The Sisters, Complete

had taken quite another turn, since the whole of the company were not now equally interested in the same subject; on the contrary, the two kings were discussing with Aristarchus the manuscrip

lusively directed to the queen, who had taken entire possession of the Roman Publius, telling him in a low tone of her life-which was consuming her strength-of her unsatisfied affections, and her enthusiasm for Rome and for manly vigor. As she spoke her cheeks glowed and her eyes sparkled, for the more exclusively she kept the convers

links between the disjointed sentences, and to grasp the general sense, at any rate, of what she was saying. The queen avoided wine, but she had the power of intoxicating herself, so to speak, with her own words, and n

; it was thus that in his own country a woman when in love was wont to exc

ularly of this very woman, flashed through his mind like lightning; she was looking at him-not royally by any means, but with anxious and languishing gaze, and he would gladly have kept his eyes fixed on the ground, and have left the cup untouched; but her eye held his fast as thou

every man, and that flatters him even when it is bestowed by the unloved and unworthy. For flattery is a key to the heart, and

hts, he felt suddenly seized by a deep aversion to the over-talkative, overdressed and capricious woman before him, who thus forced upon him favors for which he had not sued; and suddenly there rose before his soul the image, almost ta

e did not take her eyes off him, and observed with pleasure that his color changed to red and white; nor did she notice that Eulaeus was watching, with a twinkle in his eyes, all

t, but he was no longer looking at Cleopatra b

d have let you speak, Aristarchus, but I maintain my opinion, and whoever denie

however snatched at his words, to escape the necessity for feigning sentiments he co

my own nature, but I never could understand how an energetic and vigorous man, a prudent sovereign and stalwart drinker-like you, Euergetes-c

hey see me enter the gymnasium of Timagetes. There would be no strength in the world if there were no obstacles, and no man would know that he was strong if he could meet with no resistance to overcome. I for my part seek such exercises as suit my idiosyncrasy, and if they are not to your taste I cannot help it. If you were to set these excellently dressed crayf

e opening of all marine produce to my servants," answered

Pray is there a market where I may purchase men, who, after a night of carousing, will bear

oblest and subtlest of pleasures, for the purest enjoyment is

nt. It puts me in mind of a man who removes a block of stone in the sweat of his brow on

ive-and when Protagoras says that 'man is the measure of all things,' that is the most acceptable of all the maxims of the Sophists; moreover the smallest matter-as you will fully appreciate-acquires an importance all the greate

face with which the coarse finger of the potter has decorated a water-jar, the injury to the wretched pot is but small, but if you scratch, only with a needle's point, that g

worthy to be treasured than the noblest

culate purity, this is our task; and if we do indeed raise blocks of stone it is not to weight a sparrow's feather tha

s of the dying-how many talents of silver would you not pay to be able to supply the missing words? And what are immortal works of the great poets and thinkers but such sacred words of warning addressed, not to a single individual, but to all that are not barbarians, however many they maybe. They will elevate, instruct, and delight our descend

right, in place of a wrong one, in my opinion has done a

ncile my mind to your painful and minute labors when I reflect that to you is entrusted the restoration of the literal tenor of laws, whose full meaning might be lost by a verbal error; or tha

but the lives of our fathers related either with veracious exactness or with poetic adornments?" cried

to find perfect quiet for thinking and writing? Everything, everything in me is by halves, for I, if the scale were to turn in my favor"-and here he struck his chest and his forehead, "I should be twice the man I am. I am my whole real self nowhere but at high festivals, when the wine sparkles in the cup, and bright eyes

shed, his eyes rolled, while he took from his head both the garland of flow

with which it is to be hoped you will presently favor us. We have had to bow more than once already to the strength of which you boast-but now, at a merry feast, we will not think of that, but rather continue the conversation which entertained us, and which had begun so well. This eager defence of the interes

ng and learned disquisitions have failed; and I am acquainted with such an one, written by an anonymous author, and which

he puny Ch

ime's bou

s in his f

of Ete

ars some b

spered

them in

ls it '

hed friend; another has amplified th

the puny

ed drops from

eds that fill

ost in dum

is hand, and

ps of that per

hey catch a tr

ty is mirr

he drops surely deserve our esteem no less than those who spend the

eus in a low voice, as he

y telling us, and whose history I have read in the sacred books of the Hebrews. He, it is true-Moses I mean-only struck water from the rock for the use of the body, while to our philosophers and poets we owe inexhaustible springs to refresh the mind and soul. The time is now past which gave birth to such divine and creative spirits; as your majesties' forefathers recognized full well when they founded the Museum of Alexandria and the Library, of whic

our circle we always link it on to the old; and in many departments we have indeed even succeeded in soaring above the ancients, particularly in that of the experimental sciences. The sublime intelligence of our forefathers commanded a broad horizon-our narrower vision sees more clearly the objects that lie close to us. We have discovered the sure path for all intel

oulders over the labors of the learned, find cause enough to laugh in their faces. Out of every four of you I should dearly like to set three to some handicraft, and I shall do it too, one of these days-I shall do it, and turn them and all their miserable paraphernalia out of the Museum, a

ven on worthy men. Until then I will practise my music, and study the treatise on harmony that you have begu

d I am doing it with delight; still it is one of those phenomena which, though accessible to our perception, are imperishable, for no god even could discover it entire and unmixed in the world of realities. Where is harmony to be found in the struggles and rapacious strife of the life

n among the gods harmony, whom I may know, and yet may never comprehend-

nattainable well-I am as one swimming in a wide sea, and

d and untroubled? And which is most in earnest in his pursuit of the fair one:

you deem that you

ly clad gods and goddesses of Phidias. I mean not to offend you, Cleopatra, but I must say this; I am writing now on the subject of harmony, and perhaps I shall afterwards treat of justice, truth, virtue; although I know full well that they are pure abstractions which occur neither in nature nor in human life, and which in my dealings I wholly set aside; nevertheless they seem to me worthy of investigation, like any other delusion, if by resolving it we may arrive at conditional truth. It is because one man is afraid of another that these restraints-justice, truth, and what else you will-have received these high-s

ven, and earthquakes swallow up cities. You believe in the gods-and so do I after my own fashion-and if they have so ordered the course of this life in every class of existence that the strong triumph over th

u call evil is the free and unbridled exercise of power. I would be anything rather than lazy and idle, for everything in nature is active and busy; and as, with Aristippus, I hold pl

llowed the words of the headstrong youth with consternation and surprise. He felt himself no match for this overbearing spirit, trained too in all the arts

, to boil the pot for their children-in this country of yours where there is no wood to burn. Just now you were boasting of your resemblance to Alcibiades, but that very gift which distinguished him, and made him dear to the Athenians-I mean his beauty-is hardly possible in connection with your doc

and this little victory over his wrathful impulse was made the more easy as Lysias, at this moment, rejoined the feaster

any admitted that he had rarely seen anything more beautiful and graceful than the bashful He

part of Peitho," said

Heracles," cr

g this incomparably lovely conception of Hebe? While you were away I recalled to memory the aspect o

r palace; indeed I am almost afraid of being too bold in suggesting to our illus

y, and she drew up her fingers as if she had to touch some unclean thing.

to open perhaps in the morning dew that may succeed this very night, but which as yet is still enfolded in its cup. She is of Greek race, about as tall as you are, Cleopatra; she has wonderful ga

cried Philometor. "In what gard

my husband has not discovered it long si

as too insignificant to be worth glancing at. Besides, the hedge that fences round my bud grows in a gloomy spot; it is difficu