COMUS, the enchanter, in the wood at night, listens to the song of The Lady, and at its conclusion exclaims:

Can any mortal mixture of earth's moul
Breathe such divine, enchanting ravishment?"

Shakespeare-Adonis.

ADONIS, the young hunter loved by Venus, unmindful of the entreaties of the goddess left her side to hunt the wild boar, by which he was slain.

Venus discovers him.

The story runs that from her silver chariot of the moon. Diana beheld the shepherd boy Endymion asleep upon Mount Latmos; and enamored of his beauty, descended to press a kiss upon his lips. Night after night in her course across the heavens, the goddess paused to caress the youth; and Endymion, each time but partially awakened, was con scious of her presence only as the sweet vision of a dream.

Tennyson - Ganymede.

When Jupiter came down to earth, to seek a successor to Hebe as Cupbearer to the God he took the form of an eagle, and flying over Mount Ida, saw the Trojan Prince Ganymede whom he carried off to Olympus. Tennyson in his "Palace of Art" describes, as among the pictures decorating its walls, one of Ganymede borne aloft by the eagle

Or else flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh
Half-buried in the Eagle's down,
Sole as a flying star shot thro' the sky
Above the pillar'd town.

Joy and Memory.

The Greck Heroes.

63

Joy and Memory are idealized in the painting above the arch in the west wall. Joy is attended by a boy with a lamb; Memory sits by a sculptured marble. The composition symbolizes the dual office of poetry as giving expression to the joyousness of life and as commemorating The inscription is from Wordsworth:

The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays.

In the mosaic ceiling are names of poets: Theocritus, Pindar, Anacreon,
Sappho, Catullus, Horace, Petrarch, Ronsard, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier,
Bryant, Whitman, Poe, Browning, Shelley, Byron, Musset, Hugo, Heine.

South Curtain Corridor.

Greek Heroes.-By Walter McEwen. The paintings have for their themes ncidents in the Greek myths.

Paris.-When Juno, Minerva and Venus contended as to which was the fairest, they left the decision to Paris, a shepherd boy on Mount Ida. To influence him, Juno promised him power, Minerva martial glory, and Venus the most beautiful woman in the world. He decided in favor of Venus, and she gave him Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta. Paris accordingly repaired to the court of Menelaus, and Helen eloped with him to Troy. The Greeks besieged Troy to recover Helen.

Theseus sailed with a company of Athenian youths and maidens who were sent as a tribute to King Minos of Crete to be given over to the Minotaur, a monster half-bull and half-human, which fed on human flesh. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus, and gave him the clue of

the labyrinth, by which he was enabled to reach and slay the Minotaur. Ariadne set sail with the hero for Athens; but on the way, at the isle of Naxos, Minerva, in a dream, directed Theseus to desert her, and in obedience to the command he sailed away and left Ariadne sleeping. Prometheus having stolen fire from heaven, Jupiter created the first woman, Pandora, for the punishment of mankind, and sent her to Prometheus. He refused her, and vainly cautioned his brother Epimetheus not to accept her.

Pandora holds the fateful box, from which were to be let fly into the world all human ills, only Hope remaining to bless mankind.

Hercules having killed a man was condemned to serve Omphale, the Queen of Lydia, as a slave. Appareled in feminine dress, the hero was put to spinning and other woman's tasks.

Achilles was disguised by his mother as a school girl and sent to a distant court in order that he might not be enlisted in the Trojan War. The wily Ulysses set out to find him, and assuming the character of a peddler displayed his wares. The girls chose feminine trinkets, but Achilles was at tracted to a man's shield and casque, and thus revealed himself.

Bellerophon, commissioned to slay the Chimæra, a monster with lion's head, goat's body and dragon's tail, receives from Minerva the golden bridle of the winged horse Pegasus, by whose aid he is to accomplish the task. Perseus was sent by King Polydectes to slay the Gorgon, Medusa, a creature of aspect so terrible that whoever looked upon her face was turned to stone. By the aid of Minerva, Perseus beheaded the Gorgon, and returned to the court of Polydectes, as that monarch was celebrating with a banquet a forced marriage with Danaë, the mother of Perseus. The hero came just in time to rescue his mother by confronting the King and his company with the Gorgon's head and so turning them into stone.

Jason was the leader of the expedition of the Argonauts, who went in quest of the Golden Fleece. This was the fleece of a ram, which was preserved by the King of Colchis, and guarded by a dragon. By the aid of the sorceress Medea, Jason was successful and brought the Fleece back to Athens. Orpheus, having failed to bring back his wife Eurydice from the realms of Pluto, retired to Mount Athos. Here his solitude was invaded by the Thracian women celebrating their Bacchic rites; and when he repelled their advances, in their fury they stoned him to death.

Representatives' Reading Room.

Mosaic Mantels.-By Frederick Dielman. The mantels of Italian marble are the richest and most beautiful adornments of the building.

Law, a woman of radiant countenance and wearing the ægis, is enthroned upon a dais. At her feet are doves of peace, the bound volume of the statutes, and the scales of justice. She holds a palm branch toward Truth with her lilies, Peace with twig of olive, and Industry with artisan's cap and hammer; and interposes a sword against skulking Fraud, Discord with malign serpents, and Violence with sword and torch.

History. In the center stands the Muse of History with recording pen and gold-clasped volume. In the panels are names of great historians: Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Livy, Tacitus, Bæda, Comines, Humes, Gibbon, Niebuhr, Guizot, Ranke, Bancroft, Motley. On the left side sits Mythology with recording stylus and globe symbolic of the myths of the worlds. Beside her are a winged Sphinx and Pandora's box. On the right is the venerable figure of Tradition, and by her with a lyre sits a youthful poet, who will sing the story that she tells. In the distance back of Myth

ology, rise the Pyramids of Egypt, back of History the Parthenon of Greece and beyond Tradition the Colosseum of Rome.

The oak tympanums over the doors are by C. H. Niehaus with motive of Minerva's owl and the American eagle.

Pictorial Spectrum of Light.-Carl Gutherz has painted in ceiling pane's idealizations of the seven primary colors: Indigo, the Light of Science Blue, the Light of Truth. Green, the Light of Research. Yellow, the Light of Creation. Orange, the Light of Progress. Red, the Light of Poetry. Violet, the Light of State.

Senate Reading Room-The Senate Reading Room ceiling is decorated with a gold ground on which are floating female figures. Above the mantel is carved the shield of the Union surmounted by the American Eagle. (By Adams.)