I meant that the sun shows a tendency to return to its forgotten orbit. It is quite warm here out of the wind. [_More genially._] But as to myself, I admit a great recovery in my spirits. I have given up fretting for Iris, who was certainly lost on our way here, and Pallas has been showing me a curious little jewel she brought with her, which has created in me a kind of wistful cheeriness. I do not remember to have experienced anything of the kind before. PHOEBUS. I declare I believe that you will adapt yourself as well as the rest of us to this anomalous existence. ZEUS. We shall see; and I shall have so much time now, that I may even--what I am sure ought to gratify you, Phoebus,--be able to give my attention to the fine arts. A fallen monarch can always defy adversity by forming a collection of curiosities. PHOEBUS. If you make the gem of which Pallas is so proud the nucleus of your cabinet, I feel convinced that it will give you lasting satisfaction. And we are so poor now that it can never be complete, and therefore never become tiresome. But what was it that the oracle of Nemea amused and puzzled us by saying, "To form a collection is well, yet to take a walk is better"? I will attend your Majesty to your apartments, and then wander in these extensive woods. [_Exeunt._ X [_A dell below the house, with a white poplar-tree growing alone. Under it_ HERACLES _sits, in an attitude of deep dejection, his club fallen at his feet, a horn empty at his side. To him enters_ EROS.] EROS. I have been congratulating our friends on their surpassing cheerfulness. Even Zeus is displaying a marvellous longanimity in his adverse state, and Pallas is positively frivolous. We must have disembarked, however, upon the island of Paradox, for everything goes by contraries; here I find you, Heracles, commonly so serene and uplifted, sunken in the pit of depression. You should squeeze the breath out of your melancholy, as you did out of Hera's snakes so long ago. HERACLES. That was a foolish tale. Do you not recollect that I am not as the rest of you? EROS. Come, man, brighten up! You look as sulky as you did when I broke your bow and arrows, and set Aphrodite laughing at you. But I have learned manners, and the goddesses only smile now. Cheer up! How is your destiny a whit different from ours? HERACLES. That rude old story about Alcmena, Eros--it is impossible that you can be the dupe of that? When I hunted lions on Cithaeron--that really _was_ a gentlemanlike sport, my friend--when I hunted lions I was not a god. Gods don't hunt lions, Eros; I have not gone a-hunting since that curious affair on Mount OEta. You remember it? EROS. I have preferred to forget it. HERACLES.