Jupiter [to Unknown, without minding NUMA] - In that case you are an excellent companion! I rejoice to make your acquaintance.

Numa [to Unknown] - May I ask your name? and whence you come?

Unknown-Neither the one nor the other has anything to do with the subject-matter which you were discussing.

Jupiter - We were speaking merely of facts. And these, as you know, appear differently to each observer, according to his standpoint and the quality of his eyes.

Unknown- And yet each thing can be seen correctly only from one point of view.

Numa-And that is-?

Unknown- The center of the whole.

Numa-And seen from this point of view, how do you find the subject of which we were speaking when you came— the great catastrophe which in these days, without respect or mercy, has overthrown everything that for so many centuries was most venerable and sacred to the human race?

Unknown-It followed necessarily, for it had been a long while preparing; and it needs at last, as you know, but a single blast to overthrow an old, ill-joined, thoroughly ruinous fabric, and one moreover which was founded on the sand.

Numa-But it was such a magnificent structure, so venerable in its antiquity, possessing so much simplicity with all its variety, so beneficent in the protection which Humanity, the laws, the security of the states, enjoyed so long under its lofty arches! Would it not have been better to repair than to destroy it? Our philosophers at Alexandria had formed such beautiful projects not merely to restore its former authority, but even to give it a far greater splendor, and especially a symmetry, a beauty, a convenience which it never had before! It was a pantheon of such great extent and such ingenious construction that all the religions in the world-even this new one, if it would only be peaceable-might have found space enough within its walls.

Unknown-It is a pity that with all these advantages it was nevertheless built only on the movable sand! And as to peaceableness! - how can you expect that, in a matter of such great importance, truth and delusion should agree together?

Numa-That is a very easy matter, if only mankind will agree among themselves. They are never more grossly deluded

than when they imagine themselves in exclusive possession of the truth.

Unknown-If it is not their destination to be deceived, and that, surely, you will not maintain, then it cannot and will not be their lot to wander forever in error and delusion, like sheep without a shepherd. Between darkness and light, twilight and half-light is certainly better than complete night! but only as a transition from that to pure, all-irradiating daylight. The day has now dawned, and would you lament that night and twilight are past?

Jupiter - You love allegory, I perceive, young man! I for my part love to speak roundly and plainly. I suppose you mean to say that men will be made happier by this new order of things? I hope they may, but as yet I see very poor preparations for it.

Unknown-Without fail the condition of these poor mortals will be better, and infinitely better. Truth will put them in possession of that freedom which is the most indispensable condition of happiness; for truth alone makes free.

Jupiter-Bravo! I heard that five hundred years ago, in the Stoa at Athens, until I was sick of it. Propositions of this kind are just as indisputable, and contribute just as much to the welfare of the world, as the great truth that once one is As soon as you will bring me intelligence that the foolish people below there have become better men than their fathers, since that a great part of them believe differently from their fathers, I will call you the messenger of very good tidings.

one.

Unknown - The corruption of mankind was so great that even the most extraordinary provisions could not remedy the evil at once. But assuredly they will grow better when truth shall have made them free.

Jupiter I believe so too, but it seems to me that that is saying no more than if you should say, that as soon as all men are wise and good they will cease to be foolish and perverse; or that when the Golden Age arrives in which every man shall have abundance, no one will suffer hunger any more.

Unknown- I see the time actually coming when all who do not purposely close their hearts to the truth will, by means of it, attain to a perfection of which your philosophers never dreamed.

Jupiter Have you been initiated in the mysteries of Eleusis?

Unknown-I know them as well as if I had been.

Jupiter-Then you know what is the ultimate aim of those

mysteries.

Unknown - To live happily and to die with the hope of a better life.

Jupiter - You seem to be a great philanthropist; do you know anything more salutary for mortals than this?

Unknown-Yes.

Jupiter-Let me hear it, if I may ask.

Unknown-To give them in reality what those mystagogues at Eleusis promised.

Jupiter I fear that is more than you or I will be able to perform.

Unknown-You have never tried, Jupiter.

Jupiter - Who likes to speak of his services? But you may easily suppose that I could not have attained to the honor which has been paid me by so many great and powerful nations for several thousand years, without having served them to some

extent.

Unknown - That may have been a long while ago. He who is unwilling to do more for man than he can do "without sacrificing his repose" will not accomplish much in their behalf. confess I have labored long.

I

Jupiter I like you, young man. At your years, this ami

able enthusiasm which sacrifices itself for others is a real merit. Who can offer himself up for mankind without loving them? And who can love them without thinking better of them than they deserve?

Unknown-I think neither too well nor too ill of them. I pity their misery. I see that they may be helped; and they shall be helped.

Jupiter - It is even as I said. You are full of courage and good will, but you are still young; the folly of earth's people has not yet made you tender. When you are as old as I am, you will sing a different song! . . . You mean to remodel them, to give them a new and better form. The model is there : you have only to form them after yourself. that is required. Nature must furnish the tion; and you will have to take that as it is. friend! You will take all possible pains with when it comes out of the furnace you will see yourself disgraced by it.

But that is not all clay for your creaThink of me, my your pottery, and

Unknown - The clay-to continue your figure — is not so bad in itself as you think. It can be purified and made as plastic as I require it, in order to make new and better men out of it. Jupiter—I rejoice to hear it. Have you made the experi

ment?

Unknown- I have.

Jupiter - On a large scale, I mean.

For success in one piece

out of a thousand does not decide the matter.

Unknown [after hesitation] — If the experiment on a large scale has not yet succeeded according to my mind, I know at least why it could not be otherwise. It will be better in time.

Jupiter-In time? Yes, to be sure! we always hope the best from time. And who would undertake anything great without that hope? We shall see how time will fulfill your expectations. I can promise you little good for the next thousand years.

Unknown-You have a small scale, I see, old king of Crete! What are a thousand years, compared with the period required for the completion of the great work of making a single family of good and happy beings out of the whole human race? . . . Suffice it that the time will come at last

Jupiter [somewhat vexed] — Well, then! we will let it come; and the poor fools to whom you are so kindly disposed must see, meanwhile, how they can help themselves! As I said, my sight does not extend far enough to judge of so far-working and complicated a plan as yours. The best of it is that we are immortal, and therefore may hope to see the result at last, however many platonic ages we have to wait for it.

Unknown-My plan, great as it is, is at bottom the simplest in the world. The way in which I am sure of effecting the general happiness is the same by which I conduct each individual to happiness; and the pledge of its safety is, that there is no other. For the rest, I end as I began: it is impossible not to be deceived, so long as one regards things fragmentarily and as they appear in the particular. They are in reality nothing but what they are in the whole; and the perfection which unites all in one, toward which everything tends and in which everything will finally rest, is the only view-point from which everything is seen aright. And herewith fare ye well! [Vanishes.] Numa [to JUPITER] - What say you to this apparition, Jupiter?

Jupiter Ask me again fifteen hundred years hence.

FAREWELL ADDRESS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON PRESIDENT, TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, SEPTEMBER 17, 1796.

[GEORGE WASHINGTON, the celebrated American general and first President of the United States, was born in Westmoreland County, Va., February 22, 1732. He received an ordinary school education, and for a time was employed by Lord Fairfax to survey vast tracts of territory in the Alleghany Mountains. Appointed major of provincial militia at nineteen, he was sent on a mission by Governor Dinwiddie to the French authorities on the Ohio, and as aid-de-camp on Braddock's staff conducted the retreat after the disastrous battle of the Monongahela (1755). He held the command of the Virginian troops until 1758, when he resigned, married Martha Custis, a wealthy widow, and engaged in the improvement of his estate at Mount Vernon. Shortly after the outbreak of the Revolution he assumed command of the Continental forces under the historic elm tree at Cambridge, July 2, 1775, and, although often compelled by superior forces to retreat and at times reduced to desperate straits by lack of men and supplies, brought the war to a successful termination. After the conclusion of the treaty of peace he handed in his commission as commander in chief and retired to Mount Vernon; in 1789 he was elected the first President of the United States, was unanimously reëlected (1793), and resigned in 1797. His death occurred at Mount Vernon, December 14, 1799.]

Friends and Fellow-citizens,

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the Executive Government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence, in my situation, might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest; no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness; but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a defer