-crumbling shore:

Say that to old affection true
We hug the narrowing chain
That binds our hearts,--alas, how few
The links that yet remain!

The fatal touch awaits them all
That turns the rocks to dust;
From year to year they break and fall,
They break, but never rust.

Say if one note of happier strain
This worn-out harp afford,
--One throb that trembles, not in vain,
Their memory lent its chord.

Say that when Fancy closed her wings
And Passion quenched his fire,
Love, Love, still echoed from the strings
As from Anacreon's lyre!

January 8, 1885.

VII

A RECORD OF ANTIPATHIES

In thinking the whole matter over, Dr. Butts felt convinced that, with
care and patience and watching his opportunity, he should get at the
secret, which so far bad yielded nothing but a single word. It might be
asked why he was so anxious to learn what, from all appearances, the
young stranger was unwilling to explain. He may have been to some extent
infected by the general curiosity of the persons around him, in which
good Mrs. Butts shared, and which she had helped to intensify by
revealing the word dropped by Paolo. But this was not really his chief
motive. He could not look upon this young man, living a life of
unwholesome solitude, without a natural desire to do all that his science
and his knowledge of human nature could help him to do towards bringing
him into healthy relations with the world about him. Still, he would not
intrude upon him in any way. He would only make certain general
investigations, which might prove serviceable in case circumstances
should give him the right to counsel the young man as to his course of
life. The first thing to be done was to study systematically the whole
subject of antipathies. Then, if any further occasion offered itself, he
would be ready to take advantage of it. The resources of the Public
Library of the place and his own private collection were put in
requisition to furnish him the singular and widely scattered facts of
which he was in search.

It is not every reader who will care to follow Dr. Butts in his study of
the natural history of antipathies. The stories told about them are,
however, very curious; and if some of them may be questioned, there is no
doubt that many of the strangest are true, and consequently take away
from the improbability of others which we are disposed to doubt.

But in the first place, what d