Hypatia - or New Foes with an Old Face

down the street; longing for, and yet dreading, the three weary hours to be over which must pass before he would be admitted to Hypatia. But he had tasted no food since noo

e strange crabs and sea-locusts which crawled up and down the face of the masonry, a few feet below the surface, scrambling for bits of offal, and making occasional fruitless dashes at the nimble little silver arrows which played round them. And at last his whole soul, too tired to think of anything else, became absorbed in a mighty struggle between two great crabs, who held on stoutly, each by a claw, to his respective bunch of seaweed, while with the others they tugged, one at the head and the other at the tail of a dead fish. Which would conquer?....

he little porter, his head crowned with a full basket of figs, grapes, and water-melons, on which the poor youth cast a longing

sulkily enough some

Has my prophecy come true, and the strong meat of pious riot a

stians; shrinking still more from making such a jackanapes his confidant: and yet yearning in his loneliness to open his heart to some one, he

ave an obol to share with him? Base thought! Youth! I have wronged you. Unphilosophically I allowed, yesterday mo

l you,' said Philammon. 'B

ve not heard logic lectures in vain. Now, up! The sea woos our dusty limbs: Nereids and Tritons, charging no cruel coin, call us to Nature's ba

n the sea, followed the hospitable little fellow to Hypatia's door, where he dropped his daily load of fruit, and then into a narrow by-street, to the ground-floor of a huge block of lodgi

f the wine dark main! lily of the Mareotic lake! You accursed black Andro

ch would have served as a landmark a mile off. She put the dishes down, and the porter majestically waved Philammon to a stool; while she retreated, and stood humbly waiting on her lord and master, who did not deign to introduce to his guest the black beauty which

ly less scandalised, jumped up too, and shook himself free of the lady, who, finding it impossible to vent her feeling

ess baggage, or thou diest the death!' an

the other night! What good angel sent him here that I might thank him?'

intense self-satisfaction. 'Rise, daughter of Erebus; th

le rightful lord O'er her and p

ent I beheld thee. Thou went a kindred spirit, my brother, though thou knewest it not. Therefore I do not praise thee-no, nor thank thee in the least, though thou hast preserved for me the one palm which shadows my weary steps-the single lotus-flower (in this case black

u,' said

one original source, exist in you and me. Similar causes produce similar effects; our attractions, antipathies, impulses, are therefo

question, but he had by no means stopped eating when h

best of the corporeal part of the division.... yet it is the soul which makes the person. You may trust me, I shall not disdain

ght on the whole have been considered, from a theatric point of view, as a failure. Whereon the little man seized

e, and to your in

d having drained the horn without drawing breath, licked his lips, h

present temper of mind: so he attempted to imitate the little man's feat, and, of course, poured the beer into his ey

served in this centre of civilisation by the descendants of Alexander

e other end of the room. It was the negress. She saw him look up at her, dropped her eyes modestly,

an?' asked he when they

cessary to me for several reasons: but mindful that the philosopher should subjugate the material appetite, and rise above the swinish desires of the flesh, even when his nature requires him to satisfy them, I purposed to make pleasure as un

marry a scold?'

he peaceful contemplation of the ineffable? I could not relinquish those luxuries. So having, by the bounty of Hypatia and her pupils, saved a small sun

any lodg

g. To bridle the tongue, is to-But there is a closet at your service; and for the hall of reception, which you ha

tching the night before. It was she, then, whom he had seen!.... He was handed over by a black porter to a smart slave-girl, who guided him up, through cloisters and corr

entered, and along a gallery, till he stopped and knocked humbly at a door.... She must be within! knocked together under him. His heart sank and sank into abysses! Poor wretch!.... He was half minded once to escape and dash into the street.... but was it not his one hope, his one object?.... But why did not that old man speak? If he would have but said something!.... If he would only have looked cross, contemptuous!.... But with the same impressive gravity, as of a man upon a business in which he had no voice, a

t was your wish, you know; and I a

ated humbly toward another door, with a somewhat anxious visag

know, you have only to call-w

old man disappeared,

e lie was conscious of it, conscious that it was watching him; and the more all the fine words were, by that very knowledge, driven out of his head.... When would she speak? Perhaps she wished him to speak first. It was her duty to begin, for she had sent for him.... But sti

ut some one must strike the first blow: and, as often happens, the weaker party, impelled

t for me

was one of mere youthful ignorance. It seemed to me that your countenance bespoke a nobler nature than that which the gods are usually plea

his message! And yet he faltered as he answered, wit

glance sank abashed, he knew not why. What sins?-He knew not. Did she look like a Messalina? But was she not a heathen and a

y-' He could get no farther: for he looked up again and saw an awful quiet

you: you are young, and know not yet the mystery of the world. Science will teach you some day that the outward frame is the sacrament of the soul's inward beauty. Such a soul I had fancied your face expressed; but I was mistaken. Foul hearts alone harbour such foul suspicions, and fanc

o turn his eyes away; the magnet might as well struggle to escape from the spell of the north. In a moment, he knew not how, utter shame, remorse, longi

fell from Here's bosom, bleaching the plant which it touched to everlas

deadliest and worst of all sins-indeed, 'the great offence' itself, beside which all others were comparatively venial: where there was physical purity, must not

annot, I will not return to the obscurity and the dulness of a Thebaid Laura. I have a thousand doubts to solve, a thousand questions to ask, about that great ancient world of which I know nothing-of whose mysteries, they say, you alone possess the key! I am a

he epithets which you

, say that I may come and hear you again! Only from a distance-in the very farthest corner of your lecture-room. I will be silent; you shall never see me. But your words yesterday aw

that attitude are fittin

went into the library to her father, a

houlder.... 'The rest of this matter you and I can settle;' and Philammon followed

aying rude things to my daught

the young monk, w

!-that is, if you learn to deserve it-as virtuous as she is wise, as wise as she is beautiful. Truly they have repaid me for my labours in their service. Look, young man! little as you merit it, here is a pledge of your forgiveness, such as the richest and noblest in Alexandria are glad to purchase with many an ounce of gold-a

ft; he was on the great stream. Whither would it lead him? Well-was it not the great stream? Had not all mankind, for all the ages, been floating on it? Or was it but a desert-river, dwindling away beneath the fiery sun, destined to lose itself a few miles on, among the arid sands? Were Arsenius and the faith of his childhood right? And was the Old World coming speedily to its death-throe, and the Kingdom of

ad been waiting for him at the door all the

labour with you. Ask me no

unspeakable, remained astonished for three days, my young friend-

cloudy Olympus, where she sits enshrined far above t

ripts open before her; but she is thi

ician blood surely flows in those veins; it shows out in every attitude, every tone, every motion of the hand and lip. He cannot be one of the herd. Who ever knew one of them crave after knowledge for its own sake?.... And I have longed so for one real pupil! I have longed so to find one such man, among the effeminate selfish triflers who pretend to listen to me. I thought I had found one-and the moment that I had lost him, behold, I find another; and th

e said, dashing away the tears-'That-and anything-and