sation of the Greek, joined to the Roman's honest and enlightened views and to the courage and inflexible firmness of purpose which unhappily for the world both the Greek and Roman wanted, appeared upon earth to disenthral and revive and humanize the oppressed and brutalized tribes of men. If there was one thing more than another remarkable about the eloquence of Pym, it was its boldness. He was of all others the man to impeach a great public delinquent. On many occasions it became his part to do so, and well and nobly did he perform that part.

But if, in the many and rare qualities required in an orator, the title of the English Worthies to rank with the great men of antiquity may be questioned; in some of those which are demanded in a statesman, they will yield to none. So far was Pym above that meanness of narrow minds which sacrifices their country's good to the interests of relatives or personal friends, that, to use the language of his contemporaries," he knew neither brother, kinsman, nor friend, superior nor inferior, when they stood in the way to hinder his pursuit of the public good." It was a saying of his, "Such-a-one is my entire friend, to whom I am much obliged, but I must not pay my private debts out of the public stock." To such a degree, and with such sincerity did he act upon this principle, that when his friends frequently put him in mind of his children, and pressed upon his consideration, that although he regarded not himself, yet he ought to provide that it might be well with them; his usual answer was, "If it were well with the public, his family was well enough."‡

Perhaps it is by comparing Pym with the men of our own day that we shall be enabled best to appreciate the variety and rarity of the many great and useful qualities he possessed. Take a view of the present Members of that House of which Pym was so bright an ornament. In none will be found that union of qualities which appeared in him. In one, perhaps, may be discovered his eloquence, in another his indefatigable industry, joined to his knowledge of and aptitude for business, in a third his undaunted courage, in a fourth his inflexible integrity. But where in the same individual shall you find all these united?

*Stephen Marshall. Sermon preached before the Parliament at the Funeral of Mr. Pym, 4to, 1644. p. 28.

+Ibid.

"All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians, who have no place among us; a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what is gross and material; and who, therefore, far from being qualified to be directors of the great movement of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine." ― Burke. Speech on Conciliation with America.

[From the "Journal des Savants, Mai, 1833."]

[We have seen no more striking account of any of the discoveries made at Pompeii, than what is contained in the following article. The author is an eminent French archeologist, Raoul-Rochette It is professedly upon a very remarkable mosaic lately discovered. But the description of the tasteful and luxurious dwelling of which it was an ornament, of the beauty of its halls and gardens, and of the sudden desolation which fell upon its inhabitants, suggests to the mind thoughts and images more vivid and touching than the beautiful work of art of which we have here an account. - EDD.]

ART. III.1. Quadro in Musaico scoperto in Pompei, etc., descritto dal Cav. ANT. NICCOLINI, Direttore del R. Instit. delle Belle Arti. Napoli, 1832, in-4to, dalla Stamperia reale, con x tavole in rame.

[Description of the Picture in Mosaic, discovered at Pompeii, &c., by the Chev. ANT. NICCOLINI, Director of the Royal Institute of the Fine Arts. Naples, 1832, 4to, from the Royal Press, with 10 copper-plate engravings.]

2. Gran Musaico di Pompei, descritto da C. Bonucci, Architetto dei Reali Scavi di Pompei, etc. Napoli, 1832, in-fol., con figura litografica colorita.

[Description of the large Mosaic, found at Pompeii, by C. BoNUCCI, Architect attached to the Royal Excavations at Pompeii, &c. Naples, 1832, folio, with a colored lithographic design.]

THE large mosaic, found in one of the houses in Pompeii, a a little more than a year since, has excited such lively interest among the learned of Europe, that we consider it a duty to our readers, to make them acquainted, as early as possible, with this precious monument of art, as described in the only two publications upon the subject, which have yet appeared at Naples, and which are just beginning to be known beyond the Alps. The first of these two Memoirs, that of the Chevalier Niccolini, beside a minute description of the mosaic, considered principally in reference to its composition and merits as a picture, contains an article by M. Avellino, which appeared first in a Neapolitan Journal, and a somewhat longer notice by M. Quaranta, also published separately, and reprinted with some additions. To this Memoir of M. Niccolini, thus enriched by the labors of two learned Neapolitan antiquaries, are added ten copper-plate engravings, representing the entire mosaic, from a drawing, necessarily very much reduced, and giving merely an outline of the picture; some of the principal figures or heads, from drawings of larger proportions, and more finished execution, with details of costume, which may serve to determine the subject of the composition; and, lastly, a head copied exactly from the original, and carefully colored, so as

to show the exact proportion of the figures of the piece, the style of its execution, and even the structure of the mosaic. The second Memoir, by C. Bonucci, is valuable on account of some new views on the subject, and is accompanied by a large, colored, lithographic print, on the accuracy of which we have reason to depend, as its author, being the architect employed in the researches made at Pompeii and Herculaneum, had at his command every facility for copying the original with the utmost care and fidelity, and must have felt a strong interest in making known to the public this relic of antiquity, for the discovery of which we are partly indebted to him. We therefore believe ourselves furnished with all the materials necessary for appreciating the nature and value of the work; and, although it is impossible, without having seen the original, to pronounce a decisive judgment on the questions of art and taste connected with it, yet we flatter ourselves we may discover and ascertain the true subject of the composition. It is to this point, that our investigation will be chiefly confined.

Before giving an account of this composition and of the mosaic in which it is figured, it may not be useless to say a few words of the ancient building, in the centre of which this piece was found, and of which it constituted the principal ornament. The house in question was situated in the great street, called the Street of Mercury; which extends, almost in a strait line, from the Temple of Fortune, and the Triumphal Arch of Tiberius to the gate, called the Gate of Isis, and which crossed the ancient Pompeii, through nearly its whole width. Those, who have any acquaintance with the present localities of Pompeii, know that this must have been one of the finest streets in the ancient city, since it leads directly to the Forum; and bere, indeed, within the last few years, have been discovered many of the most considerable houses, those decorated with most taste and expense, as that of the Questor, of Meleager,* and of the Dioscuri. It is well known also, that the researches at Pompeii proceed very slowly, so as hardly to admit the disinterment of more than a single house a year, even when these houses are small, or but little ornamented. But whatever idea one may have of the manner in which this work is carried on, and what

ever he may think of the influences which operate upon it, or the labor applied to it, it will, perhaps, hardly be believed, that though the excavation had, in 1829, reached the threshold of a house, which, at the very entrance, promised to be one of the most spacious and beautiful of the ancient city, yet it was not till

* A particular description of this house (the most richly finished and one of the most extensive that have hitherto been brought to light at Pompeii) may be found in the Museo Borbonico, Vol. VII, with an Explanation by G. Bechi, and Observations by M. Avellino, pp. 1-10.

October, 1831, that a superb mosaic pavement, which adorned one of the halls of this house, was discovered. It will not lessen the surprise, if I add, that even after this discovery, which was immediately so much talked of at Naples, and the report of which spread throughout Europe, another year passed before the house was entirely uncovered. Thus this operation, confined to a single building at Pompeii, must have occupied at least three years; and an estimate may be formed from this single example, how many more years, years which seem to us as ages, will be required to raise the veil, however slight and easy to remove, which conceals from our sight a whole ancient city, embalmed in its tomb.*

As this house now appears, it is entered through a vestibule, adorned with two beautiful miniature shrines (ædicula), which conduct to a large atrium, open at the top, with a mosaic pavement, formed of small cubes of the most valuable marbles and the most brilliant substances of the East, such, for example, as red jasper, veined alabaster, crystals white or colored, set in a cement of indestructible hardness, and exquisitely polished, the effect of which must have been magical, and may again become so. On either side of this atrium, are small apartments, intended for the reception of guests, or the friends of the family; and, in the centre, in the place usually occupied by the impluvium, is a marble basin, or labrum, in which was found the bronze statue of the god Pan, whence this house has had the name of the house of Pan, given it in the present nomenclature of the houses of Pompeii. The atrium leads to a square enclosure, which was planted with trees, and called the viridarium. In the centre of this rose a fountain, of which nothing remains but the marble basin, that received the gushing waters. Around this garden, twenty-four Ionic columns formed porticos, also paved with mosaic, and adorned in the intercolumniations with statues, of which only a few fragments have been found. Beyond the garden, thus surrounded by porticos, appears another square enclosure, still larger, which must also have been planted with trees, and which was surrounded by porticos, supported by forty-two columns of the Doric order. In this arrangement, more happily and strikingly displayed here, than in any other house in Pompeii, we recognise that love of the ancients for the country, which made them attempt, in their private dwellings, a representation of rural life, on a reduced

* One may form some idea of the manner in which the excavations at Pompeii are usually conducted, from the Journal of that under consideration, for the year 1831, kept by the architect, C. Bonucci, and published in the Bulletin de l'Institut de Corresp. Archéol., for January, 1832, pp. 7 – 12.

scale; and which rendered so delightful and so necessary to them those domestic forests (as we may term them), those groves of plane-trees, laurels, and myrtles, where they came to rest from the labors of the Forum, under shades for ever green; and, in the bosom of nature, refresh their languid frames, exhausted by the excitements of public life. The sight of this house at Pompeii, explains to us, better than all the commentaries of the learned, that precept of Vitruvius, which directs to plant forests between two porticos, and to lay out paths for walking among the trees.* Thus too, we may explain the interest felt by Cicero in the embellishments, superintended by him, at the house of his brother Quintus, at Arpinum, and the charm he found, in that walk among the columns; in that verdant forest, peopled with birds; in those porticos, paved in mosaic and covered with myrtle and ivy; in all that luxury of art, lavished to serve as a frame to this beautiful natural picture; a charm, which in the eyes of a man like Cicero, made his brother's house, thus adorned, the true abode of delight. All was to be found equally in this house at Pompeii, not very distant from Cicero's own house in that city, his Pompeianum, which, among the fourteen villas of the great Roman ‡ orator, was the one he loved best, and to which, in preference to all the rest, he invited his friend Atticus. §

I ought to ask pardon of my readers, for details which might seem foreign to the principal subject of our investigation, were there not instruction to be gathered from these very details, by a comparison of localities with passages in ancient authors, from which both are mutually illustrated. This twofold interest, indeed, attaches itself to every thing amid the ruins of Pompeii, and renders more attractive the ever-varying stores of knowledge they lay open to us. Beneath the shade of porticos, still partially standing in the House of Pan, and of groves, which imagination easily replaces there, are seen two small domestic temples, or

Vitruv. v, II: "Sint inter duas porticus sylvæ, et in his perficiantur inter arbores deambulationes."

+ Ciceron. Epistol. ad Quint. 111, 1: "Intercolumnia deambulationis..... sylva viridicata,. . . . . aviarium. pavimentata porticus,

ita omnia convestit hedera..... mirificâ suavitate te villam habiturum . . . For the number and situation of Cicero's villas, and the present state of the ruins of them which have been discovered, see the interesting article devoted to this subject in the Almanach aus Rom, von F. Sickler und C. Reinhart, 1810, S. 34-51.

§ Cicer. ad Attic. 11, 3: "Tusculanum et Pompeianum valdè me delectant. Ad eumd. 11, 4: Nos circiter Kal. aut in Formiano erimus, aut in Pompeiano. Tu, si in Formiano non erimus, si nos amas, in Pompeianum venito; id et nobis erit perjucundum, et tibi non sanè devium."

VOL. III.-NO. I.

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