OF PSYCHE.

Robbers desolated Thessaly, long before the reign of the Emperor Adrian! A ravine losing itself between mountains, or woods, or a few stones hewed, and fitted in by the hand of man, or a hollow rock, crowned with a little verdure, with its sides split, in irregular and broken arches, and the entrance covered with moss! Such was their den, and they had only for attendants, and messmates a dog, an ass, and an old woman who bore, with respect to her years and her distaff, which she quitted but rarely, some resemblance to one of the fates, she who in the Infernal Regions holds the fatal spindle. Her furrowed cheeks and forehead, her emaciated hand, her coarse clothing, seemed to be in accordance with the uncivilised roughness of the places we have just described, aud with the character and habits of the masters she had to serve. Besides, she was very skilful amongst other matters, in shortening the hours and beguiling weariness, by reciting what happened formerly, in telling tales of the good old time, again if on any day she had to divert a young and beautiful lady, who had been carried off the evening before, from her parents in the hope of receiving a rich ransom, and by whose dress it was easy to know that she was of high birth, the old woman then selected the best