the physical power they represent. When Horace calls Vulcan 'Avidus,' he
thinks of him as the power of Fire; when he speaks of Jupiter's red right
hand, he thinks of him as the power of rain with lightning; and when Homer
speaks of Juno's dark eyes, you have to remember that she is the softer
form of the rain power, and to think of the fringes of the rain-cloud
across the light of the horizon. Gradually the idea becomes personal and
human in the "Dove's eyes within thy locks,"[10] and "Dove's eyes by the
river of waters" of the Song of Solomon.

46. "Or Cytherea's breath,"--the two thoughts of softest glance, and
softest kiss, being thus together associated with the flower: but note
especially that the Island of Cythera was dedicated to Venus because it was
the chief, if not the only Greek island, in which the purple fishery of
Tyre was established; and in our own minds should be marked not only as the
most southern fragment of true Greece, but the virtual continuation of the
chain of mountains which separate the Spartan from the Argive territories,
and are the natural home of the brightest Spartan and Argive beauty which
is symbolized in Helen.

47. And, lastly, in accepting for the order this name of Cytherides, you
are to remember the names of Viola and Giulietta, its two limiting
families, as those of Shakspeare's two most loving maids--the two who love
simply, and to the death: as distinguished from the greater natures in whom
earthly Love has its due part, and no more; and farther still from the
greatest, in whom the earthly love is quiescent, or subdued, beneath the
thoughts of duty and immortality.

It may be well quickly to mark for you the levels of loving temper in
Shakspeare's maids and wives, from the greatest to the least.