3'8 IlEXRT KI1{KE WHITE S KE.VAINS. 



and " eminently useless" member of the community, and 

 not unfrequently a very dangerous one. He declared it 

 to be his opinion, that in case she were to be suiFeredto 

 prevail, mankind would soon become " too idle to go,'' 

 and would all lie down and perish through indolence, or 

 through forgetting that sustenance was necessary for the 

 preservation of existence : and concluded with painting 

 the horrors which would attend such a depopulation of the 

 earth, in such colours as made many weak minds regard 

 the goddess with fear and abhorrence. 



Having concluded, the accused was called upon for her 

 defence. She immediately, with a graceful gesture, lift- 

 ed up the veil which concealed her face, and discovered a 

 countenance so soft, so lovely, and so sweetly expressive, 

 as to strike the beholders with involuntary admiration, 

 and which at one glance, overturned all the flimsy sophis- 

 try of my poor friend the citizen ; and when the silver 

 tones of her voice were heard, the murmurs which until 

 then had continually arisen from the crowd, were hushed 

 to a dead still, and the vrhole multitude stood transfixed 

 in breathless attention. As near as I can recollect, these 

 were the words in which she addressed herself to the 

 throne of Wisdom : — 



'* / shall not deign to give a direct answer to the va- 

 rious insinuations tvhich have been thrown out against 

 me hy my accuser. Let it sufRce that I declare my true 

 history, in opposition to that which has been so artfully 

 fabricated to my disadvantage. In that early age of the 

 world when mankind followed the peaceful avocations 

 of a pastoral life only, and contentment and harmony 

 reigned in every vale, I was not known among men ; but 

 when, in process of time, Ambition and Vice, with their 

 attendant evils, were sent down as a scourge to the human 

 race, I made my appearance. I am the oflfspring of Mis- 

 fortune and Virtue, and was sent by Heaven to teach my 

 parents how to support their afflictions with magnanimity. 

 As I grew up, I became the intimate friend of the Avisest 

 among men. I was the bosom friend of Plato and other 

 illustrious sages of antiquity, and was then often known 

 by the name of Philosophy, though, in present times, when 



