The Marble Faun Volume 1 - Page 4/130

The animal nature, indeed, is a most essential part of the Faun's

composition; for the characteristics of the brute creation meet and

combine with those of humanity in this strange yet true and natural

conception of antique poetry and art. Praxiteles has subtly diffused

throughout his work that mute mystery, which so hopelessly perplexes us

whenever we attempt to gain an intellectual or sympathetic knowledge of

the lower orders of creation. The riddle is indicated, however, only by

two definite signs: these are the two ears of the Faun, which are leaf

shaped, terminating in little peaks, like those of some species of

animals. Though not so seen in the marble, they are probably to be

considered as clothed in fine, downy fur. In the coarser representations

of this class of mythological creatures, there is another token of brute

kindred,--a certain caudal appendage; which, if the Faun of Praxiteles

must be supposed to possess it at all, is hidden by the lion's skin that

forms his garment. The pointed and furry ears, therefore, are the sole

indications of his wild, forest nature.

Only a sculptor of the finest imagination, the most delicate taste, the

sweetest feeling, and the rarest artistic skill--in a word, a sculptor

and a poet too--could have first dreamed of a Faun in this guise, and

then have succeeded in imprisoning the sportive and frisky thing in

marble. Neither man nor animal, and yet no monster, but a being in whom

both races meet on friendly ground. The idea grows coarse as we handle

it, and hardens in our grasp. But, if the spectator broods long over

the statue, he will be conscious of its spell; all the pleasantness of

sylvan life, all the genial and happy characteristics of creatures that

dwell in woods and fields, will seem to be mingled and kneaded into one

substance, along with the kindred qualities in the human soul. Trees,

grass, flowers, woodland streamlets, cattle, deer, and unsophisticated

man. The essence of all these was compressed long ago, and still exists,

within that discolored marble surface of the Faun of Praxiteles.

And, after all, the idea may have been no dream, but rather a poet's

reminiscence of a period when man's affinity with nature was more

strict, and his fellowship with every living thing more intimate and

dear.