HERMES [_who has come up behind them, and bending forward has overheard the conversation_]. My name for it would be the indulgence of personal vanity. APHRODITE [_speaks louder, while the conversation becomes general, except that_ ZEUS _takes no part in it_]. You may call it so, if you please, but it is a source of genuine pleasure to us. PHOEBUS. Ignorance is doubtless another of these consolations--ignorance chemically modified by a few drops of the desire for knowledge.... [_Enthusiastically._] And all the chastened forms of recollection, how delightful they are, and how they add to our satisfaction here! NIKE. It would be interesting to me to understand what you mean by chastened forms of recollection. I don't think that is my experience. PALLAS. I conceive memory as a pure, unbiased emotion, an image of past life cast upon an unflawed mirror. Why do you say "chastened"? PHOEBUS. That memory which is nothing but a plain reproduction on the mirror of the mind is a tame concern, Pallas. It transfers, without modification, all that is dull, and squalid, and unessential. The only memory which is worthy of those who have tasted immortality is that which has in some degree been fortified. To recollect with enjoyment is to select certain salient facts from an experience and to be oblivious of the rest; or else it is to heighten the exciting elements of an event out of all proportion with historic fact; or it even is to place what should be in the seat of what precisely was.... But this must be done firmly, logically, with no timidity in reminiscence, so that the mind shall rest in a perfectly artistic conviction that what it recollects is all the truth and nothing but the truth. This is chastened, or, if you prefer it, civilised memory. But Zeus is about to speak. [_The Gods resume their seats in silence._ ZEUS _rises from his throne, and the Gods perceive that the mist has now almost entirely evaporated around them, and that the entire scene is luminous with morning radiance. All the Gods lean forward to gaze on_ ZEUS, _who gazes over and beyond them to the sea_.] ZEUS. The whole bay heaves in one vast wave of unbroken pearl.... And in the east something flashes ... something moves ... approaches. [_All the Gods, except_ KRONOS _and_ RHEA, _rise and follow with their gaze the extended hand of_ ZEUS. POSEIDON _steps forward to the front of the scene and shouts_.] POSEIDON. See! Three huge white ships are coming out of the east, and the waves glide away at their wake in widening glassy hues. How they speed! How they speed, without oar or sail! KRONOS. No rest, no sleep for us. Leave us here behind you, Zeus. We never have any rest. RHEA. Yes; do not drag us farther in the wearisome train of your misfortunes. ZEUS [_benignly, turning to them._] Be not afraid, Rhea and Kronos. But we must not abandon you. For the old sakes' sake we will hold together to the end.