men; his heart is like a deep well; his fecrets cannot be drawn out of it. He loves truth, and never fays any thing that wounds it; but he speaks it only when it is neceffary; wifdom, like a feal, always keeps his lips shut against all ufelefs words. How was he moved when he spoke to you! What violence did he do to himself, that he might not be known! What did he not fuffer in feeing you! It was that which made him fad and dejected.

During this fpeech, Telemachus being greatly moved and troubled could not help shedding floods of tears, and his fobbings hindred him a long while from making a reply. At length he cried out, Ah! my dear Mentor, I felt I know not what in this ftranger which attracted me to him, and moved all my bowels within me. But why, as you knew him, did you not tell me that it was Ulyffes before his departure? Why did you let him go without fpeaking to him, and without feeming to know him? Pray what mystery is this? Shall I be wretched for ever? Will the angry Gods punish me with thirst like Tantalus, whom a delufive ftream derides by its flight from his greedy lips. O Ulyffes! Ulyffes art thou gone for ever? Perhaps I shall never fee him more! Perhaps Penelope's lovers may caufe him to fall into the fnares which they laid for me! Had I went with him; I should at least have died with him. O Ulyffes ! Ulyffes! if ftorms do not throw you on the rocks again, (for I have every thing to apprehend from adverfe fortune) I tremble left on your arrival at Ithaca you should meet as dreadful a fate as Agamennon did at Mycena. But why, dear Menmy tor, did you envy me my happinefs! I had now. embraced him, I had now been with him in the port of Ithaca, we had been fighting to vanquish all our

enemies!

Mentor replied with a fmile, See, my dear Telemachus, the temper of mankind. You are now in the greatest diftrefs, because you have feen your father without knowing him; and yet what would you not have given yesterday to have been affured that

he

Aujourd'hui vous en êtes affuré par vos propres yeux; & cette affurance, qui devroit yous combler de joie, vous laiffe dans l'amertume. Ainfi le coeur malade des mortels compte toujours pour rien ce qu'il a le plus defiré, dès qu'il le poffede, & il eft ingénieux pour fe tourmenter fur ce qu'il ne poffede pas encore. C'est pour exercer votre patience, que les Dieux vous tiennent ainfi en fufpens. Vous regardez ce temps comme perdu; fachez que c'eft le plus utile de votre vie; car il vous exerce dans la plus néceffaire de toutes les vertus pour ceux qui doivent commander. Il faut être patient pour devenir maître de foi & des autres. L'impatience, qui paroît une force & une vigueur de l'ame, n'eft qu'une foibleffe & une impuiffance de fouffrir la peine. Celui qui ne fait pas attendre & fouffrir, eft comme celui qui ne fait pas fe taire fur un fecret; l'un & l'autre manquent de fermeté pour se retenir, comme un homme qui court dans un chariot, & qui n'a pas la main affez ferme pour arrêter, quand il faut, fes courfiers fougueux : ils n'obéiffent plus au frein, ils fe précipitent; & l'homme foible auquel ils échappent, eft brifé dans fa chûte. Ainfi l'homme impatient eft entraîné par fes defirs indomptés & farouches dans un abyme de malheurs. Plus fa puiffance eft grande, plus fon impatience lui eft funefte. Il n'attend rien, il ne fe donne le temps de rien mefurer, il force toutes chofes pour fe contenter; il rompt les branches pour cueillir le fruit avant qu'il foit mûr; il brife les portes, plutôt que d'atendre qu'on les lui ouvre; il veut moiffonner, quand le fage laboureur feme; tout ce qu'il fait à la hâte & à contre-temps, eft mal-fait, & ne peut avoir de durée, non plus que fes defirs volages. Tels font les projets infenfés d'un homme qui croit pouvoir tout, & qui fe livre à fes defirs impatiens pour abufer de fa puiffance. C'eft pour vous apprendre à être patient, mon cher Télémaque que les Dieux exercent tant votre patience, & femblent fe jouer de vous dans la vie errante où ils vous tiennent toujours incertain. Les biens que vous efpérez fe montrent à vous, & s'enfuient comme un fonge léger, que le ré

he was not dead? To-day you are affured of it by your own eyes, and this affurance, which ought to overwhelm you with joy, fills you with anguish. Thus does the fickly foul of mortals efteem as nothing what is most defired, as foon as it poffeffes it, and is ingenious in tormenting itself with regard to what it does not yet poffefs. It is to exercife your patience that the Gods keep you thus in fufpence. You look upon this as loft time; but know that it is the most useful of your whole life; for it exercifes you in a virtue which is the most neceffary in those who are to command. It is neceffary to be patient, in order to become master of one's felf and others. Impatience, which feems ftrength and vigour of foul, is nothing but weakness and an inability of bearing pain. He that cannot wait and fuffer, is like a man who cannot keep a fecret; they both want a firmnefs of foul to contain themfelves, like a charioteer in a race whofe hand is not strong enough, when it is needful, to ftop his fiery courfers: they no longer obey the reins, they rush down a precipice, and the feeble driver, with whom they run away, is dashed in pieces by his fall. So an impatient man is hurried by his fierce and unconquerable defires into an abyfs of miferies. The greater his power is, the more fatal to himself is his impatience. He waits for nothing, he does not allow himfelf time to weigh any thing, he breaks through all things to gratify himfelf; he tears of the branches to gather the fruit before it is ripe; he breaks down the doors rather than ftay 'till they are opened to him; he will needs reap when the wife husband-man fows; every thing which he does in a hurry and out of feafon is illdone, and cannot last longer than his fickle defires. Such are the mad projects of man who thinks he can do every thing, who gives himself up to his impetuous defires, and abufes his power. It is to teach you to be patient, my dear Telemachus, that the Gods do fo much exercife your patience, and feem to mock you in the vagrant life wherein they always keep you in doubt. The good which you hope for shows

veil fait difparoître, pour vous apprendre que les chofes mêmes qu'on croit tenir dans fes mains, échappent dans l'inftant. Les plus fages leçons d'Ulyffe ne yous feront pas auffi utiles que fa longue abfence, & les peines que vous fouffrez en le cherchant.

Enfuite Mentor voulut mettre la patience de Télémaque à une derniere épreuve encore plus forte. Dans le moment où le jeune homme alloit avec ardeur preffer les matelots pour hâter le départ, Mentor l'arrêta tout-à-coup & l'engagea à faire fur le rivage un grand facrifice à Minerve. Télémaque fait avec docilité ce que Mentor veut. On dresse deux autels de gazon; l'encens fume, le fang des victimes coule. Télémaque pouffe des foupirs tendres vers le ciel, il reconnoît la puiffante protection de la Déeffe. A peine le facrifice eft-il achevé, qu'il fuit Mentor dans les routes fombres d'un petit bois voifin. Là il apperçoit tout-à-coup que le vifage de fon ami prend une nouvelle forme. Les rides de fon front s'effacent, comme les ombres difparoiffent, quand l'aurore, de fes doigts de rofe, ouvre les portes de l'orient, & enflamme tout l'horifon. Ses yeux creux & aufteres fe changent en des yeux bleus d'une couleur célefte, & pleins d'une flamme divine. Sa barbe grife & négligée difparoît. Des traits nobles & fiers, mêlés de douceur & de grace, fe montrent aux yeux de Télémaque ébloui. Il reconnoît un vifage de femme, avec un teint plus uni qu'une fleur tendre & nouvellement éclose au foleil on y voit la blancheur des lys mêlée de rofes naiffantes. Sur ce vifage fleurit une éternelle jeuneffe, avec une majesté fimple & négligée; une odeur d'ambroifie fe répand de fes cheveux flottans; fes habits éclatent comme les vives couleurs, dont le foleil, en fe levant, peint les fombres voûtes du ciel, & les nuages qu'il vient dorer. Cette Divinité ne touche pas du pied à terre, elle coule légérement dans l'air comme un oiseau le fend de fes ailes. Elle tient de fa puiffante main une lance brillante, capable de faire trembler les villes & lès nations les plus guerrieres: Mars même en feroit effrayé, Sa voix eft douce & modérée, mais forte & infinuante;

shows itfelf to you, and flies away like an empty dream, which a man's awaking caufes to vanish, to teach you that the very things which you think you hold faft in your hands may flip away in an inftant. The wifeft leffons of Ulyffes will not be fo ufeful to you as his long abfence, and the hardships you fuffer in quest of him.

Mentor afterwards refolved to put Telemachus's patience to a laft and yet feverer trial. The moment the youth was running to urge the mariners to haften their departure, Mentor ftopped him on a sudden, and engaged him to offer a great facrifice to Minerva on the shore. Telemachus readily executes what Mentor defires. Two altars of turf are erected, the incenfe fmokes, and the blood of the victims ftreams around. Telemachus fends up tender fighs to heaven, and acknowledges the powerful protection of the Goddefs. As foon as the facrifice was ended, he followed Mentor into the gloomy paths of a neighbouring grove, where he fuddenly perceived that the face of his friend affumed a new form. The wrinkles of his brow difappear, as shades vanish when Aurora with her roly fingers opens the gates of the east, and enflames all the horizon. His hollow and fevere eyes are changed into eyes of a celestial azure, and filled with a divine fire. His white and uncouth beard disappears. Noble and majestic features, tempered with sweetness and grace, prefent themselves to the dazzled eyes of Telemachus. He fees a woman's vifage with a com-. plection more beautiful than a tender flower juft unfolded to the fun; the whitenefs of the lilly is there blended with the crimfon of the opening rofe. Eternal youth blooms on her face, with a plain and unaf fected majefty. An ambrofial odour is diffufed from her flowing treffes. Her veftments glifter like the lively colours with which the rifing fun paints the dusky vaults of heaven, and gilds the clouds. The Goddess does not touch the earth with her feet, but glides with eafe through the air, as a bird cleaves it with his wings. In her puiffant hand she holds a glittering