eyes, whereas I do not
remember that at this time her voice had made any impression on me,
although later this became all-important."

In belletristic literature, also, we find occasional references to the
love-sentiment in childhood. Groos refers to an instance which he thinks
perhaps the most delicate known to him, and one in which the erotic
element is but faintly emphasised, namely, Gottfried Keller's _Romeo und
Julia_. "In a spot entirely covered with green undergrowth the girl
stretched herself on her back, for she was tired, and began in a
monotonous tone to sing a few words, repeating the same ones over and
over again; the boy crouched close beside her, half inclined, he also,
to stretch himself at full length on the ground, so lethargic did he
feel. The sun shone into the girl's open mouth as she sang, lighting up
her glistening white teeth, and gleaming on her full red lips. The boy
caught sight of her teeth, and, holding the girl's head and eagerly
examining her teeth, said, 'Tell me, how many teeth has one?' The girl
paused for a moment, as if thinking the matter carefully over, but then
answered at random, 'A hundred.' 'No!' he cried; 'thirty-two is the
proper number; wait a moment, I'll count yours.' He counted them, but
could not get the tale right to thirty-two, and so counted them again,
and again, and again. The girl let him go on for some time, but as he
did not come to an end of his eager counting, she suddenly interrupted
him, and said, 'Now, let me count yours.' The boy lay down in his turn
on the undergrowth; the girl leaned over him, with her arm round his
head; he opened his mouth, and she began counting: 'One, two, seven,
five, two, one,' for the little beauty did not yet know how to count.
The boy corrected her, and explained to her how to count properly; so
she, in her turn, attempted to count his teeth over and over again: and
this game seemed to please them more than any they had played together
that day. At last, however, the girl sank down on her youthful
instructor's breast, and the two children fell asleep in the bright
midday sunshine."

In erotic literature we also occasionally find descriptions belonging to
our province, as, for instance, in the _Satyricon_ of Petronius Arbiter.
Indeed, a certain kind of erotic literature, more especially
pornographic literature, selects this subject by preference. Thus, I may
allude to the _Anti-Justine_ of Retif de la Bretonne. In a certain
secti