Of those states which were grouped around the Mediterranean sea, Greece was certainly the intellectual mistress; but the Romans, by situation and race, inherited from them all whatever had before been accumulated in Asia and Africa, amalgamated the diversified elements into one empire of brute force, and thus opened the way for a more glorious progress. As a political phenomenon she stood alone, an empire aggregated out of discordant materials; not a mere conquest, like that of Alexander, to fall to pieces at the death of him who created it, but a coerced combination, substantiated by steadiness of purpose, and energy in administration, that half awed, half conciliated, its subjects in their bonds, and which caused the empire, externally, to cohere long after its heart had become corrupt, and the system was rotten to the core. The wealth of Rome could purchase, and her power could compel, the arts of conquered nations; and her political relations enabled her to accumulate in the metropolis those treasures which purer hands had created, and which her love of ostentation rendered it desirable she should possess. But we believe there is not extant one single passage of a Roman author, that shows a knowledge of what true art is, or what are its legitimate uses. From the fall of Carthage to the age of Constantine, not one general effort to achieve a noble end dignifies the annals of that belligerent people; but sickening scenes of domineering vice succeed each other, till the mind shrinks from the revolting picture. As long as they could live in idleness, or struggle in battle, as long as the streets were filled with pageants, and amphitheatres reeked with martyr-blood, they cared not what new tribe was butchered by their master, or how the so-called liberties of Rome were trampled upon. It is vain to expect beautiful art to flourish under such auspices. One shudders at the thought that those servile, bloody hands could fashion forms of representative excellence, or that minds which revelled in such scenes could admire its creations when exhibited before them.