THE VITAL FORCE; 



OR, 



THE EHODIAN GENIUS. 



THE Syracusans, like the Athenians, had their Poecile, in which 

 representations of gods and heroes, the works of Grecian and 

 Italian art, adorned the halls, glowing with varied colors. The 

 people resorted thither continually ; the young warriors to contem- 

 plate the exploits of their ancestors, the artists to study the works 

 of the great masters. Among the numerous paintings which the 

 active zeal of the Syracusans had collected from the mother coun- 

 try, there was one which, for a century past, had particularly at- 

 tracted the attention of spectators. Sometimes the Olympian Jove, 

 Cecrops, the founder of cities, and the heroic courage of Harmodius 

 and Aristogiton, would want admirers, while men pressed in crowd- 

 ed ranks around the picture of which we speak. Whence this pre- 

 ference ? Was it a rescued work of Apelles, or of the school of 

 Gallimachus ? No; it possessed, indeed, grace and beauty; but yet 

 neither in the blending of the colors, nor in the character and 

 style of the entire picture, could it "be compared with many other 

 paintings in the Poecile. 



The multitude (comprehending therein many classes of society) 

 often regard with astonishment and admiration what they do not 

 comprehend : this picture had occupied its place for a hundred 

 years ; but though Syracuse contained within the narrow liniifeen- 

 closed by its walls more of the genius of art than the clwBdte $ the 

 remainder of sea-surrounded Sicily, no one had .yelndiyined/tihe: hid- 

 den meaning of the design. It was even uncertain; to &haM*em'ple 

 the painting had originally belonged, for it fhacbfljeeii rescuei^&om 



