must recruit their little army; further, how unseemly, not to say inconvenient, pernicious to all religion depending on something else than "evidences," it would be that on their solemn holidays the infant state assembled within its one small temple, should find their worship disturbed by unknown names and rites, by uncouth movements and shapeless foreign images; how necessary for that village congregation the unity of thought which we call a national religion: lastly, where at any time an inadvertent action of a single citizen, even though directly it only affected himself, might bring down danger or destruction on the whole number, how strict must be the laws regulating the indirect influence of man upon man, and where the citizens of a state were an army, an army at any time liable to active service, how necessary must be habits of ready unflinching obedience to the appointed ruler.

And now when the six swelled into sixty thousand families, and the little village became a country with a capital, and the rough-hewn enclosure that sufficed for the worship of a score or two of worshippers had given place to a vast temple fit for a vast nation, can you wonder if the King still claimed as his due the absolute obedience once willingly and naturally rendered to the strong man, the wise counsellor, the valiant warrior, if the priest still hugged the memory of the old uniformity or rather identity of idolatry, if the elders looked with severe eyes on the gradual relaxation of regulations which their forefathers had found necessary for the welfare of their country, and which they themselves still regarded with a respect the more obstinate because now unreasonable? I should not wonder at their hesitation; for who was it that taught the King that he was no longer the one strong wise and valiant man, or the priest that he was no longer the sole trumpet of the breath of God, or the elders that their old order must change, and give place to new; who but the slow-speeched, stammering teacher, Experience? Remember also that it is from the small states, not from the large states of ancient times, that we have derived most of our experience of ancient government, and ask yourself whether our larger states may not unconsciously have adopted fetters that were then suitable, but are now unsuitable; whether we require now the same restraint of individual and accumulation of public power, the same laws either as regards military science, or participation in the national religion, or the indirect influence of citizen on citizen. Then remember on the other

VOL. IV.

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hand that throughout its whole history the English nation has answered this question in the negative, and has steadily for centuries persisted in relaxing restraint after restraint, and unlearning the teachings of antiquity, and ask yourself whether we have gone far enough already, at least for the present, or must yet go further in unlearning and if the governing classes of England seem to you unreasonably slow, let me remind you, once for all, that they too, like the first father and the first nation, are scholars in the school of experience, a teacher laden with the knowledge and books and parchments and monuments of six thousand years, but still to this day as slow of speech as ever.

But here we are off the common and on the bank, and men begin to look at us as though our conversation were a little out of place.

J. Well, let us leave off now, but mind, I by no means say I agree with your opinion, and indeed, I'm not certain I could exactly say what your opinion is: besides, you have done little more than just touch on one point of libertyliberty of thought.-And, what with likings and dislikings, and physicians and politicians, I feel as confused as poor Demea after he had consulted with his three wise lawyers, and am quite ready to cry with him, "fecisti probe: ego multo incertior sum quam dudum.”

old

S. At any rate I have had quite enough of it for the present if you have not; when we come back again, if you are not tired, we may perhaps have a word or two about Liberty of Action; for I agree with you that we have but touched on what is only a part of a vast subject; and, if you feel like old Demea, I can assure you I sympathize with his lawyer, and answer you, "ego censeo amplius deliberandum, res magna'st." And now for the boats.

PSYCHE.*

I.

BRIGHT Aphrodité, golden Queen of Love,
Fair as the drifted foam of that blue Sea
Which girds the strand of lone Cythera's isle,
Lay wrapt in sun-lit clouds, which, when with her,-
So bright, so fair,-compared, their splendour dusked.
One hand and arm, upraised, sustained her head,
Part hid amid the golden sea of hair

Which waved its ceaseless flow adown her neck
And bosom soft, then mingled with the clouds
That bathed her limbs transparent. Tender Loves,
Upborne on azure wings, around her plied
Their amorous flight: but she not heeding lay-
Watching with eye unmoved the crisping waves.

Long time then thus she lay:—at length between Her rosy lips disparted half displayed

A pearly row, more fair than those bright gems,
Which, like a thread of silver glory, line

The sapphire parapets of heavenly homes,-
As though to speak: but yet her voice was stayed.
Nathless ere long the inner fire burst forth;
And in the stillness rang her voice divine:—
"Must I then yield to her, a mortal girl,
A princess though she be,-of royal loves
The fairest fruit and offspring latest born?-
I, whose vast sway o'er men and gods and all
That feel a passion-pulse within their breasts,
Till now nor rival knew nor greater power!
Where are the thronging vot'ries round the gates
Of Cindus' fane? Why glows not-incense fed-
The flame on Cytherean altars now?—
Envail'd in which I loved to approach unseen
The kneeling suppliant, and to lend my ear

* Vid. Apuleius Metamorph. IV., V., VI.

To catch the whispered vow or soft-breathed prayer!
Speeds there no boat for me, (with wings as white
As are the dove's that nestles on my breast),
While eager hands and hearts direct its course,
To Cyprus' isle; All faithless, all are gone!
Before her temple prostrate suppliants lie,
With hand on mouth; to her all prayers ascend;
All breathe her hateful name; all hymn her praise;
And faithless priests for her desert my shrines,
Forgetful of the dark mysterious vows,
Forgetful of their Goddess, worship, power,
And secret revelations of my will!
What boots it that th' Idean shepherd-boy,
Whose judgment Father Zeus approved well,
Assigned to me the prize of excellence,
And placed the golden apple in my hand;
When angry Heré knit her queenly brow,
And the gray eyes of Pallas flashed with wrath?—
Goddess or mortal woman though she be,
Who claims my rightful honours for her own
Shall feel my vengeful power, and own me Queen!"-
-A rustling of soft wings,-delicious sense
Of life ethereal, presence all divine,—

And odours as from heavenly mansions drawn—
She turned her eyes love-languid. Sportive words
And silver music of a welcome tongue
Played on her senses. For a moment fled
All vengeful anger from her beauteous face.
For youthful Eros, youngest of the gods,
Stood by her; laughter-light upon his lips
Belied the wrath that darkened his fair brow.
She took him to her arms; and on her breast
Pillowed, in soft embrace, his rosy cheek.
While he :-"Why frowns my lady mother? What
Hath stirred the heated current of thy blood,
And tinged that cheek that ne'er should blush, but when
Enamoured gods extol its loveliness ? ”—

She blushing kissed his dimpled cheek well pleased:-
But sighed again and frowned; as she thought-
"What profit brings my beauty, if despised?"
And answer made, in anger, to her son;
Telling the tale of her contempt and shame;
How all men honour Psyche fair, (for so
Her royal parents called their youngest child,
Their dearest as their fairest child of all).
"And now by all the pledges of my love,
By those most gently cruel darts of thine,
Which gladden while they wound th' enraptured soul;

And honey-sweet consuming flames* of love,
Work a work of bitter woe,

O hear me !

That I may find delight in deep revenge.
Give ear to my behest :-Inflame her heart
With most resistless love and strong desire
Of one, the vilest of the sons of men,
Whom fortune hath bereft of honour, wealth,
And all the gifts that bless the soul of man:

So abject that his equal be not found,

Tho' all the earth be searched through and through!"
Once more she pressed his lips; then to the shore
With light tho queenly step she took her way.
A rosy foot she planted on the wave,

Which bowed its eager crest beneath her tread.
Forthwith the fifty daughters of the king,
Who keeps his court beneath the stormy sea,
Gathered around her, fairest of the fair :-
Neræe, Spio, and Cymodocé,

And blue-eyed Glaucé; and Cymothoé,
Swift as the storm-swept wave; and Halia
With eyes as soft as are the mountain roe's,
And Amalthea with her golden hair;
Apseudes too, with undefilèd lips;

And Galatea famed for rarest beauty,

With their fair sisters,-all that lightly cleave
With glistening arm and bosom the deep waves
That flow around the mansions of their sire.
Then yoked the Tritons bold the snow-white steeds
Beneath her car; and o'er the waters sent
The music of their loud-resounding conchs.
Some raised above her head a silken shade;
Some held the polished surface of a shell,
That bore the reflex of her heavenly form :
While others played around the snorting steeds.—
She thus attended sought the watery main.

Within her chamber up the palace tower
Sat sorrowing Psyche; gazing fixedly
From out the window on the setting sun.
But though she gazed, yet saw she nothing there,
Though all the sky was bathed in brightest glow,
For saddest thoughts bereft her eyes of sight.
She yearned for love; her nature longed to throw
Itself upon another unreserved.-

"For how should woman walk alone through life,
Who lacks the strength to bear the brunt of ills?-

Mellitas uredines," Apuleius Metamorph. IV.