son, reject as a vain fable the idea of immortality to be sucked in
with a kiss. It is to the shame of more than one of the cabalists to
have ever conceived such an idea. But for all that it is quite
evident that Salamanders are inclined to man's love. You'll soon
experience it yourself. I have sufficiently prepared you for a visit
from them, and as, since the night of your initiation, you have not
had any impure intercourse with a woman you will obtain the reward
of your continency."

My natural candidness suffered by receiving praise which I had
merited against my own will, and I wished to confess to M. d'Asterac
my guilty thoughts. But he did not give me time to do so, and
continued with vivacity:

"Nothing now remains for me, my son, but to give you the key which
opens the empire of the genii. That is what I am going to do at
once."

Rising he put a hand on the globe which covered one half of the
table.

"This globe," he said, "is full of a solar powder which escapes
being visible to you by its own purity. It is much too delicate to
be seen by means of the coarse senses of men. So comes it, my son,
that the finest parts of the universe are concealed from our sight
and reveal themselves only to the learned, provided with apparatus
proper for this discovery. The rivers and the aerial landscapes, for
example, remain invisible, even as their aspect is a thousand times
richer and more variegated than the most beautiful terrestrial
landscape.