nstinct of art, spontaneousness,
freedom of touch, and vivid life.

Such were the walls of Pompeii. Let us now glance at the pavements. They
will astonish us much more. At the outset the pavements were quite
plain. There was a cement formed of a kind of mortar; this was then
thoroughly dusted with pulverized brick, and the whole converted into a
composition, which, when it had hardened, was like red granite. Many
rooms and courts at Pompeii are paved with this composition which was
called _opus signinum_. Then, in this crust, they at first ranged small
cubes of marble, of glass, of calcareous stone, of colored enamel,
forming squares or stripes, then others complicating the lines or
varying the colors, and others again tracing regular designs, meandering
lines, and arabesques, until the divided pebbles at length completely
covered the reddish basis, and thus they finally became mosaics, those
carpetings of stone which soon rose to the importance and value of great
works of art.

The house of the Faun at Pompeii, which is the most richly paved of all,
was a museum of mosaics. There was one before the door, upon the
sidewalk, inscribed with the ancient salutation, _Salve!_ Another, at
the end of the prothyrum, artistically represented masks. Others again,
in the wings of the atrium, made up a little menagerie,--a brace of
ducks, dead birds, shell-work, fish, doves taking pearls from a casket,
and a cat devouring a quail--a perfect masterpiece of living movement
and precision. Pliny mentions a house, the flooring of which represented
the fragments of a meal: it was called _the ill-swept house_. But let us
not quit the house of the Faun, where the mosaic-workers had, besides
what we have told, wrought on the pavement of the oecus a superb lion
foreshortened--much worn away, indeed, but marvellous for vigor and
boldness. In the triclinium another mosaic represented Acratus, the
Bacchic genius, astride of a panther; lastly the piece in the exaedra,
the finest that exists, is counted among the most precious specimens of
ancient art. It is the famous battle of Arbelles or of Issus. A squadron
of Greeks, already victorious, is rushing upon the Persians; Alexander
is galloping at the head of his cavalry. He has lost his helmet in the
heat of the charge, his horses' manes stand erect, and his long spear
has pierced the leader of the enemy. The Persians, overthrown and
routed, are turning to flee; those who immediately surround Da