court of their royal parents, but with the affurance that she was the happiest of women, and wedded to a husband, young, beautiful, finely accomplished, and ardently attached to her.

Burning with envy at her happy lot, these ungrateful fisters foon began to plot the ruin of the generous and unfufpecting Psyche. They took an opportunity of repeating their vifit; and, infidiously inquiring into particulars concerning that husband, on whose charms fhe had fo rapturously defcanted, learned from her anfwers the fatal fecret of his visiting her only during the night-season, and that she was a ftranger to the fight, though not to the embrace, of her beloved confort. Having obtained this clue, thefe harpies in a female form retired to plan their diabolical project of plunging in inexpreffible mifery an amiable and affectionate fifter; who, however, was again kindly cautioned by her hufband not to listen to their artful and base infinuations to his prejudice. At their next interview, therefore, they alarmed her with dreadful apprehenfions relating to the almoftforgotten oracle of Apollo, which had deftined her to the arms of a monster, malignant and venomous as a viper; and they perfuaded

her, that, under the affumed appearance of a young man, in the bloom of life, she was actually married to a monftrous ferpent, who, when fatiated with her charms, would not fail to inflict upon her unheard-of cruelties, and finally put her to a miserable death. Struck with horror at this intimation, unable to account for her husband's continued reluctance to discover himself, and, at the fame time, comparing the oracle with the nocturnal vifit and clandeftine embrace, Pfyche confeffed herself overcome by the force of their representation, and earnestly implored their advice towards extricating herfelf from the danger of impending deftruction. The counsel given by her fifters was, that she should fecretly convey a lighted lamp and a razor into fome obfcure recess of the chamber in which they flept; that, when the monfters eyes were fealed in flumber, fhe fhould with the former take the prohibited survey of his person, and with the latter fever his head from his body. By this refolute act alone could fhe avoid ne miferable end to which fhe was, otherwife, inevitably devoted. The terrified Pfyche promised compliance, and the princeffe's were again wafted back by the obedient zephyr. Pfyche determined faithfully to execute their perni

cious

cious counfels, concealed in her chamber the lamp which was to reveal and the razor which was to immolate her fleeping husband. The inftant his eyes were clofed, fhe stole foftly from his fide, and feizing, with impatience, the concealed lamp, hurried to the bed-fide to gratify herself with a furvey fo long and rigidly denied, and dispatch at once her intended murderer. She elevates the lamp, and, by its light, discovers no formidable monster, no envenomed ferpent, but the lovely, the enchanting, Cupid, the god of young defires, confpicuous by the vermilion that glowed on his cheeck and lips, by the purple hue of his waving wings, and by the exquifite beauty of his yellow treffes. The rafhnefs and cruelty of the bloody act she was about to perpetrate overwhelmed her with horror, and filled her bofam with remorfe and anguish inexpreffible. She gazed upon him again and again with renewed delight, and fhe would have plunged in her own throat the fatal weapon, but, in the midst of her perturbation, it had fallen out of her languid grafp. At the foot of the bed lay the bow and arrows of the juvenile god. She admired the elegance of the workmanship, and, trying the point of one of the arrows, the unfortunately wounded her Uuu 3 finger.

finger. That wound, however, was trivial compared with the greater one which now rankled in her heart, and fhe continued fixing her enraptured eyes upon the fleeping god. As fhe advanced nearer him, by fatal mifchance, a drop of burning oil, from the lamp which fhe held in her hand, fell upon the right fhoulder of Cupid, who, being awaked by the anguish of the wound, immediately fpread his wings for flight. In vain did Pfyche attempt to arreft that flight by entreaty, by tears, and by forcibly grafping his feet. The frowning deity, fpringing up into the air, raised her up with him a little way, and then let her fall to the ground. Alighting upon

a cyprefs-tree that grew near, from its funereal boughs, the emblem of his deceased affection, he bitterly upbraided her for her curiofity and want of confidence in his counfels: he then fled away and entirely difappeared.

The anguish, which, upon this event, feized the mind of Pfyche, it is impoffible to defcribe. No gentle voices, from invifible attendants, now foothed her extreme affliction; no mufic, from immortal harps, warbled fweet fymphonies in her ear. All was hufhed, all was filent, as death and midnight. On a fudden, while fhe ftood wringing her

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hands in frantic grief, a thunder-storm, bursting on the palace, fhivered it to atoms; and the garden of delights was converted into a blasted and barren heath, through which an impetuous river rolled. Into that river she inftantly plunged, in the fond hope of burying herself and all her miseries in the friendly wave. But the final period of thofe miferies was not yet arrived; and the river, out of respect to the wife of Cupid, immediately threw her back upon the banks. Presently after the fees the god Pan, and folicits his advice. Pan condoles with her, but acquaints her there is no hope for her unless she can make her peace with Cupid. In pursuit of the injured deity fhe continues for a long time wandering about the earth; and, in the courfe of her peregrination, the meets with one of those fifters, whose perfidious counsel was the caufe of her ruin, and upon whom, therefore, fhe was determined to be revenged. She recites to her the ftory of her melancholy adventures; informs her that Cupid had repudiated her as a punishment for her curiofity; and, moreover, had threatened, as a more fignal infliction of his vengeance upon herfelf, to marry one of her fifters. Inflamed with hope that the might be the intended Uuu 4 bride,