PÆSTUM.

THE celebrated poet Rogers, in some beautiful lines written at Pæstum, in March, 1815, says of these temples:

"They stand between the mountains and the sea Awful memorials, but of whom we know not.

Time was they stood along the crowded street,
Temples of gods! and on their ample steps,
What various habits, various tongues beset
The brazen gates, for prayer and sacrifice!
Time was perhaps, the third was sought for justice,
And here the accuser stood, and there the accused;
And here the judges sat, and heard and judged;
All silent now! as in the ages past,

Trodden under foot, and mingled dust with dust."

They are indeed silent yet speaking memorials of time and eternity. Of Pæstum and its twice blowing roses, what lover of poetry has not heard of those lovely flowers which,

USE OF RINGS AMONG THE GREEKS.

THE use of rings was very common among the Greeks, both as an ornamental part of their dress, and as seals. A collection of such was, therefore, an appendage to all persons of wealth and consequence.

The first collection of precious stones or jewels that we are acquainted with in ancient Rome were made as early as the times of Scaurus and Pompey; but there is nothing to indicate that they were engraved. Mithridates had a dactyliotheca, which, on his defeat by Pompey, was consecrated in the capitol by his conqueror. Cæsar established several in the temple of Venus and Marcellus, and an extensive one in the cell of the temple of Apollo Palatinus.

POUSSIN.

poor.

His

THE family of Poussin was noble, but father, John Poussin, was a native of Soissons, and served with credit in the regiment of Tavanes during the reign of Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV.; but the poverty of the royal coffers, during that unhappy period, had thrown all the the expenses of a military life upon himself, and, like many of his brave fellow-soldiers, he was reduced to the greatest indigence. After the taking of Vernon, in which town he then resided, he married Marie de Laisement, the widow of Le Moine, a solicitor of the same place; and having quitted the service, he retired to Andelys, in Normandy, sometime in the year 1592, and in June, 1594, his son Nicholas was born.

Passeri tells us, that Nicholas Poussin was frequently chidden by his schoolmaster for making

designs on the leaves of his books instead of studying.

The sketches young Poussin made attracted the attention of Quintin Varin, a native of Amiens, who then resided at Andelys. The state of painting in France was at that time very low; all the faults with which the French school is so justly charged, were at their height.

BENTVOGEL SOCIETY.

A CELEBRATED society of Flemish painters, was once established at Rome, into which they received all of their own nation who came to reside at Rome, and desired to be admitted as members. The introduction was made at a tavern, where a repast was prepared at the expense of the new member, when after some whimsical and burlesque ceremonies, he was inaugurated with a new name, expressive of some peculiarity of person or style, as Peter Van Laen was named by them, Bamboccio! Philip Roos, Rosa da Tivola, and others with the various sobriquets or nick-names, by which they are known. The ceremony was kept up all night, and in the morning they marched in procession to the tomb of Bacchus, where it concluded.

COMPARATIVE DIMENSIONS OF THE BRIDGES OVER THE THAMES.

WATERLOO Bridge is one thousand two hundred

and fifty feet long; Westminster, one thousand two hundred and twenty feet; and Blackfriars nine hundred and ninety-five feet. Waterloo Bridge has nine elliptical arches, of one hundred and twenty feet span, over the river, with piers of twenty feet thick, built entirely of granite, and forty brick arches, for a causeway on the Surrey side: and the entire length of its land and water arches is two thousand eight hundred and ninety feet. Westminster has thirteen large and two semicircular small arches, with fourteen intermediate piers. The arches of this bridge all spring about two feet below low water; it was commenced in 1738, and opened to the public in 1750. Blackfriars' Bridge has nine large elliptical arches, was begun in 1760, by Mr. Milne, and finished in ten years and three quarters.

PROFESSOR FUSELI'S DEFINITION OF THE STYLE OF RUBENS.

THE following extract from Fuseli's definition of Rubens and his style, taken from his lectures at the Royal Academy, is peculiarly Fuseliesque and appropriate. "What has been said of Michael Angelo's forms, may be applied to the colour of Rubens; they had but one. As the one came to nature and moulded her to his generic form, the other came to nature and tinged her with his favourite tone, that of gay magnificence. From this he never deviated, whatever was his subject, sacre or

profane, poetic or historic, homely or elevated, merry or mournful, grave or gay; the study of his works has been recommended, as offering the fullest and clearest method of combining the various modes of harmony that distinguish the ornamental, or, as it is commonly called the Venetian style ; in which the brightest colours possible are admitted with the two extremes of warm and cold, and these reconciled by their being dispersed over the picture, till the whole appears like a branch of flowers. But if the economy of his tints be that of an immense nosegay, he has not always connected the ingredients with a prismatic eye; the balance of the iris is not arbitrary, the balance of his colour often is."

"It was not to be expected," continued Mr. Fuseli, "that correctness of form should be the principal object of Rubens, though he was master of drawing, and ever ambitious in the display of anatomic knowledge: but there is no mode of incorrectness except what directly militated against breadth and fulness, of which his works do not set an example. His male forms, generally the brawny pulp of slaughtermen, his females hillocks of rosy flesh, in overwhelmed muscles, grotesque attitudes, and distorted joints, are swept along in a gulph of colours; as herbage, trees and shrubs, are whirled, tossed and absorbed by inundation."