sunlight, and when the recovered
artist came out of the house he raised his hands in mute prayer, gushing
from the inmost depths of his heart.

The King was to return to Alexandria in a few days, and at the same
time Philippus and Thyone were going back to Pelusium. Hermon wished to
accompany them there and sail thence on a ship bound for Pergamus.

With Eumedes he visited the unfamiliar scenes around him, and his newly
restored gift of sight presented to him here many things that formerly
he would scarcely have noticed, but which now filled him with grateful
joy. Gratitude, intense gratitude, had taken possession of his whole
being. This feeling mastered him completely and seemed to be fostered
and strengthened by every breath, every heart throb, every glance into
his own soul and the future.

Besides, many beauties, nay, even many marvels, presented themselves to
his restored eyes. The whole wealth of the magic of beauty, intellect,
and pleasure in life, characteristic of the Greek nature, appeared
to have followed King Ptolemy and Queen Arsinoe-Philadelphus hither.
Gardens had been created on the arid, sandy soil, whose gray and yellow
surface extended in every direction, the water on the shore of the canal
which united Pithom with the Nile not sufficing to render it possible
to make even a narrow strip of arable land. Fresh water flowed from
beautiful fountains adorned with rich carvings, and the pure fluid
filled large porphyry and marble basins. Statues, single and in groups,
stood forth in harmonious arrangement against green masses of leafage,
and Grecian temples, halls, and even a theatre, rapidly constructed in
the noblest forms from light material, invited the people to devotion,
to the enjoyment of the most exquisite music, and to witness the perfect
performance of many a tragedy and comedy.

Statues surrounded the hurriedly erected palaestra where the Ephebi
every morning practised their nude, anointed bodies in racing,
wrestling, and throwing the discus. What a delight it was to Hermon to
feast his eyes upon these spectacles! What a stimulus to the artist, so
long absorbed in his own thoughts, who had so recently returned from
the wilderness to the world of active life, when he was permitted, in
Erasistratus's tent, to listen to the great scholars who had accompanied
the King to the desert! Only the regret that Daphne was not present to
share his pleasure clouded Hermon's enjoyment, when Eumedes relate