In attempting to estimate correctly the architecture of Rome, or any of her correlative arts, we must apply a mode of criticism which is entirely inapplicable to those styles of which we have hitherto treated. In Greece, we can contemplate an artistic work with the same unmingled delight we feel when studying a work of nature; but, in Rome, there is no one building on which we look with unqualified pleasure, none in which imperfections are not obvious to the most uncritical eye. In every instance, the destroying hand of time has been merciful, in hiding defects, and concealing vulgarities, so that the chief attractions that remain are the result of his hallowing touch, and the halo of association which spreads around excrescences that, in their nakedness, would shock and disgust us. When their artists attempted an exalted range of invention, they wandered into exaggerated forms of Titanic strength, and here their loftiest flight was terminated. They were blinded to the path of spiritual beauty, and in striving to storm heaven, and compel divinity, they failed in all their presumptuous endeavors. That which was born and slowly nurtured on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates, suddenly sprang into its manhood of superlative worth in Greece, and perished at Rome in decrepitude and crime. Under the reign of the first Tarquin, Rome was fortified, cleansed, and somewhat embellished. The low grounds about the Forum were drained, which prepared the way for the second Tarquin to construct that Cloaca Maxima, which was every way a masterly work. Servius Tullius enlarged the city, and completed the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, B.C. 508. As the name imports, it stood on the Mons Capitolinus, and embraced four acres of ground. It was twice destroyed, and twice rebuilt on the same foundation, by Vespasian, and Domitian. It is impossible now to trace the architecture of the Romans during the three hundred and sixty-three years which transpired between the time of their last king, and the subjugation of Greece by that people, in the year B.C. 145. But many of their grandest structures yet remain, and there is no great difficulty in estimating their comparative value.