What fact, if any, is behind this delightful old pagan allegory? Of course it may possibly embody a memory of summer isles of Eden really visited; or it may be no more than the play of sea — side fancy among sunset clouds, or an echo of wonder-tales older than the Odyssey. The legend, as a whole and in detail, has been exhaustively considered in a valuable work by Mr. Nutt,1 but we can get no nearer than this to the origin of its germ.