Studies perfect nature and are perfected by experience.
_Bacon._
Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good.
_Wordsworth._
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself.
_Love’s Labor’s Lost._
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
_Pope._
The universal cause
Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.
_Pope._
Vain, very vain, [the] weary search to find
That bliss which only centres in the mind.
_Goldsmith._
Creation’s heir, the world, the world is mine!
_Goldsmith._
The fault ... is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
_Shakespeare (Julius Cæsar)._
The semicircular borders at either end are practically the same in
color and design as in the North Corridor. At the east end, the
Eastern is substituted for the Western Hemisphere, and at the west
end, a caduceus and a lictor’s axe for the United States Seal. The
accompanying inscriptions are as follows:
Man raises but time weighs.
_Modern Greek Proverb._
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.
_Bulwer Lytton._
The noblest motive is the public good.
_Virgil._
=The Decoration of the Walls.=--The decoration of the vaults of the
four corridors is distinctly Renaissance in character; the walls
beneath, however, are colored and decorated in accordance with a
Pompeiian motive. It may seem at first thought illogical thus to
join two styles so remote from each other in point of time, but it
must be remembered that, in both art and literature, the Renaissance
was literally, as has been pointed out, the _new birth_ of Greek
and Roman forms, in the course of which the Italian painters adapted
to their use and subdued to their style the sort of wall decoration
which we know as Pompeiian, from the discovery of so many examples
of it in the excavations at Pompeii. The two styles, as used in
conjunction in the Library of Congress, not only in these corridors
but throughout the building, are perfectly harmonious in color and
design; from the explanation just given the visitor will see that
they have long ago been brought into a historical unity as well,
through the conventions established by the great and authoritative
school of the Renaissance artists.
[Illustration: AGLAIA.--BY F. W. BENSON.]
=Mr. Maynard’s Pompeiian Panels.=--The frequent occurrence of
windows, doors, and pilasters cuts the wall into narrow spaces,
which, at the north and south, are colored a plain olive, and at
the east and west the familiar rich Pompeiian red, ornamented with
simple arabesques and, at the ends, with female figures representing
_The Virtues_, by Mr. George Willoughby Maynard. There are eight of
these figures in all, two in each corner of the hall. Each figure is
about five and a half feet high, clad in floating classic drapery,
and represented to the spectator as appearing before him in the air,
without a support or background other than the deep red of the wall.
The style of the paintings is Pompeiian; the general tone is somewhat
like that of marble, although touched with color so as to remove any
comparison with the marble framing.
Beginning at the left in each case, the names and order of the
Virtues are as follows: At the northeast corner, _Fortitude_ and
_Justice_; at the southeast corner, _Patriotism_ and _Courage_; at
the southwest corner, _Temperance_ and _Prudence_; at the northwest
corner, _Industry_ and _Concord_. The number of virtues to be
represented was determined beforehand, of course, by the number of
spaces at the disposal of the painter. The selection, therefore, was
necessarily somewhat arbitrary.
Each figure is shown with certain characteristic attributes. In the
case of _Industry_, _Courage_, and _Patriotism_, Mr. Maynard has
himself selected these attributes; in the other five figures he has
followed the usual conventions.
[Illustration: SPRING.--BY F. W. BENSON.]
_Fortitude_ is shown fully armed--the mace in her right hand and the
buckler on her arm, and protected by cuirass, casque, and greaves.
She is thus represented as ready for any emergency--living in
continual expectation of danger, and constantly prepared to meet
it. _Justice_ holds the globe in her right hand, signifying the
extent of her sway. She holds a naked sword upright, signifying the
terribleness of her punishment. _Patriotism_ is feeding an eagle, the
emblem of America, from a golden bowl--an action which symbolizes
the high nourishment with which the Virtue sustains the spirit of
the country. _Courage_ is represented as armed hastily with the
buckler, casque, and sword--not, like _Fortitude_, continually on
guard, but snatching up her arms in the presence of an unforeseen
danger. _Temperance_--figured as the classic rather than the modern
virtue--holds an antique pitcher in her right hand, from which a
stream of some liquor, whether wine or water, descends into the bowl
she holds in her left. Her buoyancy and air of health betoken her
moderation of living. _Prudence_ looks in a hand-glass to discover
any danger which may assail her from behind. In her right hand she
holds a serpent--the emblem of wisdom. _Industry_ draws the flax from
a distaff, the end of which is stuck in her girdle, and twists it
into thread, to be wound upon the spindle which hangs at her side.
_Concord_--the Roman goddess Concordia--illustrates the blessings of
peace. In her right hand she bears an olive-branch, and in her left
she carries a cornucopia filled with wheat.
=The Inscriptions along the Walls.=--Before taking leave of the
corridors of the Entrance Hall, one more feature of the decoration
requires notice, namely the twenty-nine inscriptions occupying the
gilt tablets below the stucco frames which surround the circular
windows and the wall-paintings of Mr. Benson and Mr. Reid. They are
as follows:--
Too low they build who build beneath the stars.
_Young._
There is but one temple in the Universe and that is the Body of
Man.
_Novalis._
Beholding the bright countenance of Truth in the quiet and still
air of delightful studies.
_Milton._
The true university of these days is a collection of books.
_Carlyle._
Nature is the art of God.
_Sir Thomas Browne._
There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of
mankind.
_Lowell._
It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigor is in our
immortal soul.
_Ovid._
They are never alone that are accompanied by noble thoughts.
_Sidney._
Man is one world and has
Another to attend him.
_Herbert._
Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
_As You Like It._
The true Shekinah is man.
_Chrysostom._
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.
_Shirley._
Art is long, and Time is fleeting.
_Longfellow._
The history of the world is the biography of great men.
_Carlyle._
Books will speak plain when counsellors blanch.
_Bacon._
Glory is acquired by virtue but preserved by letters.
_Petrarch._
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
_Dionysius._
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
_Dr. Johnson._
There is only one good, namely knowledge, and one only evil,
namely ignorance.
_Diogenes Laertius._
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
_Tennyson._
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with
all thy getting get understanding.
_Proverbs iv, 7._
Ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.
_2 Henry IV._
How charming is divine Philosophy!
_Milton._
Books must follow sciences and not sciences books.
_Bacon._
In books lies the Soul of the whole past time.
_Carlyle._
Words are also actions and actions are a kind of words.
_Emerson._
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing
an exact man.
_Bacon._
Science is organized knowledge.
_Herbert Spencer._
Beauty is truth, truth beauty.
_Keats._