PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



CHAPTER XV 



THE SEXUAL PARADE 



Universality of the caress, of amorous preludes. Their 

 role in fecundation. Sexual games of birds. How 

 cantharides caress. Males' combats. Pretended com- 

 bats of birds. Dance of the tetras. Gardener bird. 

 His country house. His taste for flowers. Reflections 

 on the origin of his art. Combats of crickets. Parade 

 of butterflies. Sexual sense of orientation. The great- 

 peacock moth. Animals' submission to orders of Na- 

 ture. Transmutation of physical values. Rutting cal- 

 endar. 



ONE has convinced oneself in the preceding chapters that 

 the games of love, preludes, caresses, combats are in no 

 way peculiar to the human race. On nearly all rungs of 

 the animal ladder, or rather on all the branches of the 

 animal fan, the male is the same, the female is the same. 

 It is always the equation given in the intimate mechanism 

 of union of animalcule and ovule: a fortress toward which 

 amans volat currit ac Icetatur. The whole passage of the 

 Imitatio (L. Ill, chap, iv, 4) is a marvellous psychologi- 

 cal presentation of love in nature, of sexual attraction as 

 it is felt throughout the whole series of creatures. The 

 besieger must enter the fortress; he uses violence, some- 

 times gentle violence; more often trickery, the caress. 

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