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by flattering its enthusiasm for a while, that the folly might be more evident when openly exposed.

He added........that all the idle tales circulated about the Gods were merely so many inventions of artful men to hoodwink weak women, and credulous youth.....and continued to support his scandalously profligate apostacy till I could endure him no longer.

My retorts were keen.....spirited...... and severe.........and I left him........ determined that all connection should cease between us.

On the following day he pursued his usual functions with hypocritical devotion...nor did the stedfast rebuke of my reproving eyes shake his effrontery .....he, on the contrary accosted me with his wonted affability.........and affected a perfect unconsciousness of what had passed the night before.

I was quite astonished.........I knew

not how to believe there could be persons who.....in the excesses of vice .......could assume the garb of virtue with all the composure and serenity of aspect, which I supposed the unerring attributes of innocence.

But I was soon released from my doubts and disquietudes........The impostor quitted the temple of Delphos one night, without leaving a trace behind him......nor could any.......but myself......account for his sudden disappearance.

These circumstances gave a new cast to my reflections........Still my favorite passion preserved its empire .......but I confined my ideas to my own solitary bosom, and made the Gods alone the witness of my feelings.

I still labored to improve my sentiments on the model of the Orphean philosophy..........Every new idea that

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unfolded itself in my mind, was acknowledged by my heart; and I thus passed a few happy years in an enviable calm, which I never reflect upon without a mixture of regret and pleasure.

I did not then know......and was blessed in the ignorance.....that the unavoidable embarrassments attendant on the instability of human affairs, oppose a continued indulgence of serenity and peace.....the sole prerogatives of heavenly beings.

At length I approached manhood, and began to feel......in spite of all the pleasing fancies I had formerly so fondly nursed.......that my heart was sensible of a painful void I could not supply by any new ideas.

As Nature now expanded all its beauties to the day, I began to view them with different eyes......My heart was enchanted with the rich display

of scenery......and I felt its force in a way unknown to me before.

The little songster...........warbling through the grove.......seemed to express an indefinable something I could not explain.....The trees, which began to increase their leafy umbrage, invited me to rest beneath their shady canopy, and indulge in the luxury of voluptuous melancholy, which all my sublime ideas were unequal to dissipate.

I insensibly lost myself in a soft..... passive.........kind of indolence......... Methought I had hitherto borrowed all my happiness from imagination..... and my soul panted for the real enjoyment of that perfection I had only ideally partaken.

I had been a guest at a visionary banquet.......I longed for more substantial aliment.......and for the first time found I wanted the endearing charms of friendship to ennoble my

feelings....My fancy fired.....it formed an ideal Pylades........and my sympathetic heart added truth and honor..... for a virtuous soul should ever be the constant companion of an engaging form.

I sought a counterpart to my picture among the youths of the Temple, with whom I was in habits of goodfellowship.......I frequently.........for à while.........fancied I had found the treasure; but......as our intimacy in creased........the charm always disappeared......and I could not find one of my companions so gifted by nature, as to answer my refined expectations.

While I was thus fruitlessly employed.......it was my ill fortune to inspire the High Priestess with a passion as incompatible with her years as her sacred office........I had, indeed, often been distinguished by marks of

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