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ly connected with their origin. It is true, indeed, that oneelement naturally grows out of another, and yet, there areinfluences which are hostile to this natural development, orwhich, at least, may give a disastrous predominance to someover others.

In the growth of cities the fortress became a royal resi-dence. But, where the court was, there would be splendor,elegance, and refinement carried out, to the utmost idea ofcivilization which had as yet obtained. Hence, naturally,the royal city, where the monarch seized this idea, and feltits genial impulse, became the seat of learning and the arts.

The ruins of Babylon are shapeless mounds, but historyhas not left us without records of its palaces and hanginggardens, its treasures, its beautiful arts, and the learning ofits Magi.

Nineveh , in our times, has been exhumed, and reveals tothe astonished eye the indisputable remains of royal magni-ficence, and of a sculpture which, belonging to the same typewith the Egyptian , may claim to vie with it as representingthat stage of the art, when boldness of design and elaboratefinish formed the chief characteristics; and Grecian eleganceand grace had not yet appeared.

The massive ruins of Egypt still remain. The Pyramids,the Tombs, the exiled obelisks, the mutilated Sphynx,Thebes and Karnak, attest the power, the splendor, the art,the gorgeous forms of life of those ancient dynasties.

The ancient fortress of Romulus and Remus , afterwardsthe imperial city of the Caesars, in its Coliseum, itstriumphal arches, its ruined 'palaces and temples, and theexhumed treasures of art which crowd the Yatican, calls upa vision of imperial greatness, power, and magnificence, andof the development of the arts, which the imagination mightambitiously claim as its own, did not the stupendous andbeautiful ruins furnish data which make the vision only a.just historical conception. The little island, La Citd, in theSeine , first selected as a secure position, is now only thecentre of the vast capital of the Bourbons and the Napoleons,where the brilliancy and gaiety of the Court , and thedisplays of the great mart of fashion, are eclipsed by the sub-stantial glory of art and learning.

Of the capitals which have been founded, perhaps none