ng around them--knew what part they were
playing in the great drama, Life. And when she turned her happy face
toward them they waxed merry, but when they saw her sterner visage
they wept.

"Still they lacked painfully, living as they did wholly in the
present, sending never a backward glance along the echoing corridors
of the past--never a swift shaft of sight along the dim shadowy vistas
of the future. And the gods noted this lack.

"'It must be remedied,' said one.

"'Nay! nay!' pleaded another. 'Let them be as they are. They are
spared so much of grief.'

"'They are also denied so much of joy,' said the first with gentle
firmness. 'They must receive their gift and must pay its price.'

"'Ah the price! So heavy!' still pleaded the other.

"'The end is worth the pain,' was the reply.

"And so another spirit was sent to earth, and she too had a double
aspect. One face was lighted by a happy, dreamy smile; the other was
lined with sharpest pain, for her name was Memory.

"'One more gift and the trio is complete,' the gods decreed.

"'Let them alone; in mercy let them alone!' pleaded the pitying
spirit. 'They have enough to bear--enough of joy; enough of grief.'

"'Nay, nay. They are but imperfectly endowed. They look about them at
the waves that lap the beach on which they stand, and look backward
o'er the sands of Time, but send never a glance forward over the great
misty ocean of the Future.'

"Then down from the other world there shot a gleam of golden light
that rested on a shadow, and willy-nilly--not knowing, not caring,
possibly resisting had they fully comprehended--mankind was endowed
with another gift, and its name was Anticipation. One face was
dazzling in its radiance--that they called Hope; the other was deep
with gloom, and that was Dread. With the coming of this gift the veil
that hung athwart the future was pierced, and mankind saw as the gods
see, not only what was, not alone what had been, but what was to be as
well.

"And on a day when all went fair they clung to these three
gifts--Realization, Memory, and Anticipation--and thanked the gracious
gods, but on another day, when Life pressed hard, they tried to fling
them off and cried in bitter reproach: 'Why didst thou burden us with
double-faced, tormenting creatures? Why wore they not a single face,
and that a happy one?'

"Then down through the immeasurable quivering ether that veils
eternity came the answering murmur, tender and piti