Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of ReproductionDavenport, John
Philosophy
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction
Davenport, John
Phallicism; Sex; Sex customs -- France -- History -- 17th century
"The Grand Celestial State Bed! then, gentlemen, which is
twelve feet long by nine wide, is supported by forty pillars
of brilliant glass, of great strength and of the most
exquisite workmanship, in regard to shape, cutting, and
engravings; sweetly delicate and richly variegated colours,
and the most brilliant polish! They are, moreover, invisibly
incrusted with a certain transparent varnish in order to
render the insulation still more complete; and that
otherwise, properly assisted, we may have, in even the most
unfavourable weather, abundance of the electrical fire.
"The sublime, the magnificent, and, I may say, the
super-celestial dome of the bed, which contains the
odoriferous, balmy, and ethereal spices, odours, and
essences, and which is the grand magazine or reservoir of
those vivifying and invigorating influences which are
exhaled and dispersed by the breathing of the music, and by
the attenuating, repelling, and accelerating force of the
electrical fire,--is very curiously inlaid or wholly covered
on the under side with brilliant plates of looking-glass, so
disposed as to reflect the various attractive charms of the
happy recumbent couple, in the most flattering, most
agreeable and most enchanting style.
"On the top or summit of the dome, are placed, in the most
loving attitudes, two exquisite figures, representing the
marriage of Cupid and Psyche, with a fine figure of Hymen
behind, and over them, with his torch flaming with
electrical fire in one hand and, with the other, supporting
a celestial crown, sparkling, likewise, with the effulgent
fire over a pair of real living turtle-doves, who, on a
little bed of roses, coo and bill under the super-animating
impulses of the genial fire! The other elegant groups of
figures which sport on the top of the dome--the Cupids, the
Loves, and the Graces!--besides festoons of the freshest and
most beautiful flowers, have each of them musical
instruments in their hands, which by the exquisite and most
expensive mechanism, are made to breathe forth sounds
corresponding with the appearance of the several
instruments,--flutes, guitars, violins, clarionets,
trumpets, horns, oboes, kettle-drums, &c. On the posts or
pillars, too, which support the grand dome are groups of
figures, musical instruments, organ-pipes, &c., which, in
sweet concert with the other instruments, at the
commencement of the tender dalliance of the happy pair,
breathe forth celestial sounds! lulling them in visions of
elysian joys! opening new sources of pleasure, and
"untwisting all the chains which tie the hidden soul of
harmony!" At the head of the bed, in the full centre front,
appears, sparkling with electrical fire, through a glory of
burnished and effulgent gold, the great, first,
ever-operating commandment, BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, AND
REPLENISH THE EARTH! under this is a most elegant and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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