THE THRESHOLD OF -THE GODS. 91 



effort. We were nearly opposite a grand 

 opening in those stately trees, out of which 

 seemed to issue the silvery line which cut the 

 river. I leaned forward, with suspended 

 breath, to catch a glimpse right down it as we 

 should pass. The gods were there, I knew 

 they were ; I should see some one of them, at 

 least, if only a sylvan faun or satyr, or a dryad 

 slowly withdrawing into the heart of a tree. 

 Deus ecce! Deus. 



That great white bird came out of the shad- 

 ows of the woods again, and curving its flight 

 down the stream seemed to melt into the mist. 

 A sensation of dewy coolness crept over me, 

 as if shaken from the rorid sandals of some 

 passing naiad. The bank of the river opposite 

 to the ridge's precipice now presented a gay, 

 almost fantastic appearance. Tall, aquatic 

 grasses, thinly interspersed with certain scar- 

 let-spiked riparian weeds, were sown at the 

 water's verge ; their long slender stalks and 

 semi-translucent leaves, waving to the impulse 

 of air and water-ripple, sent forth a sort of 

 shimmer like that which Virgil intended to 

 describe with the phrase " Turn silvis scena 

 coruscis " a waving motion with light flashing 

 and flickering through. Right opposite this a 

 narrow, vertical rent intersected the ridge, and 

 through it an almost level finger of the sun 

 reached to caress the grass. Just as we passed 

 I noted, by an instantaneous glance, a strange 

 and beautiful thing a troop of dragon-flies, 

 purple-bodied and silver-winged, filing rapidly, 

 in open order of ones and twos, across the 

 sunlight into the dewy recesses of the river's 

 fringe. Each gaudy insect, as it flew, wavered 

 in the air so dreamily and eccentrically that 



