WRIT IN WATER 



banks of life into literature, but by mythical 

 reflections of fountains, lakes, and streams 

 which furnish for distinguished shades alle- 

 gorical comfort and a picturesque passage 

 to The Happy Isles. Lethe, Styx, and 

 Acheron have won their right to existence 

 as surely as if they had real banks with 

 actual water running between them. 



Thus all the enchantments which water 

 lends to the earth are duplicated in a second 

 incarnation in literature, where they per- 

 form the same mission of irrigating its 

 barren places and making its deserts to 

 blossom as the rose. The great dramatic 

 stories of the Old Testament, The Flood, 

 The Passage through the Red Sea, The 

 Smiting of the Rock by Moses, and the 

 Tale of Jonah, do for the historical and 

 genealogical plains of the Old Testament 

 what springs and brooks do for the regions 

 which they bless. In some instances the elu- 

 sive message of the Water-spirit has been 

 caught with such perfect accuracy by the 

 poets that it seems a clear case of verbal in- 

 spiration. 



