and tunes of a single strain stir no feeling, and a cold air warms no soul; in short, one woman cannot satisfy the hunger of this rare creature, who would roam the expanses of the sky and the depths of the darknesses.

And the poet may be faithful — and his faithfulness alone frees him from the bondage of self-love and selfishness and savagery. He believes then that love is a sacred feeling which must stand above the desires of flesh and blood; and then it matters nothing to him whether the woman has been faithful or not.

...And the woman — is she faithful in her love for the poet? It is of woman's nature to have little faith in men, of whatever sort they be. She knows them selfish and greedy, lusting after her flesh and her blood; but her faith in the geniuses among them is little to the point of zero. She knows that these men draw inspiration from her beauty for a season, and when her beauty withers her mission is ended — like the cup when it is emptied...

And though the woman knows that the poet's feeling is quick to turn and easy to extinguish, she offers him her heart as a gift apart... She listens to him with delight as he sings her the anthems of love fragrant with glory, while something within her says to her: Do not believe him!

But she loves to believe, because what he whispers in her ear stirs in her the feeling of pride; and she goes on setting his genius ablaze with a thousand colors of soul and body, while within her a feeling wavers between hatred and love and admiration for this greedy, lukewarm, fickle creature. And she would fain possess him for a whole lifetime, but she knows she never can — for even if he pours his soul into her soul and melts his youth upon her mouth, it is because he believes he has poured his soul

Are you winter-born? Then you are a genius, or... a madwoman

What is the relation between genius and the date on which a person is born? Can there be any relation between them?

Yes, say the men of science; and they say likewise that the hour science attains the knowledge of this secret, it will command the destiny of the human race, and will then be able to multiply geniuses.

They say: statistics have proved that the months of winter are the most fertile of months, for the number of brilliant minds born in them... Learned studies of the lives of the great men who have risen to eminence from five thousand years ago down to this day show that the greater part of them were winter-born... December — January — February, and the middle of March. After these come August, September, October... And statistics bear out this truth;

into the soul of Life; whereas she, the woman, compounded of flesh and blood and iron and dust — no.

And the woman may be faithful in her love. And when she is faithful, she teaches mankind the most wondrous tragedy of sacrifice. She is then a woman in whom all the beasts of the body have died, a woman who rises in her love to the degree of perfection: no earthly desire brands her body, and no lust holds her frame in check...

Thus did Mary Haskell, that divine woman, love Gibran Khalil Gibran.

this phenomenon is no matter of coincidence, nor is it astrology...

What holds true of geniuses holds true likewise of the mad, for most of them are born in the winter season. Between madness and genius there is a link that science has established: in both of them — in genius and in madness — the mind stands outside the bounds of nature, in revolt against the established orders.

As for those born in the summer season, they are for the most part possessed of settled mental powers, untroubled — unlike those born in winter...

Science explains this phenomenon by the effect of food upon the embryo. In the winter season vegetables and fruits grow scarce, and the cattle and sheep feed on certain substances that affect their meat and their milk... and the woman with child feeds, in the winter months, on much meat and few vegetables...

And we may put this question:

Will it lie within man's power to command the birth of geniuses and brilliant minds? Will the future be filled with geniuses, and will the future belong to this strong, violent season, in which arise those mental tempests that storm through society and turn it upside down?

Will man be able to raise up brilliant minds to order, by com-manding the dates of their birth?

Happy tidings, then, from this day forward, to the winter-born.