. Ariadne florentina; six lectures on wood and metal engraving, with appendix; given before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas term, 1872. . the lake Avernus,that I found I had been saved by the words ofthe Cumaean Sibyl. 215. Quam tua te Fortuna sinet, the com-pletion of the sentence, has yet more andcontinual teaching in it for me now; as ithas for all men. Her opening words, whichhave become hackneyed, and lost all presentpower through vulgar use of them, containyet one of the most immortal truths ever yetspoken for mankind ; and they will never losetheir power of help for noble persons
. Ariadne florentina; six lectures on wood and metal engraving, with appendix; given before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas term, 1872. . the lake Avernus,that I found I had been saved by the words ofthe Cumaean Sibyl. 215. Quam tua te Fortuna sinet, the com-pletion of the sentence, has yet more andcontinual teaching in it for me now; as ithas for all men. Her opening words, whichhave become hackneyed, and lost all presentpower through vulgar use of them, containyet one of the most immortal truths ever yetspoken for mankind ; and they will never losetheir power of help for noble persons. But ob_serve, both in that lesson, Facilis descensusAverni, etc. ; and in the still more precious,because universal, one on which the strengthof Rome was founded,—the burning of thebooks,—the Sibyl speaks only as the voice ofNature, and of her laws ;—not as a divine helper,prevailing over death; but as a mortal teacherwarning us against it, and strengthening usfor our mortal time ; but not for eternity. Ofwhich lesson her own history is a part, andher habitation by the Avernus lake. Shedesires immortality, fondly and vainly, as we. mv\o/Mi e«aAKnr?f/HRAci0 PHRO Cae GIVKT! BOMQirVTlAVC CANTI&EiyHHI/«VEHTOfDniDRE WfACff-^^^OTHICCT 2/\LVERA MOnVTT! qVAKT! .£ 02TtfLWV2Z{ VAUtATTVTTI CHVAN 11 VIT. For a time, and timef FLORENTINE SCHOOLS OF ENGRAVING. 233 do ourselves. She receives, from the love ofher refused lover, Apollo, not immortality, butlength of life ;—her years to be as the grains ofdust in her hand. And even this she findswas a false desire; and her wise and holydesire at last is—to die. She wastes away ; be-comes a shade only, and a voice. The Nationsask her, What wouldst thou ? She answers,Peace; only let my last words be true. Lultimomie parlar sie verace. 216. Therefore, if anything is to be conceived,rightly, and chiefly, in the form of the CumaeanSibyl, it must be of fading virginal beauty, ofenduring patience, of far-looking into futurity.^^ For afte
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