TO OUR READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. We earnestly solicit communications (post paid) from the professors of the arts in general, as well as authors, respecting works which they may have in hand. We conceive that the evident advantage which must accrue to both from the more extensive publicity that will be given to their productions through the medium of the Repository, needs only to be mentioned, to induce them to favour us with such information, which shall always meet with the most prompt attention. The communication of Dr. C. of Sunderland, shall certainly be attended to in our next number; the department of our work having been already made up, when his letter came to hand. We shall take an opportunity of submitting Edward's Enquiry to our readers in our next publication. J. H. R.'s Stanzas are received. The request made in his letter of June 3d, shall be complied with, beginning with the present month. Mr. L'Eveque's work shall be duly noticed at an early opportunity. We are enabled to promise our readers, in our next number, a view of the Monument just erected in Guildhall to the memory of that eminent statesman, the late Right Honourable William Pitt. We beg to repeat to authors and others by whom we are favoured with articles of Literary Intelligence, that we cannot introduce notices of works already before the public, into that department. Owing to a circumstance which it is unnecessary to explain, we have been obliged, this month, to make up that portion of our miscellany. at so early a period, that some communications intended for it are unavoidably postponed, We have recently received from the Continent a few interesting publications, particularly some of the latest productions of the celebrated Kotzebue, from which we shall occasionally submit selections to our readers. The Description which should accompany Plate 4, of a French Window-Car- [ tain, we shall give next month, being prevented, by a mistake, from introducing it in the present number. The Proprietor begs leave to remind such of his Readers as have imperfect sets of the Repository, of the necessity of an early application for the deficiences, in order to prevent disappointment. Those who chuse to return their Numbers to the Publisher, may have them exchanged for Volumes in a variety of bindings, at the rate of 5s. per Volume. THE Repository OF ARTS, LITERATURE, COMMERCE, Manufactures, Fashions, and Politics, For JULY, 1813. The Fifty-fifth Number. -The suffrage of the wise, The praise that's worth ambition, is attain'd ARMSTRONG. CONVERSATIONS ON THE ARTS-By JUNINUS. Miss Eve. The most remarkable | convenience of the scholars who of the stadia and gymnasia were, I understand, at Athens, built entirely of white marble. I believe the stadia of the Greeks answer to, and were the originals of, the amphitheatres of the Romans. studied, discoursed, or attended the lectures of the philosophers, rhetoricians, grammarians, or other professors. The other parts were particularly fitted up for exercising youth in all those bodily arts which Miss K. The gymnasia were inured them to hardships, knitted common in every city of Greece, their limbs, confirmed their health, but first founded at Lacedæmon. and trained them up to appear in They consisted of several different the lists of fame, at the games of piles of building united together, their greatest festivals. In one they each of which served for several wrestled, ran, leaped, boxed; in purposes. They were, properly, a another, they played at ball; in a kind of academy, and all exercises third, they danced: nor were they for the improvement of the mind, without their separate and convenias well as those for strengthening ent apartments for bathing, anointthe body, were cultivated here withing, dusting, dressing, making the greatest assiduity. The porti-matches, fixing what' sport they coes were filled with seats for the would contend in, and the prize No. LV. Vol. X. B of conquest. of Castro now stands, much resorted to formerly, on account of the temple of Apollo and the dark cave whence the Pythian priestess pronounced her oracles, seated on a tripod, swelling and foaming like one possessed. The lofty summit of Parnassus formed two peaks, which occasioned it to be called, Biceps Parnassus. Below the cleft rises a spring, supposed to be the ancient Fons Castalius, where the Pythian prophetess and the poets who pretended to inspiration used to bathe and drink the waters.-I suppose you are acquainted with the particulars of Delos? The stadium was either that part of the gymnasium, of a large semicircular form, in which all the above-mentioned exercises were performed, and where seats were raised above one another for the convenience of the multitudes who flocked thither to see these contests in skill and strength; or was built, detached from all other pub-chief of these islands, but the least lic edifices, in the form of a circus. The most celebrated of these buildings, as you observe, was at Athens, composed entirely of white marble; the plan of them was afterwards copied by the Romans. Miss Eve. Yes: Delos was the of them all, being no more than six miles in circumference, situated a little southward of Mycone and Tynos. This island was supposed by the Greeks to be the place of the nativity of Apollo and consi-Diana; for which reason they instituted public festivals, erected temples, and sent hither priests, sacrificers, and choirs of virgins, Miss Eve. I have lately dered the Cyclades, or Grecian Archipelago, with some attention. Paros is one of the smallest of these islands, midway between the Mo-to do them honour; but it is now rea and Asia Minor, famous for its destitute of inhabitants. Does marble, but most famous for its Falconer mention this little island? excellent statuaries, Phidias and Praxiteles, some of whose works became objects of divine worship. This island was dedicated to Bacchus, on account of the excellent wines which it produced. Miss K. Yes. I will repeat what Miss K. Many of these islands and the neighbouring parts of the continent are subjects of curious investigation. Delphos was anciently a great city of Achaia, But all their wiles by virtuous fraud she foil'd: now Livadia, in Turkey, situated True to her vows, and resolutely chaste, on the side of the mountain Par- The beauteous princess triumph'd at the last. ten miles north of the Argos, in Greece forgotten and unknown, nassus, gulph of Lepanto, where the town | Still seems her cruel fortune to bemoan; Argos, whose monarch led the Grecian hosts, Far o'er th' Egean main, to distant coasts: And when to native realms restored at last, Next the fair isle of Helena is seen, For whom in arms combin'd the Grecian host, up for their manufactories. Juno, Samia the Sibyl, Pythagoras, and Polycrates, were natives of this island. Here are yet to be seen abundance of magnificent ruins, and among them, part of the temple of Juno, the protectress of Samos. Miss Eve. How would you describe Juno? Miss K. Juno was called the goddess of kingdoms and riches, and said to be thie daughter of Sa turn and Rhea (otherwise named Cybele and Ops), the wife of Ju Here, driven by Juno's rage, the hapless dame, piter, and the queen of the gods. Forlorn of heart, from ruin'd Ilion came. She goes by abundance of names, and is reported to have bathed every year in a particular fountain, by which she recovered her youth, virginity, and vigour. Junonia were certain feasts celebrated in honour of Juno, when the maids of all ages ran races and petitioned that goddess to give them husbands. At Rome an altar was erected to her, as the goddess of marriage, where the new-married couple offered either a white cow, geese, or ravens, from which they took the gall before they sacrificed, and threw it behind the altar, to intimate, that, in this state of life, no bitterness of spirit should remain. Virgil represents Romulus upbraiding the Trojans with their softness and effeminacy, and, among other things, reproaching them for the make of their tunics, which bad naked and exposed to the weather, like the garment worn by the Romans. The poet observes, that the Italians preserved their old lan In fires profane can heav'nly bosoms melt? Samos is an island in the Archipelago, thirty miles south of Smyr-sleeves, and did not leave the arms na, in Asia Minor, subject to the Turks, but inhabited by Greek Christians, of whom it contains about 12,000. It produces corn, wine, olives, and other fruits suit-guage and habits, although the able to warm climates, besides very fine silk. The wool raised here is so good, that the French buy it Trojans became their masters; and that the Trojans themselves relinquished the dress of their own country for that of Italy. This, he || that the main objection to this story tells us, was the effect of a prayer The laws of either nation be the same: Wear the same habits which their grandsires wore: Call them not Trojans-perish the renown was the great difference between the customs, language, and habits of the Romans and Trojans. To obviate, therefore, so strong an objection, he makes this difference arise from the forecast and predetermination of the gods themselves. On this medal, Nero and Octavia are compared to Jupiter and Juno, who were said to be brother and sister : Thy sister, bright with every blooming grace, race; Shall reign a Juno with the Roman Jove It is curious that Virgil should Then thus the founder of mankind replies,— Shall keep their name, their habit, and their The Trojans to their customs shall be tied, 1 will myself their common rites provide, The natives shall command, the foreigners subside; And shall be Latium, Troy without a name, came. They are, therefore, represented by the sun and moon, which are the most glorious parts of the universe, and are, in poetical genealogy, brother and sister, Miss Eve. Suppose your describe some of the emblems, such as Chastity, Hope, Fear, Security, Equity, Eternity, Victory, Liberty, Fidelity, Abundance, Peace, Virtue, Honour, Fame, &c. Miss K. Chastity was worshipped as a goddess, and had her temple: She sits, her visage veil'd, her eyes concealed; She is represented in the habit of a Roman matron, in whom that virtue was supposed to reign in its perfection. So Piety wears the It may be supposed, that, in this dress of the vestal virgins, who request to Juno, Virgil had a far-were the greatest and most shining ther view than his commentators examples of it. have discovered in it. He well knew, that his Eneid was founded on a very doubtful story, and that the coming of Æneas to Italy was not universally received among the Romans themselves. He knew also, In the gallery lately belonging to the Grand Duke of Florence, there was a beautiful antique figure, which some antiquaries call a Piety, and others a vestal virgin. The woman, altar, and fire burning on |