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by the success of her military enterprise, prompted the desire 

 to enjoy what her victories had won. They, therefore, under 

 the brilliant administration of Pericles, indulged in a perpetual 

 scene of triumph and festivity, and reared the numerous 

 temples that arose around the Acropolis of Athens. Architec- 

 ture, with sculpture, became to the Greeks the medium through 

 which the actions of the gods were presented to mortal view. 

 The early history of the states, clothed with a garb of imagry, 

 was the basis on which the poets founded their mythology. 

 The genius of the sculptor removed the veil, and his chisel 

 presented the multitude with visible forms of their faith. The 

 Grecian artists yearned for the full realisation of the beautiful 

 which they detected throughout nature. Her sculptors sought 

 to interpret this by their efforts to give the charm of reality to 

 the fanciful creations of her poets ; and, by their peculiar treat- 

 ment, exhibited their intellectual pre-eminence, refinement, and 

 beauty of execution. Greece having at length fallen into the 

 hands of the conquering Romans, she became the mine from 

 which the Romans drew their intellectual wealth. Vast num- 

 bers of statues, architectural embellishments, and works of art, 

 were taken as spoil from the cities of Greece, and collected into 

 Rome, so that she became an assemblage of superb buildings — 

 a great architectural museum. But her works address them- 

 selves more to our admiration than to our judgment. Engineer- 

 ing skill, a display of costly materials, auda vastness of extent, 

 chiefly characterised the architectural grandeur of Imperial 

 Rome. As Greece fell before the Romans, so also the Romans 

 were overrun by the northern barbarians, who, bursting like 

 a flood along the northern boundary of the empire, poured into 

 Italy, and destroyed, without reserve, its noblest monuments 

 and its choicest treasures of art. Mr. Gray then described the 

 establishment of the western empire, the spread of Christianity, 

 and the influence of both on art — particularly architecture — 

 until at length the modification of Roman architecture that 

 prevailed in Normandy was introduced into England by 

 Edward the Confessor and the followers of William ; and 

 thus the Gothic architecture of England took its rise. Having 

 traced the distinctive characteristics of the various styles of 



