Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind Page #2

								


"Whole cities have been destroyed," he replied; "for instance,
Herculaneum and Pompeii."

"Oh, the poor people!  And you saw all that with your own eyes?"

"No; I did not see any of the eruptions which are represented in
those pictures; but I will show you a sketch of my own, which
represents an eruption I once saw."

He placed a pencil sketch on the table; and mamma, who had been
over-powered with the appearance of the colored plates, threw a glance
at the pale drawing and cried in astonishment, "What, did you see it
throw up white fire?"

For a moment, Alfred's respect for Kaela's mamma underwent a
sudden shock, and lessened considerably; but, dazzled by the light
which surrounded Kaela, he soon found it quite natural that the old
lady should have no eye for color.  After all, it was of very little
consequence; for Kaela's mamma had the best of all possessions;
namely, Kaela herself.

Alfred and Kaela were betrothed, which was a very natural
result; and the betrothal was announced in the newspaper of the little
town.  Mama purchased thirty copies of the paper, that she might cut
out the paragraph and send it to friends and acquaintances.  The
betrothed pair were very happy, and the mother was happy too.  She said
it seemed like connecting herself with Thorwalsden.

"You are a true successor of Thorwalsden," she said to Alfred; and
it seemed to him as if, in this instance, mamma had said a clever
thing.  Kaela was silent; but her eyes shone, her lips smiled, every
movement was graceful,--in fact, she was beautiful; that cannot be
repeated too often.  Alfred decided to take a bust of Kaela as well
as of her mother.  They sat to him accordingly, and saw how he
moulded and formed the soft clay with his fingers.

"I suppose it is only on our account that you perform this
common-place work yourself, instead of leaving it to your servant to
do all that sticking together."

"It is really necessary that I should mould the clay myself," he
replied.

"Ah, yes, you are always so polite," said mamma, with a smile; and
Kaela silently pressed his hand, all soiled as it was with the clay.

Then he unfolded to them both the beauties of Nature, in all her
works; he pointed out to them how, in the scale of creation, inanimate
matter was inferior to animate nature; the plant above the mineral,
the animal above the plant, and man above them all.  He strove to
show them how the beauty of the mind could be displayed in the outward
form, and that it was the sculptor's task to seize upon that beauty of
expression, and produce it in his works.  Kaela stood silent, but
nodded in approbation of what he said, while mamma-in-law made the
following confession:--

"It is difficult to follow you; but I go hobbling along after
you with my thoughts, though what you say makes my head whirl round
and round.  Still I contrive to lay hold on some of it."

Kaela's beauty had a firm hold on Alfred; it filled his soul,
and held a mastery over him.  Beauty beamed from Kaela's every feature,
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