Page:The Great Secret.djvu/163

Rh Pillared porticoes and sculptured facades in different marbles, with panels between, where rare works of art in fresco painting and low relief charmed the eyes with their exquisite harmony of colour and chastity of design. The painters and the sculptors must have had patronage enough in those early days when this marvellous outcome of man's minds was first conceived and brought to completion.

The valley at this point was over three miles in width, and from the upper gateway to the bay was nearly six miles, while the nearest mountain tops rose above three thousand feet, yet all this wide space was occupied by buildings, terraces, gardens, wide stairs, broad streets, sculptured masterpieces and columns. The air also was so pure and clear, that from the position where they stood they could look over the entire city and see the sapphire-tinted waters of the bay, now sparkling in myriad golden shafts to the distant horizon, with the purple headlands and grottoes that studded the ocean.

"You still believe in ships," said Philip, pointing to where the masts and sails of fairy-like craft rocked within the harbour bar.

"Yes; these are our pleasure-boats, as we had them long ago," replied Hesperia, with a satisfied smile, as she saw the wonder depicted on the faces of her visitors.

"We can still enjoy what was once a pleasure to us."

"You eat and drink the same as of yore?"

"Yes; why not?"

"I have always considered dining to be a purely mundane affair, requiring digestive organs, which are the signs of a condition of decay."

"Food on earth is digested and given back again to the element of reconstruction. It becomes disintegrated with us and returns to its original form. The pleasures