TUE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII.
27
forget
lids—to unfold
- passions,
le ripened Courte-
:t.ons ons
find the
that I defy
and by contemplating the freshness
•rs, I sustain the freshness of my own
voice of the statue much by attending to tny
suggestion: and your verses are excellent.
Always prophesy good fortune, unless there
is an absolute impossibility of its fuifilment."
Besides," added Calenus, "if the storm
does c.:htne,
does overwhelm the
prophesied it ?
to be at rest?—
.n the A'.gean sea,
. —can the mariner
than when he is at
the bottom of it ? "
Right, ray Cnlenus; I wish Ap;ecides
would take a lesson from your wisdom. But
I dcs;rc to confer with you relative to him
and to Other matters: you can admit me into
one of your less sacred apartments ? "
Asst'.-edly,•• replied the pr• •st, leading
not
t:crs which
rated
with
•e, of
cur-
,nng to
the court, concealed them from view, but
admonished them by the thinness of the par-
tition to speak low, or to speak no secrets:
they chose the former aitcrnative.
T hot' knot,vcst,•• said Arbaccs, in a voice
that scarcely stirred the air, so soft and in-
ward was its sound, "that it has ever been
my maxim to attach myself to the young.
From their flexile aud unformed minds I can
carve out my fittest tools. warp
—I mould them at my Of the men I
make merely followers or servants; Of the
womcn—"
Mistresses," said Calent:s, as a livid grin
distorted his ungainly features.
Yes, I do not disguise it; "Oman is the
main object, the great appetite, of my sot".
As you feed the victim for the slaughter, /
love to rear the votaries Of my pleasure. I
From the young hearts Of my
victims I draw the ingredients of the caldron
in which I re-youth myself. But enough of
this: to the subject before us. You know,
then, that in Neapuiis some time since en-
countered Ione and Apxcides, brother and
sister, the children of Athenians who had
settled at
Tile death of their
parents, who knew and esteemed me, consti-
tuted me guardian. I was unmind-
of the trust. The youth, docile and mild,
yielded readily to the impression I sought to
stamp h Next to woman, love the
old recollections Of my ancestral land; love
to keep aiive—to prolKtgate on distant shores
(which her colonies perchance yet people),
her dark and mystic creeds. It may be that
it pleases-me to delude mankind, while I thus
serve the deities. •ro Apzecides I taught the
solemn faith of Isis. I unfolded to him
sontething of those sublime allegories which
are couched beneath her worship. I excited
in a soul peculiarly alive to religious fervor
that enthusiasm which imagination begets on
faith. I have placed him amongst you; he
is one of you."
He is so," said Calenus•. "but in thus
stimulating his faith, you have robbed him
of wisdom. Ile is horror-struck that he is
no longer duped ; our sage delusions, our
speaking statues and secret staircases, dis-
may and revolt him; he pines; he wastes
away; he mutters to himself; he refuses to
share our ceremonies. He has been known
to frequent the Company of men suspected
of adherence to that new and atheistical crccd
which denies all our gods, and terms our
oracles the inspirations of that malevolent
spirit Of eastern tradition speaks. Our
oracles—alas ! we knovv wc!! whose inspira-
lions they are."
"This is what feared. • • said Arbaces.
musingly, from various reproaches he made
me when tast saw him. Of late he hath
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