. Besides,
careful scrutiny has just destroyed the last gleam of satisfaction with
my own work. But if you like the head, what seem to you the greatest
defects in the figure?"

"It has nothing to do with defects, which, with your rare ability, can
scarcely exist," replied the other, the faint pink flush in his beardless
cheeks deepening to a more vivid hue. "It refers rather to the expression
which you have given the divinity in yonder statue." Here Myrtilus
hesitated, and, turning so that he stood face to face with Hermon, asked
frankly, "Did you ever seek the goddess and, when you found her, did you
feel any supernatural power and beauty?"

"What a question!" exclaimed Hermon in astonishment. "A pupil of Straton,
and go in search of beings and powers whose existence he denies! What my
mother instilled into my heart I lost with my childhood, and you address
your question only to the artist who holds his own ground, not to the
boy. The power that calls creation to life, and maintains it, has for me
long had nothing in common with those beings like mortals whom the
multitude designates by the name of divinities."

"I think differently," replied Myrtilus. "While I numbered myself among
the Epicureans, whose doctrine still possesses the greatest charm for me,
I nevertheless shared the master's opinion that it is insulting the gods
to suppose that they will disturb their blissful repose for the sake of
us insignificant mortals. Now my mind and my experience rebel against
holding to this view, yet I believe with Epicurus, and with you, that the
eternal laws of Nature bow to neither divine nor human will."

"And yet," said Hermon, "you expect me to trouble myself about those who
are as powerless as myself!"

"I only wished that you might do so," answered Myrtilus; "for they are
not powerless to those who from the first assumed that they can do
nothing in opposition to those changeless laws. The state, too, rules
according to them, and the wise king who refrains from interfering with
them in the smallest trifle can therefore wield the sceptre with mighty
power. So, in my opinion, it is perfectly allowable to expect aid from
the gods. But we will let that pass. A healthy man, full of exuberant
vigour like yourself, rarely learns early what they can bestow in
suffering and misfortune; yet where the great majority believe in them,
he, too, will be unable to help forming some idea of them; nay, even you
and I have experienced