undergoing, it is sufficient
that I should tell you that these spirits are always striving eagerly
to enter into unions with human beings; and as they are well aware that
human beings are strongly adverse to those unions, they employ all
manner of subtle and crafty artifices to delude such of the latter as
they have fixed their affections upon. Often it is a twig, a flower, a
glass of water, a fire-steel, or something else, in appearance of no
importance, which they employ as a means of compassing their intent. It
is true that unions of this sort often turn out exceedingly happily, as
in the case of two priests, mentioned by Prince della Mirandola, who
spent forty years of the happiest possible wedlock with a spirit of
this description. It is true, moreover, that the most renowned sages
have been the offspring of such unions between human beings and
elementary spirits. Thus, the great Zoroaster was a son of the
salamander Oromasis; the great Apollonius, the sage Merlin, the valiant
Count of Cleve, and the great cabbalist, Ben-Syra, were the glorious
fruits of marriages of this description, and according to Paracelsus
the beautiful Melusina was no other than a sylphide. But yet,
notwithstanding, the peril of such a union is much too great, for not
only do the elementary spirits require of those on whom they confer
their favours that the clearest light of the profoundest wisdom shall
have arisen and shall shine upon them, but besides this they are
extraordinarily touchy and sensitive, and revenge offences with extreme
severity. Thus, it once happened that a sylphide, who was in union with
a philosopher, on an occasion when he was talking with friends about a
pretty woman--and perhaps rather too warmly--suddenly allowed her white
beautifully-formed limb to become visible in the air, as if to convince
the friends of her beauty, and then killed the poor philosopher
on the spot. But ah! why should I refer to others? Why don't I
speak of myself? I am aware that for the last twelve years I have
been beloved by a sylphide, but she is timorous and coy, and I am
tortured by the thought of the danger of fettering her to me more
closely by cabbalistic processes, inasmuch as I am still much too
dependent on earthly necessities, and consequently lack the necessary
degree of wisdom. Every morning I make up my mind to fast, and I
succeed in letting breakfast pass without touching any; but when
mid-day comes, oh! Anna, my daughter Anna, y