rrand, the young
lady becomes very angry and feigns much virtuous indignation. There is a
quarrel. Then the two become friends, and we know that the old woman's
coming is likely to bring about the result desired. Now the wonder of this
little study also is the play of emotion which it reveals. Such emotions
are common to all ages of humanity; we feel the freshness of this
reflection as we read, to such a degree that we cannot think of the matter
as having happened long ago. Yet even the city in which these episodes
took place has vanished from the face of the earth.

In the case of the studies of peasant life, there is also value of another
kind. Here we have not only studies of human nature, but studies of
particular social conditions. The quarrels of peasants, half good natured
and nearly always happily ending; their account of their sorrows; their
gossip about their work in the fields--all this might happen almost
anywhere and at almost any time. But the song contest, the prize given for
the best composition upon a chosen subject, this is particularly Greek,
and has never perhaps existed outside of some place among the peasant
folk. It was the poetical side of this Greek life of the peasants, as
recorded by Theocritus, which so much influenced the literatures of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in France and in England. But neither
in France nor in England has there ever really been, at any time, any life
resembling that portrayed by Theocritus; to-day nothing appears to us more
absurd than the eighteenth century habit of picturing the Greek shepherd
life in English or French landscapes. What really may have existed among
the shepherds of the antique world could not possibly exist in modern
times. But how pretty it is! I think that the tenth idyl of Theocritus is
perhaps the prettiest example of the whole series, thirty in number, which
have been preserved for us. The plan is of the simplest. Two young
peasants, respectively named Battus and Milon, meeting together in the
field, talk about their sweethearts. One of them works lazily and is
jeered by the other in consequence. The subject of the jeering
acknowledges that he works badly because his mind is disturbed--he has
fallen in love. Then the other expresses sympathy for him, and tells him
that the best thing he can do to cheer himself up will be to make a song
about the girl, and to sing it as he works. Then he makes a song, which
has been the admiration o