r
who advance to maturity in the same dwelling. A gifted woman, the
author of "Counterparts" and "Charles Auchester," who, devoured by
the flame of her own genius, died too young, has written, somewhat
extravagantly, "O blessed sympathy of sisterhood with brotherhood!
Surpassing all other friendship, leavening with angel solicitude the
purest love of earth. No lovership like that of the brother and the
sister, however passionate their spirits, when they truly love."
Narcissus, in the classic fable, had a lovely sister, to whom he was
most fondly attached. They were the images and mirrors of each other.
It was only when death had snatched her from his side, that, pining
under his bereavement, wandering by fountains and rivers, lie caught
glimpses of his own reflection; and, mistaking the illusory show for
his lost companion, fell in love with himself, and languished away
till rejoined with her in the pale world of Hades.

Hardly any picture in literature is more famous than that of the
friendship of Orestes and Electra. What divine beauty, what tragic
pathos, what immortal truth, are in it! And the friendship of
Antigone and Polynices is similar. With the Greeks this relation was
under the special protection of Apollo and Diana, the divine brother
and sister, whose physical representatives were the sun and moon.
Iphigenia, priestess in Tauris, in her distress for her brother,
prays to the goddess for pity and help:

For thou, Diana, lov'st thy gentle brother
Beyond what earth and heaven can offer thee,
And dost, with quiet yearning, ever turn
Thy virgin face to his eternal light.

A striking example of this relation, sustained with great fullness
and warmth, was given by Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica in the
sixth century. In the ecclesiastic legends connected with. The
canonization of this brother and sister, it is narrated that they
were accustomed to meet at a place intermediate between their
retreats on Mount Cassino and at Plombariola, and to spend the night
together in spiritual conversation and communion on the joys of
heaven. Three days after their last interview, Scholastica died in
her solitude. Benedict, rapt in contemplation on his mount at that
moment, is said to have seen the soul of his sister ascend to heaven
in the shape of a dove. He immediately sent for her body, and had it
laid, with tender and solemn ceremonies, in the tomb which he had
previously prepared for himself. The friendship of Ta