and more far-sighted,
we degrade, and in case of a second offence we condemn to be thrown into
a lake of petroleum, whoever allows himself to infringe our
constitutional law on this point, or rather we should say, should allow
himself, for the force of public opinion has got the better of the crime
and has rendered our penalties unnecessary. We sometimes, nay very
often, see lovers who go mad from love and die in consequence. Others
courageously get themselves hoisted by a lift to the gaping mouth of an
extinct volcano and reach the outer air which in a moment freezes them
to death. They have scarcely time to regard the azure sky--a magnificent
spectacle, so they say--and the twilight hues of the still dying sun or
the vast and unstudied disorder of the stars; then locked in each
other's arms they fall dead upon the ice! The summit of their favourite
volcano is completely crowned with their corpses which are admirably
preserved always in twos, stark and livid, a living image still of love
and agony, of despair and frenzy, but more often of ecstatic repose.
They recently made an indelible impression on a celebrated traveller who
was bold enough to make the ascent in order to get a glimpse of them. We
all know how he has since died from the effects.

But what is unheard of and unexampled in our day is for a woman in love
to abandon herself to her lover before the latter has under her
inspiration produced a masterpiece which is adjudged and proclaimed as
such by his rivals. For here we have the indispensable condition to
which legitimate marriage is subordinated. The right to have children is
the monopoly and supreme recompense of genius. It is besides a powerful
lever for the uplifting and exaltation of the race. Futhermore a man can
only exercise it exactly the same number of times as he produces works
worthy of a master. But in this respect some indulgence is shown. It
even happens pretty frequently that touched by pity for some grand
passion that disposes only of a mediocre talent, the affected admiration
of the public partly from sympathy and partly from condescension accords
a favourable verdict to works of no intrinsic value. Perhaps there are
also (in fact there is no doubt about it) for common use other methods
of getting round the law.

Ancient society reposed on the fear of punishment, on a penal system
which has had its day. Ours, it is clear, is based on the expectation of
happiness. The enthusiasm and creat