First thing, first-born of the black-plumed Night, was a wind-egg hatched in her bosom,

Whence timely with seasons revolving again sweet Love burst out as a blossom,

Gold wings glittering forth of his back, like whirlwinds gustily turning.

He, after his wedlock with Chaos, whose wings are of darkness, in Hell broad-burning,

For his nestlings begat him the race of us first, and upraised us to light new-lighted.

And before this was not the race of the gods, until all things by Love were united:

And of kind united in kind with communion of nature the sky and the sea are

Brought forth, and the earth, and the race of the gods everlasting and blest. So that we are Far away the most ancient of all things blest. And that we are of Love's generation

There are manifest manifold signs. We have wings, and with us have the Love's habitation;

And manifold fair young folk that forswore love once, ere the bloom of them ended,

Have the men that pursued and desired them subdued by the help of us only befriended,

With such baits as a quail, a flamingo, a goose, or a cock's comb staring and splendid.

All best good things that befall men come from us birds, as is plain to all reason:

For first we proclaim and make known to them spring, and the winter and autumn in season; Bid sow, when the crane starts clanging for Afric in shrill-voiced emigrant number,

And calls to the pilot to hang up his rudder again for the season and slumber;

And then weave a cloak for Orestes the thief, lest he strip men of theirs if it freezes.

And again thereafter the kite reappearing announces a change in the breezes,

And that here is the season for shearing your sheep of their spring wool. Then does the swallow Give you notice to sell your great-coat, and provide something light for the heat that's to follow. Thus are we as Ammon or Delphi unto you, Dodona, nay, Phoebus Apollo.

For, as first ye come all to get auguries of birds, even such is in all things your carriage,

Be the matter a matter of trade, or of earning your bread, or of any one's marriage.

And all things ye lay to the charge of a bird that belong to discerning prediction:

Winged fame is a bird, as you reckon; you sneeze, and the sign's as a bird for conviction;

66

All tokens are 'birds" with you-sounds, too, and

lackeys and donkeys. Then must it not follow That we are to you all as the manifest godhead that speaks in prophetic Apollo?

THE CALL TO THE NIGHTINGALE

(From "The Birds ": Frere's 'Translation)

Α'

WAKE! awake!

Sleep no more, my gentle mate!

With your tiny tawny bill,

Wake the tuneful echo shrill,

On vale or hill;

Or in her rocky seat,

Let her listen and repeat

The tender ditty that you tell,

The sad lament,

The dire event,

To luckless Itys that befel.

Thence the strain

Shall rise again,

And soar amain,

Up to the lofty palace gate
Where mighty Apollo sits in state
In Jove's abode, with his ivory lyre,
Hymning aloud to the heavenly choir,
While all the gods shall join with thee
In a celestial symphony.

FROM

TH

THE WOMEN'S FESTIVAL”
(Translated by W. Lucas Collins)

HEY'RE always abusing the women,
As a terrible plague to men;

They say we're the root of all evil,
And repeat it again and again;
Of war, and quarrels, and bloodshed,
All mischief, be what it may;

And pray, then, why do you marry us,
If we're all the plagues you say?
And why do you take such care of us,
And keep us so safe at home,

And are never easy a moment,
If ever we chance to roam?

When you ought to be thanking heaven
That your plague is out of the way—
You all keep fussing and fretting:
"Where is my Plague to-day?"
If a Plague peeps out at a window,
Up go the eyes of the men;

If she hides, then they all keep staring
Until she looks out again.

ARISTOTLE

ARISTOTLE was born in Macedonia in 384 B.C.; died at Chalcis in 322. He was a student in Plato's school, in Athens, and for a time acted as instructor of Alexander the Great. Aristotle wrote on a large variety of subjects. He gave direction and system to Greek thought, and for two thousand years he was the greatest force in the world of philosophy.

PROSECUTION AND DEFENSE

(From Buckley's translation in the Bohn Library)

IT will be for me next to speak of the number and

nature of the sources out of which the orator must construct his reasonings, touching accusation and defense. Now we must ascertain three points: one, what and how many are the objects for the sake of which men act unjustly; the second, how themselves are disposed; and the third, towards persons of what character and of what disposition they do so act.

Let us then, after defining the acting unjustly, speak in order of the rest. Let the acting unjustly be defined to be the voluntary commission of hurt in contravention of law. Now law is either general or peculiar. The peculiar law I call that, by whose written enactments men direct their polity; the general, whatever unwritten rules appear to be recognized among all men. Men are voluntary agents in whatever they do wittingly, and without compulsion. Men, therefore, do not everything on fixed principle, which they do wittingly; but whatever they do on

fixed principle, that they do wittingly; because no one is ignorant of that which he chooses on principle. Now, the principles by whose motion men deliberately choose to hurt and do evil in contravention of law are depravity and moral weakness; for if any are depraved either in one or more respects, it is in reference to that point, on which they are so depraved, that they are guilty of injustice. The illiberal man, for instance, on the subject of money; the intemperate, touching the pleasure of the body; and the effeminate, respecting objects of ease; and the coward, respecting danger (for it is by reason of fear that men abandon their cområdes in danger); the ambitious man, on the score of honor; the hasty man, by reason of anger; the man eager to excel, on account of victory; the vindictive, for the sake of revenge; a silly man, owing to his being mistaken on points of right and wrong; a man of effrontery, from his contempt of character. And in other characters in the same way each [goes wrong] respecting his own particular weakness. But my meaning on these matters will be evident from what has been already said on the subject of the virtues, and from what hereafter will be stated on the subject of the passions. It merely remains for me to state on what account, how effected, and toward whom, men do commit injustice.

First, then, let us distinctly enumerate the objects, which desiring, or which avoiding, we set about injustice: because it evidently should be considered by the plaintiff how many, and what sort of those things, from a desire of which men wrong their neighbors, have an existence on the side of his adversary; and by the defendant again, what, and what number of these things do not so exist. Now all men do all things either of themselves, or not of them