PRINCE RICCARDO. 217

 

wand with twisted serpents, and he became
luminous, light raying out from him; and the
dark lady, too, shone like silver in the night:
and on they flew, over black rocks and black
rivers, till they reached a huge mountain, like
a mountain of coal, many thousand feet high,
for its head was lost in the blackness of dark--
ness. The dark Moon- Lady struck the rock
with her ebony wand, and said, ‘“ Open!” and
the cliffs opened like a door, and they were
within the mountain.

“Here,” said the dark lady, “is the store-
house of all the Stupidity; hence it descends
in showers like stardust on the earth whenever
this mountain, which is a volcano, is in erup-
tion. Only a little of the Stupidity reaches
the earth, and that only in invisible dust; yet
you know how weighty it is, even in that
form.”

“Indeed, madam,” said the king, ‘‘no one
knows it better than I do.”

“Then make your choice of the best sort of
Stupidity for your purpose,” said the dark lady.

And in the light which flowed from their
bodies King Prigio looked round at the various
kinds of Solid Stupidity. There it all lay in
masses—the Stupidity of bad sermons, of
ignorant reviewers, of bad poems, of bad
speeches, of dreary novels, of foolish states-
men, of ignorant mobs, of fine ladies, of idle,
naughty boys and girls; and the king examined

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