ability,
can scarcely exist," replied the other, the faint pink flush in his
beardless cheeks deepening to a more vivid hue. "It refers rather to
the expression which you have given the divinity in yonder statue."
Here Myrtilus hesitated, and, turning so that he stood face to face
with Hermon, asked frankly, "Did you ever seek the goddess and, when you
found her, did you feel any supernatural power and beauty?"

"What a question!" exclaimed Hermon in astonishment. "A pupil of
Straton, and go in search of beings and powers whose existence he
denies! What my mother instilled into my heart I lost with my childhood,
and you address your question only to the artist who holds his own
ground, not to the boy. The power that calls creation to life, and
maintains it, has for me long had nothing in common with those beings
like mortals whom the multitude designates by the name of divinities."

"I think differently," replied Myrtilus. "While I numbered myself among
the Epicureans, whose doctrine still possesses the greatest charm for
me, I nevertheless shared the master's opinion that it is insulting the
gods to suppose that they will disturb their blissful repose for the
sake of us insignificant mortals. Now my mind and my experience rebel
against holding to this view, yet I believe with Epicurus, and with you,
that the eternal laws of Nature bow to neither divine nor human will."

"And yet," said Hermon, "you expect me to trouble myself about those who
are as powerless as myself!"

"I only wished that you might do so," answered Myrtilus; "for they
are not powerless to those who from the first assumed that they can do
nothing in opposition to those changeless laws. The state, too, rules
according to them, and the wise king who refrains from interfering with
them in the smallest trifle can therefore wield the sceptre with mighty
power. So, in my opinion, it is perfectly allowable to expect aid from
the gods. But we will let that pass. A healthy man, full of exuberant
vigour like yourself, rarely learns early what they can bestow in
suffering and misfortune; yet where the great majority believe in them,
he, too, will be unable to help forming some idea of them; nay, even you
and I have experienced it. By a thousand phenomena they force themselves
into the world which surrounds us and our emotional life. Epicurus, who
denied their power, saw in them at least immortal beings who possess
in stainless perfection everything which in m