Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/146

136 nobleness in her attitude. To comfort her, we told her that no doubt her husband was an excellent gentleman, but that she would now belong to one who in every respect was at least his equal, for that if there was a man in the world that deserved admiration, it was Cyrus. On hearing this, she rent her veil and uttered a lamentable cry, and her women cried out with her. And we saw the greater part of her face and her hands. There never was such a woman. You must go and see her yourself."

"By heavens! I shall do nothing of the kind, if she is such as you describe," said Cyrus. "Why not?" asked the young man. "Why, because if I were now to yield to your description, and go and see her, overwhelmed as I am with business, I daresay the sight of her might make me wish to go again, and thus I might perhaps neglect what I have to do, in order to sit gazing at her." At this Araspes laughed, and asked Cyrus "if he thought that the beauty of any human being could put a constraint on another, so as to force him to act differently from what he judged best? Love," he argued, "is an affair of the will; else, why does not a brother fall in love with his sister, or a father with his daughter?" But Cyrus said, "If love be voluntary, why cannot a person cease loving when he wishes to do so? I have seen people," he added, "weeping from love—made regular slaves—giving away all they had, wanting to get rid of their love, and yet held as if by an iron chain—victims of a complete fascination." "They must be poor creatures," said Araspes; "any man who is worth anything can