XI.] MELAXCnOLY HOURS. 379 



have reached the latter, my good father ; the former you 

 have certainly missed. To-morrow I will continue the 

 search. At Constantinople I shall laugh aiid sing with 

 the gay, meditate with the sober, drink deeply of every 

 unpolluted pleasure, and taste all the fountains of wis- 

 dom and philosophy. I have lieard much of the accom- 

 plishments of the women of Byzantium. With us fe- 

 males are mere household slaves ; here, I am told, they 

 have minds. I almost promise myself that I shall marry, 

 and settle at Constantinople where the loves and graces 

 seem alone to reside, and where even the ivomen have 

 minds. My good father, how the wind roars about this 

 aerial nest of yours, and here you sit, during the long cold 

 nights, all alone, cold and cheerless, when Constantinople 

 is just at your feet, with all its joys, its comforts, and its 

 elegancies. I perceive that the philosophers of our sect, 

 who succeeded Epicurus, were right, when they taught 

 that there might be virtue without enjoyment, and 

 that virtue without enjoyment is not worth the having," 

 The face of the youth kindled with animation as he spake 

 these words, and he visibly enjoyed the consciousness 

 of superior intelligence. The old man sighed, and was 

 silent. As they ate their frugal supper both parties 

 seemed involved in deep thought. The young traveller 

 was dreaming of the Byzantine women ; his host seemed 

 occupied with far different meditations. " So you are 

 travelling to Constantinople in search of happiness?" 

 at length exclaimed the hermit, " I, too, have been a 

 suitor of that divinity, and it may be of use to you to 

 hear how I have fared. The history of my life will 

 serve to fill up the interval before we retire to rest, and 

 my experience may not prove altogether useless to one 

 who is about to go the same journey which I have 

 finished. 



" These scanty hairs of mine were not always gray 

 nor these limbs decrepid : I was once like thee, young, 

 fresh, and vigorous, full of delightful dreams and gay 

 anticipations. Life seemed a garden of sweets, a path of 

 roses ; and I thought I had but to choose in what way I 

 would be happy. I will pass over the incidents of raj' 



