d and shelter, and we settled
down together, the raven and I, both revellers in the occult, both
lovers of solitude. But it proved to be a worthless bird, a shallow,
empty-minded, shameless bird, and all I gleaned from it was--idleness.
It made me listless and restless; it filled me with cravings, not for
work, but for nature, for the dark open air of night-time, for the vast
loneliness of mountains, the deep secluded valleys, the rushing, foaming
flow of streams, and for woods--ah! how I love the woods!--woods full of
stalwart oaks and silvery beeches, full of silent, moon-kissed glades,
nymphs, sirens, and pixies. Ah! how I longed for all these, and more
besides--for anything and everything that appertained neither to man nor
his works. Then I said good-bye to the raven, and, taking it with me to
the top of a high hill, let it go. Croaking, croaking, croaking it flew
away, without giving me as much as one farewell glance.

_Mermaids_

Who would not, if they could, believe in mermaids? Surely all save those
who have no sense of the beautiful--of poetry, flowers, painting, music,
romance; all save those who have never built fairy castles in the air
nor seen fairy palaces in the fire; all save those whose minds, steeped
in money-making, are both sordid and stunted. That mermaids did exist,
and more or less in legendary form, I think quite probable, for I feel
sure there was a time in the earth's history when man was in much closer
touch with the superphysical than he is at present. They may, I think,
be classified with pixies, nymphs, and sylphs, and other pleasant types
of elementals that ceased to fraternise with man when he became more
plentiful and forsook the simple mode of living for the artificial.

Pixies, nymphs, sylphs, and other similar kinds of fairies are all
harmless and benevolent elementals, and I believe they were all fond of
visiting this earth, but that they seldom visit it now, only appearing
at rare intervals to a highly favoured few.

_The Wandering Jew_

No story fascinated me more when I was a boy than that of Ahasuerus, the
Wandering Jew. How vividly I saw him--in my mental vision--with his
hooked nose, and wild, dark eyes, gleaming with hatred, cruelty, and
terror, spit out his curses at Christ and frantically bid him begone!
And Christ! How plainly I saw Him, too, bathed in the sweat of agony,
stumbling, staggering, reeling, and tottering beneath the cross he had
to carry! And then the