SATAN, AS LOVER 17S

Fierce the magnetic inflaenoe of his dusky fiesh; his great foot, well-formed, yraa planted ûrm in the sand — with spreading toes;

" Corne ont," he said with a tannt: " art thon afraid to meet me ? "

And I answered not, but sprang upon him and smote him.

And he smote me a thousand times, and farashed and scorched and slew me with hands of âame ;

And I was glad, for my body lay there dead. And I sprang upon him again with another body ;

And he tnmed upon me, and smote me a thousand times, and slew that body ;

And I was glad and sprang upon him again with another body —

And with another and another and again another.

And the bodies which I took on yiélded before him, and were hke dnctures of flame upon me, but I flung them aside ;

And the pains which I endured in one body were powers which I wielded in the next; and I grew in strength tiU at last I stood before him complète, with a body like his own, and equal in mi^t — exultant in pride and joy.

Then he ceased, and said " I love thee."

And lo ! his form changed, and he leaned backwards, and drew me upon him.

And bore me up into the air, and floated me over the topmost trees and the océan, and round the curve of the earth under the moon-^

Till we stood again in Paradise.^

Lover indeed is he who deals not tenderly with us, giving us an arm to lean upon, but roughly with us, that we may develop that inward core

i r, JD., p. 363.