d his successors in the house of the Ptolemies, but some,
and by no means the least stately, were the work of Gorgias himself or
of his father. The artist's heart swelled with enthusiastic delight at
the sight of this portion of his native city.

He had been in Rome, and visited many other places numbered among the
world's fairest and most populous cities; but not one contained so many
superb works of art crowded together in so small a space.

"If one of the immortals themselves," he murmured, "should strive to
erect for the inhabitants of Olympus a quarter meet for their grandeur
and beauty, it could scarcely be much more superb or better fitted to
satisfy the artistic needs which we possess as their gift, and it would
surely be placed on the shore of such a sea."

While speaking, he shaded his keen eyes with his hand. The architect,
who usually devoted his whole attention to the single object that
claimed his notice, now permitted himself the pleasure of enjoying the
entire picture in whose finishing touches he had himself borne a part;
and, as his practised eye perceived in every temple and colonnade the
studied and finished harmony of form, and the admirable grouping of
the various buildings and statues, he said to himself, with a sigh of
satisfaction, that his own art was the noblest and building the highest
of royal pleasures. No doubt this belief was shared by the princes who,
three centuries before, had endeavoured to obtain an environment
for their palaces which should correspond with their vast power and
overflowing wealth, and at the same time give tangible expression to
their reverence for the gods and their delight in art and beauty. No
royal race in the universe could boast of a more magnificent abode.
These thoughts passed through Gorgias's mind as the deep azure hue of
sea and sky blended with the sunlight to bring into the strongest relief
all that the skill and brains of man, aided by exhaustless resources,
had here created.

Waiting, usually a hard task for the busy architect, became a pleasure
in this spot; for the rays streaming lavishly in all directions from the
diadem of the sovereign sun flooded with dazzling radiance the thousands
of white marble statues on the temples and colonnades, and were
reflected from the surfaces of the polished granite of the obelisks and
the equally smooth walls of the white, yellow, and green marble, the
syenite, and the brown, speckled porphyry of sanctuaries and