72 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES The winds no longer blow, The rain has ceased to dash, The thunder sleeps ; I hear Only the fountain's plash, And some delicious lutes, whose notes arise, Languid with lovers' sighs." In La Jouyssance he exclaims — " But dare I hope, O wonder of the skies ! To be as surely in your soul As I can see myself within your eyes ? " As a transition from his love of nature to his love of nature's best fruit, we have in La Pluye^ from which I have already quoted : — " The heavens are black from base to top, And their influence benign Pours so much water on the vine. That we need never drink a drop." In La Debauche, partly translated by Mr. Besant ("French Humourists," p. i86), he invokes Bacchus, among other charms — ' ' By this pipe from which I wave All the incense thou dost crave." And Mr. Besant also translates a good part of what he terms " the liveliest, brightest letter possible " to Faret, entitled Les Cabarets. The conclusion is worth giving as it stands in the original : — " Et de I'air dont tu te gouvernes, Les moindres escots des tavernes Te plaisent plus cent mille fois Que ne font les echos des bois. Et a moy aussi."
