In K 1 the central draped figure is Susannah, not the literal Susannah of the story, but the Church, which with hands uplifted prays to God to vindicate her innocence. On one side of her, to the left of the spectator, are two men, not the literal elders, for they are youthful in appearance, but elders as belonging to the two elder dispensations of the Jews and the Gentiles. These two then, with arms extended, have been crying out and accusing her. The tree, which in the original painting stands a little behind them, and which was omitted by M. Perret, has been restored. On the opposite side, to the left of the spectator, there is a house door opening into the garden, and a man, the Emperor that is, or the Prefect, or any other in authority, coming out in an attitude of enquiry, as if asking, What is all this outcry that I hear? and what accusation bring ye against her?

In K 2, which forms the suite to the above, the two men, that is, the old Jew and the old Gentile, appear again with their hands placed on the head of Susannah, the Church, giving their testimony against her to put her to death, while she again prays, but now only mentally, (for they keep down her hands,) to God, who alone is able to deliver her. The two trees, which are added for the sake of symmetry, are not in the original painting.

In K 3, from a sarcophagus of the fourth century seen in 1849 at Arles by the writer, who is now indebted for a copy of it to the kindness of P. Garucci, we see a variety of the same subject, the Church being again represented as Susannah holding the scroll of the Scriptures, as the shield of her innocence, across her breast, while the Jew and the Gentile of the elder dispensations, now both old and hard-featured, are spying at her from behind two trees, as seeking accusation against her, and

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finding it, as is written of Daniel, only concerning the law of her God. On an ivory Reliquary at Brescia, an account of which has been published, there is a full and elaborate representation of the same subject.

Under Susannah, in the central painting K 1, there is added a small painting from the Cemetery of Prætextatus, now copied for the Lateran Museum, in which a lamb stands in the midst, with two hyænas or jackals with open mouth gaping at her on either side. Over the lamb is inscribed the name 66 SUSANNA," and over one of the two hyenas, "SENIORES."

XI. COMPOSITION L. Of Nebuchadnezzar and Herod.

THE purpose of this Composition is to exhihit the two ways in which kings and emperors too commonly war upon the Church, either by open tyranny or by hypocrisy, while the true Christians prefer to obey God rather than man.

In L 1 the central figure of Nebuchadnezzar, in the dress of a Roman emperor, with one of his guards standing by, is taken from a sarcophagus, probably of the fourth century, given in Rom. Sott. vol. 1. pl. xxi., but with some alteration. In the original it is a side view; the king being turned towards the image, and looking on beyond it to where the three children of the Hebrews are seen in the furnace. Here Nebuchadnezzar is turned round, so as to face the spectator; and further colours have been added; so as to show in this one instance what extent of liberty the plan of our work of itself admits, so long as notice is given to the reader,

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To our right are the three children of the Hebrews standing before the golden image of the king, to which an officer is pointing, and commanding them to worship. This painting is from the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles (Rom. Sott. vol. II. pl. lxxxii.), where, however, one of the three Hebrews appears as a guard. If this is not an inaccuracy in the engraving, our painting has been altered so as to agree with other examples of the same subject. To our left, from a painting in the Cemetery of S. Hermes (Rom. Sott. vol. III. pl. clxxxvi.), are the same three children of the Hebrews in the furnace, praying to God, who is able to deliver them.

In the lateral painting, L 2, which is from the Cemetery of S. Agnes, and copied from thence for the author -(It is also given in the great French publication of M. Perret,)—we no longer see the open violence of secular tyranny, claiming to itself that obedience and devotion which is due to Christ and his Church. In its stead we see, under the person of Herod, the hypocrisy of such secular rulers as profess themselves to be good Christians, defenders of the faith, or eldest sons of the Church, when in truth the thought of their heart is to destroy Christ in his cradle, as a rival to their own power; that is, to subjugate his Church, and make it the instrument of their own policy. Herod holds his hand to his breast, and sits with a look of reverential inquiry. The Magi, with their gifts in their hands, and the star above their heads to show who they are, stand before him in an attitude of respect, not knowing the wickedness of his heart.

Opposite, in L 3, in a painting which is from the same Cemetery of S. Agnes, but from another tomb (Comp. Rom. Sott. vol. II. pl. lxxxii., Cem. of SS. Nereus and Achilles; and vol. II. pl. cxxvi., Cem. of SS. Marcel

linus and Peter), we see the three Magi with their gifts coming to worship Christ in the arms of his mother. At the tomb referred to, in the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles, there is an interesting peculiarity of design, combining the two subjects grouped together in this Composition: the three children of the Hebrews are there seemingly identified with the three Magi, their features and dresses, and the colours of their dresses, being alike; and while on one side of the arch over the tomb they are seen refusing to worship the ugly image of the earthly tyrant, who can only threaten to kill the body, on the other they are running to worship the "Image of the Father," the heir of the throne of David, the true King of heaven and earth, in the arms of his Virgin mother.

There is yet another variety of the adoration of the Magi, which should be of interest to the Americans, since in the middle ages it became common to think that their conventional number three had some reference to the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, with their Gentile inhabitants, so that one of the three was often represented black. In the Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles in one place, in a gallery, instead of three, the usual number, there are four Magi, so that a modern interpreter might infer that America was here represented by anticipation.

XII. COMPOSITION M.-Of the Ships.

THE design of the central painting, M 1, is taken from an onyx seal described by P. Garucci, the proportions being enlarged, and the colouring added. It is given also in Rom. Sott. vol. II. p. 156. The vessel is the ship of the Church. The fish, on the back of which the vessel is carried, is Christ. The same idea occurs in connexion with the individual soul, which is represented on seals as a dove or as a lamb with a branch of olive or of palm, standing on the back of a fish, which carries it as a bark through the waves of this life. The steersman in the ship is also Christ. The dove on the poop is the Holy Spirit, whose breath is to fill the sail. The sail at that early period of the Church is only beginning to come down and to fill. The dove aloft represents the Prophets and Apostles on "the look-out." The two figures in the fore-part of the ship are the Apostles Peter and Paul as fishermen. Separately on the water we see Christ giving his hand to Peter to support him, and the names 66 "Peter" and 66 Jesus" in Greek are added.

Of the four medallions around, a, b, and c, have been published by P. Garucci, in his "Hagioglypta," printed at Paris, A. D. 1856. (See for a, p. 237, for b, p. 7, for C, p. 237.) These three all represent the ship of the Church, and all show Christ seated as steersman, a being the same as has been just described, only smaller; and still, even so, it is magnified beyond the size of the original, which has the name IHOYΣ on the reverse. The next, b, has in the fore-part S. Peter drawing in the net with a great fish enclosed. The third, c, shows the