st of the roads
drank up the blood of the innocent. The sight of this caused Eunoia
infinite grief.

"'See what I have done!' she sighed, leaning towards the world. 'My
poor children are plunged in misery, and by my fault. Their suffering
is my crime, and I will expiate it. God Himself, who only thinks through
me, would be powerless to restore them to their pristine purity. That
which is done is done, and the creation will remain for ever imperfect.
But, at least, I will not forsake my creatures. If I cannot make them
happy, like me, I can make myself unhappy, like them. Since I committed
the mistake of giving them bodies which dishonour them, I will myself
assume a body like unto theirs, and will go and live amongst them.'

"Having thus spoken, Eunoia descended to the earth, and was incarnate
in the breast of a woman of Argos. She was born small and feeble, and
received the name of Helen. She submitted to all the labours of this
life, but soon grew in grace and beauty, and became the most desired
of women, as she had determined, in order that her mortal body might be
tried by the most supreme defilements. An inert prey to lascivious and
violent men, she suffered rape and adultery, in expiation of all the
adulteries, all the violences, all the iniquities, and caused, by her
beauty, the ruin of nations, that God might pardon the sins of the
universe. And never was the celestial thought, never was Eunoia, so
adorable as in those days when, as a woman, she prostituted herself to
heroes and shepherds. The poets surmised her divinity when they painted
her so peaceful, superb, and fatal, and when they addressed that
invocation to her, 'A soul as serene as a calm upon the waters.'

"Thus was Eunoia led by pity into evil and suffering. She died, and the
Argives still show her tomb--for it was necessary that she should know
death after lust, and taste the bitter fruit she had sown. But, emerging
from the decomposed flesh of Helen, she became incarnate again as
a woman, and again suffered every form of insult and outrage. Thus,
passing from body to body, throughout all the evil ages, she takes upon
her the sins of the world. Her sacrifice will not be in vain. Joined to
us by the bonds of the flesh, loving us, and weeping with us, she will
effect her redemption and ours, and will carry us, clinging to her white
breast, into the peace of the regained paradise."

HERMODORUS. This myth was not unknown to me. I remembered having he