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21 Imaginary Conversatio7i. 21 longer than the rest, whether in approbation or derision of this rhapsody, delivered with glee and melody, and en- treated the philosopher to indulge us with a few of his adventures. You deserve^ young man^ said Euthymedes gravely, to have as few as I have hacl^ you whose idle curiosity would thus intemperately reveal the most sacred mysteries. Poets and philosophers may reason on love^ and dream about it^ but rarely do they possess the object^ and^ whenever they do^ that object is the invisible deity of a silent worshiper. Reason then or dream^ replied the other, breathing an air of scorn to soothe the soreness of the reproof. When we reason on love, said Euthymedes, we often talk as if we were dreaming: let me try whether the recital of my dream can make you think I talk as if I were reasoning. You may call it a dream, a vision, or what you will. I was in a place not very unlike this, my head lying back against a rock, where its crevices were tufted with soft and odoriferous herbs, and where vineleaves protected m^y face from the sun, and from the bees, which however were less likely to molest me, being busy in their first hours of honey- making among the blossoms. Sleep soon fell upon me ; for of all philosophers I am certainly the drowsiest, tho perhaps there are many quite of equal ability in communicating the gift of drowsiness. Presently I saw three figures, two of which were beautiful, very differently, but in the same de- gree: the other was much less so. The least of the three, at the first glance, I recognised to be Love, altho I saw no wings, nor arrows, nor quiver, nor torch, nor emblem of any kind designating his attributes. The next was not Venus, nor a Grace, nor a Nymph, nor Goddess of whom, in worship or meditation I had ever cojiceived an idea; and yet my heart persuaded me she was a Goddess, and from the manner in which she spoke to Love, and he again to her, L was con- vinced she must be. Quietly and u7imovedly as she was standing, her figure I perceived was adapted to the perfec- tion of activity. With all the succulence and suppleness of early youth, scarcely beyond puberty, it however gave me the idea, from its graceful and easy languor, of its being possessed by a fondness for repose. Her eyes were large and