134 SOPH EN fi AND SOPHOCLES. 



say it flutters in the breeze ? I do not condemn the anger of the 

 goddess; but I mourn the fate of her rival. 



That god declares of himself who he is ; lame, deformed, with 

 his short hair, his thick beard, he urges on the Cyclops who forge 

 the thunderbolt ; the hammers unequally lifted up fall in cadence 

 upon the anvil. What does he look at with an earnestness mixed 

 with pleasure ? They are the ingenious nets designed to enwrap 

 Venus and Mars and to expose them thus in toils to the assembled 

 gods. These nets escape the sight ; it is easier for one to touch than 

 to see them. 



Here the goddess is lying in a still more sorrowful position. A 

 hideous wild boar has just torn Adonis to pieces Adonis the plea- 

 sure of her eyes, the darling of her heart, all over bloody, disfigured, 

 with his head reclined upon her knees. She receives his last breath. 

 Her grief can neither be livelier, nor more naturally expressed. 

 Are you not sensible of it, unhappy goddess? Thou canst not die 

 with him, nor canst thou restore him to life again. 



Thus Imlacca familiarised me with the master-pieces of art. He 

 was going to explain the others to me, when, unable to withstand 

 the impulse of my curiosity, I hastily rushed into a hall before me. 

 The style of it had inspired me with those impressions which every 

 thing that is truly great is apt to make upon the mind. The rarest 

 and most finished ornaments were placed in such order that they 

 embellished each other. Four large windows opened a prospect 

 towards the four parts of the world. The ceiling of it, representing 

 the sky, was so perfectly well painted that I thought it was the azure 

 vault itself. The birds flv ; the air fluctuates; some clouds spreading 

 here and there as by chance, are enlightened by the beams of the 

 sun that precipitates his course, and is in the middle of his career. 



Four pictures fill the space between the windows. In the frame 

 of the first is written the name of Apelles ; the second has that of 

 Zeuxis, and the third is Protogenes. Whether the painter durst 

 not subscribe his own, or whether he wished to leave to the skilful 

 in his art the merit of guessing it, the fourth contained no name. I 

 surveyed it carefully. I looked at it. I pried into the mysterious 

 meaning of the emblems which are the subject of it. Motionless, 

 buried in the deepest meditation, my ideas suddenly cleared up, and 

 as suddenly became obscure again. What I thought I saw was not 

 what I really beheld. Thus a man in the full darkness of night 

 perceives from a-far a faint light that guides him for a moment ; it 

 vanishes, obscurty redoubles, and he knows no longer where he is. 



Do you know, said Imlacca to me, pulling me by the arm, do you 

 know that these pictures are not fit for youV They might endanger 

 the " indifference" that seems to be so dear to you. I will not look 

 at them, answered I, going out in a hurry. Meanwhile I had seen 

 too much of them to entertain any doubt of their being dedicated to 

 the god of love. Flames, quivers, arrows, chains, and all his other at- 

 tributes ; slaves either young or old of all characters whatever, from 

 every nation, crowned with roses, were represented looking passion- 

 ately upon young women loosely dressed who fly from them, and 

 nevertheless are willing to be seen before they hide them- 



