1 64 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



the best known, and by far the most beautiful, of the 

 numerous episodes with which the work is interspersed, 

 the fable of Psyche, is not derived from any source 

 with which we are at present acquainted. Again the 

 pretty tale, which, with seeming incongruity, is placed 

 in the mouth of an old hag, will bear re-telling. 



There lived in a certain city of Crete a king and 

 queen, who had three fair daughters. The two elder 

 were deemed worthy of the praises of mankind, and 

 were early wedded to suitors befitting their rank ; but 

 the exquisite and inaccessible beauty of the youngest 

 sister could neither be expressed nor sufficiently ap- 

 plauded by the poverty of human speech, and at length 

 the crowds which collected in her honour from far and 

 near, overcome with admiration, worshipped her as 

 Venus herself. Venus's temples were abandoned, her 

 ceremonies neglected, her images uncrowned, and her 

 desolate altars defiled with ashes, while a girl was 

 supplicated in her stead. Inflamed with jealousy, and 

 raging high, that goddess commands her son of the 

 flames and arrows to avenge the insult, and punish 

 Psyche — for such was the name of the girl — by inspiring 

 her with an infatuation for some despicable mortal, 

 and Cupid — 



" Had still no thought but to do all her will, 

 Nor cared to think if it were good or ill : 

 So beautiful and pitiless he went. 



