mitted light, has a fine
passage illustrative of the magnificence displayed in this branch of
theatrical decoration.

This the crowd surveys
Oft in the theatre, whose awnings broad,
Bedecked with crimson, yellow, or the tint
Of steel cerulean, from their fluted heights
Wave tremulous; and o'er the scene beneath,
Each marble statue, and the rising rows
Of rank and beauty, fling their tint superb,
While as the walls with ampler shade repel
The garish noonbeam, every object round
Laughs with a deeper dye, and wears profuse
A lovelier lustre, ravished from the day.

Wool, however, was the most common material, and the velaria made in
Apulia were most esteemed, on account of the whiteness of the wool.

Those who are not acquainted by experience with the difficulty of
giving stability to tents of large dimensions, and the greater
difficulty of erecting awnings, when, on account of the purpose for
which they are intended, no support can be applied in the centre, may
not fully estimate the difficulty of erecting and managing these
velaria. Strength was necessary, both for the cloth itself and for the
cords which strained and supported it, or the whole would have been
shivered by the first gust of wind, and strength could not be obtained
without great weight. Many of our readers probably are not aware, that
however short and light a string may be, no amount of tension applied
horizontally will stretch it into a line perfectly and mathematically
straight. Practically the deviation is imperceptible where the power
applied is very large in proportion to the weight and length of the
string. Still it exists; and to take a common example, the reader
probably never saw a clothes-line stretched out, though neither the
weight nor length of the string are considerable, without the middle
being visibly lower than the ends. When the line is at once long and
heavy, an enormous power is required to suspend it even in a curve
between two points; and the amount of tension, and difficulty of
finding materials able to withstand it, are the only obstacles to
constructing chain bridges which should be thousands, instead of
hundreds of feet in length.

In these erections the piers are raised to a considerable height, that
a sufficient depth may be allowed for the curve of the chains without
depressing the roadway. Ten times--a hundred times the power which was
applied to strain them into that