Exalted Passions

 

As we were giving then a few moments of pause to the delectation of the senses, dwelling with the highest relish on this intimatest point of reunion, and chewing the cud of enjoyment, the impatience natural to the pleasure soon drove us into action. Then began the driving tumult on his side, the responsive heaves on mine, which kept me up to him; whilst, as our joys grew too great for utterance, the organs of our voices, voluptuously imtermixing, became organs of the touch . . .and oh, that touch! How delicious . . . how poignantly luscious! . . . And now! Now I felt, to the heart of me! I felt the prodigious keen edge, with which love, presiding over this act, points the pleasure: love! Without it, the joy, great as it is, is still a vulgar one, whether in a king or a beggar; for it is undoubtedly, love alone that refines, ennobles and exalts it.