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THE ROMAN EMPERORS IN MARBLE. 47
the misdeed lurks the chastisement." But if the punish-
ment grow out of the crime, forth from the punishment
shoots the expiation ; and we are right, to feel sorrow
over the powers that went down, in the abyss of that
soul. He is one of the mightiest figures in the gloomy
style, that history knows ; and he yet awaits the master
hand able to draw him. That hand cannot cleanse him
entirely. Stahr’s attempt to do so is a warning.
It happened to Michael Angelo that after he had
begun to fashion in marble one of his giant thoughts, he
found a flaw in the grain of the stone. So he threw
down the chisel and left the work unfinished—stamped
with the seal of greatness, and yet condemned. Before
Tiberius, a Gnostic might be seized by the thought that
Demiurgos, in the workshop of the .^ons, had destined
this being for a vessel of honor ; but because of an irre-
mediable flaw in the grain of his soul, had thrown down
the chisel, and given him up to disgrace.
In his clumsy nephew, Claudius, treated as a- fool and
half idiot at home, Tiberius had discovered a good heart.
Surprised by this discovery, he intended to make him
his successor ; but gave up the idea, perhaps because he
did not wish that goodness should in history, too, wear
a foors cap.
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