Access Online - The European Library

158 ARIADNE.She sat downby the zacchus of the statue, onthe great lion's head, that bore, with threeothers like it, the burden of the oval jasperbasin.She waslost in thought. Idid not speak toher. The early light of morning streamedthrough the length of the gaUery. Her face hadthe pained bewilderment of one who, after longunconsciousness and exhaustion, recovers littlebylittle the memories and the forces of life.Here,if "— " anywhere in the divine city of theVatican for in truth a city and divine it is,and well hasit been called so — here,if anywhere,will wake the soul of the artist;here, where thevery pavement bears the story of Odyssus, andeach passage-wayis a Via Sacra, and everystoneis old with years whose tale is told by hundredsor by thousands, and the wounded Adonis canbe adored beside the tempted Christ of Sistine,and the seriousbeauty of theErythean Sybil,livesbeside the laughing grace of ivy-crowned Thalia,and the Jupiter Maximus frowns on the mortalsmade of earth's dust, and the Jehovah who hascalled forth womanmeets the first smile of Eve.