Now, it has been my inspiration to introduce it into statuary. For this
purpose I have invented a peculiar plastic compound which you will permit
me not to divulge. That's my secret, signore! It's as light, you
perceive, as cork, and yet as firm as alabaster! I frankly confess that
I really pride myself as much on this little stroke of chemical ingenuity
as upon the other element of novelty in my creations--my types. What do
you say to my types, signore? The idea is bold; does it strike you as
happy? Cats and monkeys--monkeys and cats--all human life is there!
Human life, of course, I mean, viewed with the eye of the satirist! To
combine sculpture and satire, signore, has been my unprecedented
ambition. I flatter myself that I have not egregiously failed."
As this jaunty Juvenal of the chimney-piece delivered himself of his
persuasive allocution, he took up his little groups successively from the
table, held them aloft, turned them about, rapped them with his knuckles,
and gazed at them lovingly, with his head on one side. They consisted
each of a cat and a monkey, fantastically draped, in some preposterously
sentimental conjunction.
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