The Eumenes 



seem to have learnt from some physiologist 

 who allows nothing to escape him; but these 

 skilful slayers have no merit as builders of 

 dwelling-houses. What is their home, in 

 point of fact? An underground passage, 

 with a cell at the end of it; a gallery, an ex- 

 cavation, a shapeless cave. It is miner's 

 work, navvy's work : vigorous sometimes, ar- 

 tistic never. They use the pick for loosen- 

 ing, the crowbar for shifting, the rake for 

 extracting the materials, but never the trowel 

 for laying. Now in the Eumenes we see real 

 masons, who build their houses bit by bit with 

 stone and mortar and run them up in the 

 open, either on firm rock or on the shaky sup- 

 port of a bough. Hunting alternates with 

 architecture; the insect is a Nimrod or a Vi- 

 truvius * by turns. 



And, first of all, what sites do these build- 

 ers select for their homes? Should you pass 

 some little garden-wall, facing south, in a 

 sun-scorched corner, look at the stones which 

 are not covered with plaster, look at them 

 one by one, especially the largest; examine 

 the masses of boulders, at no great height 

 from the ground, where the fierce rays have 

 heated them to the temperature of a Turkish 



1 Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, the Roman architect and en- 

 gineer. — Translator's Note. 

 3 



