one would know the bond between mind and
matter, wherein Being consists!

"There are those figures which were painted at Babylon on the wall of
the temple of Belus, and they covered a mosaic in the port of Carthage.
I, myself, have sometimes seen in the sky what seemed like forms of
spirits. Those who traverse the desert meet animals passing all
conception ..."

And, opposite him, on the other side of the Nile, lo! the Sphinx
appears.

It stretches out its feet, shakes the fillets on its forehead, and lies
down upon its belly.

Jumping, flying, spirting fire through its nostrils, and striking its
wings with its dragon's tail, the Chimera with its green eyes, winds
round, and barks. The curls of its head, thrown back on one side,
intermingle with the hair on its haunches; and on the other side they
hang over the sand, and move to and fro with the swaying of its entire
body.

The Sphinx is motionless, and gazes at the Chimera:

"Here, Chimera; stop!"

_The Chimera_--"No, never!"

_The Sphinx_--"Do not run so quickly; do not fly so high; do not bark so
loud!"

_The Chimera_--"Do not address me, do not address me any more, since you
remain forever silent!"

_The Sphinx_--"Cease casting your flames in my face and flinging your
yells in my ears; you shall not melt my granite!"

_The Chimera_--"You will not get hold of me, terrible Sphinx!"

_The Sphinx_--"You are too foolish to live with me!"

_The Chimera_--"You are too clumsy to follow me!"

_The Sphinx_--"And where are you going that you run so quickly?"

_The Chimera_--"I gallop into the corridors of the labyrinth; I hover
over the mountains; I skim along the waves; I yelp at the bottoms of
precipices; I hang by my jaws on the skirts of the clouds. With my
trailing tail I scratch the coasts, and the hills have taken their curb
according to the form of my shoulders. But as for you, I find you
perpetually motionless; or, rather, with the end of your claw tracing
letters on the sand."

_The Sphinx_--"That is because I keep my secret! I reflect and I
calculate. The sea returns to its bed; the blades of corn balance
themselves in the wind; the caravans pass; the dust flies off; the
cities crumble;--but my glance, which nothing can turn aside, remains
concentrated on the objects which cover an inaccessible horizon."

_The Chimera_--"As for me, I am light and joyous! I discover in men
dazzling perspectives, with Paradises in the clouds and distant
felici