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63 and bidding the others who came with you howl and be hanged to them.

The reflections which Lucian has put into the mouth of the Cynic in the following brief dialogue are of a graver kind.

Menippus. I say, Mercury, where are all the handsome men and women? Come—show me about a little, I am quite a stranger here.

Mercury. I haven't time, really. But look yonder, on your right; there are Hyacinthus, and Narcissus, and Nireus, and Achilles,—and Tyro, and Helen, and Leda; and, in short, all the celebrated beauties.

Men. I can see nought but bones and bare skulls,—all very much alike.

Merc. Yet all the poets have gone into raptures about those very bones which you seem to look upon with such contempt.

Men. Anyway, show me Helen; for I should never be able to make her out from the rest.

Merc. This skull is Helen.

Men. And it was for this that a thousand ships were manned from all Greece, and so many Greeks and Trojans died in battle, and so many towns were laid waste!