Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 03.djvu/336

This page needs to be proofread.

Whilst he spoke thus, four white wings covered the body of Topaz, and four black ones that of Ebene.

"What do I see?" cried Rustan.

Topaz and Ebene answered together: "You see your two genii."

"Good gentlemen," cried the unhappy Rustan, "how came you to meddle; and what occasion had a poor man for two genii?"

"It is a law," answered Topaz; "every man has two genii. Plato was the first man who said so, and others have repeated it after him. You see that nothing can be more true. I who now speak to you am your good genius. I was charged to watch over you to the last moment of your life. Of this task I have faithfully acquitted myself."

"But," said the dying man, "if your business was to serve me, I am of a nature much superior to yours. And then how can you have the assurance to say you are my good genius, since you have suffered me to be deceived in everything I have undertaken, and since you suffer both my mistress and me to die miserably?"

"Alas!" said Topaz, "it was your destiny."

"If destiny does all," answered the dying man, "what is a genius good for? And you, Ebene, with your four black wings, you are doubtless my evil genius."

"You have hit it," answered Ebene.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.