eworks, the only other pyrotechnic
exhibition I had witnessed having been a private one in Rock Park,
which, I think, I have described. This Roman one was very different, and
I do not believe I have ever since seen another so fine. The whole front
of the Pincian was covered with fiery designs, and in the air overhead
wonderful fiery serpents and other devices skimmed, arched, wriggled,
shot aloft, and detonated. A boy accepts appearances as realities; and
these fireworks doubtless enlarged my conceptions of the possibilities
of nature, and substantiated the fables of the enchanters.

[IMAGE: THE MARBLE FAUN]

The Faun of Praxiteles, as the world knows, attracted my father, though
he could not have visited it often; for both in his notes and in his
romance he makes the same mistake as to the pose of the figure: "He has
a pipe," he says in the former, "or some such instrument of music in the
hand which rests upon the tree, and the other, I think, hangs carelessly
by his side." Of course, the left arm, the one referred to, is held
akimbo on his left hip. That my father's eyes were, however, already
awake to the literary and moral possibilities of the Faun is shown by
his further observations, which are much the same as those which appear
in the book. "The whole person," he says, "conveys the idea of an
amiable and sensual nature, easy, mirthful, apt for jollity, yet not
incapable of being touched by pathos. The Faun has no principle, nor
could comprehend it, yet is true and honest by virtue of his simplicity;
very capable, too, of affection. He might be refined through his
feelings, so that the coarser, animal part of his nature would be
thrown into the background, though liable to assert itself at any time.
Praxiteles has only expressed the animal part of the nature by one (or,
rather, two) definite signs--the two ears, which go up in a little peak,
not likely to be discovered on slight inspection, and, I suppose, they
are covered with downy fur. A tail is probably hidden under the garment.
Only a sculptor of the finest imagination, most delicate taste, and
sweetest feeling would have dreamed of representing a faun under this
guise; and, if you brood over it long enough, all the pleasantness of
sylvan life, and all the genial and happy characteristics of the brute
creation, seem to be mixed in him with humanity--trees, grass, flowers,
cattle, deer, and unsophisticated man." This passage shows how much
my father was wont