At the head of the first, or purely didactic division of this class, I shall place the picture, or “Table of Cebes,” as it is commonly called. The picture may have been painted, or it may have existed only in the imagination of that amiable disciple of Socrates. In either case his description shows the importance which was attached to painting by the ancients as an instrument of public instruction[146]. He says there was a picture hung in a certain temple, and that one of the persons attached to the temple was always at hand to exhibit it to visiters, and to explain its meaning; and he gives the dialogue between the exhibitor and a visiter at length, that he may introduce a description of the whole composition, as well as an account of the moral end of the picture. The action represented is Human Life as a whole; and the parts are the vicissitudes to which it is subject. The ground-work of the table seems to have been a landscape in various parts, of which the different situations occur most proper for the purpose of the painter. The landscape is subdivided into separate enclosures, at the first gate of which is placed the Genius of Human Life, ushering in those who are about to begin their pilgrimage. They first meet upon their road with Deception, who offers them the Cup of Error and of Ignorance; then come Opinions, and Appetites, and Pleasures to delude them. The next great object in the picture is Fortune, who, with her followers, occupies a considerable space, near which are the Vices, who naturally lead to the den of Punishment, where they meet with Sorrow, Anguish, Lamentation, and Despair. Some, however, happily reach the dwelling of Repentance, and thence set forth to seek Education. Here again some go astray and entangle themselves with False Education, by whom they are once more betrayed to the Passions and to wrong Opinions; but the Happy, by the assistance of Self Command and Perseverance, reach the mansion of True Education, whom they find with her daughters, Truth and Persuasion. These introduce them to Knowledge and the Virtues, who conduct them to the palace of their mother, Happiness, by whom they are crowned as victors in the race of life. The Calumny of Apelles, of which I have copied Lucian’s description in a note to a former essay, is another example of this kind of painting among the ancients. I shall cite one modern fresco work, now nearly effaced from the walls upon which it was painted by Lorenzetti, one of the earliest restorers of painting in the fourteenth century. In the palace of government, in the city of Sienna, this remarkable picture is still to be traced. In the time of the freedom of the city, the magistrates could not go daily to their public duties without passing through the hall where it was painted, to remind them of the blessings of peace and good government, and the curse of war and misrule.