( 102 ; 



then submitted to the law of silence ? No , replied 

 Orpheus ; I am not submitted to the law of silence ; 

 I hâve none but confused thoughts to which I can 

 with difficulty give a reality, and above ail , a reality 

 ]by words. — And I do not know, august father , whe- 

 ther we are born in the same sphère of ideas and sen- 

 timents : and my mouth refuses to express any speech 

 which is not the clothing of the thought. Old man, were 

 I to inform you of what is passing in me , you -would 

 perhaps consider me as a madman. Neverlheless 1 

 hâve conceived a design which I must exécute before 

 ail things. The genius ofancestry inhabits the pro- 

 montory of Leucale. He who is ignorant of the 

 father to whom he owes his existence , and who is 

 animated with an ardent désire to know him , that 

 he may be able to transmit faculties which are in 

 themselves capable of being transmitted, he who 

 ^ishes at the same time, to bave an ancestry , a 

 tomb , a posterity , must after having observed the 

 prescribed cérémonies, throw himself from the sum- 

 mit of the promoritor}- into the sea. Either his 

 ephemeral soûl is extinguished in the waves, or 

 the immortal father, who lives in him, saves an im- 

 pefishable race;,by revealing the name of the pri- 

 mitive author. A simple mortal should not fear to 

 encounter such a trial , when as it is reported , 

 gods themselves bave not disdained to encounter it. 

 yjius several hâve conquered their place in the hea^ 

 V€ns , ârld I Avish only to conquer one on the earth. 



» Thy souï , said Talaon , cannot be extin- 

 guished by water ; for it is not one of Ihose vulgar 



'n 



