eator serve two purposes, why did He not choose another
method of performing that sacred mission, which is the noblest and the
most exalted of all human functions? The mouth, which nourishes the body
by means of material food, also diffuses abroad speech and thought. Our
flesh renews itself of its own accord, while we are thinking about it.
The olfactory organs, through which the vital air reaches the lungs,
communicate all the perfumes of the world to the brain: the smell of
flowers, of woods, of trees, of the sea. The ear, which enables us to
communicate with our fellow men, has also allowed us to invent music, to
create dreams, happiness, infinite and even physical pleasure by means of
sound! But one might say that the cynical and cunning Creator wished to
prohibit man from ever ennobling and idealizing his intercourse with
women. Nevertheless man has found love, which is not a bad reply to that
sly Deity, and he has adorned it with so much poetry that woman often
forgets the sensual part of it. Those among us who are unable to deceive
themselves have invented vice and refined debauchery, which is another
way of laughing at God and paying homage, immodest homage, to beauty.

"But the normal man begets children just like an animal coupled with
another by law.

"Look at that woman! Is it not abominable to think that such a jewel,
such a pearl, born to be beautiful, admired, feted and adored, has spent
eleven years of her life in providing heirs for the Comte de Mascaret?"

Bernard Grandin replied with a laugh: "There is a great deal of truth in
all that, but very few people would understand you."

Salnis became more and more animated. "Do you know how I picture God
myself?" he said. "As an enormous, creative organ beyond our ken, who
scatters millions of worlds into space, just as one single fish would
deposit its spawn in the sea. He creates because it is His function as
God to do so, but He does not know what He is doing and is stupidly
prolific in His work and is ignorant of the combinations of all kinds
which are produced by His scattered germs. The human mind is a lucky
little local, passing accident which was totally unforeseen, and
condemned to disappear with this earth and to recommence perhaps here or
elsewhere the same or different with fresh combinations of eternally new
beginnings. We owe it to this little lapse of intelligence on His part
that we are very uncomfortable in this world which was not made fo