nd flowers, and "all this is told us in language
at once overpowering and delicate, in verse as symmetrical as it is
exquisite, free, and fervid, through metaphor simple or sublime; each
word, each line, expressive of the writer's inmost sense; with an art
that, in its Greek constraint, comparison, and sweetness, and in its
Oriental fervor, is faultless and unerring."

Not only as a poet is Sappho of interest to the women of our day, but
also because she was the founder of the first woman's club of which we
have knowledge. This Lesbian literary club did not engage, however, in
the study of current topics, or seek to gather sheaves of knowledge from
the field of science and history, but was consecrated strictly to the
service of the Muses. Sappho attracted by her fame young women of Lesbos
and of neighboring cities. She gathered them about her, gave them
instruction in poetry and music, and incited them to the cultivation of
all the arts and graces. Many of these maidens from a distance doubtless
sought the society of Sappho because they were weary of the low drudgery
and monotonous routine of home life that fell to the lot of women in
Ionian cities, and because they felt the need of a freer atmosphere and
more inspiring surroundings.

Sappho eagerly sought to elevate her sex. She showed them that, through
the more perfect training of mind and body, their horizon would be
enlarged, their resources for happiness increased, and their homes
become centres of inspiring influences for husband and children.

Never was there a teacher more eager to possess her pupils' love and
confidence. Maximus of Tyre compares her relations with her girl friends
to Socrates's relations with young men. At times, men have seen fit to
censure these intimate friendships of Socrates and Sappho with their
pupils, and to see in them immoral relations such as characterized the
passionate devotion of many Greek men to beautiful youths; but there is
no ground for such imputations. While manifesting the beauty and
sweetness and satisfaction in woman's love for woman, Sappho did not
attempt to make this love a substitute for the love of men. She herself
was married; and there are intimations in her poems that certain of her
girl friends exchanged the pleasures of aesthetic comradeship for the
joys of wedded life.

From the fragments of her songs, we know the names of at least fourteen
of her pupils, and it pleases the fancy to attempt to reconstruct