life began,
That now he chooseth, with vile difference,
To be a beast, and lacke intelligence.'

Fairy Queen, book ii. canto 12.

In Plutarch's dialogue, Ulysses, after his own companions
have been restored to the human form, solicits Circe to
restore in the same manner any other Greeks who may be under
her enchantments. Circe consents, provided they desire it.
Gryllus, endowed with speech for the purpose, answers for
all, that they had rather remain as they are; and supports
the decision by showing the greater comfort of their
condition as it is, to what it would probably be if they
were again sent forth to share the common lot of mankind. We
have unfortunately only the beginning of the dialogue, of
which the greater portion has perished.

It might be seen that, to a man who traced his ancestry from the palace
of Circe, the first care would be the continuance of his ancient race;
but a wife presented to him the forethought of a perturbation of his
equanimity, which he never could bring himself to encounter. He liked to
dine well, and withal to dine quietly, and to have quiet friends at his
table, with whom he could discuss questions which might afford ample
room for pleasant conversation, and none for acrimonious dispute. He
feared that a wife would interfere with his dinner, his company, and his
after-dinner bottle of port. For the perpetuation of his name, he
relied on an orphan niece, whom he had brought up from a child, who
superintended his household, and sate at the head of his table. She was
to be his heiress, and her husband was to take his name. He left the
choice to her, but reserved to himself a veto, if he should think the
aspirant unworthy of the honourable appellation.

The young lady had too much taste, feeling, and sense to be likely to
make a choice which her uncle would not approve; but time, as it rolled
on, foreshadowed a result which the squire had not anticipated. Miss
Gryll did not seem likely to make any choice at all. The atmosphere of
quiet enjoyment in which she had grown up seemed to have steeped her
feelings in its own tranquillity; and still more, the affection which
she felt for her uncle, and the conviction that, though he had always
premeditated her marriage, her departure from his house would be the
severest blow that fate could inflict on him, led her to postpone what
she knew must be an evil da