THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. AT

‘¢ No ordinance of man shall override
The settled laws of Nature and of God;
Not written these in pages of a book,
Nor were they framed to-day, nor yesterday ;
‘We know not whence they are; but this we know,
That they from all eternity have been,
And shall to all eternity endure.”’

And when asked by Creon why she had dared dis-
obey the laws, she nobly replied,—

‘ Not through fear
Of any man’s resolve was I prepared
Before the gods to bear the penalty
Of sinning against these. That I should die
I knew (how should I not?) though thy decree
Had never spoken. And before my time
If I shall die, I reckon this a gain ;
For whoso lives, as I, in many woes,
How can it be but he shall gain by death?”

At the king’s command the unhappy maiden was
taken from his presence and thrust into a sepulchre,
where she was condemned to perish in hunger and
loneliness. But Antigone was not without her ad-
vocate. She had a lover,—almost the only one in
Greek literature. Hemon, the son of Creon, to
whom her hand had been promised in marriage, and
who loved her dearly, appeared before his father
and earnestly interceded for her life. Not on the
plea of his love,—such a plea would have had no
weight with a Greek tribunal,—but on those of mercy
and justice. His plea was vain; Creon was obdu-
rate: the unhappy lover left his presence and sought
Antigone’s living tomb, where he slew himself at