SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY IN ART 363 



In the Eternal City built on Seven Hills there is a piazza 

 from which three streets lead into different districts of the 

 city. This great piazza, with its open gate and plashing foun- 

 tain, is the expression of the reality forced upon us by scien- 

 tific thought, and the wearied pedestrian, who cannot rest here, 

 must decide which of the three streets he will follow. Who can 

 say by what accident his steps may be turned to the way which 

 Renoir has depicted, or to the flower-strewn path of Sisley, 

 or to the embrace of dogma? Each one of these three vias 

 leads across Rome, and at a life's close, when standing on the 

 walls of that city, and the hour for the fatal plunge into the 

 moat has come, who can say, but the soul alone, if the choice 

 has been well? 



