ent persuasion that
what suited them did not suit others; and the profane vulgar were
expected to do, not as the priests did, but as they taught them to do.

In their plans the houses of towns, like the villas in the country,
varied according to the caprice of the builders. The ground-plan, in
some of the former, consisted of a number of chambers on three sides
of a court, which was often planted with trees. Others consisted of
two rows of rooms on either side of a long passage, with an
entrance-court from the street; and others were laid out in chambers
round a central area, similar to the Roman _Impluvium_, and paved with
stone, or containing a few trees, a tank or a fountain in its centre.
Sometimes, though rarely, a flight of steps led to the front door from
the street.

Houses of small size were often connected together and formed the
continuous sides of streets; and a court-yard was common to several
dwellings. Others of a humbler kind consisted merely of rooms opening
on a narrow passage, or directly on the street. These had only a
basement story, or ground-floor; and few houses exceeded two stories
above it. They mostly consisted of one upper floor; and though
Diodorus speaks of the lofty houses in Thebes four and five stories
high, the paintings show that few had three, and the largest seldom
four, including, as he does, the basement-story. Even the greater
portion of the house was confined to a first floor, with an additional
story in one part, on which was a terrace covered by an awning, or a
light roof supported on columns. This served for the ladies of the
family to sit at work in during the day, and here the master of the
house often slept at night during the summer, or took his _siesta_ in
the afternoon. Some had a tower which rose even above the terrace.

The first-floor was what the Italians call the "_piano nobile_;" the
ground rooms being chiefly used for stores, or as offices, of which
one was set apart for the porter, and another for visitors coming on
business. Sometimes besides the parlor were receiving apartments on
the basement-story, but guests were generally entertained on the
first-floor; and on this were the sleeping-rooms also, except where
the house was of two or three stories. The houses of wealthy citizens
often covered a considerable space, and either stood directly upon the
street, or a short way back, within an open court; and some large
mansions were detached, and had several entr