and these three representatives of the three patrician tribes of Rome hurried forward to defend that perilous pass against the army of the allies.

The consul himself seized an ax and set the example of hewing away the supports of the bridge, while at the other end the brave three stood confronting the advance guard of the Tuscan army. A shout of derision rose from the enemy at sight of the three, and an equal number of chiefs, Aunus, Seius, and Picus, spurred out to slay them. Lartius hurled Aunus into the stream below; Herminius clove the head of Seius; and Horatius struck down Picus. Again and again, Tuscan warriors rushed forward, but the three Romans struck them down, until great Astur of Luna came forward, almost a giant, to dispute the pass. He rushed at Horatius, and raising his broadsword he smote him such a blow that although the Roman was able to turn it aside from his head it cut through his armor and wounded his thigh so that he reeled. An instant Horatius leaned upon Herminius, and then like a tiger he sprang forward and dashed the point of his sword into the very face of Astur. So mighty was the blow that the broadsword came out a hand's breadth behind the Tuscan's head, and with his foot pressed upon Astur's throat, Horatius was forced to tug thrice and four times to pull the blade away.

And now there was no sound of laughter in the ranks of the Tuscans. Sextus tried to bring himself to assail the champions of Rome, but his heart failed him, and there were none who wished to try to pass. But meanwhile the bridge hung tottering to its fall, and a shout called the three warriors back. Spurius Lartius and Herminius darted back, feeling the timbers giving way beneath them as they ran, and with a crash like thunder the bridge fell behind them. Alone stood Horatius, and with a shout of triumph, Porsena called upon him to yield. Not even deigning to notice the Tuscan, Horatius turned toward the river. "O father Tiber," he said, "I pray thee receive these arms and me who bear them, and let thy waters befriend and save me.' And before the Tuscans were aware of his purpose he flung himself, all armed as he was, into the flood. Spent with fighting and weakened with loss of blood, weighed down with his armor, the ranks on either shore watching breathlessly, Horatius fought his way across the Tiber.

Even the Tuscans could scarcely forbear to cheer, and when at length he reached the Roman shore the City Fathers and the people pressed about him weeping and shouting with joy.

The city gave him rich rewards, and his statue was set up in the Comitium, and as long as Rome stood was the story of how he kept the bridge told from father to son among the people.

II.

THE BATTLE OF LAKE REGILLUS.

A Lay Sung at the Feast of Castor and Pollux, in the Year of the City CCCCLI.

Although the expedition of Porsena against Rome had failed, the Tarquin did not on that account relinquish his purpose to conquer the city. The Tuscans soon after this made peace with the Romans, and Tarquin thereupon went to the Latins, whose prince, Octavius Mamilius, was his son-in-law. Here his cause was once more taken up, and the thirty Latin cities sent a haughty message to Rome, demanding that they receive Tarquin again as king, and threatening to compel them by force of arms if they refused. To this demand the Romans answered with scorn, and prepared themselves to fight. They chose the consul Aulus as dictator, and put their army in marching order with so much speed that on the third day the host set out to meet the Latins, whose army was encamped not far from Lake Regillus.

The Romans also encamped on the borders of the lake, and early on the following day the fight was begun. The bravest of the knights and warriors of Rome were set against the boldest and most renowned heroes in all Italy beside, and in all the history of Rome was there no battle more desperate or more bloody. There were a great number of the most mighty champions slain on both sides, but on the whole the advantage was more and more markedly with the enemy, and the Roman cause became ever more doubtful. In the center where Aulus, the dictator, led, the fighting was most desperate, and the Latins were gaining a decided advantage, even though Herminius was summoned to aid. Mamilius and Titus, the youngest Tarquin, fought here, and the ground was heaped with the bodies of dead heroes. Mamilius slew Herminius, and in his turn was slain by Aulus, but the Romans were giving way before the onslaught of the Tuscan troops.

In this extremity, Aulus vowed a temple to

Castor and Pollux* if he might but win the battle, and hardly had he done so before he became aware of a pair of noble warriors who rode at his right hand. Their horses and their armor were as white as snow, and about them gleamed an unearthly radiance. Before the might of their swords no foe might stand, and instantly the tide of battle turned in favor of the Roman army. By their powerful aid the Latins were put to rout and defeated with a terrible and overwhelming slaughter.

At Rome the tidings of the fight were awaited with the greatest anxiety, and just as the sun was setting, a princely and godlike pair of horsemen, their white armor splashed from head to foot with blood, rode swiftly into the city. They brought news of the victory, and told of the battle; then with slow and majestic mien they rode to the well which sprang from the earth in the Forum near the shrine of Vestat. Here they washed away the stains of the conflict, and riding to the door of Vesta's temple they vanished in the twinkling of an eye.

Then it was known to all that the gods had fought for Rome, and that the stranger horsemen were none other than Castor and Pollux, the Great Twin Brethren. Hard by the temple of Vesta a temple was erected in their honor, and on the ides of Quintilist the anniversary of the battle was each year observed with great solemnity.

III.

VIRGINIA.

A Lay Sung in the Year of the City CCCLXXXII.

The story of Virginia is one of the most touching of the whole legends. Virginia was a young and beautiful child who went day by

*The twin sons of Jupiter and Leda, brothers of Helen of Troy. They took part in the Argonautic expedition. There are numerous accounts of their death, but Jupiter rewarded their attachment for each other by placing them

among the stars as the Gemini, or Twins. They were the

patron deities of seamen and voyagers, and sometimes took part in battles, on which occasions they always ap peared mounted on magnificent white chargers.

+ The deity which presided over the home. A sacred

fire was kept constantly burning in the temple in her honor and was tended by six virgin priestesses called

Vestals.

The fifteenth of July. Quintilis was the name of the fifth month of the year. The Romans divided the months

into three periods very unequal in length. The first day was called kalends, (or calends); the fifth and the thirteenth of all months save four, were known respectively as the nones and the ides. On the four excepted months,

March, May, July, and October, the nones fell on the seventh, and the ides on the fifteenth day.

day to school in the Forum, and all the tradesmen on the way she went had learned to watch for the lovely and innocent creature, so sweet and winning was she. In an evil day the eye of Appius Claudius, the wicked and dissolute consul, fell upon the the maiden as she tripped joyously homeward, and his base passions were inflamed to possess her. His arts and his proffers, however, were unavailing. Virginia was the daughter of honorable parents, and as pure and innocent herself as a dove. The advances of the consul, notwithstanding the fact that he had almost despotic power in Rome, were met with scorn and horror.

Only the more determined to secure his prey, and enraged at this resistance, Appius Claudius resorted to a stratagem at once cunning and outrageous. He induced one of his creatures, Marcus by name, to seize upon Virginia, upon the pretense that she was the child of a slave of his who had given the babe to the childless wife of Virginius, to pass off as her own. The occasion taken was during the absence of Virginius, the father of Virginia, who was with the army in camp. At first Appius Claudius refused to delay the trial of the claim of Marcus until Virginius should be sent for, but through fear of a tumult he at length consented to put off the hearing one day, supposing that it would not be possible for the father to be summoned in that time.

The friends of Virginius did succeed, however, in getting him to Rome in time, but as the cause was heard before Appius Claudius at whose instigation the seizure had been made, the trial was the most hollow mockery. The clearest proofs of the legitimacy of Virginia were brought forward, but in defiance of all these, Appius gave judgment for his creature Marcus.

Seeing that it was impossible to save his daughter alive from the hands of the wicked decemvir,* Virginius begged leave at least to take a last farewell of her. The privilege was granted, and while he clasped her in his arms, he saved her from servitude and dishonor by plunging into her heart a knife which he caught up from the shambles of a butcher near the place of trial in the Forum. Then with the reeking knife in his hands, he appealed to the people for vengeance and justice. The whole mass of the commons rose at his call, and the army, as soon as the story of Virginia's death was told in camp, joined in

*See "Outline History of Rome," p. 69.

the cry for redress and for changes in the government, which should render impossible such high-handed outrages on the part of the nobles. The Tribuneship, which had been abolished by Appius Claudius and his party, was restored, and the guilty decemvir himself was seized and imprisoned to answer for his criminal abuse of his power as judge. He died in prison and so escaped punishment, the supposition being that he took his own life.

iv..

THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS.

glory and the fortunes of the city which he should found.

After the triumphs of Rome over the Volscians, the Capuans, the Lucumoes, the Samnites, and the Gauls have been foretold, the words of Capys come to that great triumph over the Greek which was the occasion of the festival upon which this lay is supposed to have been sung, and which marked the beginning of the supremacy of Rome. Seven years before this, Lucius Posthumius Megellus had been sent from Rome to Tarentum to demand redress for great and arbitrary griev

[The Prophecy of Capys differs from the other 'lays' in not being founded upon tradition. The poet imagines a theme, and treats it as it might have been handled by a minstrel of the old Roman days, and although it does not follow traditional story it is founded upon it. After Romulus had slain the usurper Amulius and seated his grandfather Numitor again upon his throne, he determined to leave Alba and to found for himself a new city. The 'lay' represents this decision as being inspired by the gods, speaking through Capys.]

When Romulus had slain Amulius, his uncle, and the High Priest Camers, who had condemned his mother to a living burial and himself and his brother Remus to the Tiber, he marched from Alba Longa to the hall of his grandfather Numitor, to bring him again to his ancient right. On his sword he bore the bloody head of the king, while at his left hand strode Remus with the head of Camers held high upon a boar-spear. Around them was a joyous multitude of comrades and of people from all the hamlets round about, shouting with joy to see the sons of Rhea triumphant.

At the gate of the hall of Numitor sat the blind seer Capys, and as Romulus came near he trembled from head to feet with the inspiration of prophecy that came upon him. With his white hair rising and his sightless eyes flashing, he hailed him as the foster son of a wondrous nurse and the son of a god and in glowing words he went on to foretell his

of Roman houses and had been thrice consul, yet in spite of his dignity he was treated by the Tarentines with the most outrageous rudeness and insult. His address was greeted with shouts of derision at his broken Greek, and as he left the stage from which he had fairly been hooted, notwithstanding the fact that his character of ambassador should have protected him, a drunken buffoon bespattered his senatorial robe with filth. The sight was greeted by the Tarentines with shrieks of laughter, and with tumultuous applause. "Men of Tarentum," said Posthumius, "it will take much blood to wash this robe." In consequence of this, Rome declared war against Greece. Greece called upon her allies, and among them came to her aid Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, with the first elephants that had been seen in Italy, 'moving mountains with snakes for hands.' The Tarentines and their allies were at first victorious, but soon the Romans under Manius Curius Dentatus made head against the invaders, and in a great battle fought near Beneventum put them utterly to rout.

This turned the tide in ancient history, and the prophetic fervor of Capys vents itself in glowing exultation over this victory, which was in truth the decisive point in the fortunes of the empire which he was by his inspired words inciting Romulus to found. The song ends with a brief but glowing picture of the splendor of Rome as it should be in its glory, long after the founder and the prophet should both be dust as is now the Rome of which the poet sang.

TH

[October 6.]

HE Christian conception of man and the world does not afford any specific criterion for the division of wealth. Man is endowed with moral freedom and the world is a scene of moral discipline. It is an order in which hope and fear, gain and loss, success and failure, must ever be possible, for they are essential to its purpose. Christ's prayer for his disciples was not that they might be taken out of the world, or that the world might be transformed to give them peace or comfort, but that they might be kept from the evil. It is not what we have, but what we are, that makes life sweet and blessed. Wealth is not simply to gratify but to unfold our natures. Its ministry of sensations passes away, but its ministry of discipline is everlasting. "The true secret of happiness," says Canon Westcott,* "is not to escape toil and affliction, but to meet them with the faith that through them the destiny of man is fulfilled, that through them we can even now reflect the image of our Lord and be transformed into His likeness."

"The poor," said Jesus, "always ye have with you." I cannot see that it will ever be otherwise. It is proof that Christ entertained no dream of social equality. If all were equalized to-day, there would be the poor, if not the rich, to-morrow. The virtue of beneficence will never be outgrown upon the earth. The incapable, the unfortunate, the sick, to say nothing of the idle and the improvident, will ever sit by the wayside, waiting for the coming of the Good Samaritan. For the Christian the problem of wealth's distribution is largely one of judicious beneficence, for the world has learned that there is beneficence that is injudicious and even injurious. An indiscriminating charity has fostered mendicancy and pauperism and there are countries of Europe where no church is without its waiting beggar. William Law,†

• Brooke Foss. (1825-.) An English clergyman distinguished as a Biblical critic. He was made canon of Peterborough Cathedral in 1869.

† (1686-1761.) An English mystic. Dr. Johnson says his own first serious thoughts on religion were awakened by reading "Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life."

the author of the "Serious Call," gave a literal interpretation to the words of Christ, "Give to him that asketh thee," and with two rich friends resolved to deny himself as much as possible and supply the needs of every applicant. They attracted a great crowd of idle and lying mendicants to the neighborhood, till finally the community had to petition the magistrates to interfere, in order to prevent the utter demoralization of the parish. But suppose we should interpret with similar literalness the saying, "If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." A slow beast needs sharp goads, and Christ stirs and startles the conscience by such awakening words, not as giving laws of action but spurs to reflection. Some counselors, like Herbert Spencer,* advise us to follow our own self-interest, without concern for others, with the assurance that all will thus be happier, because more independent. Between the misdirected almsgiving of the purely sympathetic and the indifference of the selfish, lies the narrow way of wisdom, walking in which, Christ says, "Whenever ye will ye may do them good." We are sometimes told that we ought never to give directly, but only through organizations. This counsel overlooks the blessing of personal ministration. The Good Samaritan took a personal pleasure in relieving misfortune. We need the contact with suffering and the lessons of patience and faith which it often teaches. Besides, it is sometimes the gift of ourselves, rather than of our money, it is our counsel, our sympathy, our word of cheer, that would make glad the heart and infuse strength. I have no word of criticism for the noble work of organized charity, but there is much that it cannot do, because it Among those who sought Law as a spiritual adviser were John and Charles Wesley. In connection with Mrs.

Hutcheson he endowed a school for the instruction of boys and girls, which still exists under the name of Law's and Hutcheson's Charities.

* (1820——.) An eminent English philosopher and author. He regards evolution as "the basis of any system of philosophy which represents and conforms to the general method of nature."