238 ANCIENT PAINTING AS AMONG THE LOST ARTS. 



existed, or might exist under favoring circumstances. Benjamin 

 West found the Apollo in the Mohawk warrior of a hundred 

 years ago. The fabled Amazons might have had a Diana for their 

 Queen. And I have no doubt that the brawny Saxons, in their 

 early fighting days, have had a veritable Hercules for a King. 

 These then are the lines in which ancient delineators were im- 

 measurably superior to the modern. And in so far their art and 

 genius have passed away. 



Before closing the account of ancient art attainments, I should 

 perhaps say a few more words in regard to the wall paintings 

 that have been uncovered, within the past 120 years, in Pompeii. 

 Previous to the year 79 of our era, when it was suddenly buried 

 by a shower of ashes and gravel from the first recorded eruption 

 of Vesuvius, Pompeii was merely a small provincial city, with 

 never more than 30,000 inhabitants. But from its delightful 

 situation, near the Bay of Naples, and on the fertile slopes of the 

 extinct volcano, it had come to be somewhat of a resort for 

 Romans of moderate means. There was in it however nothing 

 of special elegance or pretension, its best house belonging to one 

 of its wine merchants ; and it was as far from being an art center 

 as probably Sorento is at the present day. That it should have 

 contained any specimens of the fine arts, is a wonder. That it 

 did have so many and such remarkable ones, is a most striking 

 evidence of the inseparable connection of the arts with all the 

 tastes and necessities of ancient every-day life. The houses of 

 Pompeii were in reality profusely adorned by decorative artists 

 and painters imported from Greece. There was an almost infi- 

 nite variety of subjects and scenes illustrated on their walls, 

 from flowers and fruits to dancing genii and floating nymphs, 

 from representations of homely and comic life to heroic legends 

 and the myths of the gods. In fact we have here a most charm- 

 ing and complete illustrated journal of the first century of the 

 Christian era. 



Many of the prominent pictures, we know, were copies of 

 more ancient ones ; and it is probable that none of them evince 

 a higher grade of talent than that of the copyist. There is really 

 no good reason to suppose that the decorations of this retired 



