It is of consequence to preserve every thing which can convey to us the conceptions which the ancients themselves formed on the subjects connected with poetry and history, before dress and manners had undergone that complete change which took place soon after the general introduction of Christianity. By collecting the materials which Pompeii and Herculaneum have already furnished and may hereafter supply, we shall probably, ere long, have the means of forming editions of the writers of antiquity, and decorating our classical and mythological dictionaries with figures and illustrations which the ancients themselves might have approved, but which have hitherto been attempted in vain. This picture refers to the nineteenth book of the Odyssey, where Penelope is represented as inquiring of the supposed mendicant stranger for tidings of Ulysses. Penelope is clothed in a violet-coloured tunic and a white mantle, or, perhaps, a species of veil. She holds the materials for spinning in her hand. Ulysses has a white tunic and a yellow chlamys, or a pallium. The attendant, Eurynome, is also represented. The size of the picture is about three feet by two feet six. The total absence of affectation in this, and indeed almost every effort of ancient art, is one of its distinguishing characteristics.