" "Why do those women stand there?" I
asked, "and who are they?" "Slowly," cried the Angel, "one question at a
time; they stand there in order to be loved and worshipped." "No wonder,
in sooth," said I, "so lovely are they that were I the possessor of hands
and feet as once I was, I too would go and love or worship them." "Hush!
hush!" cried he, "if that is what thou wouldst do with thy members 'tis
well thou'rt wanting them: know, foolish spirit, that these three
princesses are no other than three destroying enchantresses, daughters of
Prince Belial; and that all the beauty and gentleness which dazzles the
streets, is nought else but a gloss over ugliness and cruelty; the three
within are like their sire, full of deadly venom." "Woe's me, is't
possible," cried I sorrowfully, "that their love wounds?" "'Tis true,
the more the pity," said he, "thou art delighted with the way the three
beam on their adorers: well, there is in that ray of light many a
wondrous charm, it blindens them so that they cannot see the hook; it
stupifies them so that they pay no heed to their danger, and consumes
them with an insatiate lust for more, even though it be a deadly poison,
breeding diseases which no physician, yea, not death itself can ever
heal, nor aught at all unless a heavenly medicine called Repentance be
had to purge the evil in good time ere it become too deeply rooted,
through gazing upon them too long.
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