It is now known that a crime of a peculiarly revolting character led to his punishment; and this is not surprising, since the special characteristic of his degeneration is a madly inordinate eroticism. He is perpetually thinking of lewdness, and lascivious images fill his mind continually. I have no wish to quote passages in which this unhappy slave of his morbidly excited senses has expressed the loathsome condition of his mind, but the reader who wishes to become acquainted with them may be referred to the poems _Les Coquillages_, _Fille_, and _Auburn_.[124] Sexual license is not his only vice. He is also a dipsomaniac, and (as may be expected in a degenerate subject) a paroxysmal dipsomaniac, who, awakened from his debauch, is seized with deep disgust of the alcoholic poison and of himself, and speaks of ‘les breuvages exécrés’ (_La Bonne Chanson_), but succumbs to the temptation at the next opportunity. Moral insanity, however, is not present in Verlaine. He sins through irresistible impulse. He is an Impulsivist. The difference between these two forms of degeneration lies in the fact that the morally insane does not look upon his crimes as bad, but commits them with the same unconcern as a sane man would perform any ordinary or virtuous act, and after his misdeed is quite contented with himself; whereas the Impulsivist retains a full consciousness of the baseness of his deeds, hopelessly fights against his impulse until he can no longer resist it, and after the performance[125] suffers the most terrible remorse and despair. It is only an Impulsivist who speaks in execration of himself as a reprobate (‘Un seul Pervers,’ in _Sagesse_), or strikes the dejected note which Verlaine touches in the first four sonnets of _Sagesse_: ‘Hommes durs! Vie atroce et laide d’ici bas! Ah! que du moins, loin des baisers et des combats, Quelque chose demeure un peu sur la montagne, ‘Quelque chose du cœur enfantin et subtil, Bonté, respect! car qu’est-ce qui nous accompagne, Et vraiment quand la mort viendra que reste-t-il?... ‘Ferme les yeux, pauvre âme, et rentre sur-le-champ: Une tentation des pires. Fuis l’infâme ... Si la vieille folie était encore en route? ‘Ces souvenirs, va-t-il falloir les retuer? Un assaut furieux, le suprême, sans doute! O va prier contre l’orage, va prier!... ‘C’est vers le Moyen-Age énorme et delicat Qu’il faudrait que mon cœur en panne naviguât, Loin de nos jours d’esprit charnel et de chair triste ... ‘Et là que j’eusse part... ...à la chose vitale, Et que je fusse un saint, actes bons, pensers droits, ‘Haute théologie et solide morale, Guidé par la folie unique de la Croix Sur tes ailes de pierre, ô folle Cathédrale!’ This example serves to show that there is not wanting in Verlaine that religious fervour which usually accompanies morbidly intensified eroticism. This finds a much more decided expression in several other poems. I should wish to quote only from two.[126]