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out. Every lime I shall stand in need of consulting 

 the oracle , I am convinced I shall fiud it, it will 

 not refuse to answer, nor will it deceive me. 



»I am not born of the oak, said Talaon, I am not 

 born of the rock, my body was not molten brass , 

 three times in a day could I make the tour of Crète. 

 Thus was I formerly. Then , I shouldnot hâve had 

 the intelligence of thy discourses. But to escape the 

 fate winch threatened me , for my life depended on 

 a fatal nail which might be taken from me , I re- 

 cognized the empire of Jupiter, and I hâve changed 

 my nature. It is now given me to understand thee. 

 Thou confidest in the inspiration of speech itself. 

 This sublime and impénétrable doctrine, which thou 

 receivedst as the breath of life , or as the sight by 

 which thy eyes see, thy origin being deavenly this 

 sublime and impénétrable doctrine was already 

 taught me by the sages of Indus. Let it be , for 

 some instants the subjecl, not of our solitary mé- 

 ditations, but of our communicated ones. As thou , 

 I feed on the fruits of the earth ; and the thoughts 

 of man are given , to fertilize each other mutually. 

 However I will before ail tell you one single thing. 

 Thou confidest in speech , refuse speech to those 

 who ought not to possess it. Envelop the law in 

 mystery to render it , unfathomable to the pro- 

 fane. 



» Thus Talaon and Orpheus conversed together 

 and beguiled by such discourses the approach of 

 4 séparation which was to be so painful to ail. He 

 to whom it should be given to know the conver- 



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