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


 

their necks at the ceiling, to gesticulate and to take
their joy in silence for fear of not being able to say
anything adequate to what they see. But when a
man’ of culture beholds beautiful things, he will not
be content, I am sure, to harvest their charm. with
his eyes alone, and will not endure to be a silent
spectator of their beauty; he will do all he can to
linger there and make some return for the spectacle
in speech.

 

And such a return does not consist
simply in praising the hall. No doubt it was fitting -
for Homer's island boy
 Telemachus (Odyss. 4, 71): he compares the house of
Menelaus to the palaces of the gods. 
to be astounded at the house
of Menelaus and to compare its ivory and gold to the
beautiful things in heaven because he had never seen
anything else on earth that was beautiful. But to
speak here, to collect an audience of cultured men
and show one’s eloquence is also a form of praise.
It is very delightful, I think, that the fairest of
halls should be flung open for the harbourage of
speech and should be full of praise and laudation;
re-echoing softly like a cavern, following what is
said, drawing out the concluding sounds of the voice
and lingering on the last words ; or, to put it better,
committing to memory all that one says, like an
appreciative hearer, and applauding the speaker and
gracefully repeating his phrases. In some such way
the rocks pipe in answer to the piping of the shepherds when the sound comes back again by repercussion and returns upon itself. The untaught think
it is a maid who answers all who sing and shout,



 

abiding somewhere in the heart of the cliffs and
talking from the inside of the crags.

 

To me, at least, it seems that a splendid hall
excites the speaker's fancy and stirs it to speech, as
if he were somehow prompted by what he sees.
No doubt something of beauty flows through the
eyes into the soul, and then fashions into the likeness of itself the words that it sends out. In the
case of Achilles, the sight of his armour enhanced
his anger at the Trojans, and when he put it on to
try it, he was inspired and transported with the lust
of battle. Iliad, 19, 16; 384. 
Then are we to believe that the passion
for speech is not enhanced by beautiful surroundings? Socrates was satisfied with a fine plane-tree
and lush grass and a spring of clear water.not far from
the Ilissus: sitting there, he plied his irony at the
expense of Phaedrus of Myrrhinus, criticised the
speech of Lysias, son of Cephalus, and invoked
the Muses, believing that they would come to a
sequestered spot and take part in the debate on
love, and thinking no shame, old as he was, to invite
maids to join him in amorous ditties.

 Herod. 7, 27. 
May we not
suppose that they would come to a place as beautiful
as this, even without an invitation ?

 
In truth, our shelter is not to be compared with
mere shade or with the beauty of a plane-tree, not
even if you pass over the one on the Ilissus and
mention the Great King’s golden plane. Plato, Phaedrus, 229 seq. That was
wonderful only on account of its cost ; there was no





 

craftsmanship or beauty or charm or symmetry or
grace wrought into the gold or combined with it.
The thing was barbarous, nothing but money, a
source of envy to those who saw it, and of felicitation to those who owned it. There was nothing
praiseworthy about it. The Arsacids Anachronism ; the possessors of the tree were the Achaemenid princes. 
neither cared
for beauty nor aimed at attractiveness in making
their display nor minded whether the spectators
praised or not,as long as they were astounded.