This nymph was Vivien, mistress of Merlin, better known as the Lady of the Lake. Lancelot received his appellation from having been educated at the court of the enchantress. When he is eighteen he is taken to the court of Arthur to receive. the honor of knighthood. From this time on he plays a most important part in the history of this famous court. Though brave, courteous, generous, and kind-hearted, it is his sinful love for Guinevere which introduces the seeds of dissension and strife which finally develop the harvest of treason and rebellion that ends in the death of the King and the overthrow of this vast company of chivalrous men, the greatest the world has ever known.

King Arthur gave to no man so great a portion of love and confidence as he bestowed upon this brave knight. The friendship began early in the King's career when many doubted his right to the throne and even his royal birth. But in the war that ensued Lancelot stood loyally by his King. When the hard-fought battle had been won,

Arthur laughed upon his warrior whom he loved

And honored most. 'Thou dost not doubt me King,
So well thine arm hath wrought for me to-day.'
'Sir and my liege,' he cried,' the fire of God
Descends upon thee in the battlefield:

I know thee for my King!' Whereat the two,
For each had warded either in the fight,
Sware on the field of death a deathless love;
And Arthur said, 'Man's word is God in man;
Let chance what will, I trust thee to the death.""

-The Coming of Arthur, Tennyson.

It is this same friend whom Arthur sends to Cameliard for his queen, Guinevere. Here begins the fatal friendship between the two which soon develops into something stronger and deeper. But Lancelot does not yield to this fatal love without a struggle. The conflict between loyalty to his King and love for the Queen drives him into spells of temporary insanity, during which he wanders aimlessly far from Camelot. Sooner or later he always recovers his normal state of mind and returns to the court, where he again immediately finds himself the favorite of all.

Inextricably interwoven with the story of Lancelot is the sadly sweet history of Elaine, "the lily maid of Astolat.” Lancelot, going incognito to a tournament, loses his way and stops at the castle of Astolat, where he meets this fair maiden. Attracted by his gentle voice and courteous manner, she gives to him a love which he cannot return because of his guilty attachment to the Queen. Lancelot goes to the joust, accompanied by her brother Lavaine, and wins the last of the nine diamonds that had been offered as prizes in nine successive tournaments; but in so doing he is seriously wounded. Elaine, with her father's permission, nurses him back to life. When he is about to return to Arthur's court, she innocently confesses her love for him.

“Then suddenly and passionately she spoke :
'I have gone mad. I love you; let me die.'
'Ah, sister,' answered Lancelot, 'what is this?'
And innocently extending her white arm,
'Your love,' she said, 'your love,-to be your wife.
And Lancelot answered, 'Had I chosen to wed,
I had been wedded earlier, sweet Elaine;
But now there never shall be wife of mine.""

Then, in order to "break her love," at her father's suggestion he departed from the castle without bidding her farewell. Grieved at this discourtesy, the lily maid, "because of her great love," sickened; but ere she died she begged her father to clothe her, when dead, in her richest apparel, to place within her lifeless hand a letter which she had written to Lancelot, and then to have her remains taken in a boat to Camelot, no one accompanying her but an old dumb servant. All this the

weeping father granted.

"So ten slow mornings past, and on the eleventh

Her father laid the letter in her hand,

And closed the hand upon it, and she died.
But when the next sun brake from underground,
Then, her two brethren slowly with bent brows
Accompanying, the sad chariot-bier

Past like a shadow thro' the field, that shone
Full summer, to that stream whereon the barge,
Pall'd all its length in blackest samite, lay.
So those two brethren from the chariot took

And on the black decks laid her in her bed,
Set in her hand a lily, o'er her hung
The silken case with braided blazonings,
And kissed her quiet brows, saying to her,
'Sister, farewell forever.'

Slowly past the barge

Whereon the lily maid of Astolat

Lay smiling, like a star in the blackest night.
And the barge

On to the palace doorway sliding, paused.
So Arthur bade the meek Sir Percivale
And pure Sir Galahad to uplift the maid;
And reverently they bore her to the hall.
But Arthur spied the letter in her hand,
Stoopt, took, brake seal, and read it; this was all.
'Most noble Lord, Sir Lancelot of the Lake,

I, sometimes call'd the maid of Astolat,
Come, for you left me taking no farewell,
Hither, to take my last farewell of you.

I loved you and my love had no return,

And therefore my true love has been my death..
And therefore to our Lady Guinevere,

And to all other ladies I make moan.

Pray for my soul, and yield me burial.'

So toward that shrine which then in all the realm

Was richest, Arthur leading, slowly went

The marshall'd Order of their Table Round,
And Lancelot sad beyond his wont, to see

The maiden buried, not as one unknown,
Nor meanly, but with gorgeous obsequies,

And mass, and rolling music, like a queen."

Founded upon this same episode is Tennyson's beautiful ballad, The Lady of Shalott.

(Continued in October EDUCATION.)

The

Health Factor in its Social
Aspect.

W. R. BARTLETT, M.D., NORTH GUILFORD, CONN.

HE question arises in connection with the subject, Is there a virile or physical tendency present in affairs to the extent of being a visible impulse? And if there is, has it reached that point where it demands a consideration as such, or requires special measures? It cannot be assumed that the physical increment has been developed to such an extent as to be an absorbing influence, but there are abundant signs that it has become an important motive of action. Its effect, then, upon economics and ethical courses, whether applied to old standards or to the building of new ones, is well worthy of analysis, especially if the present period is as yet one of partial development only. What are the facts, then, as to the causes of this increase? Among the many should be mentioned, first, the advance in hygienic and sanitary science. In spite of the prevailing want of wisdom concerning things hygienic, it must be conceded that there has been developed a growing appreciation of the importance of the subject within the last few years. There has permeated the mass a partial acquiescence in the importance of these measures, and what is yet to be done only tends to bring out what has been done; and it must be conceded that thus far even a strong accession to our stock of physical energy and vitality has been made. The previously dormant sixth or health sense has been cultivated, and the more it is illuminated the more apparent is it that progress has been made. Athletics, physical culture, school hygiene, the demonstration of the germicidal causation of disease, and the spreading out among the public of what has hitherto been regarded as in the keeping of the physician and only to be thought of in time of actual sickness, the importance of preserving health, have brought about this uplift in things physical,

which must have its manifestation in some form of active energy. That view which ascribes many diseases to the presence of a specific bacillus, and finds the cure in the antitoxin treatment, is a valid ground for belief in the views just stated, because such treatment, first, by immunizing exposed persons, is in the line of prevention, and used after the onset of the disease is a specific cure, and greatly lessens mortality. The bacteriological treatment is in this way a direct agent of great utility in conserving the health force, and acts also by strengthening the confidence of the public in the realities of preventive medicine, which is shown in a willingness to adopt public and private means looking to the preservation of health. Every step toward the fountain head and origin of disease through this science is giving a strong and added impulse to the idea that health safety is best attained, not in the time of danger, but in the absence of it; and that it is better to fortify the health than to treat a manifestation of disease. It not only gives us the toxins but isolates and defines the special germ in the whole list of contagious diseases. Such investigation leads directly to accuracy in diagnosis and success in treatment, and is a growing aid to sanitation and preventive medicine.

The bacterial knowledge in reference to pulmonary tuberculosis, and accumulated evidence as to its infectiousness in connection with the establishment of institutions for the separation and special treatment of the disease, are important. The lessening of infant mortality through a more accurate knowledge of its cause by the same information, as well as a better method in the care and feeding in childhood life, constitute a marked contribution to the uplift. So, also, does the positive increase in the period of longevity and the greater number of those who live to a good old age. What sanitation has done in developing the health power is well shown by the graphic chart of the principal causes of death as issued by various Boards of Health, in which the ban designating common contagious diseases has undergone a constant shortening from year to year; while that denoting deaths from old age has lengthened until it has become one of the most prominent of the scheme, and has steadily mounted from the middle of the column toward