of those arts, and of the peace in which they
flourish, the permission of her existence in those early centuries which
preceded the fall of Veii.

It is not here the place to develop the moral of Etruscan history, or to
investigate the political and social condition of the Etruscan people;
though the links we have of the former, and the glimpses of the latter
seen athwart the prejudices and mortified pride of the Roman historians,
give the subject a fascinating interest. It is said that when the Roman
armies invaded the territory of the northern Etruscan states, and their
commander asked the name of the first city they approached, the
unsuspecting subject of the Lars replied only,--not understanding the
barbarian language,--[Greek: Chaire], "Hail!" and ever since the city
has been known as Caere (and to its present inhabitants as
Cerevetere,--_Caere vetus_). Until the fatal dissension which permitted
the Romans to conquer Veii, the Etruscan states calmly and steadily
repelled all invasion,--rarely, as in the time of Porsenna, turning
aside to retaliate on Rome,--and still pursued their peaceful career,
the sages of Egypt and the artists and poets of Greece giving wisdom and
grace to their daily lives,--their temples the richest, their domestic
life the fairest, their political condition the most prosperous, and
their commerce the widest of all Italy, if not of all Europe.

Of it all, we have only the grave into which art sought to carry an
immortality of its own, and from which religion strove to banish the
drear gloom of the uncertain by surrounding the dead with all the
objects familiar to their daily lives and the incidents which were the
most antagonistic in impression to the darkness and silence to which
they abandoned the beloved ones only when conquest and destruction had
concealed the portals of their tombs, and ancestor and descendant had
yielded to the same oblivion. Among the most interesting tombs at
Tarquinii is one painted round with a wedding feast, the bridegroom
kissing his bride, the wine-cups and garlands, the dance and song with
the timing pipes, in colors fresh and sharp to-day amid the grave-damps,
giving the challenge strangely to the all-destroyer. One much later in
style of decoration has a procession of spirits driven by two
demons,--Dantesque in power and simplicity of conception and evident
faith, but telling a stranger story, in its contrast with the former,
than anything we know in the hi