ome heaven-aspiring mountain, and
then rolled, a strange intruder, into the fertile plain of mediocrity,
where no one knows what to do with it. Let us go nearer. These outline
fanatics scorn to produce an effect at a distance."

"I have taken for my subject," explained the artist, "a poem of
Hoelderlin's--you undoubtedly all know it--Hyperion's song of fate--or,
if it has escaped your recollection--I have brought the text with me."

Upon this he drew from his pocket a very dog'seared little book and
read the verses, although he knew them by heart. As he proceeded his
cheeks flushed, his eyes sparkled, and his whole meagre figure appeared
to grow in height; and when he finished there was silence for a while
in the group that was examining the drawing.

The artist still seemed to have an explanation to make, but he did not
utter it: as if, after such words of genius, any prosaic paraphrase
would be a desecration. And, indeed, the singular composition now
sufficiently explained itself.

A mountain, whose base covered the whole lower breadth of the large
sheet, rose up in jagged tiers like a tower, and ended in a smooth
plateau, on which were seen reclining, veiled in a light cloud, the
figures of gods assembled about a banquet table, while others, with
winged feet, either strolled about singly or arm-in-arm, or amused
themselves with dance and song. All seemed a dreamy, floating whirl of
forms, heightened here and there by abrupt foreshortenings of the long
limbs and by angular effects of drapery. Among these Olympian figures,
but separated by an impassable barrier of cloud and storm, could be
seen the races of mankind, in the most various and spirited groups,
suffering all the woes of mortals. Nearest the gods, and hallowed as it
were by their proximity, children were playing and lovers were
whispering; but the paths that branched off soon led to scenes of
suffering and misery, and certain symbolical figures, which were
scattered in among the human forms at the principal passes of the
mountain, made manifest the intention of the designer to represent both
the effects and power of vice and passion, while the division into
seven stages pointed to the seven deadly sins. A solemn, unbending
earnestness, and a certain loftiness in their submission to this
downfall--

"Through long years into the uncertain depths below"--

gave to this somewhat unwieldy composition a great depth of feeling
which animated even what w