238 SOPHENE AND SOPHOCLES. 



Imlacca was exasparated at it; I own, said he, that I foretold 

 you would love ; I went further ; I opposed your scruples ; I dis- 

 posed your heart to receive the impressions that Sophene ought to 

 make on it : I saw from the sensibility of its bias that you resisted 

 only through shame, and timidity. Is that to be the cause of your 

 ruin ? Could I foresee that love, which makes virtue flourish and 

 improves it in an honest heart, should destroy yours? No, dear 

 Sophocles, I had a better opinion of you, and I still preserve it. You 

 must use your best endeavours against yourself. The struggle is 

 hard ; but glory is the reward of it. Love, Sophocles, do ; I give 

 my consent to it ; but love her in a manner worthy of her. Mystery 

 ought to be inseparable from love. The smallest indiscretion would 

 undo you both. You are a lover; but you are a minister of Jove. 

 Ulysses is the object of your admiration; let him be the model of 

 your conduct. He preferred his country to a goddess and immor- 

 tality. Does not that example inspire you with emulation? Do you 

 want a more powerful incitement ? I find it in Ismene herself. 

 Learn to dive into the hearts of women. They love glory. It would 

 be vexatious for the most impassioned among them to see her lover 

 miss the opportunity of acquiring it. She murmurs at the cruel 

 deity that severs her from the object of her affection, she sighs, she 

 groans, she melts into tears ; she will have him sigh, and weep with 

 her ; but she will have him go away. Consult Sophene, and you 

 will see if I deceive you. I was sensible of the truth of the argu- 

 ments he enforced upon me, but, through weakness, I did not agree 

 to them. My silence was painful to him; but he pitied me, and 

 seeing Sosthenes coming up to us, he apprized me of it, just time 

 enough to recover myself in some degree. 



Sosthenes, though he could not but suspect my passion for his 

 daughter, and the return with which she was likely to repay it, 

 nevertheless entertained far different intentions from mine as to her 

 settlement in life; but the gods would not allow them to take place. 

 Being within hearing, Sosthenes informed us that all was ready for 

 the sacrifice which the next day we were to offer up to Jupiter. 

 After having taken a turn and spoke together about matters of no 

 concern, we entered the hall of entertainment. 



I think it was still more splendid than those which went before ; 

 but let Imlacca be judge of it. For my part I was wholly taken 

 up with Sophene ; I committed all the follies that a youth who 

 loves for the first time may be supposed guilty of. The less I wished 

 them to appear, the more I repeated them. Sophene's prudence 

 prevented their being noticed : if my hand touched hers, she drew 

 it back in a modest and unaffected manner. If I was looking at her, 

 she turned her eyes from me. If my words, my gestures, had any 

 thing suspicious in them, a glance from her eyes warned me that I 

 was watched. I constrained myself, at least I thought I did so, 

 and was mightily pleased with my discretion. I flattered myself 

 that the secret of my heart was known only to Sophene. How fool- 

 ish are lovers! They fancy, even at the time they betray themselves, 

 that, with his veil, love blinds such as might observe them, and that 

 he is the only witness to their actions. 



