Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/731

 1869.] Ornamentation for Looking-Glass and Picture Frames. 589 The purity of taste of the Pompeiians in decoration, is, however, questionable. They were fond of the gaudiest colors, and fantastic designs. They often painted half of their columns a bright red, leaving the rest uncolored. The apartments appropriated to sleep were generally so diminutive, that few, who have not seen their bed-chambers, even in the gayest mansions, can form any notion of the pett}' pigeon-holes — resembling nothing modern so much as the contracted bed-rooms of ocean-beach hotels — in which the citizens of Pompeii evidently thought it desirable to pass the night. The bed, in fact, with the ancients, was not that grave, serious, and important part of domestic myste- ries, which it is with us. The couch itself was like a very narrow and small sofa, light enough to be transported easily, by the occupant himself. " Take up thy bed and walk," was, as Sir Wil- liam Gell observes, no metaphorical ex- pression. . By the patile vases, found in their tombs, we are informed, that they had dinner-beds, of the earliest Asiatic fashion; tables of citron wood, delicately inlaid, and cserulean chairs, which Livy says were afterwards introduced into Rome. They had flower-gardens attached to their houses ; and where the latter were small, the walls were frequently tinted, to deceive the eye as to their extent, imitating trees, birds, temples, &c, in perspective ; amonstrous delusion, which the graceful pedantry of Pliny himself adopted, with a complacent pride in its ingenuity ; although, in this, he only paraded and praised a falsehood. The Pompeiians, like the Genoese, had terrace-gardens on some of their houses. Such was that lively and luxu- rious city of the living — two thousand years ago — which, by a dire catastrophe, has been transformed into The City of the Dead. ORNAMENTATION FOR LOOKING-GLASS AND PICTURE FRAMES. THE progress of art and science with- in the last quarter of a century is, perhaps, more marked than at any other period of the world's history. In their application to manifold utilitarian pur- poses, we question whether they have bestowed more real benefits upon man- kind, than those developed by their association with the various branches of mechanism. And when we add to these agencies a new-born genius for in- vention, it is not surprising that the Patent Office is overburdened with busi- ness. The multiplicity of patents, accu- mulating each year, attests the rapid advance we are making in those facili- ties which lighten the burden of labor, and contribute largely to the wealth of the country. Machinery, at first imper- fect, and managed with difficulty, has been so improved as to meet the highest j expectations of the inventor ; opening a wider field for capital, and extending the area of industry to the last foot- print of civilization. In all mechanical branches, a most radical change has been effected. There is scarcely an occupation pursued, in which the operative produces the same article by the same process adopted a few years since. Old men will tell you, that the most finished workman of the present day, would have proved wholly incompetent at one time to follow his occupation, and effect like results, with the implements then in use. We need only visit any workshop or manufactory to verif3 T these remarks. For instance, how would it be possible to satisfy the cravings for mental food, did society depend upon the old process for print- ing books and newspapers ? And if we