E. P. P. got into a little maze trying to introduce Margaret and R. W. E. to each other,—a consummation which, however devoutly to be wished, will never happen!
James Clarke told her that she was just where Paul was when he said, “What then? Shall I sin, that Grace may the more abound?”
Emerson said the woodlands could tell us most about Diana, about whom we contrived to say very little. The omission of orgies in her worship was dwelt upon. Her pure and sacred character with the Athenians was compared to that of the Diana of Ephesus, whose orgies were not unusual, and who was considered as a bountiful mother rather than as a virgin huntress.
Ida Russell said that her Mythology accused Diana of being the mother of fifty sons and fifty daughters!
Margaret laughed, and said that certainly was Diana of Ephesus!
The maddening influence of moonlight was commented upon, as if it were a fable; but William Story said it was a fact. In tropical regions very sad consequences resulted from long gazing on the moonlight or sleeping in it. In one town he had known sixteen persons bewildered in this way.
William White said that in a late book of Nichols it was contended that the moon had some light of her own, because she shows a brazen color even under eclipse, when the dark side of the earth is toward her. But why may she not gather stellar light from the whole universe, as the earth seems to?
Sallie Gardiner said something to William Story in a low voice. He laughed, and said he had been thinking of the consequences of his theory.
Margaret asked what he was talking about.