eam, and he stood amazed
in the midst of a scene surpassing all that he had ever conceived
of loveliness. From the terrace, where under a vine trellis he was
standing, he could perceive others above him rising on the mountain
side, while some beneath descended towards the sea, which, blue as a
turquoise, lay basking and glittering below. A stray white sail or so
was to be seen, but there was barely wind to shake the olive leaves, and
waft the odors of the orange and the oleander. It was yet too early for
the hum of insect life, and the tricklings of the tiny fountains that
sprinkled the flower-beds were the only sounds in the stillness. It was
in color, outline, effect, and shadow, a scene such as only Italy can
present, and Massy drank in all its influences with an eager delight.

"Were I a rich man," said he, "I would buy this paradise. What in all
the splendor of man's invention can compare with the gorgeous glory
of this flowery carpet? What frescoed ceiling could vie with these
wide-leaved palms, interlaced with these twining acacias, glimpses of
the blue sky breaking through? And for a mirror, there lies Nature's
own,--the great blue ocean! What a life were it, to linger days and
hours here, amid such objects of beauty, having one's thoughts ever
upwards, and making in imagination a world of which these should be the
types. The faintest fancies that could float across the mind in such an
existence would be pleasures more real, more tangible, than ever were
felt in the tamer life of the actual world."

Loitering along, he at length came upon the little temple which served
as a studio, on entering which, he found his own statue enshrined in the
place of honor. Whether it was the frame of mind in which he chanced to
be, or that place and light had some share in the result, for the first
time the figure struck him as good, and he stood long gazing at his own
work with the calm eye of a critic. At length, detecting, as he deemed,
some defects in design, he drew nigh, and began to correct them.
There are moments in which the mind attains the highest and clearest
perception,--seasons in which, whatever the nature of the mental
operation, the faculties address themselves readily to the task, and
labor becomes less a toil than an actual pleasure. This was such. Massy
worked on for hours; his conceptions grew rapidly under his hand into
bold realities, and he saw that he was succeeding. It was not alone that
he had imparte