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would not go forth out of his chamber to the aid of his people in the war.

ALTHAIA AND THE BURNING BRAND.

So the Kouretes grew more and more mighty, and their warriors came up against the City of Kalydon, and would no longer suffer the people to come without the walls. And everywhere there was faintness of heart and grief of spirit, for the enemy had wasted their fields and slain the bravest of the men, and little store remained to them of food. Day by day Oineus besought his son, and the great men of the city fell at the knees of Meleagros and prayed him to come out to their help, but he would not hearken. Still he tarried in his chamber with his wife, Kleo. patra, by his side, and heeded not the hunger and the wailings of the people. Fiercer and fiercer waxed the roar of war; the loosened stones rolled from the tottering (Muse of Tragedy.) wall, and the battered gates were scarce able to keep out the enemy. Then Kleopatra fell at her husband's knee, and she took him by the hand, and called him gently by his name, and said, "O Meleagros, if thou wilt think of thy wrath, think also of the evils which war brings with it-how when a city is taken, the men are slain, and the mother with her child, the old and the young are borne away into slavery. If the men of Pleuron win the day, thy mother may repent her of the curse which she has laid upon thee; but thou wilt see thy children slain and me a slave."

MELPOMENE.

Then Meleagros started from his couch and seized his spear and shield. He spake no word, but hastened to the walls, and soon the Kouretes fell back before the spear which never missed. its mark. Then he gathered the warriors of his city, and bade

them open the gates, and went forth against the enemy. Long and dreadful was the battle, but at length the Kouretes turned and fled, and the danger passed away from the men of Kalydon.

But the Moirai still remembered the doom of the burning brand, and the unpitying Erinys had not forgotten the curse of Althaia, and they moved the men of Kalydon to withhold the prize of his good deeds from the chieftain, Meleagros. “He came not forth," they said, "save at the prayer of his wife. He hearkened not when we besought him, he heeded not our misery and tears; why should we give him that which he did not win from any love for us?" So his people were angry with Meleagros, and his spirit grew yet more bitter within him. Once again he lay within his chamber, and his spear and shield hung idle on the wall, and it pleased him more to listen the whole day long to the soft words of Kleopatra than to be doing brave and good deeds for the people of his land.

Then the heart of his mother, Althaia, was more and more turned away from him, so that she said in bitterness of spirit, "What good shall his life now do to me?" and she brought forth the half-burnt brand from its secret place, and cast it on the hearth. Suddenly it burst into a flame, and suddenly the strength of Meleagros began to fail as he lay in the arms of Kleopatra. My life is wasting within me," he said; "clasp me closer in thine arms; let others lay a curse upon me, so only I die rejoicing in thy love." Weaker and weaker grew his failing breath, but still he looked with loving eyes on the face of Kleopatra, and his spirit went forth with a sigh of gladness, as the last spark of the brand flickered out upon the hearth.

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Then was there grief and sorrow in the house of Oineus and through all the City of Kalydon, but they wept and mourned in vain. They thought now of his good deeds, his wise counsels, and his mighty arm, but in vain they bewailed the death of their chieftain in the glory of his age. Yet deeper and more

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bitter was the sorrow of Althaia, for the love of a mother came back to her heart when the Moirai had accomplished the doom of her child. And yet more bitterly sorrowed his wife, Kleopatra, and yearned for the love which had been torn away from her. There was no more joy within the halls of Oineus, for the Erinys had done their task well. Soon Althaia followed her child to the unknown land, and Kleopatra went forth with joy to meet Meleagros in the dark kingdom of Hades and Persephone.

ALTHAIA AND THE BURNING BRAND.

IAMOS.

On the banks of Alpheios, Evadne watched over her newborn babe, till she fled away because she feared the wrath of Aipytos, who ruled in Phaisana. The tears streamed down her cheeks as she prayed to Phœbus Apollo, who dwells at Delphi, and said, "Lord of the bright day, look on thy child, and guard him when he lies forsaken, for I may no longer tarry near him." So Evadne fled away, and Phoebus sent two serpents, who fed the babe with honey as he lay amid the flowers which clustered round him. And ever more and more through all the land went forth the saying of Phoebus, that the child of Evadne should grow up mighty in wisdom and in the power of telling the things that should happen in the time to come. Then Aipytos asked of all who dwelt in his house to tell him where he might find the son of Evadne. But they knew not where the child lay, for the serpents had hidden him far away in the thicket, where the wild flowers sheltered him from wind and heat. Long time they searched amid the tall reeds which clothe the banks of Alpheios, until at last they found the babe lying in a bed of violets. So Aipytos took the child and called his name Iamos, and he grew up brave and wise of heart, pon

dering well the signs of coming grief and joy, and the tokens of hidden things which he saw in the heaven above him or the wide. earth beneath. He spake but little to the youths and maidens who dwelt in the house of Aipytos, but he wandered on the bare hills or by the stream side, musing on many things. And so it came to pass that one night, when the stars glimmered softly in

the sky, Iamos plunged beneath the waters of Alpheios, and prayed to Phoebus who dwells at Delphi, and to Poseidon, the lord of the broad sea; and he besought them to open his eyes, that he might reveal to the sons of men the things which of themselves they could not see. Then they led him away to the high rocks which look down on the plain of Pisa, and they said, "Look yonder, child of Evadne, where the

CLIO (Muse of History). white stream of Alpheios winds its way gently to the sea. Here, in the days which are to come, Herakles, the son of the mighty Zeus, shall gather together the sons of Helen, and give them in the solemn games the mightiest of all bonds; hither shall they come to know the will of Zeus, and here shall it be thy work and the work of thy children to read to them the signs which of themselves they can not understand." Then Phoebus Apollo touched his ears, and straightway the voices of the birds spake to him clearly of the things which were to come and he heard their words as a man listens to the speech of his friend. So Iamos prospered exceedingly, for the men of all the Argive land sought aid from his wisdom, and laid rich gifts at his feet. And he taught his children after him to speak the truth and to deal justly, so that none envied their great wealth, and all men spake well of the wise children of Iamos.

FINE ARTS.

The artistic instinct is one of the earliest developed in man; the love of representation is evolved at the earliest period; we see it in the child, we see it in the savage, we find traces of it among primitive men. The child in his earliest years loves to trace the forms of objects familiar to his eyes. The savage takes a pleasure in depicting and rudely giving shape to objects which constantly meet his view. The artistic instinct is of all ages and of all climes; it springs up naturally in all countries, and takes its origin alike everywhere in the imitative faculty of man. Evidences of this instinct at the earliest period have been discovered among the relics of primitive men; rough sketches on slate and on stone of the mammoth, the deer, and of man, have been found in the caves of France; the American savage traces rude hunting scenes, or the forms of animals on the covering of his tents, and on his buffalo robes; the savage Australian covers the side of caverns, and the faces of rocks with coarse drawings of animals. We thus find an independent evolution of the art of design, and distinct and separate cycles of its development through the stages of rise, progress, maturity, decline and decay, in many countries the most remote and unconnected with one another. The earliest mode of representing men, animals and objects was in outline and in profile. It is evidently the most primitive style, and characteristic of the commencement of the art, as the first attempts made by children and uncivilized people