knew  me under the name of
 ,apollo4 ,their religion was full of   
fables1 but  they were not ignorant of  
the essence of things4 ,i know nothing  
of how  the elementary truths were      
revealed to them4 ,perhaps my father1 in
  primitive ages4444 ,i did not begin to

 busy myself with men until about  the  
time of ,pythagoras4 ,i inspired him    
with some happy ideas2 he passed  for   
divine1 and is one of the rare disciples
 for whom ,i have never had  to blush4  
,pythagoras civilised the shores of the 
,mediterranean4 ,his  thought1 sustained
 by me1 hovered like a light white cloud
 over the  blue waves of that maternal  
sea4    ,but ,epicurus was perhaps still
 nearer to my heart4 ,his natural and   
more genial sensibility produced1 under 
my breath1 a more beautiful             
intellectual flower4 ,he knew one part  
of wisdom1 and was not the dupe  of     
analogies4 ,intelligent1 he did not go  
and suppose a universal  intelligence1  
inventing systems1 poems1 and useful    
practices for the  happiness of man2 he 
did not go and suppose a supreme        
creator4 ,he  understood that the       
temperaments of men are diverse1 and did
 not advise  a uniform pleasure4 ,he    
taught pleasure1 that is to say the art 
of being  happy according to one's      

nature4 ,i loved ,epicurus4 ,i showed   
myself to  him in the form of an older  
friend1 a traveller who wandered over   
the  world in search of wisdom4 ,once or
 twice a year1 he saw me arrive with    
joy1 put his slaves at my orders1 did   
not hide from me his wife1 who  for a   
long time was pretty1 and for whom ,i   
felt a tender friendship4  ,she was only
 jealous of her husband's tenderness1   
and never prevented  him from enjoying  
the caresses of a beautiful stranger4   
,she herself was  insensible neither to 
,ionian nor to ,asiatic beauty1 and this
 pure and  charming couple often partook
 of pleasures that they did not give to 
each other4 ,i accepted these voluptuous
 customs2 the indulgent night  more than
 once heard our sighs mingle with those 
of the sea which came  to break its     
perfumed waves at our feet4    ,these   
things occurred at the hour when the    
young slaves came1 before  going to     
sleep1 to wash away on the beach the    
stains of the day's  work4 ,they played1

 they laughed1 and we loved to join them
 in the  water1 still warm from the     
fires of the afternoon4 ,tired by a long
  philosophical talk1 we found a        
singular refreshment in the caresses  of
 the waves1 and a strength that we      
willingly abandoned in the arms  of the 
young women4 ,then they came and sat    
beside us on the sand1 and  sang1 while 
we dreamed of nature increate4 ,these   
songs did not fail  to attract an ardent
 youth2 we knew it1 and when we were    
rested and  refreshed1 we went and      
stretched ourselves upon our mats1      
letting new  pleasures be born1 new     
flowers1 in place of those we had       
plucked4    ,my friend1 the teachers who
 poison your sensibility and stifle your
  intelligence have made you believe for
 some centuries past that the  pleasure 
of ,epicurus was a pleasure wholly      
spiritual4 ,epicurus had too  much      
wisdom to disdain any kind of pleasure4 
,he wished to know1 and  he knew1 all   
enjoyments that may become human        

enjoyments2 he abused  nothing but made 
use of everything in his harmonious     
life4    ,it was during the early hours 
of one of those happy evenings that we  
found1 a result of long meditations1 of 
long discussions1 the atomic  system4   
,it was a great intellectual            
achievement1 the greatest that has  ever
 been produced among you or outside your
 sphere4 ,to conceive the  world as the 
product of a series of accidents1 that  
is to say of a  series of facts         
rebounding to infinity one on another1  
is a conclusion  at which the noblest   
minds of your time dare hardly stop1    
although it  attracts them4 ,twenty     
centuries of ,platonism have so deranged
 man's  understanding that the simple   
truths no longer find a footing in it4  
,and yet1 all the systems that you have 
imagined can be disproved1 and  that of 
,epicurus cannot4 ,would you like me to 
explain it to you1 not as  your         
professors of philosophy have defaced   
it1 but as we established it  in our    

,ionian evenings8    ,i    ,we scarcely 
know the system of ,epicurus but by     
,lucretius' poem4444    ,,he    ,the    
most beautiful1 perhaps1 of the works of
 men4444 ,ah6 if men had  chosen for    
,bible that admirable book6    ,i       
,ought we to recognise in it a little of
 your thought8    ,,he    ,much1 my     
friend1 much4 ,it was ,i who guided the 
young ,lucretius towards  ,zeno1 from   
whose mouth he learnt to love and       
understand our ,epicurus4  ,i found     
again in this sombre ,roman genius      
something of the voluptuous  habit of   
mind that ennobled ,epicurus1 a similar 
desire of knowledge1  and at the same   
time a respect for the secret movements 
of life4 ,his  existence would have been
 that of a dreamer1 if the future had   
not  tormented him with his passions4   
,he was loved1 and was persecuted by    
jealousy1 he1 who asked nothing from his
 mistress but peace for his  flesh and  
peace for his thought4 ,he loved4 ,love 
made an observer of  the dreamer4 ,he   

wished to learn the cause of love1 and  
learnt that  love was life itself2 he   
wished to learn the cause of life1 and  
learnt  that life1 that is to say       
eternal movement1 was its own cause4    
,the  great adventures of ambition that 
he witnessed also did much to  detach   
him from social pleasures4 ,the actions 
of animals1 so simple1  so precise1     
seemed to him more interesting than the 
bloody combats of  a few madmen who     
bought by a crime the certainty of dying
 by a crime4  ,at the time when he wrote
 his poem1 ,i was almost his only guest 
at  his villa ,lucretia1 not far from   
,albanum4 ,it was a farm rather than a  
pleasure-house1 and often1 returning    
from a walk1 we lent a hand in the      
harvest or the vintage4 ,memmius1 if he 
was there1 watched us or played  with   
the girls4 ,memmius was a mundane sage  
and rather libertine4 ,in the  evening  
we took up our talk again4 ,i revealed  
to him in their entirety  the mysteries 
that ,zeno1 very jealous1 had half      

hidden from him4 ,on my  next visit he  
read me the last pages of the poem1 and 
,i recognised with  joy in this         
language1 less supple but more solid    
than the ,greek1 the  ideas and the     
genius of the noble ,epicurus3          
,ancestress of the ,romans1  ,o joy of  
men and gods1 noble ,venus1 it is thou  
who1 under the vault of  heaven where   
the stars revolve1 dost people the      
ship-carrying sea and  the fruit-bearing
 earth2 to thee all that has life owes  
its birth and  its sight of the light of
 the sun4444    ,i    ,at thy coming1 ,o
 goddess1 the winds take flight1 and the
 clouds  retire4444    ,,he    ,for thee
 the earth scatters the scent of her    
flowers1 for thee laugh  the waves of   
the deep4444    ,i    ,lucretius is now 
but lightly valued among men4 ,he is    
held immoral1  having spoken of love    
without hypocrisy and of death without  
illusions4    ,,he    ,yes1 he knew too 
many things wounding to your childish   
sensibility4    ,i    ,i remember a     

sentence of ,bossuet1 a sentence that   
implies a scorn of  antiquity3 ,as soon 
as the cross began to appear in this    
world1 all  that men used to adore on   
the earth was buried in oblivion4 ,the  
world  opened its eyes and was          
astonished at its ignorance4444    ,,he 
,and it is ,i6 ,it is ,i6 ,so many      
absurdities in my name6444 ,but our     
young  women have fallen asleep1 their  
hair mingled with the flowers they were 
arranging4 ,let them be4 ,take away     
these lilacs which would give them      
headaches4 ,o divine creatures1 you know
 all1 knowing love1 and you have  no    
need of our vain philosophies4    ,he   
rose1 and1 walking round the table1     
kissed all three upon the cheek4  ,then 
he sat down again beside me1 and spoke3 
,,he    ,i shall not tell you what      
matter is2 ,i do not know4 ,matter is   
that  which is1 that which has always   
been1 that which will always be4  ,with 
,epicurus1 ,i conceived it as an        
infinity of atoms1 or of points1        

meeting at hazard1 and forming groups   
here and there2 it appears to me  now   
more like a tissue1 but that comes to   
the same thing1 since there  must always
 be space between the continuous        
elements of this tissue4  ,otherwise we 
should have a mass1 immobile1 and       
consequently inert4 ,one  cannot        
suppress space1 whose reality1 however1 
it is impossible to  conceive2 for if   
space is empty it is nothing1 and yet   
without this  nothingness nothing could 
exist4    ,in admitting matter in the   
form of a tissue1 we suppose an infinity
 of  lines cutting each other in all    
ways2 but a line is made up of points4  
,let us return then to points2 that is  
clearer1 though not much so4    ,your   
chemistry believed that it reached the  
limits of analysis1 in  discovering the 
molecules that it counts and weighs4    
,but it is evident  that a ponderable   
point can be cut into two points equally
 ponderable1  and so on to infinity1 and
 so on without limit of space or of     

time4  ,there would be1 then1 two       
infinites3 one above us1 since every    
number  can be increased2 the other     
below us1 since every number can be     
diminished4 ,however1 since space must  
be considered as an absolute  void1 as a
 perfect nothingness1 as nothing1 it is 
possible that each of  these two        
infinites would abut sharply on this    
void1 on this nothing4  ,the world is   
perhaps limited4 ,this tissue is1       
perhaps1 a sphere  isolated in the midst
 of the nothingness4 ,as one does not   
well see how  something can come out of 
the nothingness1 or how something can   
become  nothingness1 we shall conclude  
that the eternity of matter coincides   
with the eternity of this nothingness4  
,in this way we shall have being  and   
not-being4 ,but1 as not-being is        
perfectly inconceivable though          
necessary to the existence of being1 we 
shall leave it aside2 what else  should 
we do with it8    ,i am aware that one  
of your learned men has lately been able

 to speak  with a certain logic of the  
final annulment of matter2 ,i do not    
think  that this idea has a really      
perceptible meaning1 either for men or  
for gods4 ,what is1 is4 ,disintegration1
 moreover1 does not signify             
destruction1 but change4 ,the face of   
things has changed and will change      
again1 but the very essence of things is
 as eternal as chance4 ,this  universe  
is only one of the innumerable tricks of
 chance1 one of the  fortuitous moments 
in the eternal movement 444 ,you find   
this tedious8    ,i    ,what is more    
interesting1 next to our personal life1 
than the personal  life of the world8   
,,he    ,you will die1 and the world as 
you see it will die also4 ,the movement 
that created it by accident will destroy
 it by its own continuity4  ,the vulgar 
eternity that you conceive is only a    
moment4 ,have you seen  a top spinning8 
,there is a moment1 about the middle of 
its gyration1  when the circles         
described by one of the points on its   

circumference  are all described with a 
sensibly equal speed4 ,the solar system1
 by  its precision1 should make us admit
 that the top of which we form some  of 
the atoms is pretty nearly half way     
through its spin4 ,motion is not        
perpetual1 as you know2 so the gyration 
will go on with necessarily  slackening 
speed1 until the top lies down on its   
side and dies4    ,i    ,oh6 our dreams 
of eternity6    ,,he    ,do ,i touch    
them8 ,a man dies1 a man is born4 ,a    
world dies1 a world is  born4    ,i     
,renewal is not eternity4    ,,he    ,it
 is not of eternity you dream1 but of   
immobility4 ,the eternity you  have     
conceived is only a stoppage of         
movement4 ,what should be conceived  is 
the perpetuity of movement4 ,men1 gods1 
and worlds2 eternal movement  walks us  
for a moment among the infinities of    
chance4    ,i    ,and so all human      
effort1 our philosophies1 our sciences1 
the dolorous  and superb edifice of our 
civilisations4444    ,,he    ,destiny is

 more beautiful than all civilisations4 
,i    ,but1 if they must perish1 let    
their memory at least remain in the     
intelligence of the gods6    ,,he       
,can the gods survive the world that    
gave them birth8 ,we are your  brothers 
in mortality4 ,epicurus knew it4 ,he    
never considered the gods  as other than
 provisional immortals4 ,nor had he the 
singular idea of  a unique god1         
infinite1 eternal1 c4 ,that belief had  
already been  imported from ,asia into  
,greece1 but the ,greeks1 not           
understanding it1  presented their whole
 pantheon in a body with an ironic      
immortality4  ,plato and ,aristotle took
 it up1 and tried to make it reasonable1
 but  only succeeded in showing more    
clearly its philosophical inanity4 ,i   
did  not let ,epicurus1 whom ,i loved1  
lose his way in this metaphysic4 ,god is
  a dream1 charming or cruel1 useful or 
dangerous according to the heads  in    
which it reigns1 but no more than a     
dream4 ,need ,i explain to you the      

impossibility of ,god8 ,god for men is a
 matter not of reasoning but of         
sentiment4 ,your better philosophers    
have understood him so well that  after 
denying him in their intellects they    
have hurried to affirm him  in their    
hearts4 ,that is what ,i should do1     
perhaps1 if we had to remain  on the    
level of humanity2 but ,i am come to    
raise you above men1--for an  instant1  
before letting you fall back again4     
,i    ,master1 have ,i displeased you8  
,,he    ,almost all those whom ,i have  
raised above the earth have fallen      
again4  ,the happiest died1 some moments
 before their perjury2 the others       
denied me4 ,but listen4 ,have you ever  
reflected on the incontestable          
mathematical truths8 ,in any case1 you  
know that one is one1 and that  nothing 
in the world can make one two1 or two   
one4 ,in the human brain1  every        
impression1 every sensation1 every      
image1 every idea1 must find  for       
lodging a separate habitation4 ,who then

 has imagined a central cell  to replace
 the soul8 ,a useless imagination1 since
 this cell could only  be a reduction of
 the brain1 as the brain is a reduction 
of the world4  ,a unique centre of      
knowledge is an absurd conception2 this 
unique  centre is necessarily composed  
of as many receptive as there are       
knowable elements4 ,in the same way1    
,god cannot be conceived as a simple    
being4 ,if he existed1 he could exist   
only in complexity2 he would be  much   
like a man1 he would be much like me1   
who am a superman4 ,multiply  yourself  
to infinity and you have the only really
 conceivable ,almighty4  ,the religions 
and modest philosophies that have       
imagined ,god in the  form of a perfect 
man have at least remained within the   
limits of a  reasonable analogy4 ,i1 the
 one of the gods whom men adore1 ,i tell
 it  you in all divine humility3 ,i am a
 man and ,god is a man4 ,you will never 
transcend this respectable conception   
without going into the absurd4  ,what is

 the ,god of your metaphysicians8 ,an   
abstraction whose reality is  no more   
possible than that of heat1 good1       
penetrability1 truth1 beauty1  or       
weight4    ,the religion of the ,greeks 
was charming1 above all in later times2 
your own has now and then given me some 
gratification4 ,the ,ancients  knew the 
religion of beauty and pleasure1 you    
know that of grace  and tenderness4 ,i  
scorn your philosophies1 which are only 
adroit  intellectual structures2 ,i have
 never been able to scorn your legends  
and your superstitions1 the traditional 
obeisance that your mind makes  to your 
sensibility4 ,but this is the field     
reserved for the exercises  of the      
populace1 children and timorous women4  
,there are no noble human  creatures but
 those who are in love with themselves  
and study to  extract from their natures
 all the vain happiness contained in    
them4  ,vain but real1 and only reality4
 ,to know that one has but one life1 and
  that it is limited6 ,there is one hour

 and only one for gathering the  grapes 
from the vine2 in the morning the grape 
is sour2 in the evening  it is too      
sweet4 ,lose your days neither in       
weeping for the past nor in  weeping for
 the future4 ,live your hours1 live your
 minutes4 ,joys are  flowers that the   
rain will tarnish1 or that will throw   
their petals to  the wind4    ,i        
,epicurus6 ,epicurus6    ,,he    ,yes1  
,i wish you to be a new ,epicurus1 and  
to teach the men of to-day  what my     
friend taught long ago to the           
,athenians4 ,apostles have spoken  in my
 name who have succeeded in spreading   
over the earth a doctrine  of despair4  
,they taught the scorn of all that is   
human1 of all that  is genial1 of all   
that is luminous4 ,unfitted for natural 
pleasures1  they sought pleasure in     
their own misery and in the misery in   
which  they plunged their brothers4     
,they called the earth a valley of      
tears1  but the tears were those whose  
abundant flow was caused by their  own  

malignity4 ,baleful to themselves1 they 
were baleful to the men  who became the 
slaves of their sombre dreams4 ,after   
promising their  faithful an eternity of
 chimerical joys in return for the true 
and  simple joys they stole from them1  
they took even hope from the heart  of  
man1 they imagined hell4 ,sons of the   
ancient priests of ,baal1 they  set up  
in my name the cruel idol of their      
fathers1 and made of me the  hideous and
 prescient creator of those whose       
destiny was damnation4  ,these monsters1
 however1 did not discourage me1 and ,i 
sustained by my  inspiration every      
effort of natural wisdom that ,i saw    
among all these  horrors4    ,alas6     
,they hold you yet1 and those who combat
 them1 different priests1  are sometimes
 priests more baleful still4 ,your      
morality is to-day the  lowest and the  
saddest that has ever reigned4 ,the     
external hell1 in  which you now        
scarcely believe1 has entered into your 
hearts1 where it  devours all your joys4

    ,i    ,yes1 we are sad4 ,in us1 the 
fear of sin has survived the belief in  
sin4 ,we dare not enjoy anything4 ,we   
scorn the man who sits down in the      
sunlight to drink the first rays of the 
,spring1 but while we scorn him  we envy
 him his baseness1 for we call all      
unproductive leisure base4  ,when we can
 no longer work1 we go and watch those  
who are working4    ,,he    ,your social
 state is an exhibition of madness4 ,the
 ,roman slaves had a  life less hard    
than that of many of your work-people4  
,after the ,semitic  fashion1 you make  
even the women work6 ,rich and poor1 all
 alike1 you  know nothing of the joys of
 leisure4 ,you give to work all the     
hours of  your days1 some to get bread1 
others to achieve a pleasure that       
fatigue  prevents them from enjoying1   
and others again1 the maddest of all1 to
  increase their wealth4 ,you have      
reached that degree of imbecility in    
which labour is looked upon as not only 
honourable but sacred1 when1  actually1 

it is but a sad necessity4 ,you have    
lifted this necessity  to the rank of   
the virtues1 when it is1 without doubt1 
no more than  the vice of a perverted   
being for whom life1 short as it is1 is 
only a  lengthy tedium4    ,i    ,and of
 this work1 which at least allows us to 
breathe and to eat1 there  is not enough
 for all4 ,thousands of beings in the   
most civilised towns  die every day of  
hunger1 and with a slow death4 ,they are
 in agony for  ten1 for twenty years 444
    ,,he    ,increase and multiply4     
,that is the work of my father4 ,he was 
seized with a sort of jealous and       
mischievous love for the ,jews1 a       
sufficiently restless little people1 and
 showed himself curious to  encourage   
their natural pride so far as to make it
 immoderate4 ,the  result was comic and 
sad4 ,these ignorant ,bedouins believed 
themselves  destined to dominate the    
world1 and then disappeared as a nation 
at the  very moment when this domination
 was accomplished4 ,a singular fate for 

the ,jews1 to have given mankind a      
religion in which they do not believe   
themselves6    ,alas6 ,at the request of
 my ageing father1 who began to find    
these  prolific barbarians tedious1     
after having tried to enlighten ,jesus1 
who had too many disciples1 ,i          
interested myself in ,saint ,paul4 ,i   
came to him as ,i have come to you2 he  
was dazzled1 and believed that  the     
vision had given him a divine mission4  
,i followed him in his  journeys4 ,his  
energy amused me2 but at ,athens1 ,i    
ranged myself with his  opponents1 whose
 laughter ,i excited4 ,later on1 ,i let 
him die without  consolations2 his pride
 sufficed him4    ,i thought this man   
less mad than the other thaumaturgists  
who1 like  him1 amused the crowds1 but  
the idea of ,god went to his head1 and  
he  began to believe in me1 supposing me
 omnipotent4 ,it was then that  ,i      
ceased to visit him1 for ,i do not care 
to make myself the facile  accomplice of
 religious divagations4 ,left to        

himself1 he went on  hearing me2 my     
voice sounded like a buzzing in his deaf
 ears4 ,his  faith grew measureless1 and
 he accepted martyrdom4 ,how different  
from  the charming ,epicurus1 for whom  
our conversations were never more  than 
a lofty diversion6 ,but this ,paul1     
although hallucinated1 was not          
incapable of a certain imposture1 and it
 was assuredly to magnify  himself in   
the eyes of fools that he pretended to  
have been ravished to  heaven4 ,it is   
true that he believed in my             
resurrection4 ,what tales6 ,one  would  
say that men only give words a precise  
meaning in order to have  the pleasure  
of using them in an opposite sense4     
,your brain plays very  singular tricks4
 ,the dead are dead4 ,the dead are not  
dead4 ,the dead are  living4 ,the dead  
alone are alive4 ,what jugglers you are6
    ,i ceased to do anything but amuse  
myself with the developments of  the new
 religion4 ,it produced very charming   
feminine souls4 ,what a  priceless      

creature was ,saint ,cecilia1 what an   
ingenuous lover4 ,perhaps  no other     
woman has known nights so delicious as  
those that ,cecilia  passed with the    
angel who came to visit her4444    ,i   
,valerian found ,cecilia praying in her 
bed with an angel4    ,,he    ,poor     
,valerian6 ,he never suspected the      
purity of his betrothed4 ,he  loved her 
too well to be disturbed even by the    
evidence4 ,and so he  well deserved the 
eternal crown that the ,church decreed  
him4 ,if women  were better cognisant of
 the story of that excellent young man1 
with  what favour would they not        
decorate his memory and his image6      
,cecilia  never ceased to love him4 ,an 
enchantment enveloped these simple      
hearts4  ,i completed their happiness by
 letting them die in ecstasy with the   
certainty of finding beyond death their 
interrupted kisses1 and of  finding them
 eternal4    ,i learnt1 my friend1 to   
understand the peculiar beauty that the 
new  religion concealed within itself2  

it held more grace than the purest      
paganism1 and ,i know not what of       
simplicity and tenderness that ,i had   
not met before4 ,stoic insensibility    
became ridiculous2 suffering was  the   
fashion2 the crowns of roses were       
changed to crowns of thorns4  ,there    
were long centuries of stupor1 and when 
the human soul awoke  again and wished  
to smile1 its smile was half of         
melancholy4 ,perhaps  men will never    
recover from the wound that             
,christianity has given them4           
,sometimes it has seemed to heal over2  
at the slightest shock1 at the          
slightest fever1 it opens again and     
bleeds4 ,happy are those who suffer6    
,that insensate saying still haunts your
 enfeebled hearts1 and you fear  joy1   
from vanity4 ,you accepted the anathema 
hurled at the happiness  of living by a 
few despairing ,jews1 and when you have 
laughed you ask  pardon from your       
brothers1 because it is written3 ,happy 
are those who  suffer4    ,man1 who is  

always making a pretence of revolt1 is  
the most obedient of  domesticated      
animals4 ,he has accepted the most      
infamous prescriptions  of all the      
moralities in turn1 and among you it has
 always been a  title to honour to kneel
 before a decalogue and receive blows   
from a  rope on the back4 ,the great    
hypocrites have always been your chosen 
masters1 and one still hears you neigh  
at the idea of sacrifice4 ,your         
sensibility has flowered ill2 your      
intelligence is inadequate4 ,it has     
always shown itself the dupe of the     
directors of conscience who have        
succeeded each other on your shoulders4 
,the preachers of virtue rarely         
practise it4 ,you have always had to    
deal with thirsty throats whose  only   
care has been to make you believe that  
the fountain has been  poisoned4    ,the
 moralist is the eternal old man who    
makes a terrible picture of  love to the
 young girl of whom he is amorous4      
,advice that fetters  the development of

 energy is always hypocritical1 that is 
to say  interested1 advice4 ,there is   
also the nave imitation of hypocrisy2   
there are the fools1 the vain1 the      
subaltern rogues3 but these are the     
masters whom it is necessary to unmask4 
,i    ,what6 ,have there never been     
sincere great minds1 true friends of    
mankind8    ,,he    ,what ,i have just  
said to you must not be taken           
tragically4 ,the greatest  hypocrites   
are never perfect hypocrites4 ,there is 
in them always one  part of sincerity4  
,the exercise of sincerity is the most  
natural  thing in man4 ,it needs a      
strong will to create a fictitious      
character  for oneself2 it also needs   
much talent1 perhaps even genius4 ,the  
hypocrite1 in showing himself under a   
fictitious aspect1 diminishes  his      
pleasure in living2 he will recover it  
in its entirety only when  he has       
moulded to his pattern a great number of
 disciples2 hence the  proselytism of   
all the great creators of social lies4  

,but hypocrisy  ceases when the new     
environment has been created1 itself the
 creator  of new characters4 ,the early 
,protestants feigned a certain rigidity 
of manners in order to depreciate the   
,papists4 ,this hypocrisy became        
traditional1 then hereditary1 and it is 
with veritable good faith that  the     
,calvinists banish from life all that   
might make its beauty and  its          
sweetness4 ,the ,catholics1 for         
strategical purposes1 have set1 in      
their sermons at least1 a still higher  
value on the scorn of pleasure1  and it 
is in all navet and good faith1 like the
 ,calvinists1 that  they prescribe      
several virtues whose practice would    
fling humanity  back beyond the state of
 savagery4 ,the philosophers1 moreover1 
do  not to-day hold views different from
 these1 and they would be much          
astonished1 from what they say1 to see  
civilisation1 with its delicious        
complications1 fall into ruin1 and make 
the earth like the fields where  once   

was ,troy1 and the deserts where rises  
still the phantom of ,timgad4    ,the   
moral theories of humanity and the form 
that they give to its  daily life must  
be separately considered4    ,i have    
spoken to you of the great hypocrites4  
,there have also been  men of great     
simplicity4 ,neither have had on the    
general march of  events the influence  
you might suppose4 ,the world of ideas  
and of  words is one world1 and the     
world of facts and of action is another4
  ,they doubtless react on each other1  
but so slightly1 so gently1 and  with so
 much delay1 that their reciprocal      
influences are very hard to  establish4 
,hardly before the last fifty or sixty  
years have the social  ideas of         
,christianity seemed occasionally to    
take an active form1 and  then with what
 timidity6 ,perhaps ,christianity will  
one day be realised  in practice1 but it
 will then have long disappeared as     
religion1  philosophy1 or system of     
ethics4 ,and a new discord between      

thought and  life will be apparent4     
,even this much post-dated realisation  
of the great social doctrines  is1      
perhaps1 only an allusion4 ,the field of
 thought and the parallel  field of     
action are finite2 and so the same      
thoughts must return  after a turn of   
the wheel1 and the same acts4 ,their    
coincidence1 near  or distant1 is       
perhaps fortuitous4 ,it is in vain that 
you think and  speak2 action enrolls    
itself upon another plane1 and the two  
planes are  perhaps eternally incapable 
of intersection4    ,at most it is      
admissible that the vague spectacle of  
things inspires  in man a chirruping    
like that which takes the birds at      
sunrise4 ,but  would you say that it was
 this chirruping that made the sun rise8
 ,your  reasonings on the power of      
ideas1 which would make them the        
creators of  action1 resemble that      
supposition4 ,the ideas of man can never
 be other  than ideas after the fact4   
,the future8 ,do you even know what sort

 of  weather we shall have to-morrow8   
,the future that you pretend to forsee  
is only a past arranged by your         
imagination and your sensibility4 ,you  
believe that what you wish to happen    
will happen4 ,children6    ,the exercise
 of thought is a game1 but this game    
must be free and  harmonious4 ,the more 
useless you conceive it1 the more       
beautiful you  should wish it to be4    
,beauty2 that is1 perhaps1 its only     
possible  merit4 ,in any case you must  
not permit in it those little creeping  
ideas that haunt corrupted brains1 as   
wood-lice haunt rotten wood4    ,i      
,our thoughts1 then1 are freer than our 
actions8    ,,he    ,one can more easily
 retain in them the illusion of liberty4
 ,we are all  of us1 men and gods1 in   
the power of destiny1 and nothing       
happens that  is not the logical and    
necessary consequence of previous       
movements  of eternal matter4 ,we are   
vessels fitfully carried by winds and   
currents towards an unknown end2 but it 

is one thing to descend the             
unconquerable stream steering between   
the rocks1 and another to spin          
rudderless and derelict4 ,thought is a  
rudder that must never be loosed  nor   
entrusted to unworthy hands4    ,but    
these ideas are very general1 and can   
scarcely1 ,i think1 bring  you much     
consolation4 ,i am like the apocalyptic 
preachers who replace  reasoning by     
personifications of abstract things4 ,i 
have not come to  you to offer you      
models of eloquence or stimulating      
enigmas4 ,if ,i make  yet one more      
effort in favour of men1 ,i wish it to  
be unambiguous  and clear4 ,but1 alas6  
there are questions where the very gods 
lose  themselves like children in a     
forest4 ,the reason of things escapes us
  as it escapes yourselves4 ,we too are 
dust of infinity1 a little more         
brilliant1 that is all4    ,our         
assemblies1 however1 consider some      
problems as solved4 ,they trouble  you  
still4 ,we have enslaved them1 and our  

intelligence is their master4  ,i will  
put their solutions in your hands1 and  
then we will go for a  walk in this     
springtime that perhaps you will never  
see again4444    ,i    ,never8 ,never8  
,,he    ,so beautiful1 so tender1 so    
limpid1 so perfumed4 ,i have no power   
over  your human destiny and do not know
 it4 ,before descending4444    ,i       
,and how1 master1 did you descend among 
us8    ,,he    ,what a little girl's    
question6 ,i come on earth as easily and
 as  naturally as you go to ,america4   
,how8 ,the knowledge would be very      
useless to you1 and could only tempt you
 to puerile and dangerous  experiments4 
,but there is another question that you 
dare not ask me1  and to which ,i shall 
reply1 for it is in your head if not    
upon your  lips4 ,dearest children1     
bring us more flowers1 bring us fruits1 
give us  your smiles4    ,the three     
young women awoke1 and came to present  
their brows to us4 ,my  friend offered  
me her lips by mistake2 ,i took         

advantage of this1 which  made her      
blush4 ,she fled1 rejoining her         
companions4    ,it was clear and hot1   
though the sun was not visible4 ,the    
light seemed  to come from everywhere1  
and objects threw no shadows4 ,this     
phenomenon1  instead of frightening me1 
increased my sensation of happiness4 ,it
  seemed to me that ,i had reached at   
last a state of beatitude long  desired4
 ,love sang in my heart4 ,i observed    
with tenderness the folds  of my        
friend's white dress1 which floated     
behind her as she ran4 ,her  garland of 
flowers fell1 and1 as she stooped to    
pick it up1 her candid  breasts showed  
at the edge of her corsage4 ,i could not
 prevent myself  from rushing towards   
her1 in a frenzy1 my mouth full of      
kisses and  troubled words4    ,i       
,you have not hurt yourself8    ,,elise 
,but ,i have not fallen4    ,and she    
laughed1 while she was fastening her    
hair4 ,i had taken the  garland1        
meanwhile1 and was inhaling it like a   

bouquet4 ,that made her  laugh still    
more4    ,i    ,flowers1 ,elise1 have no
 longer their own odour when they have  
slept in  your hair or on your neck2 it 
is as if they had become you4 ,it is    
your  fragrance that ,i breathe4444     
,,elise    ,as you like4444    ,elise   
also no longer knew very well what she  
was saying4 ,or was she1  perhaps1      
reading my heart6 ,like my master1 she  
had just replied to a  prayer that ,i   
dared not formulate4    ,i stretched out
 both arms to take with open hands the  
flower that ,i  desired1 the flower that
 was being given me1 but ,elise was     
already in  flight4 ,i caught her up in 
the middle of a thicket of lilacs4 ,it  
was  there that she gave me my          
happiness4    ,her dress1 which was only
 a tunic1 fell slowly1 unveiling the    
loveliness of my divinity1 who seemed to
 me to be ,beauty herself4 ,she  was so 
beautiful that my admiration1 for an    
instant1 was stronger than  my desire4  
,my transport had carried me to the     

summit of a mountain so  high that ,i   
became dizzy and my head spun4 ,when ,i 
came to myself1 it  seemed to me that ,i
 had put on a new dignity1 and that the 
resurrection  that had snatched me from 
a delicious death was my entry into a   
more  precious life4    ,my friend1 once
 more dressed in her robe1 her garland  
of flowers on her  refastened hair1 was 
picking branches of lilac4 ,i rose to   
help her1 for  an enormous sheaf was    
already filling her white arms2 she gave
 it me1  and then she made a harvest of 
pinks and roses1 and we returned to my  
master4    ,he did not seem to have     
noticed our absence4 ,he praised the    
flowers and  breathed their scents1     
thanking my friend1 who was blushing a  
little1  for her graciousness4 ,the two 
other young women came back with        
cherries  and early peaches1 less soft  
than their rosy cheeks4 ,i followed the 
example of my master1 who kissed the    
hands of the young fruit-bearers1  and  
congratulated them on being the picture 

of pleasure1 of abundance1  and of      
generosity4    ,instead of sitting down1
 they crouched at the feet of their     
master1 and  offered him the finest of  
the fruits1 looking in his face for     
signs of  content4 ,there was a divine  
charm in this simple1 pastoral picture1 
and1 for a long time1 ,i observed it    
with joy4 ,these three beings seemed  in
 such perfect communion that the        
sweetest aroma of peace surrounded      
their bodies4 ,satisfied1 he touched    
their cheeks and their hair4    ,,he    
,children1 ,i love you4    ,they took   
again their places round the table4 ,my 
friend1 who had leaned  her head on my  
shoulder1 sat up to welcome them4 ,they 
spoke in a  whisper4    ,,he    ,i would
 tell you1 my friend1 in answer to your 
secret desire1 that  our life1 up there1
 or rather yonder1 is very different    
from the life  of men4 ,to begin with1  
the gods are very few in number1 two or 
three  thousand at most1 men and women4 
,i say1 men and women1 because that is  

all we are1 with superior faculties4    
,raise by many powers the genius of     
your geniuses1 and you have the measure 
of those among us who dominate  the     
others4 ,the lesser among us are also   
gods1 that is to say that  their        
sensibility1 their intelligence1 their  
force and their beauty  attain a degree 
that you can with difficulty conceive4  
,your arts1 your  sciences1 your noblest
 passions are instincts in us2 indeed1  
we attach  but small importance to them4
 ,the length of our life has ended by   
teaching us the uselessness of all that 
is not pure sensation1 and our          
principal care is the cultivation of our
 senses1 which are1 in fact1  highly    
developed4 ,we deliver ourselves to     
every pleasure with a divine  frankness1
 and it would be difficult for those of 
us who have not  associated with men to 
understand the meanings you have given  
to the  words lust1 gluttony1 and       
idleness4 ,on the other hand1 the       
pleasures of  relativity are unknown to 

us1 and we are ignorant of vanity1      
deceit1  envy1 or anger4 ,our pride is  
only the consciousness of the force that
  we feel is living in ourselves4       
,our women differ little from yours1    
that is to say that they bear the  same 
relation to us as yours to you4 ,we do  
not consider them inferior  but         
different1 and this difference makes our
 common happiness4 ,they  are admirable 
creatures of pleasure1 but the pride    
that is natural to  them makes them     
selfish4 ,my friend1 even for a god1    
above all for a  god1 perhaps1 your     
women equal ours4 ,they know how to     
forget themselves  in love2 they know   
how to find their happiness in the      
happiness  that they give4 ,if their    
senses are less delicate1 their flesh   
less  odorous1 their arts of pleasure   
more rudimentary1 their hearts are more 
sensitive4 ,ah6 to read in their eyes   
their gratitude for the pleasure  they  
have given4    ,the three young women1  
who had listened attentively1 lowered   

their  heads1 smiling at each other out 
of the corners of their eyes4 ,my       
friend1 however1 dared to speak4        
,,elise    ,but we are also grateful for
 the pleasure that is given us4 ,our    
sensibility is not only in our hearts4  
,i    ,women do seem to have no other   
pleasure than the pleasure they give4   
,,elise    ,i do not believe that4      
,,he    ,dear creature of pleasure1 it  
is none the less true4    ,,elise    ,it
 is true1 since you say it1 but these   
women are not true women4    ,,he       
,they are different from you1 my friend2
 that is all4 ,but ,i agree with  you2  
true women both give and receive4       
,,elise    ,that is true indeed6    ,i  
,divine friend1 how ,i love you6        
,,elise    ,and ,i1 ,i detest you4    ,i
 stretched out my arms to draw to me    
those lips that ,i desired1 but  she    
took my hands in hers1 and kissed them  
passionately4    ,,he    ,and you envy  
the gods6    ,i    ,i envy neither the  
gods nor any man1 and ,i desire no other

 woman1 since  ,i have known ,elise4    
,,he    ,my coming upon earth1 this     
time1 will at least have given happiness
 to  one human being4    ,,elise    ,or 
two4    ,i    ,what a dream6 ,do not    
awake us6    ,,he    ,you shall not be  
awakened4    ,the two young women looked
 at me curiously4 ,i even thought that  
,i  discerned some sort of pity in their
 eyes4 ,my master divined my thought4   
,,he    ,yes1 my friend1 they are       
immortals4 ,they came as ,i have come4  
,is it  more surprising to see goddesses
 on earth than to see a god8    ,i      
turned towards ,elise1 paling with      
emotion4    ,,he    ,she too4 ,but do   
not be afraid1 for she loves you1 and   
love has given  her a heart exactly like
 your man's heart4 ,she has become a    
woman in  giving herself to you1 and she
 will never leave you4    ,,elise       
,never4 ,never so long as you live1 my  
mortal lover4 ,never1 and your  memory  
shall share my immortality4    ,i       
,now ,i understand the superhuman       

happiness ,i found in your arms1 ,o     
queen6 ,but is that possible8 ,have the 
times of mythology returned8    ,,he    
,you see it4 ,they have never been      
abolished1 moreover1 unless in your     
beliefs1 unless in what you believe that
 you believe4 ,for is not               
,christianity1 just like the religions  
it thought it destroyed1 the  story of  
the relations between gods and men8     
,does the visit of a dove  to the       
loveliest of the ,jewish women differ so
 much from the visit of  the swan to the
 voluptuous ,leda8 ,the spirit in which 
you consider these  divine anecdotes1   
changes with the centuries1 but the     
anecdotes are  always the same1 because 
love is always the same4 ,if your       
priests were  to hear me1 they would say
 that ,i blasphemed1 ,i who was that    
swan1 ,i  who was that dove4 ,but when  
they say that ,i was the son of the     
dove1  they think they are stating a    
great truth1 and perhaps they are right1
  since that fable has changed the      

colour of heaven4 ,but the colour of    
heaven will change again1 and they will 
not perceive it4    ,all your science   
hitherto has consisted in giving        
different names to  different           
appearances4 ,some day1 perhaps1 you    
will learn that the  same thing happens 
always1 that is to say nothing1 and you 
will leave  the illegible romance of the
 infinite1 and live your own lives4 ,it 
is  worth the trouble4 ,some day you    
will learn this1 and you will be much   
astonished at having lost centuries upon
 centuries in vainly observing          
phenomena of which you perceive only the
 broken reflections in a sea  that is   
shaken by the storms of your            
imagination4    ,the life of the gods1  
my friend1 differs from yours in this   
above  all1 that it is for them without 
finality4 ,our acts are sufficient to   
themselves1 and we do not look for their
 justification in immediate or  distant 
consequences4 ,the wretchedness of your 
activity is1 that it  foresees repose4  

,our end is in the act2 yours in the    
effects of the  act4 ,but1 since        
happiness is in the act1 you pass it by1
 and when you  rest it is in weariness  
and boredom4 ,for us1 to live is to act1
 and  to act is to be happy4 ,perhaps1  
rather than supermen1 we are superior   
animals3 intuition serves us as         
instinct1 and if sometimes we know      
regret we are always ignorant of        
remorse4 ,passion1 which may mislead us 
for a moment1 leaves us satisfied1 as   
soon as we have obeyed it1 even  if our 
desire has been unable to realise itself
 in its entirety1 even  if our curiosity
 has had to stop half-way4 ,there       
remains to us then the  having exercised
 against an obstacle our faculties of   
action2 we bear  no malice against the  
obstacle4 ,we are like children who have
 lost in a  game1 and are1 all the same1
 very happy to have played4    ,i       
,true1 man wishes to win1 always to win1
 and1 beaten1 if he does not  suffer in 
his vanity1 he suffers in his pride4    

,,he    ,which is not a genuine pride4  
,pride worthy of the name does not rebel
  against superior forces4 ,it yields as
 quickly as possible and retires  into  
itself1 proud of what it is and         
disdainful of what it is not4 ,your     
human pride is often no more than a     
blind folly4 ,the pride of the gods  is 
clear-sighted4 ,but what need have you  
of knowing us1 since you have  no power 
over us8 ,your prayers move us1 as the  
songs of the birds move  you1 according 
to our mood2 we find them painful or    
agreeable1 and in  either case pass on1 
thinking of serious matters1 that is to 
say of the  living of our lives4 ,the   
gods1 my friend1 are selfish1 and1 if   
they  busy themselves with men1 it is   
from caprice1 in order to vary their    
pleasures4 ,your joys1 to tell you the  
truth1 touch us more nearly than  your  
sorrows1 and1 if we had the power1 we   
would more willingly send  new          
happinesses to the happy than joys to   
the doleful4 ,for we hold in  great     

scorn intellectual disorder1 and        
unbalanced sensibility3 now  unhappiness
 is produced by one of these two        
troubles1 or by both4 ,he  who is master
 of neither his nerves nor his thought  
does not seem to  us very worthy of     
pity4 ,help1 moreover1 would be useless 
to him4 ,help  would be for him no more 
than the brief sunbeam that passes      
between  two storm-clouds that the wind 
has separated for a moment4 ,and then1  
we  have no power4 ,ruled1 like you1 by 
destiny1 we contemplate the eternal     
movement of things1 with a more         
perspicacious eye1 but as powerless to  
alter their course4    ,none the less1  
,i am not pitiless4 ,physical evil      
breaks my heart1 and  it is precisely   
that which is altogether beyond my      
power1 that which  is without a remedy4 
,life eternally devours itself4 ,every  
organism is  a prey4 ,the living is     
eaten alive4 ,every animal is a feast1  
and every  animal is a guest4 ,the      
healthy state is to be a feast4 ,the    

gods do not  escape this dilemma2 they  
are so organised as to be a durable     
feast1  that is all4 ,they resist the   
attacks of the infinitely little1 as a  
mountain resists a colony of ants4 ,but 
let time pass1 and century after        
century go by1 and the ants will have   
got the better of the mountain1  though 
they are1 nevertheless1 destined        
themselves to perish under  invisible   
bites4    ,we shall see1 as ,i have     
already told you1 and it pains me to    
think  of it1 humanity disappear1 and   
with it all the8 animal species that    
people the earth to-day4 ,other forms   
are elaborating in the mysteries  of    
eternal matter4 ,the water of the oceans
 ferments and swells with  life round   
the magnetic poles4 ,that which is born 
rises tirelessly  against that which has
 been born4 ,the sorrow of living is the
 obscure  consciousness of feeling      
oneself dying4    ,but when ,i see      
humanity disappear1 it is at first in   
the manner of the  ants and the bees1   

and of all the other animalities1 once  
intelligent  and creative1 now reduced  
to mechanical existence4 ,you will come 
to  resemble marvellous clocks4 ,your   
mathematical complexity will be the     
admiration of the intelligences which   
have succeeded your own4    ,their      
multiple and contradictory activity will
 stop sometimes1 struck  by surprise1 to
 observe the sureness of your movements1
 and you will  still be one of the      
terms1 though no longer the same1 in the
 disturbing  problem of intelligence and
 instinct4    ,i have also sometimes    
thought that on your earth there would  
be a slow  return towards primordial    
unity4 ,every organism would be         
re-absorbed  into that formless yet     
living jelly1 which has been            
differentiated1  little by little1 in   
the course of time1 into myriads of     
dissimilar  beings4 ,the movement1 after
 reaching its climax1 would retrace its 
steps4 ,evolution would continue in     
retrogression4 ,the vertebrate would    

become once more the annelid1 the       
annelid the nothing that creeps like  a 
spot of oil on the surface of water4    
,as for the destruction of our solar    
world by a cataclysm1 it is a           
theatrical idea1 but though theatrical1 
not impossible4 ,it is at  once dramatic
 and vulgar1 within the reach of        
everybody1 and without  philosophical or
 scientific interest4 ,anybody can      
conceive a shock1 and  a bursting in    
pieces1 as he conceives a fire1 a wreck1
 or an explosion4  ,if it is the truth1 
it is without interest4 ,the truth is a 
bridge that  must be crossed to gain the
 other side of the stream4    ,he rose4 
,the young women1 enchanted1 shook their
 dresses1 and arranged  the folds of    
them4 ,elise threw me a tender look and 
joined her  companions1 who were already
 moving away4    ,,he    ,just so4 ,let 
us walk a little4 ,besides1 my discourse
 is nearing its  end4 ,we have stirred  
up many ideas4 ,in putting them in their
 places in  your head1 you will consider

 them with care4 ,order is almost the   
whole  of knowledge4    ,come4 ,the     
morning is about to be born1 the real   
morning1 and ,i do not  wish to disturb 
that to which men are accustomed4 ,i    
have never done so4  ,the duty of the   
gods is to respect logic4    ,we took a 
long walk through the fresh1 flowering  
paths4 ,it seemed to  me that the       
familiar garden became an immense and   
magical forest4 ,the  perspectives      
stretched out under tall trees to a     
stream that flowed  slowly under the    
poplars that edged it4 ,then the stream 
disappeared2  it was a glade where      
roebuck passed in troops4 ,we went on   
and the  appearances changed            
continually4 ,at certain moments ,i     
found again the  garden of my summer    
mornings1 with its lawns1 its           
flower-beds1 its  trees1 from which     
doves kept falling1 its paths1 its      
seats2 ,i seemed  to hear the laughter  
of the children1 the disputes of the    
players1 the  murmur of the couples4    

,all this went on in my head1           
accompanied by  my friend's words1 and  
,i was drunk1 with love1 with ideas1 and
 with  loveliness4    ,,he    ,we have  
settled several great questions with the
 logical intrepidity of  our minds4444  
,i    ,as for me1 ,i hear and ,i        
believe4    ,,he    ,an understanding   
auditor is half of the discourse4 ,the  
solitary sinks  and loses himself in the
 whirlwind of his reasonings4 ,a word1  
even a  look1 is enough to give him back
 his equilibrium4    ,i was saying1     
then1 that we have done like the        
philosophers4 ,we  have solved the great
 questions of metaphysic1 by attacking  
them at  the head1 that is to say at the
 part that is unattackable4 ,to their   
affirmation of an absolute and at the   
same time conscious god1 we have        
opposed1 as we have a right to do1 a    
simple and categorical denial4 ,we      
could take up the attack at the other   
end1 begin from ourselves1 seek  our    
cause1 find ,god1 seek the cause of     

,god1 and so on to infinity4  ,however  
large a number one conceives1 a larger  
is always possible4 ,and  so this       
terrible ,god recoils as one draws near 
him into the depths of  the abysses1 and
 the tired intelligence1 like a huntsman
 who yields to  the ruses of his quarry1
 turns round1 goes home and thinks of   
supper1  that is to say of practical    
life4    ,these subtle games give the   
mind a juggler's skill4 ,they are       
neither  without attraction nor without 
utility1 but they are games4            
,drunkenness  is to be found in them1   
but not happiness4 ,now1 happiness is   
the  important matter4 ,one must be     
happy4 ,let us1 then1 limit ourselves to
  the affirmation that the world is not 
governed by an intelligence at  once    
infinite and conscious4 ,for lack of    
another word1 let us stop at  the idea  
of chance1 as in the time of my dear    
,epicurus4 ,nothing has  been found more
 beautiful1 more clear1 nothing that    
better satisfies  the mind of a man or  

the mind of a god4 ,it comes to the same
 thing  as saying3 that which is1 is4   
,this simple proposition admits of no   
objection2 it defies every sophism and  
every artifice4    ,the idea of ,god is 
only the shadow of man projected in the 
infinite4  ,make use of this sentence as
 supreme refutation and you will find   
few  minds capable of disentangling its 
meaning or even of relishing its  irony4
    ,i do not speak to you of the gods  
of the nurses1 of the little naughty    
children1 and of the good labourers4    
,people sometimes amuse themselves  in  
narrating my appearance on earth1 and ,i
 am to be seen1 in these poor  tales1   
drinking thin wine1 gossiping with      
housekeepers1 encouraging  strikes1     
singing the internationale1 denouncing  
silk dresses1 furs1  and white gloves4  
,i appear to the astonished populace as 
a half-tipsy  dolt and a good fellow1   
and yet at sight of me civilised men fly
 for  their lives and give place to the 
mob4 ,the divine ideal of the priests   

does not much differ from this1 and1    
after all1 if ,i had to choose1 ,i      
should perhaps prefer the company of    
labourers to that of seminarists4  ,but 
,i have never been accessible to such   
humble desires1 and1 moreover1  ,i am   
not ,god1 ,i am only a god4 ,that is why
 ,i laugh at the confusion of  the      
catechisms1 of the pious dreams and of  
the revolutionary dreams  alike4 ,i have
 no power1 but ,i have never desired    
either the reign of  equality or that of
 sanctity4 ,i would rather breathe your 
flowers than  your souls1 your women    
than your intellects4 ,your flowers6    
,shall ,i  tell you8 ,we have no        
flowers2 we have only those that grow   
wild in our  uncultivated fields1 our   
pathless forests6 ,the gods do not      
work4444    ,my master plucked a        
magnificent pearly rose1 a rose as      
lovely as a  woman's face1 and remained 
for a long time silent4 ,i understood   
that he  was meditating4 ,he murmured-- 
,work3 this rose is a work4444    ,he   

compared it in his mind to the frail    
graces of the eglantine4    ,,he    ,all
 is contradiction4 ,i would say no more4
 ,those who created this  rose are not  
those who enjoy it4 ,no payment is the  
equivalent of the  pleasure ,i feel in  
breathing its scent2 and ,i1 ,i have    
done nothing  but pass by1 and pluck it4
 ,men rebel4 ,how will you prevent them 
from  rebellion8 ,they are right4444    
,he stopped1 observing1 but without     
seeing it1 the delicious landscape  that
 surrounded us4 ,the emotional silence  
was only disturbed by the  murmur of the
 bees1 the shrill cries of the little   
birds1 or the light  falling of the     
doves who dropped from the trees with a 
noise of silk  dresses4    ,i was       
chewing bits of grass1 with an air1 like
 his1 of preoccupation1  but ,i was     
thinking of next to nothing4    ,,he    
,they are right4 ,and yet rebellion is  
useless4 ,it is ugly4 ,happiness is  not
 in revolt4 ,you should find a balance4 
,you do not know how to rest4  ,i did   

not scorn work just now1 but praised    
idleness4 ,take these two  ideas and    
plait them harmoniously together4 ,your 
life1 short as it is1  would be as good 
as ours1 if you were to succeed in      
uniting these two  alternatives4 ,the   
same people should turn by turn rest and
 work4 ,but1  to make oneself worthy of 
leisure6 ,perhaps more intelligence is  
needed  to know how to do nothing than  
to know how to work4    ,the present    
state of things cannot last4 ,but can   
one ever tell8 ,and if1  by chance1 it  
should last8 ,then1 there would be      
formed two castes among  men4 ,they     
exist already in sketch1 they would come
 to exist in precise  drawings with     
violent contours4 ,it would be almost   
impossible for a  slave to become a     
master4 ,but a master would always be   
able to become a  slave4 ,your masters  
of the day are only slaves who1 freed   
for a moment1  will necessarily fall    
back into the servitude that is their   
destiny4    ,you see1 ,i am amusing     

myself with prophecy4 ,none the less1   
what ,i  know of the order of things is 
what is apparent to the eyes of all4    
,do not take my words too seriously4 ,on
 the whole1 since men have had  laws1   
these laws have not varied4 ,no doubt1  
from that moment1 your  evolution was   
complete4 ,perhaps you will never be    
able further to  modify yourselves1 if  
not by external means4 ,hence the need  
of material  progress1 which is only    
grandiose vanity4 ,at the end of the    
swiftest  journeys1 the man and the     
woman meet face to face1 seeking in each
  other's eyes the motive of living1    
that is to say happiness4    ,earth has 
become a narrow cage for you4 ,however1 
birds that you are1  it is your cage1   
and you are forbidden to leave it4 ,you 
can paint  it in the tenderest colours2 
it is a cage1 and it is your cage4 ,you 
will no longer go to heaven1 the stars  
have fallen4 ,if this heaven of  which  
the childhood of humanity dreamed is a  
paradise1 all the seats  in it are      

taken4 ,we have no need of you1 and are 
happy where we are2  we shall never give
 place to you4 ,besides1 at what moment 
would you  undertake the journey8 ,at   
your death8 ,when one is dead1 it is a  
little  late for travelling4 ,the       
immortality of the soul was without     
doubt  the masterpiece of the           
ecclesiastical imagination4 ,with this  
truth in  his pocket1 a man may wander  
through all countries1 and always find  
servants4 ,the woman who has lost her   
lover kisses the feet of the  impostor  
who promises her the renewal in the     
beyond of her temporal  felicities4 ,the
 priest offers his slipper with         
indifference4 ,they  are the happiest of
 men1 for they have ended by believing  
in a fable  so productive4 ,how should  
they deny the truth and beauty of this  
marvellous tree whose fruits are gold   
and love together8    ,those who promise
 a terrestrial paradise are no less     
baleful to human  energy4 ,they too     
teach sacrifice1 the scorn of the       

present hour1 and  walking and working  
with eyes fixed on the future4 ,priests 
of religion1  priests of politics1 all  
sell very dearly the tickets of a       
lottery  that will never be drawn4 ,do  
they know it8 ,tile merchants of perhaps
  are not necessarily merchants of lies4
 ,some of them are the first to  be     
duped by the secrets they have          
inherited1 and they make victims of     
themselves for the vanity of leading a  
more numerous troop of victims  to the  
sacrifice4    ,a tradition encourages   
you to honour the martyr for his faith4 
,the  martyr is only an obstinate man4  
,he is in the wrong1 since he is        
conquered4 ,the death that menaces him  
should have enlightened his             
understanding4    ,the wise man has but 
one belief3 himself2 the wise man has   
but one  fatherland3 life4    ,do not   
imagine that ,i am teaching you the     
vulgar selfishness of the  comedies and 
the drinking songs4 ,oneself may cover a
 world4 ,the brutes  are the only       

solitaries4 ,a man's sensibility is a   
surface whose extent  he alone is       
capable of measuring4 ,one being often  
includes many  beings4 ,if it does not  
include at least two1 it is not human1  
perhaps  not animal2 it is one of the   
stones in the road under the feet of    
other  men4 ,true selfishness is a      
harmony4    ,but this harmony must be   
composed by oneself1 and woven with     
one's own  hands4 ,to receive happiness 
ready-made would be offering one's neck 
to the rope4 ,christianity found a very 
beautiful formula3--to work  out one's  
salvation4 ,now that is a personal work4
 ,if some one should  propose a method  
to you1 examine it4 ,if you are being   
offered salvation  already prepared1    
turn away your head3 the food is        
poisoned4    ,also1 ,i bring you no     
commandment4 ,i submit a system to you3 
the  living of one's life4 ,what do     
those movements of the world matter to  
you that do not touch your sensibility8 
,keep your tears for your own  pains1   

and for those that scratch you like     
brambles as you pass4  ,there is no     
other ethic than this3 the conquest of  
pain4 ,if it wounds  you1 be silent1 and
 think of your revenge4 ,words are      
snares4 ,joint  responsibility8 ,have   
you felt the prick8 ,no8 ,then you have 
no share  in the responsibility4 ,do not
 judge by the intellect the affairs of  
sensibility1 and1 when your business is 
to understand1 be insensible to  all    
that is not reason4    ,i    ,but how   
conquer pain8    ,,he    ,physical pain 
is the business of your doctors4444 ,the
 remedy for moral  pain is confidence in
 oneself4 ,to yield to pain is to accept
 the worst  of humiliations4 ,to suffer 
because of a woman is to make oneself   
the  slave of a woman4 ,but there are   
moments when it must be pleasant not to 
deny one's pain4 ,one makes a pleasure  
of it4        #a      ,i have known such
 moments4    ,,he    ,there are         
unconquerable evils4 ,then the idea that
 life has an end will  help to support  

the weight of it4 ,finally1 my friend1  
there is the  supreme act that your     
resigned morality blames1 the act the   
vision of  which gave so much energy to 
the careless life of the ancients3 there
  is suicide4    ,suicide is a monster  
that one would have to train oneself to 
observe  with calm4 ,compared to certain
 physical evils1 to certain pains1 to   
certain forfeitures1 it would soon      
appear as a friend1 very ugly1  but     
cordial4 ,does it not deserve the       
gentlest names8 ,is it not the          
consoler8 ,is it not deliverance8       
,but one must not play with suicide4    
,amorous children have made of it  a    
gesture as puerile as their souls4 ,this
 supreme refuge from great  pains should
 not be the remedy for little           
deceptions4 ,if your morality  had      
chosen1 instead of the teasing rle of a 
jealous old maid1 that  of an amiable   
and prudent friend1 it would have taught
 you the art of  wrestling with         
,destiny1 and1 when her grip is         

invincible and cruel1 the  supreme      
feint1 which is to vanish in smoke4 ,to 
have made a cowardice of  suicide is a  
singular idea4 ,it is explicable in the 
order of religious  beliefs2 it is mad  
for the man who believes neither in the 
survival of  the soul nor1 above all1 in
 future compensations4    ,since1       
whether you will or no1 my friend1 death
 is your destiny1 at  least live4 ,do   
not always look at your feet1 but do not
 look too far  before you4 ,to be born1 
to appear1 to disappear3 forget the last
 term4  ,human wisdom is to live as if  
one were never to die1 and to gather the
  present minute as if it were to be    
eternal4    ,i    ,if the present minute
 could but last for ever6    ,,he       
,why not8 ,how long have you spent with 
me8 ,do you know8 ,two hours or an      
eternity8    ,i    ,it seems to me that 
,i have always known you1 always seen   
you1 always  heard you4    ,,he    ,very
 well6 ,that is how to live4    ,i      
,do you1 who deny blessed eternity to   

men1 give it them by your presence  and 
your words8 ,who are you then8    ,,he  
,have ,i not told you8 ,see1 he doubts  
already4    ,i    ,it is that ,i am too 
happy4    ,,he    ,poor men1 divine     
sensations are too strong for the       
fragility of  your nerves4 ,what would  
you do with an eternity8 ,you would     
spend it  in trembling lest you should  
lose it4 ,happiness1 for you1 is not    
possession but desire4 ,when you no     
longer have anything to desire1  boredom
 comes1 sits down on your knees1 and    
slowly crushes you4 ,you  find the woman
 who has made you drunk heavier than a  
mountain when the  drunkenness passes   
away1 and you groan if the head that is 
still wet  with your kisses leans too   
lovingly on your arm or on your         
shoulder4    ,you find happiness only in
 closing your eyes2 on opening them     
again  you find boredom4 ,since you do  
not know how to live1 dream1 believe4   
,you would be glad1 would you not1 if   
you were able to doubt my words8  ,well6

 ,i give you leave4 ,do like so many    
other men4 ,accept the practice  of a   
belief that makes you laugh1 and of an  
ethic that you scorn 444    ,i    ,no1  
no1 ,i am free6 ,you have loosed my     
hands1 you have taught me to  breathe4  
,,he    ,ah6 ,so the method ,i propose  
to you is not so bad6 ,i believe1       
indeed1  that1 of all those that can    
rule the life of a wise man1 it is the  
most  voluptuous4 ,if doubt has no      
longer a place in your intelligence1 put
 it  into your actions4 ,knowing the    
vanity of everything1 of religions1 of  
philosophies and of ethics1 submit      
outwardly to customs1 to prejudices1    
and to tradition4 ,time your step to the
 rhythm of the popular mind4    ,i      
,what6 ,submission8    ,,he    ,do you  
prefer revolt8    ,i    ,i am not a     
slave4    ,,he    ,very true4 ,but      
liberty is an internal joy4 ,one is the 
more free the  less one seeks to appear 
so4 ,a woman is less beautiful when she 
has  divulged her beauty4 ,a man is less

 free when he makes a parade of his     
liberty4 ,one must hide one's good      
fortunes4    ,my friend1 ,i have shown  
you the philosophy of the gods4 ,accept 
its  method if you feel yourself strong 
enough to follow it without despair4    
,we are1 and that suffices us4 ,can you 
say as much8 you who cannot take  a step
 towards happiness without taking one   
towards death8 ,hope1 if  you have need 
of hope4 ,drink1 if you are thirsty4 ,do
 you think that ,i  am jeering1 and     
that1 after having treated you as a god1
 ,i am treating  you first as a man and 
then as a child8 ,no4 ,the truth is that
 every  question immediately receives in
 my mind all the different and even     
contradictory solutions that can answer 
it4 ,i see1 would you believe  it1 the  
six sides of the cube at one glance4 ,i 
know that the least  reasonable of      
things is reason2 ,i know that nothing  
is more cruel than  sentiment4 ,there is
 not one of your systems of which ,i    
cannot make a  circuit in two or three  

thoughts4 ,they are curious ruins2 some 
of them  still attract such a concourse 
of people that one forgets that they are
  ruins4 ,travel1 and make pilgrimages4 
,i have favoured the materialism of     
,epicurus1 ,saint ,paul's ,christianity1
 ,spinoza's pantheism4 ,have ,i spoken  
to you of ,spinoza8 ,i loved him much   
also4 ,we used to drink milk while  we  
were discovering the identity of reality
 and perfection4 ,he was one  of the two
 completely happy men ,i have known2 the
 other was ,epicurus4  ,spinoza found   
happiness in asceticism2 ,epicurus1 in  
pleasure4 ,they both  lived smiling4 ,i 
regretted them equally4 ,there are two  
masters for  mankind1 and nearer to     
mankind than myself4    ,i remember one 
of ,spinoza's propositions3 ,each man   
necessarily desires  or repulses1       
according to the laws of his nature1    
what he considers  good or bad4 ,that   
means3 every one naturally desires to be
 happy4  ,great commonplace1 and great  
truth3 there is no other philosophy1    

there  is no other method4 ,virtue is1  
to be happy4    ,they are1 then1 very   
wicked1 those among you1 who1 keeping   
power1 that  is to say force1 in their  
own hands1 use it to forbid men access  
to the  road that displeases themselves4
 ,what6 ,i should have used my power to 
undeceive ,cecilia1 whose innocent      
kisses were prayers1 whose life was  a  
happy walk towards martyrdom and heaven6
 ,what infatuation1 to believe  oneself 
in possession of the truth1 and1 then1  
what childishness1 to  believe that the 
truth is necessarily useful6 ,my friend1
 what is true  is true1 and what is     
beautiful is beautiful1 and between     
these terms1  and between all that could
 be inserted1 there is no necessary     
relation4  ,i smile at human illusions1 
but ,i would not make them one in a     
single  and compulsory illusion4    ,you
 love ,elise2 obey your desires even if 
they seem absurd to you4 ,she  will do  
the same for you1 and you will both     
taste great joys4    ,we had returned1  

little by little1 to our starting point4
 ,the young  women joined us near the   
rose-garden4 ,a different light had     
replaced  the springtime brilliance that
 surrounded us4 ,the real morning had   
just  been born1 a clear1 cold winter   
morning4 ,i wished to pluck a rose1  but
 they disappeared as ,i stretched out my
 hand4 ,elise took my arm and  pressed  
close to me4    ,,elise    ,i am cold4  
,i doubted her divinity1 ,i doubted     
myself1 and the enchanted1 luminous     
night ,i had just lived4 ,my master's   
last words were disturbing the          
certainty that he had at first          
established in my mind4 ,i1 who had     
believed myself a god1 became again a   
man4    ,,he    ,that is the effect of  
doubt4 ,then you no longer believe in   
me8    ,i    ,i believe in you4         
,instantly1 things recovered their      
magical appearance1 and ,i was  happy   
again4 ,i gently pressed ,elise's arm1  
and she looked at me with  tenderness4  
,meanwhile1 the two young friends1 who  

were walking before us1 had  come upon  
the steps of the ,museum4 ,we followed  
them4 ,they examined in  silence the    
cold nudity of all those women of stone1
 but sometimes ,i  heard them laugh4    
,,elise    ,and so these are your women4
    ,i    ,they are not our women4      
,these figures represent our ideal of   
the  goddesses4    ,,elise    ,truly1   
this one is like me4    ,i    ,there are
 women as beautiful as that among us1   
but one does not know  them4 ,each one  
of us thinks he has held in his arms the
 most beautiful  woman in the world2    
when he reflects1 he is no longer very  
sure of  it1 for1 in the depths of his  
desire1 an image ceaselessly forms1 and 
ceaselessly vanishes1 whose beauty no   
created thing could equal4    ,,elise   
,so reality always deceives you4 ,how do
 you manage to be happy8    ,i    ,we   
have desire4    ,i had spoken like a    
man1 and not like one whose mistress is 
an  immortal4 ,elise seemed indifferent 
to the obscure sorrow that darkened  my 

words4    ,my nature now was double4    
,when ,i thought of my master1 of       
,elise1 of the  hours passed in the     
garden1 ,i felt that ,i was caressed and
 upheld by  warm waves of joy2 when ,i  
considered the things of earth1 ,i was  
cold1  and ,i was sorrowful4    ,elise  
left me once more to go and join her    
companions4 ,my master called  me4 ,he  
was seated at the entrance to the hall1 
and was looking at  nothing4    ,,he    
,i have still a few words to say to you1
 and these are the most  important4 ,you
 must forget our conversation4    ,i    
,master1 it is impossible4 ,it is part  
of myself1 it has entered into my       
flesh1 into my blood1 into my bones4    
,,he    ,ah1 well1 you shall know then  
that ,i could have told you the exact   
opposite1 and that that also would have 
been the truth4 ,another god may        
descend and speak to you and give you   
other teaching4 ,in which will  you put 
your trust8    ,i    ,master1 you       
disturb me4 ,can such a miracle be      

repeated8    ,,he    ,when one believes 
in a miracle1 it may become a daily     
occurrence4 ,you  see1 you would do     
better to forget4    ,i    ,i shall not 
forget4    ,,he    ,and what if ,i were 
to prove to you that ,i do not exist1   
that ,i am only  a part of yourself1    
that responds to another part of        
yourself8    ,i    ,master1 ,i believe  
in you1 and not in myself4    ,,he      
,behold man with a true ,christian      
nature1 man after the fall6 ,you will   
never wash away sin1 or1 rather1 you    
will never wash away penitence4  ,why do
 you not hold your own against me8 ,what
 a domestic animal has man  become6     
,have you not at the bottom of your     
heart a secret desire8 ,does  the god   
that ,i appear to you satisfy fully your
 need of worship and  humiliation8      
,speak1 my friend1 ,i am what you desire
 that ,i should be4  ,choose4 ,the      
phantasmagorias are at your command4    
,i    ,well1 yes1 ,i should have wished 
you to be ,he1 to perfect in my eyes    

the legends of my childhood4444 ,but you
 have spoken1 and ,i no longer  believe 
but in you1 in you alone4    ,,he       
,choose4 ,there is yet time4 ,choose4   
,i    ,i have chosen4    ,at that very  
instant1 all pleasure vanished1 and ,i  
felt ill1 with that  overwhelming       
illness that follows nights of debauch4 
,nothing1 however1  had changed around  
me1 and ,i was standing among the same  
marbles1  though they were frozen and   
made me almost ashamed and almost       
afraid4  ,i heard the laughter of the   
young women in the neighbouring hall1   
but  it seemed to me to come from a bevy
 of hoydens4 ,my master1 still seated   
there1 was looking at me1 but with eyes 
in which ,i thought ,i saw ,i  know not 
what cruel mockery1 ,i know not what    
mournful reproaches4 ,i  was seized with
 anguish1 ,i breathed with difficulty1  
,i was cold1 the  memory of my nocturnal
 lusts disgusted my heart4 ,i was about 
to faint1  perhaps1 when my master      
spoke4    ,,he    ,so you have chosen4  

,it is well4 ,good-bye4    ,i    ,oh6   
,no6 ,not yet6    ,,he    ,would you    
care to salute those charming young     
women8 ,here they are4    ,i saw them   
advancing towards me1 naked1 and smiling
 from head to foot1  with a docile      
smile4 ,they held each other by their   
necks1 their arms  entwined1 like the   
three graces1 but their hips swayed to  
an evil  rhythm4    ,i    ,how ugly they
 are6 ,sorceresses6    ,,he    ,they are
 your sins4    ,i    ,i detest them4    
,they turned and fled4 ,their buttocks1 
joined like three curious faces1  made  
an obscene and singular diagram4    ,,he
    ,women belong to metaphysics4    ,i 
was too disturbed to understand this    
saying4 ,i was thinking of ,elise1  whom
 ,i had loved so passionately1 and ,i   
wept at seeing her thus4 ,i wept  also  
over myself and my lust4    ,,he        
,women are creations of sensibility1 of 
intelligence1 or of faith2  that depends
 on the moment1 it depends on the man4  
,the difference  between the goddess and

 the girl of the public harem is made by
 the  idea of sin4 ,as a sinner1 you see
 courtesans where1 as a god1 ,i see     
divinities4 ,the world is what you make 
it1 creator without knowing it4  ,since 
you have chosen1 good-bye1 good-bye6    
,i    ,elise4    ,she whom ,i had loved1
 she whom ,i loved still1 ran towards   
me1 in the  form of the young woman who 
had so moved my heart4 ,she offered me  
her  hands and her lips1 as if she had  
returned from a journey1 and she        
pressed me passionately in her arms4    
,,he    ,then you have not chosen8    ,i
    ,i cannot separate from her ,i love4
    ,,elise    ,i remain among men4     
,i    ,for ever8    ,,elise    ,i       
remain4    ,,he    ,i will come back for
 you4 ,good-bye then1 my friend1 and    
this time  really good-bye4 ,you sought 
truth and you have found love4          
,good-bye4    ,elise drew me along4 ,by 
the door1 ,i turned4 ,my master had     
disappeared4    ,this separation1 which 
,i was expecting1 caused me but a brief 

sorrow4 ,i  was holding ,elise by the   
hand1 ,i was holding a certainty4    ,we
 were now going silently along the      
deserted street4 ,the joy that  filled  
my heart lit up the sky1 the trees1 the 
houses and everything  else4    ,soon1  
like any other couple after a morning   
walk1 we went home4 ,elise  had not at  
any moment the air of a stranger4       
,our day was short1 that of two lovers  
mindful of living4 ,my friend  complied 
with all our customs4 ,but for the      
memory of the night of magic  that had  
placed her in my arms1 ,i should not    
have distinguished her  divine grace    
from that of a ,parisian4    ,we made   
with profound joy the discovery of our  
souls and of our bodies4  ,it seemed to 
us that we had known each other always1 
and always  belonged to each other2 it  
seemed also1 at every kiss1 that we     
touched  each other for the first time3 
these feelings1 no more contradictory   
than delightful1 increased our          
intoxication1 our heads turned1 we could

  no longer find words for our ideas1   
and we said a great many childish       
things4    ,i did not1 however1 so far  
lose my reason as to forget that1 alone 
among all men1 without doubt1 ,i held in
 my arms an immortal4 ,much  pride was  
mingled with my love1 and also much     
curiosity4    ,my goddess much resembles
 ,giorgione's ,venus4 ,while ,i write   
this1 she  is sleeping in the same pose1
 her right arm folded under her head4   
,the body is tapering1 the breasts are  
two upturned cups2 the face1 of  a pure 
oval1 has great charm1 with its very red
 mouth1 and its large  lowered eyelids  
that hide from me beautiful eyes of a   
glaucous and  changeful blue4 ,from head
 to foot she has the complexion of a    
blonde1  but this whiteness is as if    
melted in gilded rose1 because she is   
accustomed to wear only light and almost
 transparent veils4 ,her hair is  of    
that rare chestnut colour1 a colour     
which we scarcely know but by  its name2
 but her eyelashes are much darker1 of a

 very sombre brown4    ,i have kissed   
with piety the miracle of her feet1     
fresh as a spring1  and with nails that 
shone like drops of dew under my lamp4  
,she accepts homage like caresses1 and  
caresses as a flower accepts the        
evening rain4 ,she is more feminine than
 the most sensitive of women1  more     
trembling than the tenderest violins4   
,the kiss that her mouth  gives has     
first passed like a wave of harmony     
along her whole body1 and  the kiss that
 she receives makes her melt            
voluptuously like snow that  has        
lingered in the sunlight4    ,o snow    
with the odour of violets1 ,o flesh with
 the taste of figs6    #a have eaten and
 ,i have drunken1 and now ,i write the  
praise of my  delight1 among some       
metaphysical memories4 ,of the life that
 goes on  up there1 or yonder1 she has  
told me something more than my master4  
,she has told me that perfect pleasure  
is a gift too common among the  gods    
much to excite their gratitude4 ,they   

walk under the trees of the  orchard1   
and pluck the gilded fruit whose weight 
bends them within  reach of their hands4
 ,more lively and more sensitive1 the   
divine  females feel now and then some  
vexation at being unable to knot their  
arms about the conquered male2 there is 
sometimes melancholy in their  eyes1 at 
seeing light shoulders moving away that 
happiness has not  crushed1 and knees   
that gratitude has not bowed4    ,we    
speak4    ,,elise    ,tell me1 you whom 
,i love1 are all men like you8    ,i    
,men are not gods during love1 but they 
are gods afterwards4    ,,elise    ,that
 is to say that they become indifferent4
    ,i    ,no1 satisfied1 and surfeited4
    ,,elise    ,then they are not always
 hungry8    ,i    ,alas6 ,no4    ,,elise
    ,but1 at least1 they do not disdain 
the mouth whose moisture has made  them 
drunk8    ,i    ,they forget even the   
taste of it4    ,,elise    ,they too8 ,i
 feel like crying4    ,i    ,there are  
some who love tears4    ,,elise    ,you 

love tears8    ,i    ,how do ,i know8   
,when one is happy1 one no longer loves 
anything but  one's own happiness4      
,thereupon she dreamed for a long time1 
perhaps without very well               
understanding1 for there came no more   
words to her mouth1 but only  kisses4   
,with the details ,i could get from her1
 in our clearer moments1 on the  life of
 the immortals1 ,i pictured their       
dwelling-place as an earthly  paradise  
of the kind described to us in the      
,jewish legends4 ,it is  probable that  
ancient indiscretions had long ago      
informed some ,asiatic  poet4 ,the      
popular mind1 friendly to confusions1   
placed at the beginning  of our world a 
paradisiac state which is parallel to   
our world1 and  otherwise closed to men4
 ,the ,greeks1 with their adventures of 
the  gods among us1 also divined a      
little of the truth that had just been  
revealed to me in these two mythological
 nights4 ,i understood that  men do not 
invent1 but remember4 ,how ,i rejoiced  

at sharing in these  mysteries6 ,what   
moments6 how express their odour1 how   
paint their  brilliance and their       
beauty8    ,i shall continue every      
morning to keep the journal of the      
happiness of  my heart and the          
satisfactions of my intellect4 ,lover of
 an immortal1  ,i see the ,arcana open  
at last before my one-time sorrowful    
desire4 ,the  ,arcana6 ,for ,i feel that
 ,i am about to enter into the ,unity4  
,but ,i have been writing for a long    
time1 ,i am tired4 ,my mistress is      
waiting for me4 ,she sleeps1 she is     
still sleeping4 ,perhaps1 with them1    
there is no sleep4 ,she tastes for the  
first time the happiness of not         
living4444          ,,final ,,note      
,m4 ,,james ,,sandy ,,rose was found    
sitting at his work-table1 his head laid
  on his desk4 ,he seemed asleep1 and he
 was dead4 ,the pen had escaped  from   
his fingers1 and rolled to the ground1  
leaving a large blot of ink  on the     
paper4 ,after the word vivre #a comes   

the first letter of a  word that ends in
 a serpentine scrawl4 ,this letter is   
doubtless a ,v1  and perhaps1 as would  
have been fairly characteristic of his  
style1  he was going to begin a new     
phrase with this same word1 ,vivre1 when
  death struck him down4    ,all this is
 of small importance4 ,besides1 we are  
giving a facsimile of  the last page of 
this manuscript whose singular aspect   
has1 no doubt1  a psychological value4  
,it has already been seen that the death
 of ,m4 ,j4 ,sandy ,rose was spoken  of 
by the newspapers under the title of    
,the ,mystery of the ,rue de  ,mdicis4  
,their account1 without being altogether
 inaccurate1 was very  incomplete4 ,here
 is exactly what happened1 or at least  
what ,i saw and  knew4    ,sandy ,rose  
called at my rooms almost every day at  
about five o'clock1  on his way to the  
post4 ,i live in the ,rue de ,tournon1  
behind an old  garden4 ,we used to go   
out together1 and often dined together4 
,on the  #aath of ,february1 as ,i had  

not seen him for three or four days1 ,i 
decided to go to his rooms4 ,it was     
half-past three4 ,the concierge1 at     
first1 dissuaded me from going up1 and  
assured me that ,m4 ,sandy ,rose  was   
away4 ,a bundle of letters and several  
telegrams were awaiting him4            
,illustration3 ,manuscript4    ,what if 
he is ill8 ,i said4 ,what if he is dead8
    ,oh6 ,but how am ,i to find out8    
,how am ,i to open his door8 ,we should 
have to have a locksmith1 witnesses1 the
 commissaire4444    ,without answering1 
,i bolted up the stair-case4 ,when ,i   
reached the door1  on the fifth landing1
 ,i rang1 knocked very loudly1 and then 
bent to  look through the crack1 or glue
 my ear to the keyhole4 ,it was dark1 a 
small iron thing went into my eye4 ,the 
key was in the door4    ,at that moment1
 ,i heard the voice of the concierge1   
who had followed me4    ,well6 ,you see6
    ,the key is in the door4            
,impossible2 it was not there yesterday 
evening1 and he has certainly  not come 

in4    ,look6    ,and ,i turned the key4
 ,the door opened4 ,the flat consisted  
of the  kitchen1 on the left as one went
 in1 and three rooms opening into each  
other1 along the street4 ,we opened     
three more doors4 ,the last let us  see 
the spectacle ,i have described4    ,the
 death was recent4 ,the body was cold1  
but not frozen1 and the  fingers of the 
right hand1 which was hanging over the  
arm of the chair1  were still supple4   
,later on the doctor declared that death
 must have  occurred about twelve hours 
before my arrival4    ,two young clerks1
 brothers1 who live in a neighbouring   
room1 came home  at this moment4 ,we    
sent one of them in search of the       
police1 and the  other remained with me1
 while the concierge went back to her   
lodge4    ,while waiting for the police 
to draw up their official statement1 ,i 
made a mental inventory of my friend's  
room4 ,its aspect seemed to  me odd4    
,the bed1 a great four-posted one1 very 
large and almost  sumptuous1 the only   

luxury1 moreover1 of this sentimental   
and libertine  youth1 was in disorder4  
,it told of a night of frenzied passion1
 or of  an attack of hallucinatory      
fever4 ,the counterpanes were dangling1 
the  pillows were one at the foot and   
one in the middle of the bed2 two       
candles at the bed-side had burned      
themselves out4 ,a man's clothes had    
been flung on a sofa1 and among these   
clothes ,i found a woman's dress1  of   
antique or rather empire fashion1 a sort
 of tea-gown of spongy white  linen1    
very fine1 with a gathered belt1 much   
lacework1 and blue and  yellow          
embroideries4 ,i saw besides some plain 
white silk stockings1  yellow garters   
with paste buckles1 and one slipper in  
blue morocco2 ,i  did not find the      
other4    ,the man's clothes were those 
of my friend1 who was dressed at the    
moment in a grey flannel suit and a     
brown dressing-gown4 ,nothing could  be 
simpler4 ,but the dress1 and the silk   
stockings8 ,did ,sandy ,rose  amuse     

himself with robing his mistress        
magnificently1 before unrobing  her8    
,the presence of a woman seemed proved  
by this theatrical costume4  ,the       
stockings had been worn2 some one had   
even walked bare-foot in one  of them1  
doubtless looking for the slipper that  
had slid away under a  piece of         
furniture4    ,on the mantelpiece1 ,i   
found a big tortoiseshell comb1 a       
necklace of  pearls1 no doubt false1    
another of amethysts1 some ancient      
rings1 and  two bracelets1 one of       
braided gold1 the other of cameos4    ,i
 opened a little door4 ,the state of the
 washing-stand showed that it  had been 
recently used4 ,there were still drops  
of water on the marble1  and the towels 
were damp4 ,on a comb1 ,i found some    
woman's hairs1 blond1  very long2 a     
powder-box was open4 ,a perfume that ,i 
could not identify1  was floating in    
this closet1 something like peppered1   
highly peppered1  jessamine4    ,in the 
fireplace of the room a log was still   

burning1 among dead pieces  of coal4    
,i returned to the table on which was   
resting the lifeless head of my         
unfortunate friend4 ,he seemed asleep1  
and ,i was glad of it1 for1 if a  tragic
 story is to be as it should1 the dead  
must seem to sleep4    ,there was       
nothing on the table but a quantity of  
sheets of paper  covered with big       
irregular handwriting1 nothing but that 
and an  ink-pot4 ,the pen had fallen    
down4    ,at this moment the commissaire
 arrived with a scribe4 ,notes were     
taken4  ,the doctor who had come        
attested something4    ,natural death8  
,the most natural in the world4    ,and 
he pointed first to the bed and then to 
the writing-table4    ,sexual followed  
by cerebral excesses4 ,these papers1    
perhaps1 will  give us an explanation4  
,meanwhile the commissaire1 who had     
opened a drawer1 found a will that  left
 everything to me2 the doctor1 happy to 
do nothing1 stopped putting  together   
the sheets of the manuscript4    ,i do  

not dispute them with you4 ,i have      
signed4 ,i am off4    ,my rights were   
soon legally confirmed4 ,meanwhile ,i   
thought of the  woman who had worn the  
white dress with yellow embroideries and
 put  her feet in the slippers of blue  
morocco4 ,i sought her and did not  find
 her4 ,singular rumours went about1 set 
on foot by the journalists4  ,m4 ,sandy 
,rose had been strangled by a woman with
 whom he had spent  the night4 ,she had 
disappeared at dawn1 taking money and   
jewels4  ,i had no difficulty in        
exposing the absurdity of this          
hypothesis1  firstly because we had     
noticed no trace of violence on the body
 of  the defunct1 and secondly because  
many precious stones1 as well as a      
quantity of gold pieces1 were found in  
the same drawer as the will1  which was 
not locked4    ,little by little there  
came to be silence concerning the story1
 and ,i  was alone in sometimes thinking
 of it4    ,it is certain that ,sandy   
,rose went home on ,thursday morning1   

the #hth  of ,february1 about nine      
o'clock1 accompanied by a woman4 ,he    
took his  letters3 no letter or paper of
 earlier date was found in the ,sunday  
packet4 ,it is also certain that he went
 out with this woman about  midday1 and 
that they returned about eight1 this    
time without speaking  to the concierge1
 without answering her question3        
,monsieur ,sandy ,rose1  aren't you     
going to take your letters8 ,finally1   
from that moment on1  the concierge saw 
no one1 neither ,sandy ,rose nor the    
lady1 whose name  she did not know1     
though1 she says1 she had noticed her   
light-coloured1  almost white1 dress2   
and adds1    ,i was surprised at it1    
because of the colour4 ,on ,friday      
morning1 she  knocked1 at the hour at   
which she was accustomed to come and    
clean out  the rooms4 ,she knocked again
 in the afternoon1 and rang the bell2 in
  vain4 ,it was the same on ,saturday   
and ,sunday1 and she had therefore      
concluded that he was away1 as was not  

unlikely1 for my friend  sometimes went 
to spend a week at ,menton1 and never   
went alone4    ,these little facts1     
whose accuracy ,i cannot doubt1 do not  
contradict  certain details that have   
been read in my friend's manuscript1 but
 ,i  am far from offering them as a     
proof of the veracity of his story4 ,i  
give on the one hand the manuscript1 as 
the will obliges me1 and on the  other  
the result of my inquiry1 as friendship 
demands2 that is all4    ,i must note   
one last detail4 ,no trace of food was  
found in the flat1  except some paper   
that had been used in wrapping up cakes1
 or perhaps  a pt1 and six empty        
champagne bottles4 ,but there is nothing
 to prove  that these relics are        
contemporaneous with the period that    
interests  us4 ,it is1 however1 probable
 enough4    ,the telegram mentioned on  
page #cf has not been printed by the    
,northern  ,atlantic ,herald4 ,it is    
even doubtful if it was ever sent off4  
,at  least1 the inquiries ,i have made  

have been without result4      #a ,the  
last word of the manuscript4            
,,appendix#a    ,,remy ,,de ,,gourmont  
,,by    ,,arthur ,,ransome      ,i      
,m4 de ,gourmont lives on the fourth    
floor of an old house in the ,rue  des  
,saints-,pres4 ,a copper chain hangs as 
bell-rope to his door4 ,the  rare       
visitor1 for it is well known that for  
many years he has been a  solitary and  
seldom receives even his friends1 pulls 
the chain and  waits4 ,the door opens a 
few inches1 ready to be closed          
immediately1  by a man of middle size1  
in a brown monk's robe1 with a small1   
round1  grey felt cap4 ,the robe is     
fastened with silver buckles1 in which  
are  set large blue stones4 ,the        
admitted visitor walks through a passage
  into a room whose walls are covered   
with books4 ,in the shadow at the  back 
of the room is a loaded table4 ,another 
table1 with a sloping desk  upon it1    
juts out from the window4 ,m4 de        
,gourmont sits in a big chair  before   

the desk1 placing his visitor on the    
opposite side of the table1  with the   
light falling on his face so that he can
 observe his slightest  expression4 ,he 
pokes at the little1 brimless skull-cap1
 and twists it  a quarter of a circle on
 his head4 ,he rolls and lights         
cigarettes4 ,in  conversation he often  
disguises his face with his hand1 but   
now and  again looks openly and directly
 at his visitor4 ,his eyes are always   
questioning1 and almost always kindly4  
,his face was beautiful in the  youth of
 the flesh1 and is now beautiful in the 
age of the mind1  for there is no dead  
line in it1 no wrinkle1 no minute       
feature not  vitalised by intellectual  
activity4 ,the nose is full and         
sensitive1  with markedly curved        
nostrils4 ,there is a little satiric    
beard4 ,the  eyebrows lift towards the  
temples1 as in most men of imagination4 
,the eyes are weighted below1 as in most
 men of critical thought4 ,the  two     
characteristics are1 in ,m4 de          

,gourmont1 as in his work1 most         
noticeable together4 ,the lower lip1    
very full1 does not pout1 but falls     
curtain-like towards the chin4 ,it is   
the lip of a sensualist1 and yet  of one
 whose sensuality has not clogged but   
stimulated the digestive  processes of  
his brain4 ,omar might have had such a  
lip1 if he had been  capable not only of
 his garlands of roses1 but also of the 
essays of  ,montaigne4    ,he was born  
in a chteau in ,normandy on ,april #dth1
 #aheh4 ,among his  ancestors was       
,gilles de ,gourmont1 a learned printer 
and engraver of  the fifteenth century4 
,he has himself collected old woodcuts1 
and in  ,l',ymagier amused himself by   
setting the most ancient specimens of   
the craft1 among which he is proud to   
show some examples of the work  of his  
family1 side by side with drawings by   
,whistler and ,gauguin4 ,he  came to    
,paris in #ahhc1 when he obtained a post
 in the ,bibliothque  ,nationale4       
,huysmans was sous-chef de bureau la    

direction de la ,sret  gnrale1 and ,m4  
de ,gourmont1 who made his acquaintance 
through the  dedication of a book1 used 
to call for him between four and five of
  the afternoon1 and walk with him      
across the river to a caf1 that has     
since disappeared1 where he listened to 
the older man's rather savage           
characterisations of men1 women1        
movements and books4 ,a few years  later
 he was held to be lacking in           
patriotism1 and relieved of his  post on
 account of an article urging the       
necessity of ,franco-,german  agreement4
 ,he wrote incessantly4 ,merlette1 a    
rather nave and awkward  little novel1  
published in #ahhf1 did not promise the 
work he was to  do4 ,it was no more than
 an exercise4 ,the exercise was well    
done1 but  that was all4 ,it was the    
work of a good brain as yet uncertain of
 its  personal impulse4 ,but about this 
time he was caught in the stream of  a  
movement for which he had been waiting1 
for which1 indeed1 the art  of his time 

had been waiting1 the movement that was 
introduced to  ,english readers by ,mr4 
,arthur ,symons's admirable series of   
critical  portraits4#b ,in #ahij he     
published ,sixtine1 dedicated to        
,villiers de  l',isle ,adam1 who had    
died the year before4 ,in #ahib appeared
 ,le ,latin  ,mystique1 a book on the   
,latin poets of the ,middle ,ages4 ,he  
has always  been a delicate amateur of  
the curiosities of beauty1 though the   
character that ,mr4 ,symons gave him has
 since become very inadequate4  ,he     
edited ,grard de ,nerval1 ,aucassin et  
,nicolette1 and ,rutebeuf's  ,la        
,miracle de ,thophile1 and wrote        
,lilith1 #ahib1 and ,thodat1  a dramatic
 poem in prose that was produced by my  
friend ,m4 ,paul ,fort  at the ,thtre   
d',art on ,december #aath of the same   
year4 ,several other  curious works of  
this period were united in ,le ,plerin  
du ,silence4  ,i extract from the       
bibliography by ,m4 van ,bever1 printed 
in ,potes  d'aujourd'hui1 a list of the 

more important books that have followed 
these very various beginnings3--,le     
,livre des ,masques1 #ahif2  ,les       
,chevaux de ,diomde1 #ahig2 ,le ,i,ime  
,livre des ,masques1 #ahih2  ,esthtique 
de la langue franaise1 #ahii2 ,la       
,culture des ,ides1  #aijj2 ,le ,chemin 
de ,velours1 #aijb2 ,le ,problme du     
,style1 #aijb2  ,physique de l',amour1  
#aijc2 ,une ,nuit au ,luxembourg1 #aijf2
 besides  four volumes of literary and  
philosophical criticism1 and four       
volumes  of comment on contemporary     
events4    ,all this mass of work is    
vitalised by a single motive4 ,even the 
divisions of criticism and creation     
7whose border line is very dim7  are    
made actually one by a desire common to 
both of them1 a desire not  expressed in
 them1 but satisfied1 a desire for      
intellectual freedom4  ,the motto for   
the whole is written in ,une ,nuit au   
,luxembourg3  ,l'exercice de la pense   
est un jeu1 mais il faut que ce jeu soit
  libre et harmonieux4 ,i am reminded of

 this sentence again and again  in      
thinking of ,m4 de ,gourmont and his    
books4 ,there must be no loss of        
self-command1 none of the grimaces and  
the awkward movements of the  fanatic1  
the man with whom thought plays4 ,the   
thinker must be superior  to his        
thought4 ,he must make it his plaything 
instead of being sport  for it4 ,his    
eyes must be clear1 not hallucinated2   
his arms his own1  not swung with the   
exaggerated gestures of the preacher    
moved beyond  himself by his own words4 
,m4 de ,gourmont seems less an artist   
than a  man determined to conquer his   
obsessions1 working them out one by one 
as they assail him1 in order to regain  
his freedom4 ,it is a fortunate         
accident that he works them out by      
expressing them1 twisting into  garlands
 the brambles that impede his way4      
#a ,reprinted from the ,fortnightly     
,review4    #b ,the ,symbolist ,movement
 in ,literature1 #ahii4        ,,ii     
,m4 de ,gourmont almost immediately left

 the half-hearted realism  of ,merlette1
 and1 just as in his scientific writings
 he is more  profoundly scientific than 
the men of science1 so in his works of  
this period he carried to their         
uttermost limits the doctrines of  the  
symbolists4 ,in his critical work the   
historian must look for the  manifestoes
 and polemics of the group that gathered
 in ,mallarm's rooms  in the ,rue de    
,rome4 ,the theories are in ,idalisme1  
published in #ahic1  and in such essays 
as his defence of ,mallarm1 written in  
#ahih1 and  included in the ,promenades 
,littraires4 ,of their practice he      
supplies  plenty of examples4 ,nommer un
 objet1 c'est supprimer les trois       
quarts de la jouissance du pome qui est 
faite du bonheur de deviner  peu  peu2  
le suggrer voil le rve4 ,mallarm wrote  
that in #ahia1  and during the          
'nineties1 ,remy de ,gourmont was       
publishing mysterious  little books of  
poetry and prose1 of which small limited
 editions were  issued on rare paper1 in

 curious covers1 with lithographed      
decorations  as reticent as the writing4
 ,there is the ,histoire tragique de la 
,princesse ,phnissa explique en quatre  
pisodes1 a play whose action  might be  
seen through seven veils1 a play whose  
motive1 never stated  directly1 is1     
perhaps1 the destruction of the future  
for the sake of  the present4 ,there is 
,le ,fantme1 the story of a liaison     
between a  man and a woman if you will1 
between the intellect and the flesh if  
you will1 that begins with such an      
anthem as might have been sung by  some 
of those strange beings whom ,poe took  
into the starry meadows  beyond ,orion1 
where1 for pansies and violets and      
heartsease1 are the  beds of the        
triplicate and triple-tinted suns4 ,the 
man--is it a  man8--who tells the story1
 ends with a regret for something too   
real to  be visible1 something that is  
seen because it is not visible3--,je me 
sentais froid1 j'avais peur--car je la  
voyais1 sans pouvoir m'opposer8  cette  

transformation douloureuse--je la voyais
 s'en aller rejoindre  le groupe des    
femmes indcises d'o mon amour l'avait   
tire--je la  voyais redevenir le fantme 
qu'elles sont toutes4 ,there is ,le     
,livre  des ,litanies1 with its         
wonderful incantation1 from which ,i    
take the  beginning and end3--          
,fleur hypocrite1 ,fleur du silence4    
,rose couleur de          cuivre1 plus  
frauduleuse que nos joies1 rose couleur 
de cuivre1 embaume-nous dans tes        
mensonges1 fleur          hypocrite1    
fleur du silence4                  99   
99       99       99       99           
,rose amthyste1 toile matinale1         
tendresse piscopale1          rose      
amthyste1 tu dors sur des poitrines     
dvotes et          douillettes1 gemme   
offerte  ,marie1  gemme sacristine1     
fleur hypocrite1 fleur du silence4      
,rose cardinale1 rose couleur du sang de
 l',eglise          romaine1 rose       
cardinale1 tu fais rver les grands yeux 
des mignons et plus d'un t'pingla au    

noeud de sa          jarretire1 fleur   
hypocrite1 fleur du silence4            
,rose papale1 rose arrose des mains qui 
bnissent le          monde1 rose papale1
 ton coeur d'or est en cuivre1 et       
les larmes qui perlent sur ta vaine     
corolle1 ce sont les          pleurs du 
,christ1 fleur hypocrite1 fleur du      
silence4            ,fleur hypocrite1   
,fleur du silence4        ,,iii         
,these1 and other things like them1 made
 it possible for ,m4 de ,gourmont  to   
proceed in the discovery of himself4 ,he
 drank his mood to the dregs1  leaving  
no untried experiment to clog his mind  
with a regret as he  moved on4 ,i have  
always been excessive1 he says2 ,i do   
not like to  stop half-way4 ,he follows 
each impulse as far as it will take him1
  lest1 by chance1 he should leave some 
flower untasted in a by-path he  has    
seen but not explored4 ,unlike most     
authors1 he never has to copy  himself1 
and does not feel bound1 because he has 
written one book whose  prose is        

malachite green1 to produce another of  
the same colour4 ,un  artiste1 said     
,wilde1 ne recommence jamais deux fois  
la mme chose  444 ou bien c'est qu'il   
n'avait pas russi4 ,the surest way to   
fail in  an experiment is to make it    
with a faint heart4 ,m4 de ,gourmont    
always  burns his boats4    ,some       
preoccupations1 however boldly attacked1
 are not to be conquered  at a blow4    
,the preoccupation of sex is unlike that
 of a theory of art4  ,conquered again  
and again by expression1 it returns with
 a new face1 a  new mystery1 a new power
 of binding the intellect1 a new ,gorgon
 to be  seen in the mirror of art and   
decapitated4 ,as the man changes1 so    
does  ,medusa vary her attack1 and so   
must he vary the manner of her death4   
,now he will write a ,physique de       
l',amour1 and1 like ,schopenhauer1      
relieve himself of the problem of sex by
 reducing it to lowest terms4  ,now he  
will conquer it by the lyrical and      
concrete expression of a  novel or a    

poem4 ,sex continually disturbs him1 but
 the disturbance  of the flesh is       
always1 sooner or later1 pacified by the
 mind4 ,all  his later novels are1 like 
,sixtine1 romans de la vie crbrale4     
,sixtine is the story of a writer's     
courtship of a woman no more  subtle    
than himself1 but far more ready with   
her subtlety4 ,it displays  the workings
 of the man's mind and the states of    
emotion through  which he passes1 by    
including in the text1 as they were     
written1 the  stories and poems composed
 under the influence of the events4 ,the
 man  is intensely analytic1 afterwards4
 ,emotion blurs the windows of his      
brain1 and cleans hers to a greater     
lucidity4 ,he always knows what  he     
ought to have done4 ,nul n'avait  un    
plus haut degr la prsence  d'esprit du  
bas de l'escalier4 ,more than once the  
woman was his1 if  he had known it      
before he left her4 ,finally1 she is    
carried off by a  rival whose method he 
has himself suggested4 ,the book is a   

tragedy  of self-consciousness1 whose   
self-conscious heroine is a prize for   
the only man who is ignorant of himself1
 and1 in the blindness of  that         
ignorance1 is able to act4 ,but there is
 no need to analyse the  frameworks of  
,m4 de ,gourmont's novels4 ,frameworks  
matter very little4  ,they are all      
vitalised by an almost impatient        
knowledge of the subtlety  of a woman's 
mind in moments of pursuit or flight1   
and of the impotence  of a man whose    
brain seeks to be an honest mediator    
between itself and  his flesh4 ,his men 
do not love like the heroes of ordinary 
books1 and  are not in the least likely 
to suggest impossible ideals to maidens4
  ,they are unfaithful in the flesh     
nearly always4 ,they use one experience 
as an ansthetic for the pain they are   
undergoing in another4 ,they  seek to be
 masters of themselves by knowledge1 and
 are unhappy without  thinking of       
suicide on that account4 ,unhappiness no
 less than joy is  a thing to be known4 

,they fail1 not getting what they want1 
and are  victorious in understanding1   
with smiling lips1 their non-success4   
,,iv      ,one afternoon1 in the ,rue   
des ,saints-,pres1 ,m4 de ,gourmont     
confirmed  the impression already given 
me by his books and his eyebrows4 ,i    
have always been both romanesque and    
critique4 ,side by side he  has built   
separate piles of books4 ,while writing 
the curiosities of  symbolism that are  
collected in ,le ,plerin du ,silence1 he
 was preparing  the ,livres des         
,masques1 two series of short critical  
portraits of the  writers of his time1  
which1 in the case of those who survive1
 are as  true to-day as when they were  
written4 ,it has been so throughout4    
,in the one pile are little volumes of  
poetry like ,les ,saintes du  ,paradis1 
and such romances as those we have been 
discussing2 in the  other are works of  
science like the ,physique de l',amour1 
books  benevolently polemical like ,le  
,problme du ,style1 and collections of  

criticism in which an agile intelligence
 collaborates with a wakeful  sense of  
beauty4    ,in this critical work1 as in
 what is more easily recognised as      
creative1 ,m4 de ,gourmont builds for   
freedom4 ,he will be bound  neither by  
his own preoccupations nor by other     
men's thoughts4 ,it is  characteristic  
of him that his most personal essays in 
criticism are  ,dissociations of ,ideas4
 ,the dissociation of ideas is a method 
of  thought that separates the ideas put
 into double harness by tradition1  just
 as the chemist turns water into        
hydrogen and oxygen1 with which1        
severally1 he can make other compounds4 
,this1 like most questions of  thought1 
is a question of words4 ,words are the  
liberators of ideas1  since without them
 ideas cannot escape from the flux of   
feeling into  independent life4 ,they   
are also their gaolers1 since they are  
terribly  cohesive1 and married words   
cling together1 binding in a lover's    
knot  the ideas they represent4 ,all men

 using words in combination abet  these 
marriages1 though in doing so they are  
making bars of iron for  the prisons in 
which they speculate on the torn        
fragment of sky that  their window lets 
them perceive4 ,nothing is easier than1 
by taking  words and their associations 
as they are commonly used1 to strengthen
  the adherence of ideas to each other4 
,nothing needs a more awakened          
intelligence than to weaken the bonds of
 such ideas by separating  the words    
that bind them4 ,that is the method of  
,m4 de ,gourmont4 ,he  separates1 for   
example1 the idea of ,stphane ,mallarm  
and that of  decadence1 the idea of     
glory and that of immortality1 the idea 
of success and that of beauty4 ,it is1  
too1 a dissociation of ideas  when he   
inquires into the value of education1   
these two ideas of  worth and knowledge 
being commonly allied4 ,the method1 or  
rather the  consciousness of the method1
 is fruitful in material for discussion1
  though this advantage cannot weigh    

much with ,m4 de ,gourmont1 whose  brain
 lacks neither motive power nor grist to
 grind4 ,it is1 for him1 no  more than a
 recurrent cleaning of the glasses      
through which he looks at  the subjects 
of his speculation4    ,he speculates   
continually1 and1 if questions are      
insoluble1 is not  content until he has 
so posed them as to show the reason of  
their  insolubility4 ,he prefers a calm 
question mark to the more emotional     
mark of exclamation1 and is always happy
 when he can turn the second  into the  
first4 ,he is extraordinarily thorough1 
moving always in mass  and taking       
everything with him1 so that he has no  
footsteps to retrace  in order to pick  
up baggage left behind4 ,unlike         
,theseus1 he unrolls no  clue of thread 
when he enters the cavern of the        
,minotaur4 ,he will come  out by a      
different way or not at all4 ,the most  
powerful ,minotaur of our  day does not 
dismay him4 ,confident in his own       
probity1 he will walk  calmly among the 

men of science and bring an ,esthtique  
de la langue  franaise1 or a ,physique  
de l',amour1 meat of unaccustomed       
richness1  to lay before their husk-fed 
deity4    ,in criticism1 as in creation1
 he does not like things half-done4 ,the
  story of the origin of one of these   
books is the story of them all4  ,there 
is a foolish little book by ,m4         
,albalat1 which professes to teach      
style in twenty-seven lessons4 ,m4 de   
,gourmont read it and smiled2 he  wrote 
an article1 and still found something to
 smile at2 he wrote a  book1 ,le        
,problme du ,style1 in which1 mocking   
,m4 ,albalat through a  hundred and     
fifty-two courteous pages1 he showed1   
besides many other  things1 that style  
is not to be taught in twenty-seven     
lessons1 and1  indeed1 is not to be     
taught at all4 ,then he felt free to    
smile at  something else4    ,m4 de     
,gourmont is careful to say that he     
brought to the ,esthtique de  la langue 
franaise1 ni lois1 ni rgles1 ni         

principes peut-tre2 je  n'apporte rien  
qu'un sentiment esthtique assez violent 
et quelques  notions historiques3 voil  
ce que je jette au hasard dans la grande
  cuve o fermente la langue de demain4  
,an sthetic feeling and some  historical
 notions were sufficiently needed in the
 fermenting vat where  the old ,french  
language1 in which there is hardly any  
,greek1 is being  horribly adulterated  
with grainless translations of good     
,french made  by ,hellenists of the     
dictionary4 ,m4 de ,gourmont is in love 
with his  language1 but knows that she  
is rather vain and ready to wear all    
kinds  of borrowed plumes1 whether or   
not they suit her4 ,he would take from  
her her imitation ostrich feathers1 and 
would hide also all ribbons  from the   
,london market1 unless she first dyes   
them until they fall  without discord   
into the scheme of colour that centuries
 have made  her own4 ,why write high    
life1 for example1 or five o'clock1 or  
sleeping8    ,why shock ,french and     

,english alike by writing ,le ,club de  
,rugby  on a gate in ,tours8 ,a         
kingfisher in ,england flies very       
happily as  martin-pcheur in ,france1   
and the language is not so sterile as to
 be  unable to breed words from its own 
stock for whatever needs a name4        
,physique de l',amour2 ,essai sur       
l'instinct sexuel1 qui n'est qu'un      
essai1 parce que la matire de son ide   
est immense1 reprsente  pourtant une    
ambition3 on voudrait agrandir la       
psychologie gnrale de  l'amour1 la faire
 commencer au commencement mme de       
l'activit mle  et femelle1 situer la vie
 sexuelle de l'homme dans le plan unique
 de  la sexualit universelle4 ,it is a  
book full of illustration1 a vast       
collection of facts1 and throws into    
another fermenting vat than that  of    
language some sufficiently valuable     
ideas4 ,it lessens the pride  of man1   
and1 at the same time1 gives him a      
desperate courage1 as it  shows him that
 even in the eccentricities of his      

love-making he is  not alone1 that the  
modesty of his women is a faint         
hesitation beside  the terrified flight 
of the she-mole1 that his own           
superiority is but  an accident1 and    
that he must hold himself fortunate in  
that nature  does not treat him like the
 male bee1 and toss his mangled body    
disdainfully to earth as soon as he has 
done her work4 ,m4 de ,gourmont's  books
 do not flatter humanity4 ,they clear   
the eyes of the strong1 and  anger the  
weak who cannot bear to listen to       
unpalatable truths4 ,this  book is in   
its eighth edition in ,france1 and has  
been published in all  ,european        
languages except our own4        ,v     
,m4 de ,gourmont's most obvious quality 
is versatility1 and though1 as ,i  have 
tried to point out1 it is not difficult 
to find a unity of cause  or intention  
in his most various expressions1 his    
lofty and careless  pursuit of his      
inclinations1 his life of thought for   
its own sake1 has  probably cost him a  

wide and immediate recognition4 ,that   
loss is not  his1 but is borne by those 
who depend for their reading on the     
names  that float upward from the crowd4
 ,even his admirers complain3 some that 
he has not given them more poems2 others
 that his ,physique de l',amour  stands 
alone on its shelf2 others that a critic
 such as he should have  spent time on  
romances2 others1 again1 that a writer  
of such romances  should have used any  
of his magnificent power in what they   
cannot see  to be creative work4 ,m4 de 
,gourmont is indifferent to all alike1  
and  sits aloft in the ,rue des         
,saints-,pres1 indulging his mind with  
free  and harmonious play4    ,in one of
 his books1 far more than in the others1
 two at least of  his apparently        
opposite activities have come to work in
 unison4 ,all  his romances1 after and  
including ,sixtine1 are vitalised by a  
never-sleeping intellect2 but one in    
particular is a book whose essence  is  
both critical and romantic1 a book of   

thought coloured like a poem  and moving
 with a delicate grace of narrative4    
,une ,nuit au ,luxembourg  was published
 in #aijf1 and is the book that opens   
most vistas in ,m4  de ,gourmont's work4
 ,a god walks in the gardens behind the 
,odon1 and  a winter's night is a       
summer's morning1 on which the young    
journalist  who has dared to say ,my    
friend to the luminous unknown in the   
church  of ,saint-,sulpice1 hears him   
proclaim the forgotten truth that in one
  age his mother has been ,mary1 and in 
another ,latona1 and the new truth  that
 the gods are not immortal though their 
lives are long4 ,flowers  are in bloom  
where they walk1 and three beautiful    
girls greet them  with divine amity4    
,most of the book is written in         
dialogue1 and in  this ancient form1    
never filled with subtler essences1     
doubts are  born and become beliefs1    
beliefs become doubts and die1 while the
 sun  shines1 flowers are sweet1 and    
girls' lips soft to kiss4 ,where there  

is ,god he will not have ,love absent1  
and where ,love is he finds the  most   
stimulating exercise for his brain4     
,ideas are given an sthetic  rather than
 a scientific value1 and are used like  
the tints on a  palette4 ,indeed1 the   
book is a balanced composition in which 
each  colour has its complement4        
,epicurus1 ,lucretius1 ,st4 ,paul1      
,christianity1  the replenishment of the
 earth by the ,jews2 it is impossible to
 close  the book at any page without    
finding the mind as it were upon a      
spring-board and ready to launch itself 
in delightful flight4 ,there  are many  
books that give a specious sensation of 
intellectual business  while we read    
them4 ,there are very few that leave1   
long after they are  laid aside1 stimuli
 to independent activity4               
,,appendix      ,,vi      ,il ne faut   
pas chercher la vrit2 mais devant un    
homme comprendre  quelle est sa vrit4   
,we must not seek in a man's work for   
the truth1  since there are as many     

truths as brains2 but it is worth while 
to  define an answer here and an answer 
there out of the many4 ,what is the     
answer of ,remy de ,gourmont8 ,quelle   
est sa vrit8 ,of what kind is his       
truth8 ,does he bring rosemary for      
remembrance or poppy for oblivion8  ,not
 in what he says1 but in the point from 
which he says it1 we must  look for our 
indications4 ,his life1 like ,sixtine1  
is a roman de la  vie crbrale4 ,it is   
the spectacle of a man whose conquests  
are won  by understanding4 ,for him the 
escape of mysticism was inadequate1 and 
an invitation to cowardice4 ,he would   
not abdicate1 but1 since those  empires 
are unstable whose boundaries are fixed1
 conquer continually4  ,the conquests of
 the mind are not won by neglect4 ,it is
 not sufficient  to refuse to see4 ,the 
conqueror must see so clearly that life 
blushes  before his sober eyes1 and1    
understood1 no longer dominates4 ,remy  
de  ,gourmont has suffered and conquered
 his suffering in understanding  it4 ,he

 would extend this dominion4 ,he would  
realise all that happens  to him1 books1
 a chance visitor1 a meeting in the     
street1 the liquid  bars of light across
 the muddy ,seine4 ,he would transmute  
all into the  mercurial matter of       
thought1 until1 at last impregnable1 he 
should  see life from above1 having     
trained his digestive powers to the same
  perfection as his powers of reception4
 ,although one of the ,symbolists1  he  
has moved far from the starting-point   
assigned to that school by  ,mr4        
,symons4 ,his books are not escapes from
 the thought of death4 ,the  thought of 
death is to him like any other thought1 
a rude playfellow  to be mastered and   
trained to fitness for that free and    
harmonious  game4 ,the life of the      
brain1 the noblest of all battles1 that 
of a mind  against the universe which it
 creates1 has come to seem more         
important  to him than the curiosities  
of beauty of which he was once          
enamoured4  ,it has1 perhaps1 made him  

more of a thinker than an artist4 ,in   
his  desire to conquer his obsessions he
 has sometimes lost sight of the  unity 
that is essential to art1 a happy       
accident in thought4 ,his later  books  
have been the by-products of a more     
intimate labour4 ,he has left  them by  
the road whose end he has not hoped to  
reach1 whose pursuit  suffices him4 ,in 
,une ,nuit au ,luxembourg1 the thinker  
is now and then  a little contemptuous  
of the artist4 ,the reader is moved by  
something  beside a purely sthetic      
emotion4 ,beside the breath of          
loveliness that  blows fitfully1 almost 
carelessly1 through those flowering     
trees1  there is a sturdier wind that   
compels a bracing of the shoulders and  
an opening of the chest4 ,the spectacle 
of that mind1 playing with gods  and    
worlds1 so certain of its own balance1  
wakes a feeling of emulation  which has 
nothing to do with art4 ,this feeling of
 emulation1 never  far from a feeling of
 beauty1 is the characteristic gift of  

,m4 de  ,gourmont's work4 ,there was an 
artist2 there was a thinker2 there is a 
philosopher whose thought loses nothing 
through being beautiful1 whose  art     
loses little through being the pathway  
of the most daring1 the  surest-footed  
thought4