231 



nated iu this way. History receives a light from the same 

 source, as might be instanced in the allegorical statue of 

 Antioch, in the sculptures on the arch of Titus, and the spiral 

 procession on the column of Trajan. Thus we are led to see 

 the educational value of casts from the antique, whether 

 statues or bas-reliefs, in schools and museums. We appreci- 

 ated the treasure we had in the Elgin room at the British 

 Museum, and we saw reason to congratulate ourselves here on 

 the possession of the casts at the Royal Institution. The 

 difficulties, as regards both space and expense, which preclud- 

 ed the accumulation of the larger works of art in schools, did 

 not apply to coins, which were portable and easily preserved ; 

 while sulphur casts or electro-type facsimiles were as effective 

 for the purpose in question as the originals themselves. They 

 were a history of art in miniature, and were full of instruction, 

 presenting facts under the form of beautiful allegories illus- 

 trating the progress of national life, furnishing portraits of 

 eminent men, and even corroborating the evidence of Christi- 

 anity. An allusion was made to the educational value of 

 architecture, which belongs rather to construction than to 

 representation art ; and the writer concluded with a notice of 

 the use of allegory, whether exhibited by painting on walls, as 

 in the Stoa Poicile at Athens, or in Eaffaelle's great work in 

 the Stanza della Segnatura, or by sculptured groups, the 

 highest examples that the world had seen being in the pedi- 

 ments of the Parthenon; while one of the most interesting 

 things, and one well worthy of mention among modern works 

 of art, was the composition of the pediment of St. George's- 

 hall, where the imports of the four quarters of the world were 

 meeting the industrial energy of England on the banks of the 

 Mersey. 



