The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-28


malion. who created beautiful statue
| and felt for it a love that stirred it
| into life. Which may be only the old
| Greek way of voicing the cynical the
| ory that man loves not the woman he
takes to wife, but her whom he takes
! for the beautiful ideal of womanhood
| he has created in his own soul.
| "HERE lived once in olden times, ac-
| cording to the legends of the
L Greeks, sculptor whose name
was Pygmalion. an artist of great re-
nown and a bachelor. For Pygmalion
had seen and read so much of the short
comings Of women that he was resolved
sooner to die than to take one of them
!, to wife.
Moreover said Pygmallon, Il am
welded to my art
| Thus we see that the sculptor Pyg-
malion was in great peril, though he
knew it not; for it hath been observed
| from earliest times that those who are
most bitter in denouncing woman and
stanchest in their determination not to
wed are likely to be brought heavily
| to earth by the archery of Venus son.
| Now Pygmalion, despite his scorn of
women being an artist and a man of
vision, knew that of all created things
they are most beautiful, and he set him
self to work to fashion out of ivory and
gold a maid more lovely than any upon
earth Carefully he wrought and loving
| " carving and polishing each lovely
curve with all the skill the gods had
given him; of yellow gold he wrought
her hair, fine spun and nobly laid In a
fair plait, and when his work was fin
ished there was in all the land of Greece
no statue which compared with it for
| loveliness.
| Then many rich men came, seeking to
buy the ivory maid, and priests, too who
desired TO set up so beautiful a thing
within the temples of the gods; but Pyg-
malion would not sell itp but kept it in
his house. And every day he sat and
| gazed on that which he had made and
marveled at its wonderous beauty and
| it's noble grace. Some there were who
said they even heard Pygmalon talk
| ing to the statue when he fancied that
none stood by; and to the sculptor in his
hours of loneliness it seemed as though
the gold and ivory maiden smiled, and
he could almost fancy that. the slender,
curly tendrils of gold at the back of her
white neck were not cold metal but soft
| womans hair. But when he laid his
hand upon the statues graceful arm, 1t
was cold and hard and lifeless, and
Pygmalion would start and call himself
very fool of fools, who, had. in sooth
| escaped the snares of women only to
fall in love with an image of his own
creating
| Now, it chanced as Pygmalion was
passing along the street, and the season
was springtime, when all the newly
| waSened world, athrob with life, sings
and is glad, he overheard two little maids
! who laughed and prattled as they walked
along, and their talk was all of the say
| ings of youths, and of love, and one
said:
81 am going to the festival of Venus
at Cyprus, there to pray, for thou know
est how great is her power hat can
grant every prayer made in love-"
| And Pygmalion smiled and wondered If
perchance there was any truth in what
this child had spoken, and called him
self a doting fool, and wondered still
Then the thought of his ivory maid
rushed over him, the maid SO beautiful
and YET SO cold, and he betoolx him to
the temple of Aphrodite, the foamborn
and falling on his knees before smolS-
| ing altar, prayed. And this was the man
ner of his prayer, as Andrew Lang i'm
agined it:
| o Aphrodite, kind and fair,
| That what thou wilt canst give
| Oh, listen to a sculptor's prayer,
! And hid mine image live.
| Oh, bid her move those lips of rose
! Bid float that golden hair,
| And let her choose me, as | chose,
| This fairest of the fair
Then he flung incense on the altar, ani
tile flame shot up thrice fiery point into
the air as taken of the favor of the godl
dess, and Pygmalion went out swiftly
and hastened to his house. And When
he came into the room where the statue
stood, he looked In. rapture, for the maid
stepped down from Off her pedestal. andl
~