felt the divine, in which the desire after the
unearthly had awakened, was torn by the vulture, to which revenge had
given birth, and which now fed upon the vitals of the presumptuous one.
He who has attempted the heavenly, feels earthly pain for ever."

The painter stood absorbed in his own reflections.

"Berthold," I exclaimed, "what has all this to do with your art? I do
not think that any one can deem it presumption to present the human
form, either by painting or sculpture."

"Um, ha," laughed Berthold, in wild derision; "child's play is no
presumption. It is all child's play with those folks, who comfortably
dip their pencils into colour-pots, and daub a canvass with the
veritable desire of producing human beings; but it always turns out as
if some drudge of nature had undertaken to make men, as it stands in
that tragedy, and had failed. Such as those are no presumptuous
sinners, but poor innocent fools. But if one strives to attain the
highest, not the mere sensual, like Titian--no, the highest in divine
nature, the Promethean spark in man--that is a precipice--a narrow edge
on which we stand--the abyss is open! The bold sailor soars above him,
and a devilish deceit lets him perceive _that_ below, which he wished
to see above the stars." The painter uttered a deep sigh, passed his
hand over his forehead, and then looked upwards. "But why do I talk
all this mad stuff to you, comrade, and leave off painting? Look here,
mate, this is what I call well and honestly drawn. How noble is the
rule! All the lines combine to a determined end--a determined, clearly
conceived effect. Only that which is done by measure is purely
human;--what is beyond, is of evil. Can we not conceive that the Deity
has expressly created us, to manage for his own good purpose that which
is exhibited according to measured, appreciable rules;--in a word, the
purely commeasurable, just as we, in our turn build saw-mills and
spinning-machines, as the mechanical superintendents of our wants?
Professor Walter lately maintained, that certain beasts were merely
created to be eaten by others, and that this in the end, conduced to
our own utility. Thus, for example, cats, he said, had an innate
propensity to devour mice, that they might not nibble the sugar placed
ready for our breakfast. And the professor was right in the
end;--animals, and we ourselves are but well-ordered machines, made to
work up and knead certain materials for the t