“Wherefore this wonderful butterfly, Aurelius?” said somebody falteringly.

“I know not”—­was the sculptor’s answer.

But it was necessary to tell the truth, and one of his friends who loved him best said firmly: 

“This is ugly, my poor friend.  It must be destroyed.  Give me the hammer.”

And with two strokes he broke the monstrous man into pieces, leaving only the infinitely delicate butterfly untouched.

From that time on Aurelius created nothing.  With profound indifference he looked at marble and bronze, and on his former divine works, where everlasting beauty rested.  With the purpose of arousing his former fervent passion for work and, awakening his deadened soul, his friends took him to see other artists’ beautiful works,—­but he remained indifferent as before, and the smile did not warm up his tightened lips.  And only after listening to lengthy talks about beauty, he would retort wearily and indolently: 

“But all this is a lie.”

And by the day, when the sun was shining, he went into his magnificent, skilfully built garden and having found a place without shadow, he exposed his bare head to the glare and heat.  Red and white butterflies fluttered around; from the crooked lips of a drunken satyr, water streamed down with a splash into a marble cistern, but he sat motionless and silent,—­like a pallid reflection of him who, in the far-off distance, at the very gates of the stony desert, sat under the fiery sun.

V

And now it came to pass that the great, deified Augustus himself summoned Lazarus.  The imperial messengers dressed him gorgeously, in solemn nuptial clothes, as if Time had legalized them, and he was to remain until his very death the bridegroom of an unknown bride.  It was as though an old, rotting coffin had been gilt and furnished with new, gay tassels.  And men, all in trim and bright attire, rode after him, as if in bridal procession indeed, and those foremost trumpeted loudly, bidding people to clear the way for the emperor’s messengers.  But Lazarus’ way was deserted:  his native land cursed the hateful name of him who had miraculously risen from the dead, and people scattered at the very news of his appalling approach.  The solitary voice of the brass trumpets sounded in the motionless air, and the wilderness alone responded with its languid echo.

Then Lazarus went by sea.  And his was the most magnificently arrayed and the most mournful ship that ever mirrored itself in the azure waves of the Mediterranean Sea.  Many were the travelers aboard, but like a tomb was the ship, all silence and stillness, and the despairing water sobbed at the steep, proudly curved prow.  All alone sat Lazarus exposing his head to the blaze of the sun, silently listening to the murmur and splash of the wavelets, and afar seamen and messengers were sitting, a vague group of weary shadows.  Had the thunder burst and the wind attacked