Had the Demeter from head to foot resembled Daphne, who has so much in common with our goddess, the statue would have been harmonious, complete, and you would perhaps have been the first to acknowledge it." "By no means," Myrtilus eagerly interrupted.

"What our statues of the gods are we two know best: a wooden block, covered with gold and sheets of ivory.

But to tens of thousands the statue of the divinity must be much more.

When they raise their hearts, eyes, hands to it in prayer, they must be possessed by the idea of the deity which animated us while creating it, and with which we, as it were, permeated it.

If it shows them only a woman endowed with praiseworthy qualities--" "Then," interrupted Hermon, "the worshipper should thank the sculptor; for is it not more profitable to him to be encouraged by the statue to emulate the human virtues whose successful embodiment it shows him than to strive for the aid of the botchwork of human hands, which possesses as much or as little power as the wood, gold, and ivory that compose it?
If the worshipper does not appeal to the statue, but to the goddess, I fear it will be no less futile.