In fine, I have made a figure
more admirable and significant than is the run of men, and I rest upon
my laurels."
"You have created a living being somewhat above the average, that is
true: but then every woman who has a fine baby does just as much--"
"The principle is not the same," said Manuel, with dignity.
"And why not, please, big boy?"
"For one thing, my image was an original and unaided production, whereas
a baby, I am told, is the result of more or less hasty collaboration.
Then, too a baby is largely chance work, in that its nature cannot be
exactly foreplanned and pre-determined by its makers, who, in the glow
of artistic creation, must, I imagine, very often fail to follow the
best aesthetic canons."
"As for that, nobody who makes new and unexampled things can make them
exactly to the maker's will. Even your image limped, you remember--"
"Ah, but so gracefully!"
"--No, Manuel, it is only those necromancers who evoke the dead, and bid
the dead return to the warm flesh, that can be certain as to the results
of their sorcery. For these alone of magic-workers know in advance what
they are making.
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