andria," said Thyone.

"And they have grown marvellously, as if creative Nature had doubled her
powers in their behalf," Hermon added eagerly. "But man has also wrought
amazing miracles here. Industrious hands reared an actual mountain. A
winding path leads to the top, and when you stand upon the summit and
look northward you at first feel like the sailor who steps on shore and
hears the people speak a language which is new to him. It seems like a
jumble of meaningless sounds until he learns, not only to understand the
words, but also to distinguish the sentences. Temples and palaces,
statues and columns appear everywhere in motley confusion. Each one, if
you separate it from the whole and give it a careful examination, is
worthy of inspection, nay, of admiration. Here are light, graceful
creations of Hellenic, yonder heavy, sombre ones of Egyptian art, and in
the background the exquisite azure of the eternal sea, which the
marvellous structure of the heptastadium unites to the land; while on the
island of Pharos the lighthouse of Sostratus towers aloft almost to the
sky, and with a flood of light points out the way to mariners who
approach the great harbour at night. Countless vessels are also at anchor
in the Eunostus. The riches of the whole earth flow into both havens. And
the life and movement there and in the inland harbour on Lake Mareotis,
where the Nile boats land! From early until late, what a busy throng,
what an abundance of wares--and how many of the most valuable goods are
made in our own city! for whatever useful, fine, and costly articles
industrial art produces are manufactured here. The roof has not yet been
put on many a factory in which busy workers are already making beautiful
things. Here the weaver's shuttle flies, yonder gold is spun around
slender threads of sheep guts, elsewhere costly materials are embroidered
by women's nimble fingers with the prepared gold thread. There glass is
blown, or weapons and iron utensils are forged. Finely polished knives
split the pith of the papyrus, and long rows of workmen and workwomen gum
the strips together. No hand, no head is permitted to rest. In the Museum
the brains of the great thinkers and investigators are toiling. Here,
too, reality asserts its rights. The time for chimeras and wretched
polemics is over. Now it is observing, fathoming, turning to account,
nothing more!"

"Gently, my young friend," Proclus interrupted the artist. "I know that
you, t