THE NEWLY BORN.  How jolly!  What is a sculptor?

ACIS.  Listen here, young one.  You must find out things for yourself, and not ask questions.  For the first day or two you must keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut.  Children should be seen and not heard.

THE NEWLY BORN.  Who are you calling a child?  I am fully a quarter of an hour old [She sits down on the curved bench near Strephon with her maturest air].

VOICES IN THE TEMPLE [all expressing protest, disappointment, disgust] Oh!  Oh!  Scandalous.  Shameful.  Disgraceful.  What filth!  Is this a joke?  Why, theyre ancients!  Ss-s-s-sss!  Are you mad, Arjillax?  This is an outrage.  An insult.  Yah! etc. etc. etc. [The malcontents appear on the steps, grumbling].

ACIS.  Hullo:  whats the matter? [He goes to the steps of the temple].

The two sculptors issue from the temple.  One has a beard two feet long:  the other is beardless.  Between them comes a handsome nymph with marked features, dark hair richly waved, and authoritative bearing.

THE AUTHORITATIVE NYMPH [swooping down to the centre of the glade with the sculptors, between Acis and the Newly Born] Do not try to browbeat me, Arjillax, merely because you are clever with your hands.  Can you play the flute?

ARJILLAX [the bearded sculptor on her right] No, Ecrasia:  I cannot.  What has that to do with it? [He is half derisive, half impatient, wholly resolved not to take her seriously in spite of her beauty and imposing tone].

ECRASIA.  Well, have you ever hesitated to criticize our best flute players, and to declare whether their music is good or bad?  Pray have I not the same right to criticize your busts, though I cannot make images anymore than you can play?

ARJILLAX.  Any fool can play the flute, or play anything else, if he practises enough; but sculpture is a creative art, not a mere business of whistling into a pipe.  The sculptor must have something of the god in him.  From his hand comes a form which reflects a spirit.  He does not make it to please you, nor even to please himself, but because he must.  You must take what he gives you, or leave it if you are not worthy of it.

ECRASIA [scornfully] Not worthy of it!  Ho!  May I not leave it because it is not worthy of me?

ARJILLAX.  Of you!  Hold your silly tongue, you conceited humbug.  What do you know about it?

ECRASIA.  I know what every person of culture knows:  that the business of the artist is to create beauty.  Until today your works have been full of beauty; and I have been the first to point that out.

ARJILLAX.  Thank you for nothing.  People have eyes, havnt they, to see what is as plain as the sun in the heavens without your pointing it out?

ECRASIA.  You were very glad to have it pointed out.  You did not call me a conceited humbug then.  You stifled me with caresses.  You modelled me as the genius of art presiding over the infancy of your master here [indicating the other sculptor], Martellus.