Lives of Alcyone

ack for the last time upon that wonderful snowy range, and
journeyed into the warmer country of the plains below. He was
received with a popular ovation, and treated with the greatest
reverence by all. The chief abbot welcomed him with tears of joy,
and would have delivered at once into his hands the insignia of
office. Alcyone, however, preferred to arrange that though he
himself would do all the work and take all the responsibility, his old
teacher should retain the nominal position as long as he lived. The
old man lingered on for some happy years, but Alcyone practically
ruled everything, and ruled it wisely and well, so that when Aldebran
died there was really no break in the continuity of the management.
Alcyone in his old age remained as enthusiastic as ever, but
was gentler than in the days of his youth, and though he preached
constantly against the great luxury of the times, he contrived to do
so without alienating his audience, because he never attacked it
fiercely or characterised it as wickedness, as did so many other
reformers, but simply gently and persistently reminded his hearers
that all this also would pass away, and that attachment to objects
leads always to sorrow. He established and extended the influence
which his old patron Aldabran had gained for his temple, and he
made it distinctly a powerful factor for good, not only in the town, but
in the whole of this Kingdom of Panchala. The times were troubled
and there was much disturbance, but the influence of Alcyone and
his predecessor aided much to hold steady a large proportion of the
more influential of the people of the city.
Often the leader of some of the rival factions would come to
him to plead the justice of their cause and ask for his blessing upon
their warfare; but his answer was always the same—that no cause