=The Symbolical Statues.=--The eight statues set upon the entablature over the engaged columns represent eight characteristic features of civilized life and thought. From the floor to the plinth or base on which they stand is a distance of fifty-eight feet; each is ten and a half feet, or, including the plinth, eleven feet high. All are of plaster, toned an ivory white to match the general tone of the stucco decoration throughout the room, and are effectively placed against the plain red pendentives of the dome as a background. The title of each is inscribed in gilt letters in a tablet in the frieze below. Beginning with the figure directly to the right as one enters the west gallery of the Rotunda, the order is as follows: _Religion_, modelled by Mr. Theodore Baur; _Commerce_, by Mr. John Flanagan; _History_, by Mr. Daniel C. French; _Art_, by a French artist, Mr. Dozzi, after sketches by Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens; _Philosophy_, by Mr. Bela L. Pratt, who modelled the granite spandrels of the Main Entrance; _Poetry_, by Mr. J. Q. A. Ward; _Law_, by Mr. Paul W. Bartlett; and _Science_, by Mr. John Donoghue. [Illustration: SHAKESPEARE. BY FREDERICK MACMONNIES.] Nearly all bear some appropriate and distinguishing object. _Religion_ holds a flower in her hand, seeming to draw from it the lesson of a God revealed in Nature. _Commerce_, crowned with a wreath of the peaceful olive, holds in her right hand a model of a Yankee schooner, and in her left a miniature locomotive. _History_ has a book in her hand, and with an obvious symbolism holds up a hand-glass so that it will reflect things behind her. _Art_ is unlike the other figures in being represented as nearly nude. She is crowned with laurel, and bears a model of the Parthenon. Beside her is a low tree, in the branches of which are hung a sculptor’s mallet and the palette and brush of the painter. _Philosophy_ is a grave figure with downcast eyes, carrying a book in her hand. The garment of _Poetry_ falls in severe lines, which suggest the epic and the more serious forms of the drama, rather than the lighter aspects of the Muse. _Law_ has a scroll in her hand; a fold of her robe is drawn over her head to signify the solemnity of her mission; and beside her is the stone Tablet of the Law. _Science_ holds in her left hand a globe of the earth, surmounted by a triangle. In her right hand is a mirror, not, like _History’s_, turned backward, but held forward so that all may perceive the image of Truth.