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    za^r < ? J^HriinillU

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    We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . — GOKTIIE .

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    SILENT LOVE . Great is the might of Speech , O Lady dear ! And when the wise man speaketh words of truth , Strong as the genial forces of brave youth , On every hand they hew a pathway clear , Making the false to die—the unperceived appear . But there be voices , sweet one , holier far Than all the fiats Spoken-Truth hath uttered ;

    Roll on in silence , sun and moon and star , Nor praises ere have sung , nor warnings muttered And yet , I tell thee that a royal hymn Doth swell for ever from them as they roll ; To heaven ' s own melody each planet-car Is driven unresting on its groaning pole ; High chaunts of luminance divine to him "Who bareth to their influence his soul .

    So , when my love would make itself a voice , To tell thee all I feel and all I know , — To speak the passionate throbbings of my heart , To tell mine ecstasies when I rejoice In thy dear eyes' serenely tranquil glow . ; In bitter cadences of song to impart The utter desolation of my woe , When I am languishing away from thee , Plodding , in faith and hope , the appointed round ; Starlike , I find , silence my voice must be , That I must love and trust and worship thee In the rapt power of Love ' s idolatry , Yet shape it not to speech , nor breathe it forth in sound Then , dearest , when , in silence by thy side , I sit and speak not—bathing in the gold Of heavenly aureoles around thee rolled—Learn thou to read that Silence , Spirit-13 ride ! To read the meaning of the deep untold , "Wherein thyself art hymned and glorified .

    So shalt thou hear , although these lips be dumb , Triumphant anthems to thy cherished name : A prelude to a mightier song to come , "When earth-bonds break 'fore Love ' s impulsive tide , And acted harmonies awake at his inspiring flame ! John Stores Smith

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    THK ATHENIAN THARGELIA ; OR , * THIRTY CENTURIES AGO . It was the eve of the Spring Festival . The lots had been cast for the victim , and Phaon ' s name had fallen first out of the urn . Among the youths of Attica there was none so beautiful as Phaon . His foot was swiftest in the race , his arm was strongest in the fight , and his victories in all the games , from Elis to the Strymon , had shed a lustre on his country . Groups of citizens were gathered about the temples to thank the gods for having chosen so noble an offering . They were never so sure of the favour of Heaven as when the best they had was accepted at their hands . The old were

    talking gravely of the mysteries of Providence . Phaon was of common blood , and yet he was selected before the children of their highest families . While the young , who had been his companions , were counting up his exploits with a hope which was half despair , the girls were picking flowers for garlands in the meadows , or laying out their dresses to appear in beauty in the morning . Among them all there was one purposethat the splendour of the ensuing Thargelia should eclipse the fairest Festival which the oldest Athenian citizen remembered . The last two years had been years of mourning . The earth had withheld her fruits , the cattle had died in the field , the wheat had withered on the stalk ; but the sins which had brought upon them the righteous anger of the gods would now , they felt , be expiated in Phaon ' s death , and all would again be well .

    But there was one heart which was heavy in the universal gladness , and which refused to answer to the gratitude which the lips struggled to utter ; it was that which was beating out the last years of old Glaucus , Phaon ' s father . " Alas for my life , " he said , " that it is left to me to see this day . What is it to me that winter has rolled away , and the earth is rising in her beauty , if the spring of my life is taken from me , never to return . The daughter of Ceres may ascend from the shades ; but when those gloomy gates have closed on Phaon they will never open to him again . Oh , my boy ! my gallant boy ! would to God old Glaucus might have given his life for thine ! What are they , those dark Powers , whose favour must be bought with blood ? Was there no wav but this ?"

    Aratus stood near and heard him . ' Murmur not , " he said ; " you and I are old j wo have seen many changes upon the earth ; was it ever well with those who lifted thoir voices against the gods ? What is death that we should repine at it ? Some day Phaon must have died . Is it not far more glorious that the gods should demand him before the leaves are faded upon the garlands which he has won ? that he should go away now as a holy

    offering , to bear with him in the victory of his death the sins which weighed upon his country , than that he should burn like a torch to the socket , and expire in the white , withered ashes of a broken age . " " My boy must die , " said Glaucus . " It is his destiny , and he will die like himself . But , oh ! that he might have lived for his people , not died for them . It is easy to be wise for others ; but , Aratus , you , who would not give Lycoris to Phaon as a bride , if the gods had chosen her , would you have been more willing to give your child to them ? My brave boy was worthy of her , Aratus , of the race of Theseus though she be . He is worthy of a higher fate . I do not speak to taunt you ; but , oh ! chide not a father ' s grief , when you too have a child who may be taken from you . "

    " Forgive me , " said Aratus : " I did not mean to pain you . Worthy was Phaon of a nobler bride than Lycoris . The past is with the Fates , and the gods themselves cannot change it . But they are mighty . What they send on us we must learn to bear . Why should we vex our spirits with vainly lamenting the inevitable ?" They separated . Aratus shrunk away as the hollow heart shrinks from the true ; and Glaucus took his mournful way to his sorrow-stricken home , where , before midnight , he must have parted for the last time with his son . With the turn of the hours the priests would claim their victim . And on what was to follow he could scarcely let his thoughts rest , far less could he bear to witness it . Aratus might go , Aratus and the rest of Athens . He would hide his head in the dust , and pray the mercy of the gods that he might follow Phaon into the underworld .

    Another heart , too , was beating strangely at the prospect of the morrow . A few moons' back Phaon , with the Olympic wreath green upon his forehead , had asked Aratus for his daughter . He had been repelled with disdain . It was better , so thought Aratus , that his daughter ' s heart should break than that she should marry into a lower rank ; and , however he might show a fair front to Glaucus , he was secretly most pleased with the choice of the gods , because it rid him for ever of an unwelcome suitor . But now the maiden would have to bear a harder trial . She was one of the choir of virgins who tended the holy fire in Apollo ' s temple , and with the dawn she would have to take place in the fatal procession . She must sing her lover ' s dirge as she attended him to the altar , and join in the Greek Hymn of Triumph which would ascend over his blood .

    In the grey mist of the May morning the Curetes gathered down upon the sands which were washed by the narrow strait that divides Attica from Eubcea . They raised a pile of peeled slips of figwood , beside which a censer smoked which contained the sacred fire , and they stood in front of it in the chill air with their long robes gathered round them , silent and motionless , like a group of the lost spirits standing mournfully beside the dull river which they may never pass . There they were , ready to pay the wretched victim his fearful honours . There was the golden bowl into which his warm blood would soon be flowing ; across it lay the dull gleaming knife , to carve out the spirit from that cunning frame , in which it was so wonderfully set ;

    the urn in which his ashes would be borne back to the city of his birth , and laid up as a treasure in the shrine of the Acropolis . Presently the first started and looked at the priest who was next him . Thay did not move , but a start of consciousness passed round the circle like an electric stroke , as , far off through the faint air , a gust of music was heard swaying among the rocks . Another and another , and then the interval ceased altogether , and a choir of voices was heard distinctly chanting a wild mournful melody . The road by which they were approaching led through a narrow winding glen

    upon the sea . The procession was close to the altar before the young girls who were leading passed out upon the sands . They opened as they appeared , dividing into two rows and passing behind the altar to leave the space free for those who followed them . The priests of Artemis came next , strewing fig leaves and chantmg a slow wild hymn . The girls had ceased to sing as they had taken their places , but the words were caught up by the multitude , and rolled back along their ranks far into the hills , as in that gloomy Litany the populace of Attica were imprecating the vengeance which their sins had earned on the head of the unhappy Phaon . Phaon himself

    walked free behind the priests with a light and godlike step , beautiful as a young Apollo . He was dressed as for a bridal , with his long yellow hair flowing over his shoulders , only lightly confined with a garland of olive , the last of many which he had won . The people crowded upon him , throwing wild figs at him , or darting at him wands of the peeled wood j but he only smiled at their curses ; and a flush of triumph rushed over his face as he saw the altar and the blaze of the sacred fire which would consume him . They poured their sins on him , and he , their noblest , would bear them away in his death . Himself most pure , lie became a curse for them , and he , the victim in his own sacrifice at once cursed and blessed , would pass away to the gods whose wrath , through him , was put away .

    And they believed it all . He , they , the priests , that wailing crowd , they believed that God looked on with approving eyes , and accepted their dark devotion . It may have been the thought may have risen in some breast beating there ( for they , too , were made of the old human clay ) , that if God required a life God himself could take it ; that the bold heart and the strong hand might perhaps do better service both to Him and to mankind with the life left in them than by crumbling to dry ashes in the flames . Some doubt , too , there may have been , whether the blood of the innocent could be welcome to God , or whether a God to whom it was welcome deserved the honour of mankind . But in those days the very thought was sin . It was a mystery on which they dared not reason ; and faith , blind and cruel faith ,

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    Untitled Article

    548 ©!»« QLtailtt . tSATtJRDAY ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 31, 1850, page 548, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1851/page/20/