With him I used to walk by the sea, and,
as we strolled and the waves plunged in long legions before us, I
looked at him through the spectacles, and as his eye dilated with the
boundless view, and his chest heaved with an impossible desire, I saw
Xerxes and his army tossing and glittering, rank upon rank, multitude
upon multitude, out of sight, but ever regularly advancing and with
the confused roar of ceaseless music, prostrating themselves in abject
homage. Or, as with arms outstretched and hair streaming on the wind,
he chanted full lines of the resounding Iliad, I saw Homer pacing the
AEgean sands in the Greek sunsets of forgotten times.

"My grandmother died, and I was thrown into the world without
resources, and with no capital but my spectacles. I tried to find
employment, but men were shy of me. There was a vague suspicion that I
was either a little crazed, or a good deal in league with the Prince
of Darkness. My companions who would persist in calling a piece of
painted muslin a fair and fragrant flower had no difficulty; success
waited for them around every corner, and arrived in every ship. I
tried to teach, for I loved children. But if anything excited my
suspicion, and, putting on my spectacles, I saw that I was fondling a
snake, or smelling at a bud with a worm in it, I sprang up in horror
and ran away; or, if it seemed to me through the glasses that a cherub
smiled upon me, or a rose was blooming in my buttonhole, then I felt
myself imperfect and impure, not fit to be leading and training what
was so essentially superior in quality to myself, and I kissed the
children and left them weeping and wondering.

"In despair I went to a great merchant on the island, and asked him to
employ me.

"'My young friend,' said he, 'I understand that you have some singular
secret, some charm, or spell, or gift, or something, I don't know
what, of which people are afraid. Now, you know, my dear,' said the
merchant, swelling up, and apparently prouder of his great stomach
than of his large fortune, 'I am not of that kind. I am not easily
frightened. You may spare yourself the pain of trying to impose upon
me. People who propose to come to time before I arrive, are accustomed
to arise very early in the morning,' said he, thrusting his thumbs in
the armholes of his waistcoat, and spreading the fingers, like two
fans, upon his bosom. 'I think I have heard something of your secret.
You have a pair of spectacles, I believe,