this creature so supremely intelligent,
who has displayed a power well-nigh supernatural, who has employed the
resources of his genius in concealing the machinery of his life, in
deifying his necessary cravings in order that he might not despise them,
going so far as to wrest from Chinese leaves, from Egyptian beans, from
seeds of Mexico, their perfume, their treasure, their soul; going so far
as to chisel the diamond, chase the silver, melt the gold ore, paint
the clay and woo every art that may serve to decorate and to dignify the
bowl from which he feeds!--how can this king, after having hidden under
folds of muslin covered with diamonds, studded with rubies, and buried
under linen, under folds of cotton, under the rich hues of silk, under
the fairy patterns of lace, the partner of his wretchedness, how can
he induce her to make shipwreck in the midst of all this luxury on the
decks of two beds. What advantage is it that we have made the whole
universe subserve our existence, our delusions, the poesy of our life?
What good is it to have instituted law, morals and religion, if the
invention of an upholsterer [for probably it was an upholsterer who
invented the twin beds] robs our love of all its illusions, strips it
bare of the majestic company of its delights and gives it in their
stead nothing but what is ugliest and most odious? For this is the whole
history of the two bed system.

LXIII.
That it shall appear either sublime or grotesque are the alternatives
to which we have reduced a desire.

If it be shared, our love is sublime; but should you sleep in twin beds,
your love will always be grotesque. The absurdities which this half
separation occasions may be comprised in either one of two situations,
which will give us occasion to reveal the causes of very many marital
misfortunes.

Midnight is approaching as a young woman is putting on her curl
papers and yawning as she did so. I do not know whether her melancholy
proceeded from a headache, seated in the right or left lobe of her
brain, or whether she was passing through one of those seasons of
weariness during which all things appear black to us; but to see her
negligently putting up her hair for the night, to see her languidly
raising her leg to take off her garter, it seemed to me that she would
prefer to be drowned rather than to be denied the relief of plunging her
draggled life into the slumber tha