upon me; for a moment I wavered. Then again I called to mind the high and ennobling studies I pursued, and I felt that if light and enlivening pleasure were not mine, that my mode of life, and my opinions raised my soul far above his; and I in my turn reasoned with Alcmenes, upon the folly of delivering his soul and existence up to sensual pleasures, and endeavoured to impress upon him the superiority of my belief over his.

"Nay, Eurysthenes," he would say, "you are the very Prince of Stoics, but the Epicurean philosophy is best adapted to my temperament. I cannot reason upon any thing; a life of ease and pleasure is fitted for me, and I yield to my feelings."

I reminded him, that the wine-cup would at length be drained, that there were times when objects were wanted to create his mirth, and that beauty faded in his grasp.

"Then, we will fill the cup to the brim again, we will quickly find other beauties, and laugh to think that we can so soon renew our pleasures."

"Still," I said, "there will be a moment

of cessation of pleasure. How much better then is it to steel yourself against all its fascinations, and by regarding every thing with indifference, never to receive pain or pleasure from any object, belonging to us externally; but by making our internal powers, our intellect and our soul, the constant objects of our attention, endeavour to ensure our happiness.'

"Ah! Alcmenes would say, smiling, "we are both travelling to the Elysian Fields; my path is strewed with flowers, yours is rough, hard, and to me, far from enticing."

And I could never reason him out of his pleasures, nor could I entirely persuade myself that he was wrong. There was something in my nature which warred against my intellect, a discontentedness with myself, while I owned the beauty of my philosophy; a restlessness of thought and of feeling, which continually urged me on to attain bliss, but which was as constantly unsatisfied.

CHAPTER V.

I HAD very early been betrothed to my nearest relative, and at the age of twentyfour, I yielded to my father's wish, and married. I considered this event as one of necessity, and did not expect from it any great increase of happiness. It was well for me that I did not, otherwise I should have felt the events of my married life too deeply, to have borne them so patiently as my indifference to my wife enabled me to do.

As at the death of my mother, so also at my marriage, every ceremony enjoined by the custom and religion of my country was strictly observed. Agathonica had been presented to Diana, and had given her tribute of curiosities to that Goddess; and the usual sacrifices and oblations were made to the Gods.

It was determined by those friends who had the arrangement of every thing on that eventful day, that our wedding should be as splendid as possible; and Agathonica did not make any objection to such being done, for I had obtained a name in Athens, and she felt some pride in shewing that she was connected with me; added to which, she had already, on many occasions, manifested, as far as a secluded female could do, a love of splendour and ostentation, and a desire to enjoy to the full the luxuries which our joint wealth could procure her.

I was passive; my friends did with me as they pleased, I assented to all they proposed, but I suggested nothing; and I attired myself in the splendid garment prepared for me, with as little pride and pleasure as I put on my usual every-day habiliments. To one thing only did I pay any regard, it was that my garland might be of anemonies and violets intermixed; these I gathered myself, and gave to my bride a similar garland; and and when I saw it bound upon her forehead, I felt it to be the first act which installed

her in the apartments of my mother, who had planted those flowers in the garden from which I had gathered them. And I pictured to myself a happiness awaiting me, something like that of my boyhood.

In the evening the bride was conducted home in a chariot by torch-light, and attended by singers and dancers. We had some distance to travel, her father's house being situated on the opposite side of the city to ours. At the end of the journey, the axletree of the carriage was broken, and burnt, to signify that the bride would never again return to her former home; and we entered our house amidst a shower of figs and various fruits, which our friends plentifully poured upon us.

For three days I was compelled to act the bridegroom, but rejoiced that the fourth day left me free to follow my former studies, and usual manner of passing my time.

I was not an inattentive husband, though perhaps owing to my tenets of philosophy, I was not a loving one. My wife was to me the same as other women: I had not married