IV.



Prostitution is an Isis whose final veil none has raised.
There is a sphinx in this gloomy odalisk of the frightful
Sultan Everybody. None has solved its enigma. It is
Nakedness masked. A terrible spectacle!

Alas! in all that we have just recounted man is abominable,
woman is touching.

How many hapless ones have been driven to their fall!

The abyss is the friend of dreams. Fallen, as we have
said, their lamentable hearts have no other resource than
to dream.

What caused their ruin was another dream, the dreadful
dream of riches; nightmare of glory, of azure, and ecstasy
which weighs upon the chest of the poor; flourish of
trumpets heard in the gehenna, with the triumph of the
fortunate appearing resplendent in the immense night;
prodigious overture full of dawn! Carriages roll, gold falls
in showers, laces rustle.

Why should I not have this, too? Formidable thought!