butterfly brings an atmosphere of life into the courtyard
that was hitherto lacking. Its appearance too suggests the famous
allegory, the unsolved riddle of human existence which so puzzled the
divine Plato and the ancient philosophers of Athens and Syracuse. Here are
we, the living men of to-day, watching the corpse of a departed world upon
which the mystic symbol of Psyche has just alighted. _Tempus breve est_ is
the simple little truism that rises to our reflecting minds. Eighteen
centuries between the Vettii and ourselves! They are gone like a flash,
and we are amazed to note how little has our nature altered either for the
better or the worse within that space of time, long enough if we measure
its limit by the standard of history, trivial if we reckon it by the
progress made in human ethics and human understanding. Surely there are
lessons to be learned in the silent city; Pompeii, we realize, is not
merely a heap of antique dross whence we can pick up precious grains of
knowledge, but it is an oracle in itself, which, if properly consulted,
will give us plain answers to our modern speculations, and will possibly
reprove us for our conceited assumption of omniscience.

[Illustration: LA CASA DEI VETTII, POMPEII]

Still brilliant in their strong prevailing tints of black, yellow and
vermilion are the decorative schemes which make a visit to the house of
the Vettii of such supreme importance for those who wish to understand
fully the artistic tastes of the Romans, and also their artistic
limitations. If the contents of the Museum seem colourless and cold, and
prove unsatisfying and disappointing, here the eye of the artist can feast
upon the classical ornamentation which remains fairly fresh in spite of a
dozen years of exposure to daylight. For this province of art is
peculiarly associated with the opening years of the Empire, and Pompeii is
naturally the chief place for its study, and in Pompeii the untouched Casa
Nuova is all important for the student. According to Pliny, the inventor
of this pleasing style of decoration was a certain Ludius, who flourished
in the reign of Augustus, and first persuaded the Romans to embellish
their flat wall-surfaces with designs of "villas and halls, artificial
gardens, hedges, woods, hills, water basins, tombs, rivers, shores, in as
great a variety as could be desired; figures sitting at ease, mariners,
and those who, riding upon donkeys or in waggons, look after their farms;