Such are in general the fountains and cascades that adorn public walks and palace gardens and such the so much celebrated water- ;

works of St. Cloud, Marli, and Versailles inventions which can be considered only as pretty play -things, calculated, like a theatrical decoration to act an occasional part, and to furnish a momentary amusement, but too insignificant to be introduced into the resorts of the public, or into the walks of princes, where we have reason to expect solid magnificence, founded on nature and reality.

"How far the ancient Romans carried this species of magnificence, we may easily judge, when we consider that they had, undoubtedly, both the taste and the materials requisite for it. Their aqueducts, which supplied them with water, even to prodigality, still remain, striding across valleys, penetrating mountains, and sweeping over immense plains, till they meet in the heart of the city. The edifice where they united, and whence they separated to water their destined quarters, was called Castellum and if we may ;

judge by that which remains (the Porta Maggiore) was generally a fabric of great solidity and magnificence and, as appears from the ruins of one discovered near the church of ;

St. Ignatius, sometimes cased with marble and adorned with marble pillars. The number of these towers anciently, as well as of the towers springing from them, must have been prodigious, as Agrippa alone, if we may believe Pliny, erected one hundred and thirty of the former, and opened one hundred and five of the latter, and adorned them with three hundred brass and marble statues. The modern Romans, though inferior in numbers and opulence to their ancestors, have shown equal taste and spirit in this respect, and deserve a just eulogium, not only for having procured an abundance of water, but for the splendid and truly imperial style, in which it is poured forth for public use in the different quarters of the city.