them, which act was attended by a "dreadful
pestilence." It is the opinion of certain writers that these women were
of a different religious faith from their captors, and that so intense
and bitter was the feeling upon the comparative importance of the sex
functions in pro-creation, that their husbands, unable to change their
views, put an end to their existence.

Nothing, perhaps, proclaims the degree of civilization attained by the
ancient Etrurians more plainly than the exquisite perfection which is
observed in the specimens of art found in their tumuli. Within the tombs
of Etruscans buried long prior to the foundation of Rome, or the birth
of the fine arts in Greece, have been found unmistakable evidence of the
advanced condition of this people. The exquisite coloring and grouping
of the figures on their elegant vases, one of which, on exhibition in
the British Museum, portrays the birth of Minerva, or Wisdom, show the
delicacy of their taste, the purity of their conceptions, and their true
artistic skill.

Among their mechanical arts, a few specimens of which have been
preserved, is the potter's wheel, an invention which, so far as its
utility is concerned, is declared to be absolutely perfect--the most
complete of all the instruments of the world. "It never has been
improved and admits of no improvement." In fact all that may be gathered
concerning the ancient Etrurians, a people who by the most able writers
upon this subject is believed to have been one of the first to leave
the Asiatic hive, is in perfect accord with the facts already set forth
regarding that mighty nation, perhaps of upper Asia, who carried the
study of astronomy to a degree of perfection never again reached until
after the discovery of the Copernican system, who invented the Neros
and the Metonic Cycle, who colonized Egypt and Chaldea, and who carried
civilization to the remotest ends of the earth.

The philosophy of the Etrurians corresponds with that of the most
ancient Hindoo system, and displays a degree of wisdom unparalleled by
any of the peoples belonging to the early historic ages. According to
their cosmogony, the evolutionary or creative processes involved twelve
vast periods of time. At the end of the first period appeared the
planets and the earth, in the second the firmament was made, in the
third the waters were brought forth, in the fourth the sun, moon, and
stars were placed in the heavens, in the fifth living creatures ap