to reconstruct this sanctuary richly. We can there raise--and it has
been done on paper--two colonnades--the first one of the Ionic order,
supporting a gallery; the second of the Corinthian order, sustaining the
light wooden platform of painted wood which no longer exists. The walls,
covered with stucco, still retain pretty decorative paintings. Three
small subterranean chambers, of very solid construction, perhaps
contained the treasury and archives of the State, or something else
entirely different--why not those of the temple? In those times the
Church was rich; the Saviour had not ordained poverty as its portion.

[Illustration: THE FORUM.]

What deity's house is it that we are visiting now? Jupiter's, says
common opinion, upon the strength of a colossal statue of which
fragments have been found that might well have fitted the King of the
Gods. Others think it the temple of Venus, the _Venus Physica_ (the
beautiful in nature, say æsthetic philosophers) being the patroness of
Pompeii. We shall frequently, hereafter, meet with the name of this
goddess. Several detached limbs in stone and in bronze, which are not
broken at the extremity as though they belonged to a statue, but are
polished on all sides and cut in such a manner as to admit of being
suspended, were found among the ruins; they were votive offerings.
Italy, in becoming Catholic, has retained these Pagan customs. Besides
her supreme God, she worships a host of demi-gods, to whom she dedicates
her towns and consecrates her temples, where garlands of ex-voto
offerings testify to the intercession of the priests and the gratitude
of the true believers.

On the two sides of the temple of Jupiter--such is the
generally-accepted name--rise arcades, as I have already remarked. The