ight and natural posture, as the wounded man
seems to depend on the support of that arm entirely, while struggling in
the agonies of death. You may almost see the moisture on his manly brow,
while in the intensely expressive face you catch glimpses of that
lifetime which is passing across his memory in the space of a
moment--thoughts of the wife and little ones in that far-away home to
which he will never return. It is a fine subject, exquisitely conceived
and executed, and worthily described in Byron's two immortal stanzas.
Upstairs, in a small rotunda-shaped temple, enshrined in a niche in the
wall, we saw that most beautiful conception of womanhood, known as the
Venus of the Capitol. She appears as though suddenly disturbed while
taking her bath, and the expression of frightened innocence and maiden
shame upon the face, and the graceful shrinking attitude of the limbs,
form a picture of perfect purity and loveliness. The guide turned the
figure upon its pedestal so that we might catch the beauty of its curves
and soft outline, and though the action seemed half profane, rudely
disturbing one's semi-entranced admiration, I did not until then catch
the full beauty of "the statue that enchants the world." An almost
living memorial of the "Age of Beauty," there seems in this one radiant
figure to be enfolded the whole wealth of love and loveliness that
distinguished so richly those times when--

"Human hands first moulded, and then mocked
With moulded limbs, more lovely than its own,
The human form, till marble grew divine."

Yet one other masterpiece of ancient art we eagerly looked for was the
marble Faun of Praxiteles, around which the graceful genius of Nathaniel
Hawthorne has woven such a delicate web of romance, the figure itself
being inimitably described in the opening chapter. But this and other
immortal works are made familiar to us by so many gifted writers, that I
need but to mention their names to conjure them in all their beauty to
the eye of the intelligent reader, who instantly recalls to mind some
beautiful passage in poetry or prose, to which any words I could pen
would be superfluous. "All men are poets by nature," but "adequate
expression is rare;" and though a vivid sense of beauty and a passionate
appreciation of the grand and sublime is open to all, yet to genius
alone it is given to clothe the fleeting thought with words of haunting
music, which shall live as long as the idea that ga