Both youths appeared to be inseparable companions.
Each leaned on the other's shoulder. The soft little hand of the first rested like a cluster of grapes on the harsh collar-bone of the second; the slender, bony hand of the second, with its long, thin fingers, lay outspread, like a serpent, on the womanish breast of the first.
And I heard a voice. This is what it uttered:
"Before thee stand Love and Hunger—-own brothers, the two fundamental bases of everything living.
"Everything which lives moves, for the purpose of obtaining food; and eats, for the purpose of reproducing itself.
"Love and Hunger have one and the same object; it is necessary that life should not cease,—one's own life and the life of others are the same thing, the universal life."
August, 1878.
THE EGOIST
He possessed everything which was requisite to make him the scourge of his family.
He had been born healthy, he had been born rich—and during the whole course of his long life he had remained rich and healthy; he had never committed a single crime; he had never stumbled into any blunder; he had not made a single slip of the tongue or mistake.