Possibly it may be reserved for the United Italy of the nineteenth century to turn back to the earlier pages in her ceramic history, and, having filled herself with the spirit of the potters of Magna Græcia and Apulia, to pass down to the brilliancy of the sixteenth century, and, with both in full view, to execute something worthy of the later prime of her unity. Endless repetitions of the famous fabrics of the Renaissance have led her into spiritless imitation and boundless fraud. Some of the pieces displayed at the Centennial Exhibition were by no means destitute of merit. Faenza can still produce good drawing and effective coloring, and Della Robbia ware is still manufactured with tin-enamelled figures, which look considerably better than whitewashed terra-cotta. But let us imagine the energy and skill devoted to imitation with intent to deceive, and the painstaking labor of honest men who make no attempt to rise above the rank of copyists, to be together thrown into an endeavor to reach a new originality. Might not Italy be raised from the rank of a country resting upon a brilliant past into that of one working in the present to reach an equally brilliant future? PORCELAIN. Florence and Earliest Artificial Porcelain.--Theory of Japanese Teaching.--La Doccia.--Venice, and the Question of its First Making European Porcelain.--Le Nove.--Capo di Monte. [Illustration: Fig. 223.--Medicean Porcelain (Castellani Coll.)] [Illustration: Fig. 224.--Design at Bottom of Bowl, Fig. 223.]