are, of animated beings," he exclaimed: "Gods,
entirely differing from men in the infinite distance of their abode,
since one part of them only is seen by our blunted vision--those
mysterious stars!--in the eternity of their existence, in the
perfection of their nature, infected by no contact with ourselves: and
men, dwelling on the earth, with frivolous and anxious minds, with
infirm and mortal members, with variable fortunes; labouring in vain;
taken altogether and in their whole species perhaps, eternal; but,
severally, quitting the scene in irresistible succession.

"What then? Has nature connected itself together by no bond, allowed
itself to be thus crippled, and split into the divine and human
elements? And you will say to me: If so it be, that man is thus
entirely exiled from the immortal gods, that all communication is
denied [89] him, that not one of them occasionally visits us, as a
shepherd his sheep--to whom shall I address my prayers? Whom, shall I
invoke as the helper of the unfortunate, the protector of the good?

"Well! there are certain divine powers of a middle nature, through whom
our aspirations are conveyed to the gods, and theirs to us. Passing
between the inhabitants of earth and heaven, they carry from one to the
other prayers and bounties, supplication and assistance, being a kind
of interpreters. This interval of the air is full of them! Through
them, all revelations, miracles, magic processes, are effected. For,
specially appointed members of this order have their special provinces,
with a ministry according to the disposition of each. They go to and
fro without fixed habitation: or dwell in men's houses"--

Just then a companion's hand laid in the darkness on the shoulder of
the speaker carried him away, and the discourse broke off suddenly. Its
singular intimations, however, were sufficient to throw back on this
strange evening, in all its detail--the dance, the readings, the
distant fire--a kind of allegoric expression: gave it the character of
one of those famous Platonic figures or apologues which had then been
in fact under discussion. When Marius recalled its circumstances he
seemed to hear once more that voice of genuine conviction, pleading,
from amidst a [90] scene at best of elegant frivolity, for so boldly
mystical a view of man and his position in the world. For a moment,
but only for a moment, as he listened, the trees had seemed, as of old,
to be growing "close agai