OR THE EHODIAN GENIUS. 255 



as he said, his eyes received the image of the boundless and 

 the infinite which his spirit ever strove in vain to apprehend. 

 He lived honoured alike by the tyrant, whose presence he 

 avoided, and by the lower classes of the people, whom he 

 met gladly, and often with friendly help. 



Exhausted with fatigue, he was reposing on his couch, 

 when the newly-arrived picture was brought to him by the 

 command of Dionysius. Care had been taken to bring, at 

 the same time, a faithful copy of the " Ehodian Genius," 

 and the philosopher desired the two paintings to be placed 

 side by side before him. After having remained for some 

 time with his eyes fixed upon them, and absorbed in thought, 

 he called his scholars together, and spoke to them in the 

 following terms, in a voice which was not without emo- 

 tion : 



" Withdraw the curtain from the window, that I may 

 enjoy once more the view of the fair earth animated with 

 living beings. During sixty years I have reflected on the 

 internal motive powers of nature, and on the differences of 

 substances : to-day for the first time the picture of the 

 Ehodian Genius leads me to see more clearly that which I 

 had before only obscurely divined. As living beings are im- 

 pelled by natural desires to salutary and fruitful union, so 

 the raw materials of inorganic nature are moved by similar 

 impulses. Even in the reign of primeval night, in the 

 darkness of chaos, elementary principles or substances 

 sought or shunned each other in obedience to indwelling 

 dispositions of amity or enmity. Thus the fire of heaven 

 follows metal, iron obeys the attraction of the loadstone, 



