th which was conducted the
caloric of the laconicum.

Here this portion of the intended bathers, after unrobing themselves,
remained for some time enjoying the artificial warmth of the luxurious
air. And this room, as befitted its important rank in the long process
of ablution, was more richly and elaborately decorated than the rest;
the arched roof was beautifully carved and painted; the windows above,
of ground glass, admitted but wandering and uncertain rays; below the
massive cornices were rows of figures in massive and bold relief; the
walls glowed with crimson, the pavement was skillfully tessellated in
white mosaics. Here the habituated bathers, men who bathed seven times
a day, would remain in a state of enervate and speechless lassitude,
either before or (mostly) after the water-bath; and many of these
victims of the pursuit of health turned their listless eyes on the
newcomers, recognizing their friends with a nod, but dreading the
fatigue of conversation.

From this place the party again diverged, according to their several
fancies, some to the sudatorium, which answered the purpose of our
vapor-baths, and thence to the warm-bath itself; those more accustomed
to exercise, and capable of dispensing with so cheap a purchase of
fatigue, resorted at once to the calidarium, or water-bath.

In order to complete this sketch, and give to the reader an adequate
notion of this, the main luxury of the ancients, we will accompany
Lepidus, who regularly underwent the whole process, save only the cold
bath, which had gone lately out of fashion. Being then gradually warmed
in the tepidarium, which has just been described, the delicate steps of
the Pompeian elegant were conducted to the sudatorium. Here let the
reader depict to himself the gradual process of the vapor-bath,
accompanied by an exhalation of spicy perfumes. After our bather had
undergone this operation, he was seized by his slaves, who always
awaited him at the baths, and the dews of heat were removed by a kind of
scraper, which (by the way) a modern traveler has gravely declared to be
used only to remove the dirt, not one particle of which could ever
settle on the polished skin of the practised bather. Thence, somewhat
cooled, he passed into the water-bath, over which fresh perfumes were
profusely scattered, and on emerging from the opposite part of the room,
a cooling shower played over his head and form. Then wrapping himself
in a light robe, he retu