in fire and makes for its home among the
stars, where other fates await it. Then it remembers the body in which
it once dwelt. Hence the dead return to visit those who once were dear
to them on earth, and become oracles, and give us timely warnings, and
are conscious of the victims we offer them, and welcome the honours paid
them at their tombs.

The Declamation ends, like most Roman speeches, with an appeal: in this
case to the sorcerer and the husband to remove the spells; especially to
the sorcerer, who has power to torture the gods above and the spirits of
the dead; who, by the terror of his midnight cries, can move the deepest
caves, can shake the very foundations of the earth. "You are able both
to call up the spirits that serve you and to act as their cruel and
ruthless gaoler. Listen for once to a mother's prayers, and let them
soften your heart."

Then we have the story of Thrasyllus, as told by Apuleius,[75] which is
thoroughly modern in its romantic tone. He was in love with the wife of
his friend, Tlepolemus, whom he treacherously murdered while out
hunting. His crime is not discovered, and he begins to press his suit
for her hand to her parents almost immediately. The widow's grief is
heart-rending. She refuses food and altogether neglects herself, hoping
that the gods will hear her prayer and allow her to rejoin her husband.
At last, however, she is persuaded by her parents, at Thrasyllus's
instance, to give ordinary care to her own health. But she passes her
days before the likeness of the deceased, which she has had made in the
image of that of the god Liber, paying it divine honours and finding her
one comfort in thus fomenting her own sufferings.

When she hears of Thrasyllus's suit, she rejects it with scorn and
horror; and then at night her dead husband appears to her and describes
exactly what happened, and begs her to avenge him. She requires no
urging, and almost immediately decides on the course that her vengeance
shall take. She has Thrasyllus informed that she cannot come to any
definite decision till her year of mourning is over. Meanwhile, however,
she consents to receive his visits at night, and promises to arrange for
her old nurse to let him in. Overjoyed at his success, Thrasyllus comes
at the hour appointed, and is duly admitted by the old nurse. The house
is in complete darkness, but he is given a cup of wine and left to
himself. The wine has been drugged, however, and he sinks into