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unable to solve the riddle, Dionysius sent the pictures to 

 the Pythagorean sage, Epicharmus. After gazing upon 

 them long and earnestly, he said : Sixty years long have 

 I pondered on the internal springs of nature, and on 

 the differences inherent in matter \ but it is only this 

 day that the Rhodian Genius has taught me to see 

 clearly that which before I had only conjectured. In 

 inanimate nature, everything seeks its like. Everything, 

 as soon as formed, hastens to enter into new combina- 

 tions, and nought save the disjoining art of man can 

 present in a separate state ingredients which ye would 

 vainly seek in the interior of the earth or in the moving 

 oceans of air and water. Different, however, is the 

 blending of the same substances in animal and vegetable 

 bodies. Here vital force imperatively asserts its rights, 

 and heedless of the affinity and antagonism of the atoms, 

 unites substances which in inanimate nature ever flee 

 from each other, and separates that which is incessantly 

 striving to unite. Recognize, therefore, in the Rhodian 

 Genius, in the expression of his youthful vigor, in the 

 butterfly on his shoulder, in the commanding glance of 

 his eye, the symbol of vital force as it animates every 

 germ of organic creation. The earthly elements at his 

 feet are striving to gratify their own desires and to 

 mingle with one another. Imperiously the Genius 

 threatens them with upraised and high-flaming torch, 

 and compels them regardless of their ancient rights, to 

 obey his laws. Look now on the new work of art ; 

 turn from life to death. The butterfly has soared up- 

 ward, the extinguished torch is reversed, and the head 

 of the youth is drooping ; the spirit has fled to other 

 spheres, and the vital force is extinct. Now the youths 



