think the
greater and more difficult thing to do: to exchange the disorder of
that irresistible whirlwind to a clarity like this, and becalm the
whole world again, or to refashion the form of a woman into that of a
bird? We can teach even little children to do something of that
sort,--to take wax or clay, and mould out of the same material many
kinds of form, one after another, without difficulty. And it may be
that to the Deity, whose power is too vast for comparison with ours,
all processes of that kind are manageable and easy. How much wider is
the whole circle of heaven than thyself?--Wider than thou canst express.

"Among ourselves also, how vast the difference we may observe in men's
degrees of power! To you and me, and many another like us, many things
are impossible which are quite easy to others. For those who are
unmusical, to play on the flute; to read or write, for those who have
not yet learned; is no easier than to make birds of women, or women of
birds. From the dumb and lifeless egg Nature moulds her swarms of
winged creatures, aided, as some will have it, by a divine and secret
[84] art in the wide air around us. She takes from the honeycomb a
little memberless live thing; she brings it wings and feet, brightens
and beautifies it with quaint variety of colour:--and Lo! the bee in
her wisdom, making honey worthy of the gods.

"It follows, that we mortals, being altogether of little account, able
wholly to discern no great matter, sometimes not even a little one, for
the most part at a loss regarding what happens even with ourselves, may
hardly speak with security as to what may be the powers of the immortal
gods concerning Kingfisher, or Nightingale. Yet the glory of thy
mythus, as my fathers bequeathed it to me, O tearful songstress! that
will I too hand on to my children, and tell it often to my wives,
Xanthippe and Myrto:--the story of thy pious love to Ceyx, and of thy
melodious hymns; and, above all, of the honour thou hast with the gods!"

The reader's well-turned periods seemed to stimulate, almost
uncontrollably, the eloquent stirrings of the eminent man of letters
then present. The impulse to speak masterfully was visible, before the
recital was well over, in the moving lines about his mouth, by no means
designed, as detractors were wont to say, simply to display the beauty
of his teeth. One of the company, expert in his humours, made ready to
transcribe what he would say, the sort of