effluvia, and the temples, the altars, of the highest necessity to the Italians who have ever some thing to beg of the celestial powers.
"Here it was, lastly, that during a long roll of centuries were accomplished the vulgar or strange deeds, almost ever flat and dull, oftentimes odious and ridiculous, at times generous, the agglomeration of which constitutes the august life of a people."
"What is it that one sees, in the centre of the square, fronting the commemorative pedestals?" inquired M. Goubin, who, primed with an eyeglass, had noticed a new feature in the ancient Forum, and was thirsting for information concerning it.
Joséphin Leclerc obligingly answered him that they were the foundations of the recently unearthed colossal statue of Domitian.
Thereupon he pointed out, one after the other, the monuments laid bare by Giacomo Boni in the course of his five years' fruitful excavations: the fountain and the well of Juturna, under the Palatine Hill; the altar erected on the site of Caesar's funeral pile, the base of which spread itself at their feet, opposite the Rostra; the archaic stele and the legendary tomb of Romulus over which lies the black marble slab of the Comitium; and again, the Lacus Curtius.
The sun, which had set behind the Capitol, was
