The old Heathen cults had completely vanished from the Greek capital long before her death.  With it died the splendor and the power of the second city in the world; and of all the glories of the city of Serapis nothing now remains but a mighty column—­[Known as Pompey’s Pillar.]—­towering to the skies, the last surviving fragment of the beautiful temple of the sovereign-god whose fall marked so momentous an epoch in the life of the human race.  But, like this pillar, outward Beauty—­the sense of form that characterized the heathen mind—­has survived through the ages.  We can gaze up at the one and the other, and wherever the living Truth—­the Spirit of Christianity—­has informed and penetrated that form of Beauty, the highest hopes of old Eusebius have been realized.  Their union is solemnized in Christian Art.

     ETEXT editor’s bookmarks for the entire Serapis: 

     Christian hypocrites who pretend to hate life and love death
     Christianity had ceased to be the creed of the poor
     Great happiness, and mingled therefor with bitter sorrow
     He may talk about the soul—­what he is after is the girl
     He spoke with pompous exaggeration
     It is not by enthusiasm but by tactics that we defeat a foe
     Love means suffering—­those who love drag a chain with them
     People who have nothing to do always lack time
     Perish all those who do not think as we do
     Pretended to see nothing in the old woman’s taunts
     Rapture and anguish—­who can lay down the border line
     Reason is a feeble weapon in contending with a woman
     To her it was not a belief but a certainty
     Trifling incident gains importance when undue emphasis is laid
     Very hard to imagine nothingness
     Whether man were the best or the worst of created beings
     Words that sounded kindly, but with a cold, unloving heart