We have said nothing of this author's powers of description, in which he is inferior to no poet who ever existed. They are of the very highest order, and the present little poem abounds in examples. Indeed, it is entirely constituted of description and sentiment. It is unnecessary to prove this by extrac t; the works with which all the world are acquainted have placed the matter beyond doubt.

Ut Pictura Poesis erit-A poem is like painting, says Horace :-- Byron's poems are passion-Wordsworth's are philosophy-Coleridge's are fancy-Shelley's are mysticism—but Southey's are painting.

Every section of his works is a picture, and capable of furnishing an interesting subject for the graphic art. A painter of genius, whatever his genius might be, would in them find plenty of occasion for its indulgence. The Curse of Kehama, alone, would furnish forth a gallery, and is itself a splendid gallery of highly finished paintings, in a gorgeous style of colouring, combining a power of design and a facility of execution, which it would require the highest efforts of art to realize on the canvass.

And if another master in the sister art were to arise, and determine to personify poetry in some immortal work, and were to take his idea of poetry from the productions of Southey; wherein would it differ from Raphael's sublimely conceived and beautifully executed painting of Poetry personified?-Crowned with the immortal laurel, her shoulders winged, her bosom modestly invested with white raiment, and thence to her feet overspread with a sky-coloured mantle, emblematic of her chastity, her sublimity, and heavenly origin; in one hand holding the harmonious lyre, and with the other expanding on her knee a volume of heroic song; inspired with divine fury, and elevated with sacred emotion, she arrests herself in this position, and deigns not to descend from her majesty as of a prophetess, and from her station as of a divinity. So chaste-so sublime-thus divinely derived-so harmonious-so heroic-thus inspired and thus arrested, is the genius of poetry, as illustrated in the poems of Southey. Had he written but one of his great works, his astonishing merits would have remained unquestioned. But the world unwillingly permits a man to multiply demands on its admiration, and substantiate repeated claims to its applause and gratitude.

* Ella e coronata di lauro immortale, ed avendo le spalle alate, vela il petto in candida gonna, e sparge dal seno a piedi il suo ceruleo manto; conforme ella e casta, sublime, ed originata dal cielo: tiene con una mano l'armonica lira, con l'altra appogia sulla coscia il libro degli heroici carmi, ed in tali posameuto arrestandosi sembra inspirata da siato divino.—Bellori.

The Antiquities of Athens and of various other parts of Greece, Supplementary to the Antiquities of Athens, by James Stuart and N. Revett, Vol. 4, Parts 1 and 2, containing the Temple of Apollo, Epicurius at Bassæ, near Phigalia, and other Antiquities in the Peloponnesus, illustrated by Thomas Leverton Donaldson. Fol. London, Priestley and Weale.

THE models of Ancient Greece must ever be the standard by which we may form a correct estimate of the productions of ancient as well as of modern times In defiance of that general feeling for gothic architecture, connected with the associations of a remote period of our national history; in spite of the predilection avowed by the many for that style of building, which may with propriety be termed London architecture, the monuments of Greece must survive the decline of all other tastes; and we must recur to these matchless edifices as the masterpieces of art, the very perfection of pure detail and correct style. In England, more than in any other country, the attic models have been instrumental in forming the present school of architecture. No other people have adopted, as the English have done, the very style itself; nor consecrated so much talent and patient investigation to the development of its principles, the illustration of its ruins, and deep research; in order to combine together the various masses piled in chaotic disorder, and form of them complete and faithful restorations.

Attica has already been fully investigated and detailed in the volumes of Stuart and Revett, and in the productions of the Dilettanti Society. Asia Minor has afforded to the researches of Revett, Gell, Gandy, and Bedford, a rich harvest; which, however, forms but a very insignificant portion of the antiquities, that lie profusely scattered throughout Asiatic Greece. The ruined cities to the south of Smyrna contain treasures, that future generations only can enjoy; and the inland Turkish villages boast numerous examples, that would serve to complete many of our imperfect notions respecting the building of the ancients, as well civil as sacred. The details of the various antique edifices are of very great interest, as almost all have some deficiency yet to supply; but we must regret that the attention of our architectural travellers has not been more directed to the arrangement of the general plans of the ancient buildings, and their combination with each other. The intelligent eye of the scientific observer, may discover even now the most happy

combinations of general plans among the shrubs, the bushes, the rising mounds of Ephesus, Miletus, Gnidos, and Halicarnassus. In illustration of our remark, we shall merely quote the Temple of Priene, which has its Peribolus, Propylea, elevated altar in front, and various other minor objects, which when properly classed and arranged, so as to form an assemblage of grouping, must carry the mind beyond the mere plain matter of fact of the solitary fane. The ancients well knew how to embellish the grand object, and by the happy contrasts of minor circumstances, to give it additional dignity.

Of the Peloponnesus, that interesting portion of Grecia Propria, containing antiquities of the most curious description, we have only the very inferior example of Nemea, published in Stuart's Athens. The Honourable Mr. Stanhope has edited an essay on Olympia, and Vulliamy, and in his work on Ornament has furnished a beautiful fragment from the Grove of Esculapius. But Micene, Tyrens, Argos, Sparta, Messena, and Megalopolis, are as yet almost untouched. From the title of this work we hope therefore to see illustrated the interesting ruins of this Peninsula, which, owing to its locality, and its reputation as the retreat of a horde of fearless Mainott robbers, no less than to the inhospitable character of the natives, and the privations consequent in a journey through a country almost unknown, had been left unexplored except by a Fourmont, a Fauvel, a Lusieri, a Gell, a Dodwell, and a few intrepid general travellers.

The first subject of this work is the Temple of Bassæ, an example singular in its kind, and furnishing authority for an entire new disposition of plan, and peculiar arrangement of detail. To the historian, antiquarian, and sculptor, it is no less interesting, as having been enriched by those sculptures known in our national gallery under the name of the Phigalian marbles. According to Pausanias, the Phigalians erected this temple in honour of Apollo, having been delivered by the intervention of that god from a plague, which occurred about the time of the Peloponnesian war. Till within a very few years these ruins were scarcely visited, till the Baron Haller, who was pursuing his researches among the monuments of Greece, accompanied by our countryman, Mr. C. R. Cockerell, first discovered at the "Columns" (by which name the spot is now known,) the valuable fragments of a sculptured frieze. A few individuals associated together, raised a sum of money, bribed the Pacha, employed above a hundred labourers, and finally the marbles, which formerly

ornamented the interior frieze of the cella, decorated the walls of the British Museum.

The numberless volumes of an ephemeral nature, which within a few years have inundated the press, make us regard with a jealous eye those works, which may be considered, as the present one, aspiring to a classical rank in literature; and which must in some degree influence the taste of the rising generation, and carry with it the fearful distinction of a specimen of the talents, assiduity, and judgment of the architectural authors of the day. Ever since the production of the last volume of the work on Attica, published by the illustrious society of the Dilettanti, we have not ceased to regret that some more prominent character should not have been given to the scientific men engaged in the compilation of the materials, than that of mere contributors of the drawings. Why have not their personal observations on the ruins-why have not their numerous remarks on any of the peculiarities, enriched the now scanty description of the plates? The architect, eager for information, seeks for authority in the letter-press, and finds there the erudition of a mere compiler -not the judicious parallel with other buildings-not the abundant remark on each variety of detail-not the valuable suggestions of those, who have passed months of patient anxiety during the excavations and the removal of each block. Must we attribute this deficiency to the modesty of retiring merit? To that unwillingness of the public scrutiny, that too often represses the man of science? Or must we ascribe it to the injudicious tasteless appetite for classical reputation, now so prevalent, and which is not satisfied except with abstruse disquisitions little to the purpose, and long quotations in Greek from obscure authors? A similar system seems to be pursued in the present work; we have seldom seen a more injudicious attempt at fine writing than in the introductory chapter to this volume. The name of the artist who illustrates the first subject, stands at the head of the title, and we had looked to the introductory chapter for his research into the date, history, character, and peculiarities of the Bassæan Temple: but the signature of W* seems to point out that the situation has been occupied by one more assuming and less fearful. In a work of science, all is unbecoming which passes the limits of a simple statement of facts, unalloyed by affectation, by pretensions to classical erudition, or an oratorical style of composition. The narrative attached to all books treating on art should be nervous in thought, pure in style, and unpretending to any character not immediately connected with the object of the work. Part of the language of W* is incorrect, as in these phrases:

"Extent of preservation," " an edifice which impends a ridge," "frustra" instead of "frusta," and affected as "the bicipital summit of Itheme which dominates over the Messenian plain." But of the bathos and inflated style of composition we have rarely met with a more decided specimen than the following, alluding to the marbles of Ægina, which were found a short period previous to the discovery of the Phigalian frieze. Our author commences with an ungrammatical phrase.

"This discovery, which was the more valuable because it tended to elucidate our ideas on the progress and history of ancient art during the period intervening between the monotonous and rectilinear style of the Egyptian sculpture, and the refined and graceful productions of the school of Phidias. The veil was now somewhat drawn aside; we beheld in this confirmatory standard of the often spoken of Æginetan school the budding germs of latent excellence: here was a point from which, in the progress of intellect among a people of such ardent aspiration, perfection must soon have emanated; for with the Egyptiansas with the Chinese, though in the opposite extreme of grandeur to frivolity, art never advanced, and in nations with similar institutions, never could have been progressive beyond a fixed ratio of mechanical imitative mediocrity; here, however, we beheld an approximation to correct action and dramatic effect, but expression still remained deficient, and ideal beauty of form wholly unfelt."

What is meant by this accumulation of words we are at a loss to discover. We cannot agree with W* in his inversion of the order of the passages quoted from Pausanias, by which the chain of reference is broken: the passages themselves are not translated in their just sense.

After the introductory chapter follow the very copious notes of Mr. Donaldson in explanation of the plates. They are full and elaborate, and by reference to edifices of the same period, exhibit the variations that exist between this temple and others of the same date.

The plan of the temple is hexastyle, with fifteen columns on the flanks, peripteral, and most probably hypethral. The interior of the cella has on either side a range of attached Ionic columns, and at the end immediately opposite the door is placed the Corinthian column, the base and capital of which were found among the ruins. The reasons for this arrangement are given in the following words :—

"The distance between the two angular Ionic columns is too great not to suggest, that there must have been some intermediate support for the transverse architrave; at the same time it is too small to allow of a triple intercolumniation, an arrangement more consonant with the Grecian purity of style, and no fragment has been discovered of a