DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0107
QO THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
catures; but could he think any less of them than
would Pericles himself? I have never forgotten
Wagner's look of disgust when I told him, just be-
fore the first grand representation of his trilogy at
Bayreuth, that some one was going about Germany
circumventing his copyright by playing the music
on a piano. Athens could not copyright the Parthe-
non ; and so the rustic imitations we have made of
it have been much like Wagner's wonderful orches-
tration reduced to a piano, or an oratorio played on
a flute. Yet one must not forget that this multiplica-
tion of Grecian temples on American soil was born
of the enthusiasm which the revival of knowledge of
the Parthenon spread in Europe, and which crossed
the ocean and caused the Doric column to impinge
on the primeval forest. It is hard to see how the
conceptions of one who comes with such impressions
as these or with any impressions derived from pic-
tures or models of the Parthenon can help being
heightened when he sees the original, unless he
comes with a too luxurious imagination; and in that
case I am bold enough to think his imagination is
more likely to be at fault than that embodied in a
temple which Pericles and Phidias and Ictinus and
Callicrates thought worthy of the gods.
Many visitors to Niagara have confessed their
disappointment at the first sight of the great cata-
ract; and Mr. Mahaffy has admitted that even the
Parthenon could not stand the weight of expectation
he had formed in regard to it, though his disappoint-
ment subsequently gave way to sober and enduring
admiration. Too much importance, however, may
be ascribed to first impressions. Few brains can
catures; but could he think any less of them than
would Pericles himself? I have never forgotten
Wagner's look of disgust when I told him, just be-
fore the first grand representation of his trilogy at
Bayreuth, that some one was going about Germany
circumventing his copyright by playing the music
on a piano. Athens could not copyright the Parthe-
non ; and so the rustic imitations we have made of
it have been much like Wagner's wonderful orches-
tration reduced to a piano, or an oratorio played on
a flute. Yet one must not forget that this multiplica-
tion of Grecian temples on American soil was born
of the enthusiasm which the revival of knowledge of
the Parthenon spread in Europe, and which crossed
the ocean and caused the Doric column to impinge
on the primeval forest. It is hard to see how the
conceptions of one who comes with such impressions
as these or with any impressions derived from pic-
tures or models of the Parthenon can help being
heightened when he sees the original, unless he
comes with a too luxurious imagination; and in that
case I am bold enough to think his imagination is
more likely to be at fault than that embodied in a
temple which Pericles and Phidias and Ictinus and
Callicrates thought worthy of the gods.
Many visitors to Niagara have confessed their
disappointment at the first sight of the great cata-
ract; and Mr. Mahaffy has admitted that even the
Parthenon could not stand the weight of expectation
he had formed in regard to it, though his disappoint-
ment subsequently gave way to sober and enduring
admiration. Too much importance, however, may
be ascribed to first impressions. Few brains can