picture by Rubens, "The Judgment of
Paris." The three goddesses--induitur formosa est; exuitur ipsa forma
est --have taken literally the compliment paid to a certain beautiful
customer by a renowned French dressmaker: "Un rien et madame est
habillee!" They are coquettishly revealing their claims to the
Eve-bitten fruit which Paris holds in his hand. Paris and his friend are
in the most nonchalant of attitudes. They could not be more
indifferent, or more superior in appearance, were they dandies judging
the class for costermonger's donkeys at a provincial horse-show. The
three most beautiful women in the world are squirming and posturing
for praise, and a decision, before two as sophisticated and self-satisfied
men as one will ever see on canvas or off it.

The same subject is treated by a man of the same breed, but of a later
day, named Feuerbach, and his picture hangs, I think, in Breslau. Here
again the supersuperiority of the male is portrayed.

In the Church of Saint Sebaldus at Nuremberg, there is a delightful
mural painting which makes one merry even to recall it. The subject is
the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are being lectured by an elderly man
in flowing robes with a long white beard. His beard alone would more
than supply Adam and Eve with the covering they lack. In an easy
attitude, with neither haste nor anxiety, he is pointing out to them
the error of their ways. He is as detached in manner as though he were
Professor Wundt, lecturing to us at Leipsic on the fourth dimension of
space. Adam is somewhat dejected and reclines upon the ground. Eve,
unabashed, with nothing on but the apple which she is munching, is
evidently in a reckless mood. She looks like a child of fifteen, with
her hair down her back; the defiance of her attitude is that of a
naughty little girl. The world-old problem is under discussion, but
with an air of good humor and cheerfulness on the part of the
lecturer, as though there were still time in the world, as though
hurry were an undiscovered human attribute, as though possibly the
world would still go on even if the problem were left unsolved, and
this first leafy parliament adjourned sine die.

They were so much wiser than are we! They knew then that there would
be other sessions of congress, and that it was not necessary to decide
everything on that spring day of the year One. But here again in this
picture it is the male attitude toward the woman that is of chief
interest. Adam i