art leapt in
his breast for astonishment. He put out his hand and touched the statue,
and found it warm with life and youth. And a sweet voice said to him,
"Yes, it is really I--have you forgotten?"

Thus she was given back to him; and the Spirit-king came to their wedding,
and thus addressed the bridegroom, "O my son, for your dead father's sake
I did this thing. For it was meant to teach you that the worth of a really
pure and perfect woman is more than the price of any diamond or any
treasure that the earth can yield."

Now you can see at once the beauty of this story; and the moral of it is
exactly the same as that of the famous verse, in the Book of Proverbs,
"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." But it
is simply a story from the "Arabian Nights"--one of those stories which
you will not find in the ordinary European translations, because it is
written in such a way that no English translator except Burton would have
dared to translate it quite literally. The obscenity of parts of the
original does not really detract in the least from the beauty and
tenderness of the motive of the story; and we must remember that what we
call moral or immoral in style depends very much upon the fashion of an
age and time.

Now it is exactly the same kind of moral charm that distinguishes the best
of the old English romances--a charm which has nothing to do with the
style, but everything to do with the feeling and suggestion of the
composition. But in some of the old romances, the style too has a very
great charm of quaintness and simplicity and sincerity not to be imitated
to-day. In this respect the older French romances, from which the English
made their renderings, are much the best. And the best of all is said to
be "Amis and Amile," which the English rendered as "Amicus and Amelius."
Something of the story ought to interest you.

The whole subject of this romance is the virtue of friendship, though this
of course involves a number of other virtues quite as distinguished. Amis
and Amile, that is to say Amicus and Amelius, are two young knights who at
the beginning of their career become profoundly attached to each other.
Not content with the duties of this natural affection, they imposed upon
themselves all the duties which chivalry also attached to the office of
friend. The romance tells of how they triumphed over every conceivable
test to which their friendship was subjected. Often and often th