NEW AND OLD SUPERSTITIONS.
THE triangular summit of the portico of the Parthenon was .adorned with the effigies of the gods of Greece ; the triangular . summit of the portico of the New Exchange is adorned with the -effigies of the gods of London. The old idolaters had Minerva with her olive, Neptune with his horse, and the thunder-bearing Jove, to say nothing of the abstractions of Day-spring, Night, and the winged Victory, or the half-human Theseus. The modern idolaters have but one deity, Commerce ; and, as if to typify the egoism engendered by the exclusive worship ,a:tf Mammon, the modern artist has skilfully or luckily con- trived to represent his groups on either side as apparently ,unconscious of the presence of the central deity ; while an ex- pression of social feeling appears to link into one body the ft- =grouped together by his classical predecessor. In the New ge the artist,douhtless did his .hest; but he worked fora tunperatition .withless of poetrytand less of Teal htzmaniinterustAum the day-dreams which inspired-the old Greek. Trade, in oanthiea- ttion with other-influences,,is a good:elenrent -of 'humanteducatiou ; but alone•itris amen torpedo•tottheinoralirtense.
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