'
"'Odd enough that we, O Sleep! should be thought so alike!' said
Love contemptuously. 'Yonder is he who bears a nearer resemblance
to you; the dullest have observed it.' I fancied I turned my eyes
to where he was pointing, and saw at a distance the figure he
designated. Meanwhile the contention went on uninterruptedly.
Sleep was slow in asserting his power or his benefits. Love
recapitulated them; but only that he might assert his own above
them.
"Suddenly he called upon me to decide, and to choose my patron.
Under the influence, first of the one, then of the other, I sprang
from repose to rapture, I alighted from rapture on repose, and
knew not which was sweetest. Love was very angry with me, and
declared he would cross me through the whole of my existence.
Whatever I might on other occasions have thought of his veracity,
I now felt too surely that he would keep his word.
"At last, before the close of the altercation, the third Genius
had advanced, and stood near us. I cannot tell you how I knew him,
but I knew him to be the Genius of Death. Breathless as I was at
beholding him, I soon became familiar with his features. First
they seemed only calm; presently they grew contemplative; and
lastly beautiful; those of the Graces themselves are less regular,
less harmonious, less composed.
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