The wine-cups at their stations
     Are only wanting to begin the feast. 
     Let us commence with new, light wine,
     And cast upon it benediction;
     I consider it a matter of devotion
     To sign with cross that which I drink.

* * * * *

     Be it or not a modern invention,
     By the living God I do not know;
     But most exquisite was
     The invention of the tavern. 
     Because, I arrive thirsty there,
     I ask for new-made wine,
     They mix it, give it to me, I drink,
     I pay for it, and depart contented. 
     That, Isabel, is praise of itself,
     It is not necessary to laud it. 
     I have only one fault to find with it,
     That is—­it is finished with too much haste.

* * * * *

     But say, dost thou not adore and prize
     The illustrious and rich black pudding? 
     How the rogue tickles! 
     It must contain spices. 
     How it is stuffed with pine nuts!

* * * * *

     But listen to a subtle hint. 
     You did not put a lamp there? 
     How is it that I appear to see two? 
     But these are foolish questions,
     Already know I what it must be: 
     It is by this black draught
     That the number of lamps accumulates.

[The several courses are ended, and the jovial diner resolves to finish his story.]

     And now, Isabel, as we have supped
     So well, and with so much enjoyment,
     It appears to be but right
     To return to the promised tale. 
     But thou must know, Sister Isabel,
     That the Portuguese fell sick . . . 
     Eleven o’clock strikes, I go to sleep. 
     Wait for the morrow.

ALCIPHRON

(Second Century A.D.)

BY HARRY THURSTON PECK

In the history of Greek prose fiction the possibilities of the epistolary form were first developed by the Athenian teacher of rhetoric, Alciphron, of whose life and personality nothing is known except that he lived in the second century A.D.,—­a contemporary of the great satirical genius Lucian.  Of his writings we now possess only a collection of imaginary letters, one hundred and eighteen in number, arranged in three books.  Their value depends partly upon the curious and interesting pictures given in them of the life of the post-Alexandrine period, especially of the low life, and partly upon the fact that they are the first successful attempts at character-drawing to be found in the history of Greek prose fiction.  They form a connecting link between the novel of pure incident and adventure, and the more fully developed novel which combines incident and adventure with the delineation of character and the study of motive.