ng rescued from
hunger and thirst by the woman I love, and who ought to see in me the
man from whom she receives the best gifts--to be dependent on her as
the recipient of her alms--seems to me worse than if I were once more to
lose my sight. I could not endure it at all! Every mouthful would choke
me. Just because she is so dear to me, I can not seek her hand; for,
in return for her great self-sacrificing love, I could give her nothing
save the keen discontent which seizes the proud soul that is forced
constantly to accept benefits, as surely as the ringing sound follows
the blow upon the brass. My whole future life would become a chain of
humiliations, and do you know whither this unfortunate marriage would
lead? My teacher Straton once said that a man learns to hate no one more
easily than the person from whom he receives benefits which it is out
of his power to repay. That is wise, and before I will see my great love
for Daphne transformed to hate, I will again try the starving which,
while I was a sculptor at Rhodes, I learned tolerably well."

"But would not a great love," asked Thyone, "suffice to repay tenfold
the perishable gifts that can be bought with gold and silver?"

"No, and again no!" Hermon answered in an agitated tone. "Something else
would blend with the love I brought to the marriage, something that must
destroy all the compensation it might offer; for I see myself becoming
a resentful misanthrope if I am compelled to relinquish the pleasure of
creating and, condemned to dull inaction, can do nothing except allow
myself to be tended, drink, eat, and sleep. The gloomy mood of her
unfortunate husband would sadden Daphne's existence even more than my
own; for, Thyone, though I should strive with all my strength to bear
patiently, with her dear aid, the burden imposed upon me, and move on
through the darkness with joyous courage, like many another blind man, I
could not succeed."

"You are a man," the matron exclaimed indignantly, "and what thousands
have done before you--"

"There," he loudly protested, "I should surely fail; for, you dear
woman, who mean so kindly by me, my fate is worse than theirs. Do you
know what just forced from my lips the exclamation of pain which alarmed
you? I, the only child of the devout Erigone, for whose sake you are so
well disposed toward me, am doomed to misfortune as surely as the victim
dragged to the altar is certain of death. Of all the goddesses, there is
only