The Hall (1-2)

Alexander longed to bathe in the Cydnus on seeing that the stream was fair and clear, safely deep, agreeably swift, delightful to swim in and cool in the height of summer; even with foreknowledge of the fever which he contracted from it, I do not think he would have abstained from his plunge. Then can it be that on seeing a hall beyond compare in the greatness of its size, the splendour of its beauty, the brilliance of its illumination, the lustre of its gilding and the gaiety of its pictures, a man would not long to compose speeches in it, if this were his business, to seek repute and win glory in it, to fill it with his voice and, as far as lay in him, to become part and parcel of its beauty? Or after looking it over carefully and admiring it, would he rather go away and leave it mute and voiceless, without according it a word of greeting or a particle of intercourse, as if he were dumb or else out of illwill had resolved to hold his tongue?

Heracles! such conduct would not be that of a connoisseur or a lover of beauty; it would be very vulgar, tasteless, even Philistine to despise what is sweetest, to reject what is fairest, and not to comprehend that in all that appeals to the eye, the same law does not hold for ordinary and for educated men. No, for the former it is enough to do the usual thing—just to see, to look about, to cast their eyes everywhere, to crane