The imagination of the Greeks peopled the woods and waters with all sorts of mythical beings, among which one of the most delightful was the faun. This was a creature half human, half animal, which frolicked in the woods in spring time. In outward appearance it looked much like a human being, except that it had pointed furry ears. In nature, however, it was closely akin to the animals, and lived a free happy life, with none of the thoughts and cares which beset the soul of man.

Our statue represents a sculptor's conception of this sportive being. It is famous not only because it is a celebrated work of art, but because it takes an important place in a celebrated novel. This is the "marble faun" which gives the title to Hawthorne's book. It will be remembered that in the beginning of the story, a party of friends are visiting the museum of the Capitol in Rome, where the statue stands. Suddenly they notice the resemblance which one of their number, a young Italian named Donatello, bears to the statue. They bid him take the same attitude, and the likeness is complete. The writer describes the statue in these words: "The Faun is the marble image of a young man leaning his right arm on the trunk or stump of a tree; one hand hangs carelessly by his side; in the other he holds the fragment of a pipe, or some such sylvan instrument of music. His only garment—a lion's skin, [19] with the claws upon his shoulder—falls halfway down his back, leaving the limbs and entire front of the figure nude. The form, thus displayed, is marvellously graceful, but has a fuller and more rounded outline, more flesh, and less of heroic muscle, than the old sculptors were wont to assign to their types of masculine beauty. [20] The character of the face corresponds with the figure; it is most agreeable in outline and feature, but rounded and somewhat voluptuously developed, especially about the throat and chin; the nose is almost straight, but very slightly curves inward, thereby acquiring an indescribable charm of geniality and humor. The mouth, with its full yet delicate lips, seems so nearly to smile outright that it calls forth a responsive smile. The whole statue—unlike anything else that ever was wrought in that severe material of marble—conveys the idea of an amiable and sensual creature, easy, mirthful, apt for jollity, yet not incapable of being touched by pathos. It is impossible to gaze long at this stone image without conceiving a kindly sentiment towards it, as if its substance were warm to the touch, and imbued with actual life. It comes very close to some of our pleasantest sympathies."

After this description the writer goes on to analyze the nature of the Faun. "The being here represented," he says, "is endowed with no principle of virtue, and would be incapable of comprehending such; but he would be true and honest by dint of his simplicity. We should expect from him no sacrifice or effort for an abstract cause; there is not an atom of martyr's stuff in all that softened marble; but he has a capacity for strong and warm attachment, and might act devotedly through its impulse, and even die for it at need. It is possible, too, that the Faun might be educated through the medium of his emotions, so that the coarser animal portion of his nature might eventually be thrown into the background, though never utterly expelled."

The original statue, of which the marble of the Capitol is a copy, was the work of the sculptor Praxiteles. As Hawthorne says: "Only a sculptor of the finest imagination, the most delicate taste, the sweetest feeling, and the rarest artistic skill—in a word, a sculptor and a poet too—could have ... succeeded in imprisoning the sportive and frisky thing in marble." We are presently to see again in the head of Hermes that Praxiteles was indeed a remarkable sculptor. The Faun, however, is the more difficult subject of the two, for it was puzzling to think what expression would be proper to a being partly human, but without a soul.

It is said that Praxiteles himself considered the Faun one of his two best works. It had been impossible for his friends to get an expression of opinion from him in regard to his statues, until one day a trick was devised to betray him. He was told that his studio was on fire, when he exclaimed that his labor was all lost if the Faun and the Eros were destroyed.

The Faun originally stood in the street of the Tripods at Athens, but what has now become of it we do not know. The statue in our illustration is one of the most celebrated copies. Many travellers make a special pilgrimage to see it, and seeing it recall the words of Hawthorne, describing the spell it casts upon the spectator. "All the pleasantness of sylvan life, all the genial and happy characteristics of creatures that dwell in woods and fields, will seem to be mingled and kneaded into one substance, along with the kindred qualities in the human soul. Trees, grass, flowers, woodland streamlets, cattle, deer, and unsophisticated man—the essence of all these was compressed long ago, and still exists, within that discolored marble surface of the Faun of Praxiteles."