Anaitis

“ Anathema goes to the door. Silence.
DAVID.
The spirit of God has come over me. Adenoi. Adenoi.... Who was the terrible one that spoke through the voice of old Nullius, when he spoke about my little children who died? Only an arrow out of the bow of the Omniscient strikes the very heart with such good aim. My little birds.... Verily, You have saved me upon the edge of the abyss, and You have torn my spirit away from the clutches of the Devil. He who looks straight at the sun may grow blind, but with the lapse of time the light may come back to the revived eyes ”

“ Of inborn worth, his lab’ring soul oppress’d,
Roll’d in his eyes, and rag’d within his breast.
Then loud he call’d Aeneas thrice by name:
The loud repeated voice to glad Aeneas came.
“Great Jove,” he said, “and the far-shooting god,
Inspire thy mind to make thy challenge good!”
He spoke no more; but hasten’d, void of fear,
And threaten’d with his long protended spear.
To whom Mezentius thus: “Thy vaunts are vain.
My Lausus lies extended on the plain:
He’s lost! thy conquest is already won;
The wretched sire is murder’d in the son.
Nor fate I fear, but all the gods defy. ”

“ Scarcely had the prayer been finished when the temple and the earth itself seemed to quake, whereupon the Trojans prostrated themselves in lowly reverence upon the ground, and presently they heard a voice saying: "Brave sons of Dar'da-nus, the land which gave birth to your ancestors shall again receive your race in its fertile bosom. Seek out your ancient mother. There the house of AEneas shall rule over every coast, and his children's children and their descendants."
The answers or oracles of the gods were often given in mysterious words, as in the present case. ”

“ Offend the Gods, and Love obey. DIDO No, faithless man, thy course pursue; I'm now resolv'd as well as you. No repentance shall reclaim The injur'd Dido's slighted flame. For 'tis enough, whate'er you now decree, That you had once a thought of leaving me. AENEAS Let Jove say what he will: I'll stay! DIDO Away, away! No, no, away! AENEAS No, no, I'll stay, and Love obey! DIDO To Death I'll fly If longer you delay; Away, away!..... [Exit Aeneas] But Death, alas! I cannot shun; Death must come when he is gone. CHORUS Great minds against themselves conspire And shun the cure they most desire. ”

“ Aeneas, with some emotion, "Mercury will confer my post upon another."
"And do they pay you for your labour?" Lord George asked.
Mr. Aeneas drew himself up to his full height, such as it was. "In Olympus, my Lord," he said, "they have no currency. For any mask-maker, so high a privilege is its own reward. Yet the sun-god is generous. He shines more brightly into my shop than into any other. Nor does he suffer his rays to melt any waxen mask made by me, until its wearer doff it and it be done with." ”

“ Meanwhile, AEneas attended by Mnestheus, the faithful Achates, and the young Iulus, lay bleeding in his camp. The barb of the arrow by which he had been wounded still remained fixed in the flesh, and not even the skillful surgeon I-a'pis, whom Apollo himself had instructed in medicine, could extract it. But the goddess Venus once more came to the relief of her son. ”

“ Anania climbed on the heap of shining shale which marked the summit, and flung himself on the ground to escape the fury of the blasts which blew from all sides. The whole island was stretched out before him, with its blue mountains and its silver sea, glittering under the midday sun. Overhead the heaven was immense, infinite, void as human thought. The wind raged furiously in the great emptiness. Its assaults invested Anania in mad fury, in the violent anger of a formidable wild beast, which would permit the approach of no other being to the aereal cave where it was resolved to reign alone. ”

“ If I die of the plague," she continued, "he has promised not to let me be thrown into that horrible pit—ough!—but to bury me in my garden, beneath the old apple-tree."
"And he will keep his word, dame, I am sure," replied Leonard. "I would recommend you, however, as the best antidote against the plague, to keep yourself constantly employed, and to indulge as few gloomy notions as possible."
"I am seldom melancholy, and still more seldom idle," replied the good dame. "But despondency will steal on me sometimes, especially when the dead-cart passes and I think what it contains." ”

“ Do not forget, gentlemen, that the plague is abroad."
"You are the death's-head at the feast, Lydyard," rejoined Parravicin, setting down his glass. "I hate the idea of the plague. It poisons all our pleasures. We must meet at noon to-morrow, at the Smyrna, to compare notes as to our successes. Before we separate, can I be of any further service to you, Wyvil? I came here to enjoy your triumph; but, egad, I have found so admirable a bubble in that hot-headed Disbrowe, whom I met at the Smyrna, and brought here to while away the time, that I must demand your congratulations upon mine." ”

“ For, notice how, in the case before us, St Peter, while tracing the fall of Ananias to the agency of Satan, yet prefixes his question with a why: "Why hath Satan jilted thine heart?" There had been a time when resistance was still possible. Ananias might have rejected the suggestion of the tempter: he was not bound to yield: but he had yielded. And very suggestive of why he had fallen so low, is that other word "filled." It brings before us the quiet, gradual manner in which evil takes possession of the heart of man. We have seen already that it was so in the case of Ananias. ”

“ You do but rush to your own destruction." Regardless, however, of danger, the gallant Lausus fought till he fell lifeless on the earth. AEneas was touched with pity at the sight, for he thought of his own son, and of how he himself had loved his own father. Then, he tenderly lifted the body from the ground, and consigned it to the care of his friends. They carried it to Mezentius, who was resting on the river bank, after having bathed his wounds in the water. ”

“ By degrees he grew calmer, and the throbbing anguish of the tumour in some measure subsiding, his faculties returned to him.
"Where am I?" he exclaimed, pressing his hand forcibly to his brow, "and what is the matter with me?"
"You are in a vault, near Saint Faith's," replied Nizza, "and—I will not deceive you—the disorder you are labouring under is the plague."
"The plague!" echoed Leonard, with a look of horror. "Ah! now I recollect. I was attacked immediately after Amabel's departure with her father. Heaven be praised! she is safe. That is some consolation amid all this misery. ”

“ Before daybreak, he was seized with the distemper, and died two days afterwards.
"I hope poor Kerrich hasn't got the plague?" said the old woman, in a tremulous tone.
"I am afraid he has," replied the daughter-in-law, "but I didn't like to alarm him."
"Mercy on us!" cried the other, getting up. "What a dreadful scourge it is."
"You would say so, if you had seen whole families swept off by it, as I have," replied Judith. "But it mostly attacks old persons and children."
"Lord help us!" cried the crone, "I hope it will spare me. I thought my age secured me." ”

“ But why do you suppose it is the plague?"
"One cannot well be deceived in a seizure of that kind," replied the old woman, shaking her head.
"I thought the disorder never attacked the same person twice," said Parravicin.
"I myself am an instance to the contrary," replied Leonard.
"And, as you have twice recovered, there may be a chance for Nizza," said Parravicin. "This old woman will take you to her. I will hasten to Doctor Hodges's residence, and if I should fail in meeting him, will not rest till I procure assistance elsewhere. Do not leave her till I return." ”

“ I have had the plague twice myself."
"Then, indeed, you can speak," replied Rainbird. "Thank God, I have hitherto escaped it! Ah! these are terrible times—terrible times! The worst that ever London knew. Although I have been hitherto miraculously preserved myself, I am firmly persuaded no one will escape."
"I am almost inclined to agree with you," replied Leonard.
"For the last week the distemper has raged fearfully—fearfully, indeed," said Rainbird; "but yesterday and to-day have far exceeded all that have gone before. The distempered have died quicker than cattle of the murrain. ”

“ Had he inherited monomania from his father? Monomania in a different form? Was it monomania, a mental disease, this continual thinking of his mother, of that woman? And was she really in Rome, and would he find her?
"'Anninia,'" [14] said the drawling tones of the mocking student from Campidano, using the nickname which Anania's companions had fastened on him, "are you asleep? Wake up! Life's just this, a circular ticket giving the right to stop longer or shorter time at definite places. At least give thanks that sea-sickness won't interrupt your love dreams." ”

“ Hysteria, general debility, emaciation, sterility, various nervous affections, phthisis, in short, a perversion of almost any of the various physiological functions may be the direct result of anæmia. On the other hand, anæmia may be only a symptom or sequel of some other morbid condition—but of such cases I do not now speak. I have to do here only with those cases where anæmia is the primary and etiological of a group of symptoms, and where therefore it is to this that the treatment must be mainly directed. ”

“ Aeneas goes far enough here in his politeness to a man of position, but personally he was not only freer from superstition than his contemporaries, but he also stood a test on the subject which not every educated man of our own day could endure. At the time of the Council of Basle, when he lay sick of the fever for seventy-five days at Milan, he could never be persuaded to listen to the magic doctors, though a man was brought to his bedside who a short time before had marvelously cured 2,000 soldiers of fever in the camp of Piccinino. ”

“ He means that Nizza is worse."
Leonard heaved a deep sigh. Passing into a third room, they perceived the poor girl stretched on a couch placed in a recess at one side. She heard their footsteps, and without raising her head, or looking towards them, said, in a weak but determined voice—"Tell your master I will see him no more. The plague has again attacked me, and I am glad of it, for it will deliver me from him. It will be useless to offer me any remedies, for I will not take them."
"It is not Sir Paul Parravicin," replied the old woman. ”

“ Consumption, or phthisis tubercularis, is, in fact, one of the diseases caused most frequently by onanism. The act of venery—that power which has so much influence on the internal life of the tissues, and on the respiratory organs, and which, to use Rullier’s expression, seems to agitate the lungs—is commenced in most onanists exactly at that age when the chest enlarges in every direction, and which phthisis seems to prefer. “How many young persons,” says Portal, in his work on phthisis pulmonalis, “have been victims to their unhappy passion? ”

“ Appalled at the sight, Aeneas stood in silence gazing at the apparition while it thus spoke:
"Beloved husband, why do you give way to grief? What has happened is by the decree of heaven. It was not the will of the gods that I should accompany you. You have a long journey to make, and a wide extent of sea to cross, before you reach the shores of Hes-pe'ri-a, where the Ti'ber flows in gentle course through the rich fields of a warlike race. There prosperity awaits you, and you shall take to yourself a wife of a royal line. ”

“ North and South, East and West, I am calling you. Quicker, come here, to the aid of the Devil! Rush over here in four oceans of tears and bury man in your abyss. Come here! This way!
No one heeds Anathema's sobs, neither David, radiant with the ecstasy of immortality, nor Sarah, nor the other people, who listen attentively to David. Anathema moves restlessly about, alone, cursing. A shrill voice is heard; a woman, terribly painted, rushes in from the road. Her clothes are torn, and her beautiful face is disfigured. She screams and sobs and calls wildly. ”

“ DRYDEN, AEneid, BOOK VI.
Anchises told his son much about the dwellers in Elysium. On the banks of the river Lethe—the river of forgetfulness—was a countless multitude of spirits which, he said, were yet to live in earthly bodies. They were the souls of unborn generations of men. Amongst them, he pointed out to AEneas, the spirits of many of those who were to be his own descendants in the kingdom he was to establish in Italy. ”

“ As for Anatole, he was as lugubrious as a funeral mute, and the Doctor’s cynical animation at table completely mystified him.
When once the fumes of punch had abated, poor Anatole saw his mad engagement in quite [Pg 85] a novel light. The thought of that pistol held by his own hand to his own brains drove him to panic. He looked wan with fear, and fierce from desire to conceal his fear. He was a coward in both senses: without courage to stand out against a foolish engagement, and equally without courage to face death. ”

“ Then he sits down on a rock, with an air of freedom and independence, and throws small cobblestones at the feet of the Guardian of the Entrances;—cunning, he conceals his fear beneath the mask of raillery and slight audacity. In the faint, grey, almost colorless light, the head of the accursed one seems enormous; especially large is his high forehead, which is furrowed by wrinkles of fruitless reflections and unsolvable eternal problems. Anathema's thin beard is perfectly grey ”