for the audience,
and argand lamps for the stage. In addition to Mr. Gryll's own houseful
of company, the beauty and fashion of the surrounding country, which
comprised an extensive circle, adorned the semicircular seats; which,
however, were not mere stone benches, but were backed, armed, and padded
into comfortable stalls. Lord Curryfin was in his glory, in the capacity
of stage-manager.

The curtain rising, as there was no necessity for its being made to
fall,{1} discovered the scene, which was on the London bank of the
Thames, on the terrace of a mansion occupied by the Spirit-rapping
Society, with an archway in the centre of the building, showing a street
in the background. Gryllus was lying asleep. Circe, standing over him,
began the dialogue.

1 The Athenian theatre was open to the sky, and if the
curtain had been made to fall it would have been folded up
in mid air, destroying the effect of the scene. Being raised
from below, it was invisible when not in use.

CIRCE
Wake, Gryllus, and arise in human form.

GRYLLUS
I have slept soundly, and had pleasant dreams.

CIRCE
I, too, have soundly slept--Divine how long.

GRYLLUS
Why, judging by the sun, some fourteen hours.

CIRCE
Three thousand years"

GRYLLUS
That is a nap indeed.
But this is not your garden, nor your palace.
Where are we now?

CIRCE
Three thousand years ago,
This land was forest, and a bright pure river
Ran through it to and from the Ocean stream.
Now, through a wilderness of human forms,
And human dwellings, a polluted flood
Rolls up and down, charged with all earthly poisons,
Poisoning the air in turn.

GRYLLUS
I see vast masses
Of strange unnatural things.

CIRCE
Houses, and ships,
And boats, and chimneys vomiting black smoke,
Horses, and carriages of every form,
And restless bipeds, rushing here and there
For profit or for pleasure, as they phrase it.

GRYLLUS
Oh, Jupiter and Bacchus! what a crowd,
Flitting, like shadows without mind or purpose,
Such as Ulysses saw in Erebus.
But wherefore are we here?

CIRCE
There have ar