vention of
useful arts. Among them the Sibyl sought out Musseus, the father of the
poets, and besought him to reveal in what retreat they should find
Anchises, on whose account she and her companion had traversed all the
regions of the shades.

"None of us," answered the venerable shade, "have here any fixed abode. We
wander at our will among the shady groves and by the pleasant banks of the
river. But if you mount with me this little eminence, I will show you him
whom you seek."

As he spoke, he led them to a spot where they could survey all the shining
plains around, and pointed to where Anchises, reclined in a secluded vale,
was surveying the souls of his descendants who were destined in future
times to visit the earth, and were enacting beforehand the achievements
they were fated to accomplish during life. As soon as he saw AEneas
advancing toward him, he rose with hands stretched out and joyful tears
pouring down his face.

"Are you indeed," he exclaimed, "come to me at last, my son? Am I
permitted once more to see your face, and to listen to the tones of your
dear voice? Now indeed the hopes which I cherished are fulfilled. By how
many dangers have you been threatened since we parted! I was filled with
dread lest you should be prevented from accomplishing your task by the
temptations which beset you at Carthage."

"Thy apparition, beloved father," answered AEneas, "continually appearing
to me in dreams, urged me forward even to these regions. Permit me now to
clasp thee in my arms, and do not withdraw from my embrace." Thrice did he
attempt to throw his arms about the shade, which being only composed of
thin air, was not perceptible to his touch. While the two conversed
together, AEneas observed at no great distance from them a stream, at which
prodigious numbers of ghosts were incessantly crowding to drink, swarming
like bees round their hive. Astonished at this spectacle, the hero
inquired of his father what that stream was, and why those spectres were
so eager to drink of it. "These," answered Anchises, "are souls destined
by fate to occupy other bodies in the upper world; and the stream is
Lethe, one draught of which is sufficient to destroy all recollection of
their former condition."

"But surely," said AEneas, "it is not to be believed that any souls which
have tasted the delights of this abode will be desirous to return again to
the life of earth, with its uncertainties and its miseries. How comes it