n Arcadia to Phoebus, so I have
heard. He instantly destroyed it, and scattered the ignorant
savages who had raised it.

HERMES.

There was a touch of desolate majesty about this figure. I fear
that it portrays some blighting Power of suffering or of grief.
[_He shudders._]

APHRODITE.

There are certainly deities of whom we knew nothing in Olympus.
Perhaps this is the temple of some Unknown God.

HERMES.

I admit that I thought, with this picture, and with their sinister
garments of black and of blue, and with the bareness and harshness
of the temple, that something might be combined which it would
give me no satisfaction to witness. I placed myself near the door,
where, in a moment, I could have regained the exquisite forest, and
the odour of this carpet of woodruff, and your enchanting society.
But nothing occurred to disconcert me. After genuflexions and
liftings of the voice----

APHRODITE.

What was the object of these?

HERMES.

I absolutely failed to determine. Well, the priest--if I can so
describe a man without apparent dedication, robed without charm,
and exalted by no visible act of sacrifice--ascended a species of
open box, and spoke to the audience from the upturned lid of it.

CIRCE.

What did he say? Did he explain the religion of his people?

HERMES.

To tell you the truth, Circe, although I listened with what
attention I could, and although the actual language was perfectly
clear to me--you know I am rather an accomplished linguist--I
formed no idea of what he said. I could not find the starting-point
of his experience.

CIRCE.

To whom can this temple be possibly dedicated?

APHRODITE.

Depend upon it, it is not a temple at all. What Hermes was present
at was unquestionably some gathering of local politicians. Poor
these barbarians may be, but they could not excuse by poverty such
a neglect of the decencies as he describes. No flowers, no bright
robes, no music of stringed instruments, no sacrifice--it is quite
impossible that the meanest of sentient beings should worship in
such a manner. And as for the picture which you saw behind what you
took to be the altar, I question not that it is used to keep in
memory some ancestor who suffered from the tyranny of his masters.
In the belief that he was assisting at a process of rustic worship,
our poor Hermes has doubtless attended a revolutionary meeting.

CIRCE.

Dreadful! But may its conflicts long keep outside the arcades