the very kind to bring one to the devil at the end of this transient
life?

"After all, this sire Mosaide plainly errs in his interpretation of
the Holy Scriptures. When our Lord expired on the cross for the
salvation of mankind the synagogue felt a bandage slip over her
eyes, she staggered like a drunken woman and the crown fell from her
head. Since then the interpretation of the Old Testament is confined
to the Catholic Church, to which in spite of my many iniquities I
belong."

At these words Mosaide, like a goat god, smiled in a hideous manner,
and said to my dear tutor, in a slow and musty voice sounding as
from far away:

"The Masorah has not confided to thee her secrets and the Mischna
has not revealed to thee her mysteries."

"Mosaide," continued M. d'Asterac, "not only interprets the books of
Moses but also that of Enoch, which is much more important, and
which has been rejected by the Christians, who were unable to
understand it; like the cock of the Arabian fable, who disdained the
pearl fallen in his grain. That book of Enoch, M. Abbe Coignard, is
the more precious because therein are to be seen the first talks the
daughters of man had with the Sylphs. You must understand that those
angels which as Enoch shows us had love connection with women were
Sylphs and Salamanders."

"I will so understand, sir," replied my good master, "not wishing to
gainsay you. But from what has been conserved of the book of Enoch,