The Portland daily press., 1878-04-17
WEDNESDAY MORNING., APRIL IL.

they do look as though they might worry
through two or three thousand years more. 1t
must be confessed that for all our boosted civil-
cation the Egyptian article of canned goods is
superior to our own. There is "Anchpefhir,
lady Of rank " ho lived thirty-five hundred
years ago, "a tine specimen" the catalogue
says She is fresh as a dsisy-a daisy OF that
summer-and as full of life as an old.line
Wing. But the collection is not confined to
mummies. There are many figures in stone,
terra Gotta and porcelain; amulets, some in
lapis lszuli; rings of great variety; fragments
of papyrus (portions of the Book of the Dead);
many scarabei, the Egyptian symbol of
creative power, one Of them five thousand
years old; pieces of sculpture, the most notice
able black granite figure of Pasht, lion
headed; and casts after statues, slabs and bas-
reliets in the British Museum from Karnac
and Thebes.
From the Egyptian room the visitor passes
into the first Greek room, where he finds a
small but choice collection of Cypriote antiqu-
ties from the Di Cesnola "fnd', very rich in
Ph@nician pottery and Greek glass from the
tombs at Idalium. Here too are Etruscan
black ware from Clusium, some of the painted
vases found by Castellani in the Etrurian
tombs, and large number Of casts Of archaic
Greek sculpture, among them casts from the
eastern pediment of the temple of Athena at
Egina The second and third Greek rooms
are given up to casts of famousi statuary, the
Venus OF Milo, the Farnesian Hercules, the
Apollo Belvidere, the Captoline Venus, the
Spinario, the Dying Gladiator 'the immortal
agony Of the LAGOON" and many others; and
also to casts of the marbles found at Olympus,
the bas reliefs of the Temple of the Winaless
Victory and the pediment groups of the Par
thenon. Passing from the last Greek through
the Roman and Renaissance room one comes
again to the lower hall and going up stairs
sees-but this is not a catalogue. He must not
TAIL to see, though the cast Of the bronze doors of
Ghiberti, and he cannot fail to see, for it con.
fronts him at the landing, the pulpit-door, in.
laid with ivory and ebony from Cairo mosque.
Wandering about in the upper rooms he finds
fine old tapestries, laces, bronzes and porce-
lains, and many pictures some good, not few
bad. Among the artists represented are Guido,
Annibale Csrracci, Valesquez, Holbain, Rugs
dae, Rubens, Gerard Dow. Constable, Gains
borough, Greuze, Corot, Daubigny, Milet and
Courbet. There are many other fine things to
be seen, ancient armor, old wood carvings,
Italian fictile ware, but space does not permit
further mention of them.
After some hours at the Museum one thinks
Of dinner and feels disposed to contradict the
saying of the Boston wit: "Give us the luxuries
of life and we candispense with the necessities.
There are many restaurants in Boston not pos.
itively bad land that is high praise for res
taurant as restaurants COY but the wise man
will seat himself at Parker's or Young's. Al
either good dinner may be got, but (though
the matter may not concern Maine visitors) the
better wine is to be found at Young's-that
famous old store at Parkers has been exhausted
too many times. After dinner he may so and
look at the crockery stores again.