ed faces, emerged from it, climbed the steep
ladder of the theatre, and, arrived upon the upper platform, arranged
themselves in a line before the public, whom they saluted with profound
reverences; then the symphony ceased.

The mystery was about to begin.

The four personages, after having reaped a rich reward of applause for
their reverences, began, in the midst of profound silence, a prologue,
which we gladly spare the reader. Moreover, as happens in our own day,
the public was more occupied with the costumes that the actors wore than
with the roles that they were enacting; and, in truth, they were right.
All four were dressed in parti-colored robes of yellow and white, which
were distinguished from each other only by the nature of the stuff; the
first was of gold and silver brocade; the second, of silk; the third, of
wool; the fourth, of linen. The first of these personages carried in his
right hand a sword; the second, two golden keys; the third, a pair of
scales; the fourth, a spade: and, in order to aid sluggish minds
which would not have seen clearly through the transparency of these
attributes, there was to be read, in large, black letters, on the hem of
the robe of brocade, MY NAME IS NOBILITY; on the hem of the silken
robe, MY NAME IS CLERGY; on the hem of the woolen robe, MY NAME IS
MERCHANDISE; on the hem of the linen robe, MY NAME IS LABOR. The sex
of the two male characters was briefly indicated to every judicious
spectator, by their shorter robes, and by the cap which they wore on
their heads; while the two female characters, less briefly clad, were
covered with hoods.

Much ill-will would also have been required, not to comprehend, through
the medium of the poetry of the prologue, that Labor was wedded to
Merchandise, and Clergy to Nobility, and that the two happy couples
possessed in common a magnificent golden dolphin, which they desired
to adjudge to the fairest only. So they were roaming about the world
seeking and searching for this beauty, and, after having successively
rejected the Queen of Golconda, the Princess of Trebizonde, the daughter
of the Grand Khan of Tartary, etc., Labor and Clergy, Nobility and
Merchandise, had come to rest upon the marble table of the Palais de
Justice, and to utter, in the presence of the honest audience, as many
sentences and maxims as could then be dispensed at the Faculty of Arts,
at examinations, sophisms, determinances, figures, and acts, where the
masters