the corruption of Athens!' My very blood boiled in my veins, that such
an one as he could give me pain. It is true the illustrious Pericles has
made me his wife; but there are things which even his power, and my own
allurements, fail to procure. Ambitious women do indeed come here to
learn how to be distinguished; and the vain come to study the fashion of
my garments, and the newest braid of my hair. But the purest and best
matrons of Greece refuse to be my guests. You, Philothea, came
reluctantly--and because Pericles would have it so. Yes," she added, the
tears again starting to her eyes--"I know the price at which I purchase
celebrity. Poets will sing of me at feasts, and orators describe me at
the games; but what will that be to me, when I have gone into the silent
tomb? Like the lifeless guest at Egyptian tables, Aspasia will be all
unconscious of the garlands she wears.

"Philothea, you think me vain, and heartless, and wicked; and so I am.
But there are moments when I am willing that this tongue, so praised for
its eloquence, should be dumb forever--that this beauty, which men
worship, should be hidden in the deepest recesses of barbarian
forests--so that I might again be as I was, when the sky was clothed in
perpetual glory, and the earth wore not so sad a smile as now. Oh,
Philothea! would to the gods, I had your purity and goodness! But you
despise me;--for you are innocent."

Soothingly, and almost tearfully, the maiden replied: "No, lady; such
were not the feelings which made me say we could not be friends. It is
because we have chosen different paths; and paths that never approach
each other. What to you seem idle dreams, are to me sublime realities,
for which I would gladly exchange all that you prize in existence. You
live for immortality in this world; I live for immortality in another.
The public voice is your oracle; I listen to the whisperings of the gods