not insist on the care he took with a view of making these unions
prolific. The harmony between the sexes is an ample proof of his
wisdom in this regard. And surely at the outset he had reason to
congratulate himself on his shrewdness and ability.

"I have said the Sylphs and Salamanders looked on Adam and Eve with
that curiosity, sympathy and tenderness which are the first
ingredients of love. They approached them, and fell into the clever
traps Jehovah had disposed and spread intentionally in the body and
on the belly of these two amphorae.

"The first man and the first woman enjoyed during centuries the
delicious embraces of the genii of the air, which conserved them in
eternal youth.

"Such was their lot, and such could still be ours. Why was it that
the parents of the human species, fatigued by celestial luxury,
should try to find criminal enjoyments with one another?

"But what could you expect, my son? Kneaded of clay they had a taste
for mud. Alas! they became acquainted with one another in the same
way as they had known the genii.

"And that was what the demiurge had expressly forbidden them.
Afraid, and with reason, that they would produce between them
children as clumsy as themselves, terrestrial and heavy, he forbade
them, under severest penalties, to approach each other. Such is the
sense of Eve's words: 'But of the fruit of the tree which is in the
midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye touch it lest ye die.' For you well understand, my son,