The only other decoration which there is space to mention is the broad, semicircular border which follows the line of the vault on the wall at either end of the corridor. At the east end, this border is ornamented with a bright-colored arabesque, mainly in violet and greens, with a medallion in the centre bearing a map of the Western Hemisphere. At the west end, the border is plainer, with five semicircular or circular tablets, two of which are ornamented with the obverse and reverse respectively of the Great Seal of the United States. The other three carry the following inscriptions:-- Order is Heaven’s first law. _Pope._ Memory is the treasurer and guardian of all things. _Cicero._ Beauty is the creator of the universe. _Emerson._ =Mr. Barse’s Paintings.=--In the East Corridor, the pendentive figures of Mr. Barse represent, beginning on the east side, at the north end: _Lyric Poetry_ (entitled by the artist, _Lyrica_), _Tragedy_, _Comedy_, and _History_; and on the west, again beginning at the north, _Love Poetry_ (_Erotica_), _Tradition_, _Fancy_, and _Romance_. The subject of the entire series, therefore, may be called simply _Literature_. The figures, as the visitor will perceive, need but little explanation. All are those of women clad in graceful, classic robes, represented throughout as seated, and depicted with little attempt at dramatic expression or action. _Lyric Poetry_ is playing on the lyre. _Tragedy_ and _Comedy_ have a tragic and comic mask respectively, and _Comedy_ a tambourine. _History_ has a scroll and palm-branch, and an ancient book-box for scrolls, such as was used by the Romans, is set at her feet. _Romance_ has a pen and a scroll. _Fancy_ clasps her hands, and gazes upward with a rapt expression on her face. _Tradition_ wears the Ægis, and holds a statue of the winged goddess of Victory in her hand--both introduced as symbols of antiquity. _Erotica_ is writing on a tablet. Along the centre of the vault, occupying a similar position to the medallions in the opposite corridor, is another series of three paintings, executed by Mr. William A. Mackay, which represent _The Life of Man_. One will best understand the meaning of the paintings by first reading the inscriptions which are placed immediately above and below each medallion. On one side they refer to the ancient allegory of the Three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos--the first of whom spun, the second wove, and the third cut, the Thread of Life--and are as follows:-- For a web begun God sends thread. _Old Proverb._ The web of life ... is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together. _All’s Well that Ends Well._ Comes the blind Fury with th’ abhorred shears And slits the thin-spun life. _Milton._ On the other side the inscriptions, which compare the life of a man to the life of a tree, are taken from Cardinal Wolsey’s speech in _Henry VIII_:--