to death. At this moment, the beautiful orphan and stripling of the temple courts, who has already exhibited something of the unexpected grandeur of his character, offers himself for the perilous embassy; and such is the fascination of his heroic innocence, that the High Priest, who has reared him and loves him as a child,

consents.

But we must pause a moment on the change which had come over Ion at the outbreaking of the pestilence-the astonishment with which the senators heard that he had been the only inmate of the temple who continually braved all dangers in ministering to the necessities of the sick :

Of goodness, which surrounding gloom conceal'd,

Struck sunlight o'er it: so his hfe heth flow'd

From its mysterious urn a sacred stream In whose calm depth the beautiful and pure

Alone are mirror'd; which, though shapes

of ill

May hover round its surface, glides in light,

And takes no shadow from them.

Cleon. Yet, methinks, Thou hast not lately met him, or a change

Pass'd strangely on him had not miss'd thy wonder.

His form appears dilated; in those eyes, Where pleasure danced, a thoughtful sadness dwells;

Stern purpose knits the forehead, which
till now

Knew not the passing wrinkle of a care:
Those limbs which in their heedless

motion own'd

A stripling's playful happiness,are strung
As if the iron hardships of the camp
Had given them sturdy nurture; and his
step,

Its airiness of yesterday forgotten,
Awakes the echoes of these desolate

courts,

As if a warrior of heroic mould
Paced them in armour.

Agenor. Hope is in thy tale.
This is no freak of Nature's wayward

course,

But work of pitying Heaven; for not in vain

The gods have pour'd into that guileless heart

The strengths that nerve the hero;they are ours.'-p. 13.

In the next scene the youth himself appears, and reports the incidents of his last night's walk :

His entreaty to be entrusted with the message to the king is in these words :

From an interview which succeeds between Ion and Clemanthe, the daughter of his guardian high-priest, Medon, we must quote what follows (Phocion, Clemanthe's only brother, is on the embassy to Delphi) :

Haunting like spectres of departed joy
The home where thou wert dearest ?
Ion. Thrill me not
With words that in their agony suggest
A hope too ravishing,-or my head will
swim,

And my heart faint within me.

Clem. Has my speech

Such blessed power? I will not mourn it, then,

Though it hath told a secret I had borne Till death in silence ;-how affection grew

To this, I know not; day succeeded day,
Each fraught with the same innocent
delights,

Without one shock to ruffle the disguise
Of sisterly regard which veil'd it well,
Till thy changed mien reveal'd it to my
soul,

And thy great peril makes me bold to
tell it.

Do not despise it in me!

Ion. With deep joy

Thus I receive it. Trust me, it is long
Since I have learn'd to tremble midst

our pleasures,

Lest I should break the golden dream around me

With most ungrateful rashness. I should

bless

The sharp and perilous duty which hath press'd

A life's deliciousness into these moments, Which here must end. I came to say farewell,

And the word must be said.

Clem. Thou canst not mean it! Have I disclaim'd all maiden bashful

ness

To tell the cherish'd secret of my soul
To my soul's master, and in rich return
Obtain'd the dear assurance of his love,
To hear him speak that miserable word,
I cannot-will not echo?

Ion. Heaven has call'd me, And I have pledged my honour. When thy heart

Bestow'd its preference on a friendless boy,

Thou didst not image him a recreant;

nor

Must he prove so, by thy election crown'd.
Thou hast endow'd me with the right to

claim

Thy help through this our journey, be its

course

Lengthen'd to age, or in an hour to end,
And now I ask it!-bid my courage hold,
And with thy free approval send me forth
In soul apparelli'd for my office!

Clem. Go!

I would not have thee other than thou
art,
Living or dying-and if thou shouldst
fall-

Ion. Be sure I shall return.

Clem. If thou shouldst fall,

I shall be happier as the affianced bride
Of thy cold ashes, than in proudest for-

tunes-
Thine-ever thine-

[She faints in his arms.'—p. 37. We consider the next scene, in which Ion braves and disarms the spleen of the tyrant, as, on the whole, excellently conceivedbut that it might be advantageously abridged. The unhappy king's announcement of the fatal prophecy that greeted his birth is, however, not to be passed over; the spirit of Greek thought and language was never more happily concentrated than in these lines :

:

vacant space,

In the dark chamber where my mother lay Faint with the sense of pain-bought happiness,

Came forth, in heart - appalling tone, these words

Of me the nurseling, Woe unto the babe!

'Against the life which now begins shall

life

'Lighted from thence be arm'd, and both soon quench'd,

End this great line in sorrow!'-p. 57.

In the third act, Adrastus meets his senate in the great square of the city; and while their expostulations are still in progress, the long-expected ambassadors return, and Phocion announces the oracle of Delphi :

'Argos ne'er shall find release

Till her monarch's race shall cease.'

The king, for whom alone (except Ion) this prophecy could have no novelty, receives it with frantic rage, and once more withdraws to his palace. The young men retire also to a grove without the walls; and the will of the Divinity being now explicitly declared, they cast lots to determine the hand by which the king is to die. The name of Ion is that which leaps out of the helmet; and the youth, whom Adrastus had spared but an hour before, is compelled, and solemnly undertakes, the execution of this dreadful office. Ctesiphon, another young man, draws the second lot; and it is his commission to follow Ion-if he falters, to punish his feebleness-if he fails, to consummate the sacrifice.

Next morning, while Ion is preparing himself in secret for his awful duty, and while he is actually within the palace, where the consequences of a deep debauch render the royal guards uselessthe discovery, which the reader has probably anticipated, is evolving itself in the Argive temple. The aged priest and Clemanthe are at length satisfied that their foundling is no other than the only long-lost son of King Adrastus.

Act IV. opens in the royal chamber; the King is on a couch asleep; Ion enters with the consecrated knife which has been committed to his hand.

To take thy life long forfeited-prepare!
Thy hour is come!

Adr. Villains! does no one hear?
Ion. Vex not the closing minutes of

thy being

With torturing hope or idle rage; thy guards,

Palsied with revelry, are scatter'd senseless,

While the most valiant of our Argive youths

Hold every passage by which human aid Could reach thee. Present death is order'd for thee

By Powers who watch above me while I stand

To execute their sentence.

Adr. Thou!-I know thee

The youth I spared this morning, in whose ear

I pour'd the secrets of my bosom. Kill me,

If thou darest do it, but bethink thee first

How the grim memory of thy thankless deed

Will haunt thee to the grave!

Ion. It is most true; Thou sparedst my life, and therefore do

the gods

Ordain me to this office, lest thy fall
Seem the chance forfeit of some single
sin,

And not the great redress of Argos.
Now-

Now, while I parley-spirits that have
left,-

Within this hour have left,-tormented flesh

To rot untomb'd, glide by and frown on

me,

Their slow avenger:-Now the chamber

swarms

With looks of furies. Yet a moment wait, Ye dreadful prompters !-If there is a friend

[ION stands for a moment stupified with horror, drops the knife, and falls senseless on the ground.]'—p. 143. The King falls by the hand of Ctesiphon; and the announcement that Ion is the rightful heir of the throne is received with rapture by the grateful people. But the plague continues unabated-and the devoted youths who had cast lots along with lon and Ctesiphon for the office of Avenger, remember the pregnant words of the oracle-and shudder to think that Ion himself must now be the object of their vow. We pass over various scenes, in which their mingled feelings are developed with great art and most thrilling interest-having no room for more than these extracts from the two last scenes of Act V.-extracts which we hope

need