jungle.—­The king departs for his capital, leaving with Sakoontala a magical ring with power to reawaken memory of her in his heart, should he ever forget.  But Durvasas, a wandering ascetic, passes by the hermitage; and Sakoontala, absorbed in her dreams, fails to greet him; for which he dooms her to be forgotten by her husband.  She waits and waits, and at last seeks the unreturning Dushyanta at his court; who, under the spell of Durvasas, fails to recognise her.  If what she claims is true, she can produce the ring?—­But no; she has lost it on her journey through the forest.  He repudiates her; whereupon she is caught up by the Gods into the Grove of Kasyapa beyond the clouds.

But the ring had fallen into a stream in the forest, and a fish had swallowed it, and a fisherman had caught the fish, and the police had caught the fisherman .... and so it came into the hands of Dushyanta again; who, at sight of it, remembered all, and was plunged in grief over his lost love.

Years pass, and Indra summons him at last to fight a race of giants that threaten the sovereignty of the Gods.  In the course of that warfare, mounting to heaven in the car of Indra, Dushyanta comes to the Grove of Kasyapa, and is reunited with Sakoontala and with their son, now grown into an heroic boy.

As in The Tempest a certain preoccupation with the magical beauty of the island dims the character-drawing a little, and perhaps thereby makes the symbol more distinct,—­so in Sakoontala.  It is a faery piece:  begining in the morning calm and forest magic; then permitting passion to rise, and sadness to follow; ending in the crystal and blue clearness of the upper air.  In this we see the basic form of the Soul-Symbol, which is worked out in the incidents and characters.  Dushyanta, hunting in the unexplored forest, comes to the abode of holiness, finds and loves Sakoontala;—­and from their union is born the perfect hero,—­Sarva-Damana, the ’All-tamer.’—­Searching in the impersonal and unexplored regions within us, we do at some time in our career of lives come to the holy place, get vision of our Immortal Self; from the union of which with this, our human personality is to be born some time that new being we are to become,—­the Perfect Man or Adept.  But that first vision may be lost; I suppose almost always is;—­and there are wanderings and sorrows, forgetfulness and above all heroic services to be performed, before the final reunion can be attained.

XVI.  THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME

We have seen an eastward flow of cycles:  which without too much Procrusteanizing may be given dates thus:—­Greece, 478 to 348; Maurya India, 320 to 190; Western Han China, 194 to 63; in this current, West Asia, being then in long pralaya, is overleaped.  We have also seen a tide in the other direction; it was first Persia that touched Greece to awakenment; and there is that problematical Indian