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22 while the dim blue line of the sea closed the view. The side of their hill was very varied and uneven; but the side of their rest was decided by the welling of a little spring, which bubbled up a sudden vein of silver from the earth, and wandered on like a child singing the same sweet song. The place was covered with moss, whose bright green was speckled with purple, crimson, gold, minute particles of colour, like an elfin carpet embroidered by Titania and her fairy court. The ground rose on each side like a wall, but hung with natural tapestry—the creeping plants which in the South take such graceful and wreathing forms in their foliage. On a space a little below lay the ruins they had been seeking. Vivid must have been the imagination that could there have traced the temple which, in former days, paid homage to the beautiful goddess, by being beautiful like herself. Two columns alone remained—Ionian in their grace and lightness. A few fragments of the wail lay scattered about, but some chance wind had sown them with violets, and every trace, whether of architecture or decay, was hidden by the broad leaves, or the thousands of deep-blue flowers, whose sweetness was abroad on the atmosphere.