THE MOTHER
133
kiss , then is it also good to know where kisses may
lead
to .
We
have
already seen
them
rising
upward
from youth through
the passion of maturity , concrete
and
abstract , earthly
and
spiritual ;
now
let
us
turn
about and descend the slippery road
of
lust
,
so
essential
to
the basic knowledge
of
the good
.
Among
the
extraordinary
antipathies
and
sym
pathies
of
the
human mind
,
few are
so
startling
as
the frequent attraction
of
contraries
.
Good
attracts
bad
,
and bad good
,
in
the love
-
history
of
life over and
over again shall we find this
:
Have they divined
This simplest spirit
-
bond
,
The joy
of
some bad woman's deadly kiss
;?
In
the
“
Lesbian Hell
”
we see those white unsated
women
,
and
in
“
The
Fatal
Force
”
one
so
flushed
with lust
,
that she has become
blind
to
reality
:
Then said the goddess
:
“
I
indeed
am pure
In
my impurity
;
immaculate
In
misconception
;
maiden
in
my whoredom
;
Chaste
in
my incest
,
being made
a
god
Through
my own strength
.?
Thus she spoke
to
the assembled princes and peoples
of
Egypt
,
when sixteen seasons
past she sat crowned
,
naked
,
exultant
,
pregnant with
the child
of
her own
son's begetting
.
Awed
by
the
enormity
of
her lust
,
the multitudes worship their Phædrian queen
:
But the mood passed
,
and we see
A
lecherous woman whose magician power
Is
broken
,
and the balance
of
her mind
Made one with the fool's bauble
,
and her wand
That was
of
steel and fire
,
like
a
reed
,
snapped
!3
Mysteries
:
Lyrical and Dramatic
,
vol
.
I,
p
.
104
.
2
The Fatal Force
,
vol
.
i,
p
.
143
.
3
Ibid
.