ss think the boy
very tiresome.

We are apt to think of the children of past centuries as altogether
different beings from those of our own day. With few toys and books
and pictures such as we have now, they must have been, we fancy, very
sedate little creatures. A child portrait like this in our
illustration dispels these false ideas. This little daughter of a
seventeenth-century sculptor is as full of life and spirits as any
child of to-day. Barring her quaint dress and foreign tongue she would
be at home with children of her own age in any period or country.

The lady's dress is in a style similar to that which we have already
studied in the portrait of our first illustration. The stiff bodice,
with the long pointed front and square neck, the broad lace-trimmed
collar, the large sleeves, and the wide cuffs turned back from the
wrist, are details common to the two pictures. This costume, however,
is somewhat less elegant than that of the English lady and more
suggestive of every-day wear in the home. The collar is less
elaborate, and not stiff; the neck is entirely covered with soft white
material, fastened at the throat with a small brooch. A seal ring
adorns each hand, worn on the index finger.

We recognize the pillar in the background as a common setting in Van
Dyck's portraits. The taste of this time was rather artificial in such
matters, and inclined to stateliness. There is here no vista beyond
the pillar, no glimpse into another apartment, but the space is, as it
were, completely walled in.

VI

DAEDALUS AND ICARUS

In the distant past which we call the age of fable lived the cunning
craftsman Daedalus of Athens. One of his most curious inventions was a
labyrinth which he constructed for Minos, the king of Crete. Having at
length displeased this king he resolved to flee from the island with
his son Icarus. It was impossible to escape by way of the sea without
detection, but Daedalus was not discouraged.

"Land and wave,
He cried, deny me way! But Heaven above
Lies open! Heaven shall bear me home!"[6]

So saying he began to fashion some wings with which he might fly away.
Feathers of different lengths were bound together with thread and wax,
and shaped into arched pinions like those of a bird. As he worked, the
boy Icarus stood by watching his father, and sometimes handling the
feathers with his meddlesome fingers.

[Footnote 6: All the quotations are from Ov