Classical. Theology.—Vi.

" Peace ancl plenty came ; And thence the Golden Times derive their name . "—JEn . To Juno belonged the calends or first days of the months , ancl sho consigned them to the superintendence of Janus , iu which capacity he is known as Junonius , and Janitor ( as of tho yoar as regulated by Numa ) the first month of ivhich , January ( Januarius ) takes its name from him ; orso to

, express it , he opens the janucti or gates of the year . To come to a more accurate explanation—Janus is the first star at tlie beginning of this period ivhich makes its appearance above the horizon . Martial also observes that the government of the year was committed to Janus : and in this respect he had . in his temple twelve altars dedicated to him

, ancl likewise proportional to the number of the months , twelve small chapels . It ivas in this temple that the Roman consuls were inaugurated , and from thence it was relatively said they " opened the year , " that is to say , upon the calends of January ; at which time , according to Macrobius , and on the calends of Marcha new wreath of laurel was placed on

, the head of Janus and the withered one was removed : of ivhich , as mentioned by Ovid in his Fasti , " Laurea flaminibus , qua toto perstitis anno , Tollitor , et frondes sunt in honore novai . "

" The laurel of the old year yields its place , Unto the garland ofthe new year ' s grace . " Pliny thought this custom arose in honour of Janus ' s sovereignty over the year— " Because , " says he , " Janus was not only thc projector of the laurel crown , and the tree itself a favourite of winter , but the statue dedicated to Janus

by Numa had its fingers so arranged as to typify three hundred ancl sixty-five , the number of days in a year , for he was by his annular knowledge and indications , the god of time ancl of ages . " By all account we have of Janus , he was the first creator of temples , shrines , and altars , and institutor of religious rites ancl ceremonies . To quote Juvenal and

Servius here would only be to echo Festus in giving his reason why prayers and sacrifices were in the first place offered to Janus . They agree in stating that all men were thought to have received their organic being from this first god of Italy ( so deified ) and as Ogyges , according to some chronological dates of Greece too : for although many of the

gods were called "father , " yet Janus was particularly so named . Por this , among other reasons adduced by Fabian , he says , " In all sacrifices they begin their rites by the setting forth of corn bread and wine to Janus , before there was an offering up of anything to any other deity . "

The Domical Form Of Building.

THE DOMICAL FORM OF BUILDING .

BY JOHN WILSON EOSS . THE qualities of the dome render it peculiarl y applicable to all the grand styles of horizontal architecture . In a church it is truthfully significant of sanctit y ; to a secular building it imparts an appropriate dignity ; in countries where the classical style is in vogue , it may be applied with

the utmost fitness to every structure designed for civil purposes—whether it be a palace or a House of Parliament , a government office , or a court of law , a picture or sculpture gallery , or a lecture or concert room , a market , town hall , or largely frequented 2 ilace of commercial resort . In all these instances of its application it never fails to call up ancl

assert dignity , if but properly treated . An architect—necessarily an authority on the matter—Mr . Samuel Huggins , in a masterly treatise on this subject ( from which , by the way , the ideas in this paper are borrowed ) , has further said , that there is another purpose to which it might be applied with great jiropriety and effect—as a shelter from our inclement

sky for our outdoor statues ; and that triunrphal domes might be constructed , as more expressive of the sentiment of triumph , and more emblematic of greatness than triumphal arches , Here , then , as ho says , is an entirely new and noble

object with which to adorn tho streets of our oities—a triumphal dome . Not restricted only to express sublimity , the dome ought not to be excluded from embodying grace and elegance . The erection of tho reading room in tho British Museum has shewn that a ceiling raised in a domical form is the best

suited to a circular room : in a saloon or hall so built ^ the ceiling—to save tho apartment from an appearance of discordance in respect to its disposition—should bo shaped in the spherical form . With equal jiropriety domes might be distributed in a beautiful series over large mansions ; semicircular rooms should be covered with semidomes ; and apart

from their use ancl decorative beauty , great grandeur and a general effective picturesqueness would be lent to halls of imposing size by the introduction of proportionally largo semicircular recesses .

In all the sublime forms of architecture the dome seems to be essentiall y required on account of its character and tendency . Its orbed expanse forcibly seizes on the imagination in ecclesiastical edifices , resembling as it does the mighty ceiling of the earth itself , the vast concave of which spreads out above us so sublime , from tho breadth and grandeur of its spherical form . This is as the dome in tho

interior presents itself to the eye : externally it swells up like a huge rotund mountain , with an ennobling expression of commanding size and loftiness . Within and without , it is , in addition , of all architectural surfaces thc one whicli is the most conveniently adapted to yield softness and delicacy of gradation in li ght and shade .

Nearly all modern architects have , in the erection of the dome , taken that of the Pantheon of Agrippa as their model , adopting it in its form , relative height , ancl mode of application . Its proportions have been particularly kept in view ancl approached in some Romanesque baptisteries , in the church of St . Sophia , and the great Turkish mosques of

Achmet and Solyman in Constantinople ; and in thc Indian tomb of Mahomed Shah at Bejapore . In these the dome has the best shape it can receive , from the height being proportioned to the horizontal surface . Its artistic treatment , as exhibited in this Saracenic tomb in India , ancl in these mosques in Constantinople , show that edifices of grave . and solemn character aro most consistently finished above when it is their crowning . That its simple , uninterrupted curve harmonizes and comports with solemnity of expressionis

, visible in the dome of the Cathedra ) at Florence—the work of Brunelleschi—in Michael Angelo ' s St . Peter ' s at Rome ; in Sir Christopher Wren ' s St . Paul ' s ; in that of the Church of St . Isaac , at St . Petersburg—though that is but a servile copy ( in the circular peristyle as well as in the dome ) of the beautiful design of St . Paul ' s—in that of St . Genevieve , in

Paris ; of St . Mark ' s , in Venice ; ancl of others . The aim in most of these great domed churches in Europe has been to embody all the sublimity of which the great classic style is capable . "The lantern in these great domed churches , " says Mr . Huggins" detracts from true simplicity and dignitand b

, y , y destroying the effect of the spherical form of the dome , obliterates that which is peculiarly recommendatory of it—the character of grandeur . " If the sole crowning ofthe magnificent dome of St . Paul's had been , in his opinion , only its golden cross , it ivould have had more of dignity , and a greater air of freedomthough he admits that the peristyle and dome

, of the metropolitan cathedral are not to be surpassed for their beauty by any other domed building in the world . " The dome , " he says , " which properly belongs to broad and horizontal composition , like a bridge carries the eye over the building after detaining it in contemplation of what is below ; ancl if it be crowned by a lanternthe eye is carried

, off upwards to its terminal form , which in this case is an undignified member . " The vast surface , unbroken by a lantern , of the celebrated dome of Mahomed Shah ' s tomb at Bejapore , Mr . Huggins compares to a planet iu t ] ie solar-