PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



a long time he pursues the desired mistress, plays with 

 her, finally seizes her above the neck with the terminal 

 pincers of his abdomen, then, turning like a serpent, he 

 bends forward and continues to fly, a beast with four 

 pairs of wings. In this attitude, the male, sure of himself, 

 with the air of the hour's indifferent master, chases 

 midges, visits flowers and the axilla of plants where the 

 midges sleep, nabs them with his feet and puts them into 

 his mouth. Finally the female accedes, bends downward 

 her flexible abdomen and makes its orifice coincide with 

 the male's pectoral penis: the two beastlets are but one 

 splendid ring with a double cup, a ring trembling with 

 life and with fire. 



No gesture of love can be conceived more charming 

 than that of the female slowly bending back her blue 

 body, going half way toward her lover, who erect on his 

 forefeet bears, with taut muscles, the full weight of the 

 movement. It is so pure, so immaterial, one would say 

 that two ideas joined in the limpidity of ineluctable 

 thought. 



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