200 UNDER THE TREES. 



I might call him 



A thing divine ; for nothing natural 

 I ever saw so noble. 



ROSALIND was deeply interested in Prospero ; 

 and when the Poet and I had talked long and ea 

 gerly about him, she often threw into the current 

 some comment or suggestion that gave us quite 

 another and clearer view of his genius and work. 

 But at heart Rosalind s chief interest was in Mir 

 anda and Ferdinand. The presence of Prospero 

 had given the island a solemn and far-reaching 

 significance in the geography of the world ; Mir 

 anda and Ferdinand had left an unfailing and be 

 guiling charm about the place. If we could have 

 known the point where these two fresh and un 

 spoiled natures met, I am confident we should have 

 stayed there by common but unspoken consent. 

 After all our discoveries in this mysterious world, 

 youth and love remain the first and sweetest in our 

 thoughts : there is nothing which takes their place, 

 nothing which imparts their glow, nothing which 

 conveys such deep and beautiful hints of the 

 better things to be. Miranda had known no 

 companionship but her father s, no world but the 

 sea-encircled island, no life but the secluded and 

 eventless existence in that wave-swept solitude. 

 She had had the rare good fortune to ripen under 

 the spell of pure, high thoughts, and so near to 



