Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1859-09-03
50 highly, and willing to accept them as reali

SO highly, and willing to accept them as real
ties"
"Thy meaning"
"Thy gods would explain it'll Do ye be-
iIeve that they are the men and women OIL
passions and desires which ye paint them =
Does zeus steal mems wives 7 Was Aphro-
dte caught in the golden net Of her spouse
are all these things true or mythicS"
An answer in recrimination: thy bulls,
cows, swine, and leeks, thy crocodiies, ana
thy cats, thy snakes and birds-are these nv
gods f-these so far superior to the laughter
loving who won Ares to her embrace, or to
the Zeus who gave Heracles to Alcmena p
art thou not quarrelling with the husk, when
the core is but the same9 So our phiioso-
Pliers also--of thine know nothing, neither
how much they profess, nor how much they
believe-but do our sages credit these popular
talesl No To the artisan every myth may
be truth, but to the hilosopher-"
Every truth is myth. Thus would thy
sentence have ended hast thou not been
| standing beneath the shadow of thine own
Parthenonl Of our worship but one word;
| if thou art wise, it will suffice; if foolish,
twenty weuld deafen the. Nature has one
mystery in the sea, the river, the plain, the
flower; in the human voice, the human eye;
in beast, and bird and reptile; in love, hate,
and death-iti is equally written, equally in
explicable. And this mystery, in all its en-
shrinements, has the ades ofEgypt striven to
express, while yelling. Under every one of
its forms is it there to be found; AND the
discrepancy of outward worship is nullihed
by its secret concordance"
And this mystery"
els Life.''
The Egyptian spoke truth; this Das the
meaning of that strange worship in the Nile
valley; then, as now, worlds wonder and
worlds scandal, where the solution was not
given with the riddle.
burst of music from the ehoristers ac-
conpanying the procession, for the moment
stopped all further conversation while
shower of buds fell on the marble pavement,
and down the broad steps, strewing thepedes-
tails of the statues, and falling into their bos-
ems, hanging on the garments of the men,
and on the tresses of young girls, and into the
outstretched hands of children; filling the
atmosphere with perfume and the music OF
sweet leaves rustling, in memory Of love for
the yet living Persephone. If Life was the
key to the Egyptian, Love was the meaning of
the Grecian faith. They did not know that
both were one.
The procession again formed itself in order,
now that the prayers and sacrifices were
over, and the garlands hung about the figure
for which they were twined and down the
Acropolis it wound past all its temples, stat
ues, altars, trees, and flowers, through the
gates, and down the broad steps fanked with
glorious sculptures, until the maids and
matrons forming it, once more stood by the
swart Egyptian stranger and his guide.
Medias looked at them coldly too mature
for boyish love, too busy for philosophic alb
stractions, he considered the train in the sim
pie light of usefulness, and condemned be-
cause he did not understand. The women
glanced wonderingly, seeing these two men
Standing there so idly when worship to the
gods was going on: and those who, not form
ing part of the procession, remained at home,
peeping through their wells, as they crowded
to the house-tops, spoke loudly in condem-
nation of their impiety. But the thunder
bolt of Zeus lay cold and the bow of Apollo
was unstrung. Impious as they might be, the
gods did not punish, and man had no right
to Judge. The women near at hand gave a
softer sentence than those far away; but
| then, Meidias was a universal favorite among
them for his gay, gallant bearing, his manly
beauty,-to say nothing of his entertain
ments; and the stranger, too, though no
Greek, was yet somewhat lovely to Athenian
eyes; for he was dignifed and well featured
and what female heart cannot the good
graces of person touchf
AS they slowly followed in the train of
worshippers, discussing as men do discuss
the utility and the meanings of what they
saw, the Egyptian suddenly called his COM
panion's attention to one of the procession,
who for the first time now caught the eye.-
She was young girl, one of the canephorai,
bearing her basket of flowers more gracefully
than even the most graceful of the women
about her. She was true picture of youth,
when most youthful and beautiful in its youth,
But through all the conventional calm and
modesty of demeanor prescribed by custom to
Attic virgins, world of love, and strength of
will, and power of character, shone out
through her blue eyes, and was depicted on
her smooth but large forehead, where though.