396 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



" two little hills, on the top of which you behold 

 t£ fome confufed ruins, ftood a flourifhing city, 

 " named Naxos. * It's female inhabitants, touched 

 " with the misfortunes of the daughter of Minos, 

 " reforted hither, to look for her, and to comfort 

 tf her. They endeavoured, at full, to divert her 

 " attention by amufing converfation ; but nothing 

 " could give her pleafure, but the name, and the 

 " recollection, of her beloved Tbefeus. Thefe dam- 

 " fels then counterfeited letters from that Hero, 

 " breathing the tenderer! affection, and add relied 

 " to Ariadne. They flew to deliver them to her, 

 " and faid, Take comfort, beautiful Ariadne. 

 " Tbefeus will foon return : tbefeus thinks of no- 

 " thing but you. Ariadne, in an extafy of delight, 

 " read the letters, and, with a trembling hand, 

 t( haftened to anfwer them. The Naxian girls 

 " took charge of her anfwers, and promifed to 

 " have them fpeedily conveyed to Thefeus. In 

 " this manner they amufed her grief. But when 

 Ci they perceived that the fight of the Sea plunged 

 * { her more and more into melancholy, they decoyed 

 " her into thofe extenfive groves which you obferve 

 '* below in the plain. There they invented every 

 " fpecies of feflivity, that could lull her fond re- 

 " gret to reft. Sometimes they formed around her 

 " choral dances, and reprefented, by the linking 

 te of their hands, the various windings of the la- 

 (( byrinth of Crete, out of which, by her aid, 



i( efcaped 



