Excursions in Art and Letters

Transcriber’s Note: Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
Books by Mr. Story.
POEMS. I. Parchments and Portraits. II. Monologues and Lyrics. 2 vols. 16mo, $2.50. HE AND SHE; or, A Poet’s Portfolio. 18mo, illuminated vellum, $1.00. FIAMMETTA. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. ROBA DI ROMA. New Revised Edition, from new plates. With Notes. 2 vols. 16mo, $2.50. CONVERSATIONS IN A STUDIO. 2 vols. 16mo, $2.50. EXCURSIONS IN ART AND LETTERS. 16mo, $1.25.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. Boston and New York.
WILLIAM WETMORE STORY
D.C.L. (OXON.) COMM. CORONA ITALIA, OFF. LEG. D’HONNEUR, ETC.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1893
Copyright, 1891, By WILLIAM WETMORE STORY. All rights reserved.
THIRD EDITION.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.

The overthrow of the pagan religion was the deathblow of pagan Art. The temples shook to their foundations, the statues of the gods shuddered, a shadow darkened across the pictured and sculptured world, when through the ancient realm was heard the wail, “Pan, great Pan is dead.” The nymphs fled to their caves affrighted. Dryads, Oreads, and Naiads abandoned the groves, mountains, and streams that they for ages had haunted. Their voices were heard no more singing by shadowy brooks, their faces peered no longer through the sighing woods; and of all the mighty train of greater and lesser divinities and deified heroes to whom Greece and Rome had bent the knee and offered sacrifice, Orpheus alone lingered in the guise of the Good Shepherd.