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sent characteristics of the best imperial | are found here, but still well worthy of being period; and arabesque paintings here-visited. birds and winged children are distinguish- There seems reason to conclude that both ed by beauty and truthfulness entitling them pictures and sculptures had begun to appear, to rank beside the most graceful fresco though not in very common use, among the adornments in the columbaria of the Augus- ornaments of sacred buildings prior to the tan age, or those recently discovered in the last pagan persecution, and that it was in villa of Livia at Prima Porta.* The Cata- consequence of the outrage inflicted on such combs of S. Priscilla, referred to the highest art-objects under Diocletian, that the Counantiquity, are also remarkable for details of cil of Elvira, A.D. 303, passed the variouslytheir plan and art-works. Entered from a interpreted decree, "Ne quod colitur et vineyard of the Irish College on the Salarian adoratur in parietibus depingatur." Way, these were found permeable in only. The actual number of catacombs has been one of the four stories into which they are very differently reported. Arringhi, foldivided, and in some parts their interiors lowed by other writers, first raised it so are supported by walls in firm brickwork high as sixty, but without proof_adduced that appears of the fourth century. Admi- from personal experience. De Rossi sets rable among ornamental features here are the question at rest by supplying a list in various graceful stucco-reliefs, garlands, and which are reckoned forty-two, -not more designs of the guilloche character, reminding than twenty-six being of vast extent, and of the finest similar details in classic art. five shown to be of origin subsequent to the The largest oratory, in form a Latin cross, peace secured for the Church under Conis called the Greek Chapel, from the inscrip- stantine, all within a circle three miles tions in that language there read. Among distant from the walls of Servius Tullius, the most interesting paintings is a group though indeed other such hypogees are where a veiled female is seen in act of being crowned by two others; and again in prayer, amidst other figures, one of whom seems inviting her to enter a species of tabernacle, conjectured to represent the entrance of the soul, received by the Saviour, into eternal bliss; another group being formed of the Blessed Virgin and Child, with St. Joseph, who is bearded but not aged-looking, perhaps here for the first time introduced in sacred art. Another is interpreted by Bosio (the first to explore these catacombs) as the ceremony of giving the veil to a consecrated virgin-namely, the daughter of S. Priscilla,by Pope Pius I., who is seated on a massive episcopal throne; St. Hermes, his brother, and Priscilla herself attending; and opposite these persons the Madonna seated with the Divine Child, as if manifest in order to give highest sanction to that religious act. Conjecture has assumed antiquity so high as the first century for some paintings in these catacombs, and in their treatment both composition and costume awaken classic reminiscences. In the winter of 1854 were discovered both the longburied basilica and catacombs of Pope St. Alexander on the Nomentan Way- the hypogee in this instance extending on the same level with the ruined church from which we enter it, less interesting than others, as no monuments of artistic character

*See De Rossi's report, in his "Bullettino di Archeol. Cristiana," May, 1863.

† See De Rossi on the earliest representations of St. Joseph, "Bullettino" for April, 1863.

known to have been formed beyond that
radius. The name ad catacumbas was
originally given exclusively to that of St.
Sebastian on the Appian Way; and cata-
cumba was the title proper to a small
oratory behind the extramural basilica of
that saint, still extant, built about the
middle of the fourth century, for consecra-
tion of the spot where, according to legend,
the bodies of SS. Peter and Paul reposed
for a time after the attempt to remove those
revered relics to the East; a sacrilege
thwarted (as the legend narrates) by a
violent thunderstorm, which detained the
emissaries from the East till certain Roman
Christians arrived who rescued the bodies,
and here gave them interment. To the
same spot, it is said, the relics of St. Peter
were a second time transported, in the fear
of protanation, when a new circus, on the
Vatican hill above the Christian cemetery,
had been projected by Heliogabalus.
ancient chapel, circular in form, and very
inferior in masonry, has a plain altar in its
centre, above the deposit in which the
Apostles' bodies are said to have lain for a
year and seven months, according to some
writers: * for not less than forty years, as

This

*The sepulchre, now covered up, is a square each side, and the same in depth, lined in the lower aperture measuring between six and seven feet on part with marble, and divided into two equal compartments by a marble partition. This crypt-chapel is supposed to have been founded by Pope Liberfus, and completed under Pope Damasus. The legend of the attempted theft of those apostolic relies, in the time of St. Cornelius, Is given by Petrarch ("Lives of the ancient Pontiffs"), with all its ro

one chronicler states. Round the walls are in the living rock, at different periods, and, several arcosolia, apparently made to re- as assumed, during the more flourishing ceive sarcophagi, and once adorned with epochs of the once great Sicilian capitalpainted stucco in style of an early medieval not therefore of Christian origin, as is inperiod, but now barbarously covered with deed apparent from the pagan subjects of whitewash. Another oratory, at higher some designs, representing funeral ceremolevel, in form and construction similar, still nies, rudely scratched on their walls. retains fresco pictures on a low vaulted Throughout their whole extent, these hyroof, evidently of very remote origin, de- pogees show characteristics totally different. scribed by Nibby as Greek works: the from the Roman, and are described as reSaviour in act of blessing; SS. Peter and sembling a complete subterranean city, Paul; the Divine Master, represented in a with streets, rectilinear or curving, several large head of solemn expression, within a of which converge at open spaces, whence nimbus; a Crucifixion, not without merit is descent to lower stories; or at spacious in design, though indeed rude in execution. circular chambers, some twenty-four feet in The range of Christian Catacombs is not diameter, under domical roofs pierced by confined exclusively to the Roman neigh- orifices for giving light. The corridors are bourhood. Those at Naples, named after lined with arched recesses, divided into St. Januarius, and formed alike in tufa parallel tombs by stone partitions; but many stratifications, are of great extent, but have of the deposits are sarcophagi, placed isolate hitherto been little worked or illustrated, on the ground, or at different heights along though their corridors, and especially one the rock-walls. Though generally, no doubt, large chapel here, contain many sacred formed anterior to Christianity, characterpaintings and symbolic ornaments, engrav-istics of the first centuries of our era are ings from some of which are given by Agincourt, who ascribes the more remarkable among these pictures to Greek artists of periods earlier than the ninth century not undertaking farther to determine date. More extensive, and still less known or illustrated, are the Catacombs of Syracuse, which communicate with, or diverge from, several churches both in the city and extramural -the most spacious and easily permeable being under S. Giovanni, beyond the walls. In their aggregate these have never yet been explored; and among their more valuable contents, the antique vases, found here from time to time, have been mostly removed, many to pass into the possession of the Duke Bonanni, as he tells us in his work," Antiche Siracuse" (1717). Here also have been discovered numerous coins and Greek inscriptions; but not (that I can ascertain) any Christian paintings of remarkable character. These are probably the vastest in extent among all subterraneans ever applied to sacred purposes by the Church; and are excavated entirely

mantic embellishments: the sacrilegious Greeks had succeeded in bringing their stolen treasure from the Vatican to this stage on the Via Appia, when voices were heard crying from the penetralia of all the pagan fanes in the city, "Hasten, Romans, your gods are being carried away!" both Christians and heathens took the alarm (an anticipative idea of saint-worship as to the former), rushed in multitudes, overtook the spoilers on this road, and found

the bodies thrown into the Catacombs.

apparent in the barbaric attempts at architectural detail in some chambers (perhaps used for worship); and still more clearly in the sacred symbols on certain tombs. But in other respects, the singularities of formation are such as to have led antiquarians to conjecture different races as the authors, and different epochs for the date of these extraordinary works. The artist traveller, Houel, who explored them to a considerable extent, and gives the fullest report I have met with, tells that he found the corridors throughout lighted by shafts communicating with the open air; but that at many points progress was impeded by the falling-in of the scaly rock. When at Syracuse, before the late political changes, I could find no cicerone capable of acting as guide to any extent, or giving any desirable information, in these mysterious subterraneans. That such retreats were early required amid the perils of the primitive local Church, we may infer from the religious history of this island. We know that martyrs suffered under Nero; that the Decian persecution raged with utmost violence, giving occasion to the self-sacrifice of many heroic witnesses, in Sicily; and the tradition seems credible that it was in that range of more spacious corridors below the S. Giovanni Church that the faithful of Syracuse used to take refuge from the persecuting storm; that it was there one of their first bishops, St. Marcian, died a martyrs death. Pagan worship is believed to have been suppressed, or at least its prin

ТАСТ.

cipal temples for ever closed, in Sicily, un- that it is not a virtue, nor, on the other der the reign of Honorius.*

CHARLES J. HEMANS.

From the Saturday Review.
TACT.

hand, is it a vice. Like many other faculties, it takes its moral hue from the circumstances of each case; but it does not of necessity imply any state of moral character at all. It is solely and purely a capacity of getting easily along, and of managing the idiosyncrasies and peculiarities of those among whom our lot is cast -a power of making the most of the stream when it is with us, and the least of the stream when it is against us. If we wish to find out the moral colour of such a power, the first thing to be done is to distinguish between its several kinds. For tact is of the epicene gender. There is a male tact and a female tact, and the two are independent of one another. It is impossible to possess tact without possessing an insight into the character and feelings of one's fellow-men; but this insight may be either of an intellectual or a sympathetic sort. One can see by experience how entirely a clever man's tact differs often from the tact of a refined woman. A woman's is made up chiefly of keen and sensitive feeling with which shrewdness and mental grasp have nothing to do. Some kind of natural instinct en

TACT is usually spoken of as if it were a virtue, but in reality it is nothing of the kind. It can scarcely be said to be much more than the faculty of moving through the world without friction a faculty which for practical purposes is valuable enough, but which may be used, and is used, indifferently both for good and for evil. Some men have a turn for going through life like the fretful porcupine, with every single quill bristling and on end. There is a sort of snuffy Scotch way of looking at things, which shows itself in saying the wrong thing, upon principle, at the wrong time and to the wrong people. From this point of view tact would probably be considered as a species of moral and social crime; and some persons go so far as to consider it a religious ables her to sympathize with the passing duty to have no tact, and are inclined to sensations of those about her, and, in virtue think that the text which tells us that the of an internal sense, which is just as real a Apostle was all things to all men must be sense for her as her sense of touch or erroneously translated, and must have sight, she can throw herself into the mood meant something entirely different in the and frame of mind of those whom she is original Greek. And the spectacle presentnear. This capacity a woman acquires ed by tacticians is not always so agreeable partly from the ordinary training of women, as to put such straight-backed theologians which quickens their sensibility, and partly and moralists entirely out of court. Tact from the habit of observing and studying does not lead many men to heaven, and it small matters which is a necessity of their leads a good many men to a place which social and domestic life. They gain by may, for the sake of euphony, be called the long practice the power of catching looks, antipodes of heaven. In endeavouring to gestures, and shades of expression in the avoid offence to their fellow-creatures, they face or in the eye, which less experienced sacrifice a principle or a duty, and end by observers never would notice; and their insensibly sliding down the soft and smooth womanly feelings eke out the powers of obdecline down which those descend who are al-servation. It is scarcely a fresh step for ways for making all things pleasant. Familiarity with such a spectacle induces preachers and essayists to undervalue tact, just as men of the world are disposed to overrate it. The truth is, as we began by saying,

For the history of Persecutions, vide Ruinart, "Acta Sincera;" Tillemont; and Millman, "His tory of Christianity." For the Catacombs and Primitive Art (besides the works above cited), Gerbet, "Esquisse de Rome Chrétienne;" Gournerie, "Rome Chrétienne; Martigny, "Diction. des Antiq. Chrétiennes ;" Didron, Iconographie; Guénebault, "Diction. Iconog.; " Houel, "Voyage Pittoresque des Isles de Sicile," &c.; Raoul Rochette," Catacombs de Rome; " Pelliccia, "Christ. Eccles Politia; " Cantù, "Storia Universale," Appendix on Archæology.

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them to throw themselves in sympathy into the feelings of the person whose countenance and language they have been accurately reading, and their tact accordingly rests on the double foundation of fine feeling and accurate perception. It consists indeed mainly in the power of understanding and appreciating pain. No woman who is a good specimen of womanhood can bear to witness suffering, and mental suffering is, of all descriptions of pain, the most distressing to a generous spectator. The feminine tact, accordingly, with which many women and some few men are endowed, lies in a nervous sympathy with pain, a capacity for

discerning at a distance the path that leads towards the pain of others, and an instinctive aversion to following it.

have utterly forgotten to-morrow the person whom they have taken such pains to conciliate to-day. Their life is a long course There is another kind of tact, which may of hypocrisy, though the hypocrisy loses be called male tact in opposition to female, half its ugliness when one considers that it which springs not from the beart so much is unconscious and undesigned. Such charas from the head. Female tact helps those acters are not unfrequently the very type who have it to be pleasant companions, to of cruelty. For it is a great mistake to shine in society, to mould and animate con- suppose that cruel people, as an invariable versation, and to avoid everything of the rule, are devoid of sensibility. On the connature of a personal contretemps. Male tact trary, their sensibilities are often keen depends on the power of reading character. enough, only they happen at the same time Though the observation of women is both unfortunately to be shortlived and fugitive. accurate and minute, it aids them rather to Cruelty, therefore, is by no means an ununderstand the feelings of those into con- frequent concomitant of tact. Even among tact with whom they are brought, than to women the ill-omened union of the two is form a just and complete estimate of their sometimes seen. But among men, whose propensities or their ruling passions. This tact is rather intellectual than moral, the latter and more thorough insight into char- conjunction of the two seemingly incongruacter requires a real knowledge of the ous qualities is very common. The art of world, and an acquaintance with the ordi- managing men continually goes hand in nary habits and actions of men, which wo-hand with great and remarkable insensibilimen cannot and ought not to desire to possess. ty, and diplomatists accordingly figure as the It would not be of much value to them if embodiment of cruelty quite as much as it were theirs. The art of management is they are the embodiment of tact. distinct from the art of pleasing, and a managing woman is not as much an ornament to her sex as a woman who by her sensitiveness knows how to charm and to sympathize. But the tact that is of advantage in the daily conduct of the affairs of men is based rather on intellectual, than on moral qualities. It is a sort of fine intellectual sense, which may be made finer every day, like other senses, by use. The ideal diplomatist, the ideal orator, and the ideal man of the world may be taken as its type and representative. Their touch is sometimes as soft and velvety as a woman's, and there is something of a woman's sensibility about it, only that it depends less on a reluctance to give pain than on a clear perception of what will move, and persuade, and attract. It is not easy to draw the line severely between these two species of tact. They approximate towards and run into one another. But that there is a real and tangible difference between the two becomes apparent if we only consider for a moment the various and dissimilar characters to which tact is seen united. If tact were made up entirely of sympathy, one would expect to find it joined invariably to a warm and philanthropic heart. No expectation could be more belied by fact. People who have tact, as often as not, are cold, calculating, and heartless. Like consummate actors, they are so accustomed to fling themselves into the position of the hour that every situation passes equally lightly over them, and they are everything by turns and nothing long. They

It is to be noticed that tact is one of the very few characteristics that are almost entirely independent of age. Children often have a far greater share of tact than grownup men and women. As men advance in life they acquire more and more experience of character, but they become more and more engrossed in themselves and in their own pursuits, and have less leisure or inclination to devote to the observation of others. Middle age blunts the sensibilities. When the bloom of life is over, and when one has enjoyed the first flavour of romance and the novelty of social intercourse, men grow lazy and careless about restraining themselves; personal crotchets and unsociable habits fix themselves on them, and they become more careless about pleasing those they meet. As the use of the sense lessens, the sense itself decays. Tact, as its name implies, is only a fine touch, and the fineness of the touch diminishes as it ceases to be refined by constant employment and occupation. All the knowledge of character and of the world which one adds to one's store as one increases in age does not make up for the declension of sensibility. Nobody can be a master of the science of tact without being able to be, or to seem, enthusiastic. Nor can anybody be a master of it without devoting his thoughts to the observation of his friends and acquaintances. As their years advance, men and women show themselves more and more disinclined for either effort. It does not seem worth while studying either the peculiarities or the faults of others, and

one naturally prefers to give up one's undi- a time when she ceases to have any interests vided attention to the gratification of one's on this side of the grave. Masculine ambiown. For this reason the tact of young tion is of a different sort, and its realization men is often equal, if not superior, to the is not so dependent on the social qualities tact of their elders. They blunder con- of its possessor. Men succeed in life by stantly from ignorance of the world, but being powerful and rich and clever, or by they do not blunder so often from careless- having those who are powerful and rich to ness as to the feelings of others. Tact with back them, not by making themselves agreewomen lasts longer into the afternoon of able companions; and the polish they put life. The reason probably is that women on when they enter society imperceptibly have more to gain by cultivating and pre- and gradually wears off. Selfishness comes serving it. A vast portion of a woman's over them; and though men who are selfish happiness depends upon her social powers. may bave tact if they make it a study and If she has not the faculty of making and of a profession, selfish men cannot have tact keeping together a circle of friends and naturally, unless their selfishness is made up of acquaintances, it is her lot to be subjected of an excessive sensibility and self-consciousto incessant mortifications, and for the sake ness. Professional tacticians accordingly of her ambition she remains attentive up to may be of any age; but tact, the natural the last to the art of pleasing. Her ambi- and spontaneous article which is the product tion and her success depend on it, and when of refinement and sensibility, belongs to an she ceases to care to attract, it is always at earlier and ante-middle-age period.

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