GERMAN SCHOOLS OF ENGRAVING. 337 



here, think you ? Are not the leaves and fruits of earth in the 

 Sun's hand ? * 



You thought, perhaps, when I spoke just now of the action 

 of the right hand, that less than a depression of the wrist 

 would stop horses such as those. You fancy Botticelli drew 

 them so, because he had never seen a horse ; or because, able 

 to draw fingers, he could not draw hoofs ! How fine it would 

 be to have, instead, a prancing four-in-hand, in the style of 

 Piccadilly on the Derby-day, or at least horses like the real 

 Greek horses of the Parthenon ! 



Yes ; and if they had had real ground to trot on, the Flor- 

 entine would have shown you he knew how they should trot. 

 But these have to make their way up the hillside of other 

 lands. Look to the example in your standard series, Hermes 

 Eriophoros. You will find his motion among clouds repre- 

 sented precisely in this labouring, failing, half-kneeling atti- 

 tude of limb. These forms, toiling up through the rippled 

 sands of heaven, are not horses ; they are clouds themselves, 

 like horses, but only a little like. Look how their hoofs lose 

 themselves, buried in the ripples of cloud ; it makes one think 

 of the quicksands of Morecambe Bay. 



And their tails what extraordinary tufts of tails, ending in 

 points ! Yes ; but do you not see, nearly joining with them, 

 what is not a horse tail at all ; but a flame of fire, kindled at 

 Apollo's knee ? All the rest of the radiance about him shoots 

 from him. But this is rendered up to him. As the fruits of 

 the earth are in one of his hands, its fire is in the other. And 

 all the warmth, as well as all the light of it, are his. 



We had a little natural philosophy, gentlemen, as well as 

 theology, in Florence, once upon a time. 



161. Natural philosophy, and also natural art, for in this 

 the Greek reanimate was a nobler creature than the Greek 

 who had died. His art had a wider force and warmer glow. 

 I have told you that the first Greeks were distinguished from 

 the barbarians by their simple humanity ; the second Greeks 

 these Florentine Greeks reanimate are human more strong- 



"" It may be asked, why not corn also ? Because that belongs to Ceres, 

 who is equally one of the great gods. 



