building is nearly contemporary with the temple of Zeus. It is supposed to have served as a meeting-place for the Olympic Council, while the quadrangular space in the middle was, in all probability, the sanctuary of Zeus Horkios, before which the contestants had to make oath that they would strictly observe the laws of the contest. The building is one of the most important remains of state architecture in the fifth century. To the south of the CouncilHouse was a hall fronting on the great highway leading up from the Kladeos to the principal entry.

Between the Kladeos and the Altis on the west was a series of magnificent buildings, of which, before our excavations, one only was visible, namely, that on a part of whose foundations the Byzantine church was later erected. It was apparently designed for holding great assemblies. To the north of this is a circular building in which was found an altar bearing an inscription on a layer of stucco, which from time to time was renewed. We detached these layers, one after another, and on each read a dedication to "The Hero," never to "The Heroes." The branch of bay that adorned its front points to a heros of divination. Such, above all others, in Olympia was Ianos, and next after him Klytias. The Ianidæ and the Klytiada were the two famous prophetic (or priestly) families of Olympia, and hence we have the best ground for fixing here the seat of prophecy which first gave importance to Olympia. The prophets of Olympia belonged to the priestly college, the members of which we find enumerated in a great number of inscriptions. They remained year in year out in Olympia to attend to the affairs of religion. Directly in front of the Heroon, to the east, are the foundations which supported a group of dwellings built round a courtyard. It is probable that the priestly functionaries lived here, and that the large edifice to which the Byzantine church succeeded was the Theokoleon, the assembly-hall of those functionaries, where the festival embassies from other cities were entertained.

On the north lay the Palæstra, a court surrounded by Doric columns, where the wrestlers and pugilists practiced, while alongside were the halls where rhetoricians declaimed. To the north of the Palæstra were the race-courses, where the runners practiced.

East of the Byzantine church, a large quadrangular building has been unearthed. Like the Palæstra, this had in its center a court surrounded by columns. This court was laid out as a garden. This whole building, which had porticoes also all round, we call the Grand Gymnasium. It was reconstructed in Roman times; in its

day it must have been the largest and most magnificent pile in Olympia.

All doubts are not yet dispelled touching the original use of many of the buildings; nor indeed are the excavations as yet quite completed, for the summer heat prevented us from laying bare at the Byzantine church the foundation walls there discovered. Work will be resumed at that point next October. But the great object of the excavations has been attained. The Olympian Altis, like a sunken island, has again emerged; and, though the buildings are not so well preserved as those of Pompeii, nevertheless the elements of the ancient architecture have been found in such perfect condition as to enable us to reconstruct it.

It will readily be seen that the discovery of Olympia is an event that marks an epoch in our knowledge of Hellenic antiquity: for many a year science will be occupied in gathering this harvest. I can here only allude briefly to a few of the many newly discovered monuments reproduced in the four volumes of the "Ausgrabungen von Olympia," and discussed in the "Archäologische Zeitung," of Berlin. The most trustworty of all witnesses of the past are inscribed monuments. We have found, in all, upward of four hundred inscriptions, on bronze, stone, and terra-cotta; on pedestals, architraves, and columns; on helmets, shields, and lances; on reliefs, etc. A large proportion of these refer to victors at Olympia, and these teach us much, both in poetry and prose, about the different sorts of games. Other inscriptions were set up here simply because Olympia was the center of Greece-complimentary inscriptions of all sorts, treaties, arbitrations. These monuments belong to the most diverse epochs, and to every region wherever Greeks lived. Hence we find very great variety in the forms of letters and in the language in fact, Olympia has proved to be a rich mine of information concerning the Hellenic dialects. At the same time, the inscriptions afford us data for the history of the period from the seventh century B. c. down to Byzantine times. As regards the science of art, a vast amount of material has been won for architecture. We are beginning to understand temple architecture in its historic evolution. Of certain architectural forms peculiar to Greece, as the treasuries, many examples are here seen. We have here before our eyes the first Greek palæstra, of which before we possessed only a very obscure description by Vitruvius. So too we have here the race-courses of the ancients clearly identified, both the tracks used for practice and the Olympic Stadium itself, with

its main entrance, and the very stones that marked the startingpoint and the goal. Formerly no specimen of the ancient Greek town-house or Council Hall was known to exist; but in the newly discovered Olympian Buleuterion we have a structure unique in its kind, dating from the earliest times. The Macedonian epoch is well represented by the rotunda of King Philip, and the period of Alexander's successors by the columns which supported the effigies of the Ptolemies. On all sides are seen Roman reconstructions of Grecian edifices, and we can clearly distinguish, e. g., in the temple of Zeus, Roman restorations, from the workmen's marks. The building erected by Herodes Atticus is wholly original in its combination of a water reservoir with an exedra and two projecting round temples. Of special interest, as regards the temples and temple-like buildings, is the fact that here the terra-cotta ornamentation remains in an excellent state of preservation, and is represented in a great number of specimens.

Above all, much light is thrown upon the relations of architecture and sculpture. Instance, the rilievo groups in limestone that filled the pediment of the Megarean treasury-a work of antique art belonging to an earlier period than the Æginetan pediment. Instance again, the metopes of the temple of Zeus, some of them very well preserved. These sculptures are in the transition style, and are fit companion-pieces for the metopes of the so-called temple of Theseus at Athens. Finally, there are the colossal groups on both pediments of the temple of Zeus. The artistic restoration of these works and their scientific discussion will for a long time give occupation to archæologists; at the same time our knowledge of Hellenic temple architecture will be established on a new basis.

In addition to all this, we have acquired a vast amount of fresh material for the history of art. The Nikè of Paionios, with its pedestal and inscription set up by the Messenians, and now found in its ancient place, is one of the most remarkable works of the old sculptors, grand and bold in design, masterly in execution, and of the highest significance for the development of the Nikè type: it is a new and striking monument of the plastic art of the fifth century B. C. The fourth century is represented in the Hermes of Praxiteles, discovered in the temple of Hera: this is the first original work of that sculptor, who is confessedly the foremost master of sculpture in marble. Further, it is the best preserved work of classic art that we have, and henceforth it will form the groundwork of all disquisitions upon the art of the fourth century. This

one work abundantly repays the expense and labor of five years, even had nothing else been found. But, further, the Attic art of Roman times is here represented in many noteworthy monuments, and the tradition of art history receives many essential additions. Masters whose names have long been known, as Ageladas, Pythagoras, Glaukia, Nikon, Polykletos, Daidalos, Naukydes, Paionios, are now for the first time brought before us in monuments dating from their own period; while many a great artist, before unknown, now emerges from obscurity. So, too, of the mode of erecting antique monuments we have many examples: we see the various forms of pedestals, their arrangement, and their inscriptions both in prose and poetry.

Finally, we see how the ancients employed different materials in their works. In the lowest strata we find quantities of bronze figures which, as being the votive offerings of poor folk, are rudely fashioned images of men and heroes, but still they are of value, as evidence of a primitive art industry. There are other bronzes that possess artistic merit; these exhibit the most ancient styles of ornamentation in lines scratched on the surface, or in hammered basreliefs. A very interesting specimen of this class of objects is a well-preserved plaque in rilievo exhibiting, in four successive fields, two animal groups-the pursuit of the Centaurs by Herakles, and a winged Artemis as a lion-tamer. In this work we see the dependence of Grecian upon Assyrian art, and at the same time the beginning of its emancipation. The work belongs to the seventh or the eighth century B. C.

In Elis, where marble is scarce, bronze and terra-cotta were of special importance. We find terra-cotta figures of the most primitive kind, also terra-cotta statues of the fifth century. Stone, too, of inferior quality was employed-limestone, which was artificially colored. A good deal of material has been collected having a bearing on the polychromy of ancient architecture and plastic art.

It is a mighty labor that has been imposed upon science by these five years of research at Olympia: the scholars and the lovers of art in every land where Grecian culture is prized will have a part in accomplishing it.

ERNST CURTIUS.

RATIONAL SUNDAY OBSERVANCE.

THE first thing to be said about the observance of the Sabbath is that, among Christians, there is no Sabbath to be observed. When people talk about the Sabbath, they are, for the time being, Jews. Only in England and America, among the descendants of the Puritans, and only in religious phraseology, is Sunday called the Sabbath. Somehow, in this country, it is supposed to be a little more religious to say "the Sabbath" when Sunday is meant. A man, in speaking to his neighbor in the street, says, “Sunday," but in speaking to his minister he says, "the Sabbath." I should like to send these Sabbatarians to Italy, where the name of Saturday is "Il Sabbato" and that of Sunday "Il Domenico." If, in that country, they advertised their meetings for "the Sabbath," as they do here, they would find that every one who came would come on Saturday.

This is more than a question of words. When a certain portion of the Christian Church constructed the theory that the fourth commandment was of perpetual obligation, only that the observance of the Sabbath had been transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, their object was to give a sacred obligation to the performance of certain ceremonial duties, and to make of Sunday-worship a kind of sacrament. This has been taught and accepted among the descendants of the Puritans down to the present time. Men have abstained from their common labors, and have attended public worship, because they regarded this as a religious duty, done not for their own benefit but in obedience to a divine command. And no doubt this theory of Sunday observance was well adapted to cause a universal and strict obedience to what God was believed to command or to forbid on this day. When we speak of God's day, God's house, and God's Word, we give an authority to Sabbath-keeping, Church-going, and Bible-reading, which