aesthetic ideal has been moulded by these combined influences, his originality remains unimpaired; a perfume, like the fragrance of unknown flowers, clings to his subtile lines; with a style abounding in tropes and complex figures of speech, with a diction extremely refined and harmonious, with a flawless versification, he could produce such a perfect achievement as "Sainte."

"The pale Saint is standing close to the casement; on the sill lies her viol of sandal-wood-still glistening though the gilding is falling off, her viol on which she once would play,—accompanied by flute or mandore. She holds open the ancient book of the 'Magnificat',-chanted long ago at vespers and compline.

The storied panes of the casement, bright as a monstrance,are swept in his flight by an Angel soaring in the evening sky,-by an Angel whose spread wing is like a harp.—And she is touching lightly with her dainty finger-tip-the instrumental plumage,she, the musician of silence.

The ecstatic moment when the soul, weary of earthly troubles, turns to the radiant efflorescence of dreams, has seldom been expressed with such a magnificence of sound and colour as in "Les Fenêtres"; "When the evening lies bleeding among the roofs— his eyes behold, on the horizon brimful with splendour,-golden ships, beautiful as swans, asleep on a river of purple and of perfumes, their flashing sides rocking in a nonchalance full of remembrances." Every work of art is an altered transcript of reality; Mallarmé's power of transfiguring reality into a refulgent vision may be well exemplified by the first stanza of "Les Fleurs";

"A long time ago, on the first day of the world,-You shaped the great chalices of flowers-with gold from the cloud's avalanches in the ancient blue of the sky,—and with the eternal snow of the stars;-You shaped them to deck the earth, still young and unspoiled by disasters.And You made the sobbing whiteness of lilies,-dreamily climbing, through the blue incense of pale horizons,-towards the weeping moon

The poet's aspiration to Supernal Beauty, to the haunting, unattainable Ideal, is symbolized in "L'Azur;" it is in vain that he tries to flee from the immanent presence of the Divine; "In vain! the Azure exults in its triumph!-I hear it singing in the clang of bells;--O my soul, it turns into a Voice, -and bursts from the living metal in blue Angelus!" There is some thing hopeless in his passionate quest for perfection; for him the richly-clad figure of Beauty walks hand in hand with the gloomy image of Death; "I should die," says Herodiade, “if Beauty

were not already Death."* The cause of this deep-seated melancholy is to be found in his agnosticism; with the impending thought of the inevitable doom, a strange hush steals over his spiritual garden, the lawns strewn with a crimson rain of roseleaves, the golden mirage of Autumn reflected in the marble basins, steals into the hall, where a pensive visage mirrors itself in the greenish waters of an ancient looking-glass; a far-off song is faintly heard, weird as the lullaby of unseen Dryads, or the dirge of waves breaking on the shore of an enchanted land. He is startled by the idea of the vanity of his pursuit of pleasure as a wanderer, who looking into a lonely tarn, finds himself confronted by death-pale faces gleaming beneath the sombre emerald of the waters. In the dewy stillness of his nocturnal orchard he is caressed by the fragrance of invisible flowers; yet he does not admit their existence; in a sunrise sky where scarlet clouds curl into glistening foam, he does not descry the inmost creative Spirit of Light. Among his disciples it was reserved for Paul Claudel the privilege of breaking the evil spell and of asserting the bliss of a firm belief. We must not look in Mallarmé's poetry for the naive rapture of Spring, but for the sadness of the dying year, of all beautiful and perishable things,-not for the diamond of Joy, but for the precious stone that glimmers on the tiara of Dreams, the mysterious opal.

*P. 56.

D

THE PERFECT JEWEL MAIDEN

Translated from the Japanese

By YONE NOGUCHI

The priest Genno (a soul of contemplation, with sacerdotal staff in hand, singing).—

"What though the fleeting scenes

(He had left the Michinoku province for the capital where he hoped to pass a winter in holy solitude; he was a person whose delivered soul was as free as that of a cloud or water. He crossed the river Shirakawa, and soon arrived at the moor of Nasu in the Shimotsuke province, where as far as he could see, was nothing but the autumnal grasses; among the grasses he found one lonely stone left to the whim of the winds. Thinking it strange, he was stepping closer to the stone, when a woman, possibly one of the villagers, suddenly addressed him.)

Woman.-Come not under the shadow of the stone!
Genno.-Why?

Woman. This is the Death Stone which makes not only men, but even birds and beasts perish if they touch it. I was afraid that through ignorance you might throw away your own precious life. So I gave you my warning. Get you away from the stone. Have you not heard of Nasu's Death Stone and its fatal spell?

Genno.-What is it that makes this stone so murderous? Woman. There was, in the olden time, a mistress of the Emperor Toba in the person of the "Perfect Jewel Maiden,' whose vindictive mind turned to that stone.

Genno. How strange to leave her soul on this distant moorshe a woman who lived at the Palace.

Woman.-There was a reason for it.

Genno. Tell me the story,if you are indeed not unfamiliar with it. If I thought about the fate of the "Perfect Jewel Maiden" turning to a murderous stone on this desolate moor, and then looked upon that stone gray with heavy mosses of many winters

and summers, I should recall a gloomy passage of Peh Küyih, the Chinese poet:

"The owls hoot through the moaning pines;

The foxes hide in the low chrysanthemums and

orchids."

Woman (While the ghostliness of it more and more seizes him). -Nobody seemed to know what was her native country or who were her parents. But once she was admitted in the palace, her natural beauty decked by art claimed the Emperor's immediate attention; and she became his chief favorite. One day the Emperor sought to test the maiden's proficiency; and she was found to his great wonder to be not deficient in any subject, from all forms of literature native or Chinese to every art of music. The emperor from his admiration aptly called her the "Perfect Jewel Maiden." Once in the late summer the Emperor called to the Seiryoden Hall the flower of the nobles in accomplishments or wit for a gay feast of music. Hark to the sweet strains of flutes, tabourets and cymbals! See, the heavenly plains are wrapped in clouds and darkness! Neither a star nor the moon is seen arising; and then from afar, heralded by the stir of the sudden shower, the blast rushed howling through the festive bower; the lanterns were now all blown out. A light! A torch! A light! cried the nobles in tumultuous fright. Lo and alas, a strangely brilliant flame is seen darting out from the Jewel Maiden's frailest body. The flame grows, the flame spreads, the flame fills all the Imperial Halls; the painted screens or the rich panelled walls viewless in the darkness of night are now sparkling as if under the moon's lustrous ray. From that same hour, alas, the Emperor fell ailing in dire disease; Yasunari Abe, the court soothsayer, divined the truth, by the Emperor's august command, that it was the insidious work of the Jewel Maiden who was nobody but an evil fox; and that she was intriguing, under such a masquerade, to ravage and ruin the whole court. On hearing the magician's words, the Emperor's love turned to instant hate so that the maiden was forced to resume her proper shape and run away to this Nasu's moor of desolation. And she was at last killed here by the pursuing force of the court, when turning to a stone, she vowed to wield her fiendish spell over anybody who dared approach.

Genno. And you- Who then are you? I beg of you to tell me. Keep me no longer in ignorance.

Woman.-I will no longer conceal from you the truth. I

am nothing but the spirit of the Death Stone born from the Perfect Jewel Maiden's vindictive mind.

Genno. It is said that the soul lowest in the depth of wickedness may rise highest in virtue. So then I will show you the righteous path for entering Nirvana. But pray, reveal yourself to my eyes in your proper shape.

The Spirit of the Stone.-I am used to hide myself away in the light of day. With the night I appear like Asama's volcanic fire, and present my natural shape for the confession of my guilt. With her own lustrous flame will I brighten the darkness of the night. Wait! but fear not. (At these words fading away into the stone.)

Genno. Now must I ponder on the holy text which says that grasses, trees, rocks and clays, having, all of them, a Buddhistic nature, shall enter into the blessed state of Nirvana. But may I doubt, that such a stone with such a spirit, however wicked and demoniac it were, might become a Buddha if he bestowed on it the divine words and law. (He picked flowers from a place close by and made offerings and burned incense while he recited the scriptures with his face turned to the stone.)

Spirit of the stone, let me now ask thee, whence camest thou, why dost thou assume such a foul shape, and act such a murderous part? Away, away from the stone, thou bloody spirit, if thou growest conscious of thy crime. I will lead thee to virtue and good by the very power of my own religion, and make thee enter into Nirvana. Understand, thou spirit of the stone! Hear me!

(Behold, the stone split asunder in two, and from amidst in red lustrous light, the evil fox made his sudden appearance.)

The Fox.

"Lo, in the water is a voice heard;

The wind sings from sky to sky:

Lo, stones too have their own souls."

It was first in India that Prince Hanzoku of the Tenra kingdom paid me homage, and I freely used my power; in China I assumed the beautiful form of Pao Sze the mistress beloved by the Emperor Yeo Wang, and ruined his empire. And being intent in Japan upon destroying the Imperial family, I became a Court maiden and succeeded in approaching the Emperor whose body soon languished at the touch of my wicked breath. My scheme seemed on the point of success when the court magician exorcised me with his rare power of exorcism, praying with fer