Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/292

 ¬converse with one another, be far more ra- tional and delightful ?" " Not at all," answered Cathmor, " your understanding is overshadowed by the prejudices of your own country ; it is in fashionable assemblies as in war — The close column does all the execution. — Your favourite lawn is too extensive and distinct. — Nothing pleases when it is fully seen and understood." Here he added a sentence in some other lan- guage, the meaning of which I found after- wards to be, Omne ignotum pro magnifico ha- betur — " There must be light and shade, my friend, in every picture." — " Certainly, " I re- " plied, but here all is shade, and not even a glimmering of light." — " Not so," said he, in- terrupting. me, " did you not tell me but a mo- ment ago, that every now and then you could see the head of one horse and sometimes of another, and parts of carriages, as the dust swept magnificently along, some entire and some broken ? What, in the name of Heaven, would you have more? Would you see all at once ? Perhaps then you would wish the women ¬to ¬