CUPID AND PSYCHE. 
137 
“ that forms a portion of the starry circle which the 
star eternally shines upon, the furthest that is 
lighted by the radiance on which it waits, feeling 
itself, nevertheless, as if a portion of' that star, 
although only admitted there like a worshipper on 
whom the bright effulgence falls. Let me become a 
part of the lightest down that feathers the edge of 
an immortal wing, so that I may but feel that I am 
a part of that immortality; or, if I must perish, give 
me a brief career of beauty, crowd the space of a 
year into a single day, and, like the butterfly, send 
me forth winged,—a divinity floating above the 
flowers,— that I may before I die taste of the 
existence of the gods, and catch, like them, the 
ethereal air, which hath never beaten upon the 
bosom of the earth.” 
Love knelt down beside her, and breathing be¬ 
tween the parted honey of her lips, in kisses whis¬ 
pered that her prayer was answered ; and from that 
hour she was a partaker of the divinity of Love. 
“And this power shalt thou possess,” continued 
Love, “ so long as thou canst withhold thine eyes 
from mine; for if once my image is mirrored in 
the floating orbs of thy beauty, from that moment 
shalt thou again become mortal, and subject to that 
death which overtakes the daughters of the earth: 
for such was the doom uttered by the Thunderer on 
Olympus, on all who should covet an immortal love. 
