Here, in front of the pilaster, the visitor must at once examine the torso of a statue, supposed to be of Mercury; and a curious Greek circular altar, ornamented with the heads and fillets of bulls and stags, and inscribed with the names of Agathemeris and her son Sosicles of Tlos.  Having examined these two prominently placed objects, the visitor should proceed at once to the general contents of the division.  He will be probably attracted first to two terminal statues; or statues, of which the lower parts are not developed.  They occur frequently among the remains of Greek sculpture.  These terminal statues were held in great veneration; and they were found placed at the corners of streets, at the doors of private dwellings, and before temples.  The custom of representing Mercury with a head upon a plain column, appears to have been the origin of a fashion which the Greeks subsequently extended to their representations of other deities.  The terminal figure in this division, with the winged cap, illustrates the generality of these Hermae; it was found near Frascati, in the year 1770.  The next remarkable object that will probably attract the visitor’s attention is the figure, found at Rome, of an Egyptian tumbler, going through his performances on the back of a tame crocodile, a barbarous species of entertainment undoubtedly, but not more repulsive than that of the French aeroenaut of last year, floating over Paris on the back of an ostrich.  Hereabouts are placed also a small statue of the three-fold Hecate, a Diana found in the Giustiniani Palace at Rome; a bust of Jupiter, conjectured to be a copy from the work of the celebrated sculptor Polycletus, and a sphinx.  Here, too, are some interesting bas-reliefs.  Upon one a Bacchante (supposed to be a copy from Scopas), is represented with a knife in her hand, and holding part of a kid; upon another (part of a sarcophagus), Priam is represented praying to Achilles to give up Hector’s body; upon a third (a cippus) birds are drinking; and upon a fourth (a fountain) are Pans and satyrs.  Before turning to the lower shelf, the visitor should also notice in this neighbourhood a beautiful group of two dogs, found on the Monte Cagnuolo; a votive foot, with a coiling serpent, and one or two sepulcral urns with inscriptions.  Upon the lower shelf are deposited an interesting series of busts, including one of the Emperor Septimius Severus, found on the Palatine Hill; one of Hadrian, found at Tivoli, on the site of Hadrian’s Villa; one from Athens, of the Emperor Nero; and one of Caracalla, found in the Nunnery Gardens at the Quatro Fontane, on the Esquiline Hill.  Upon the upper shelf are two busts in relief, and the front of a sarcophagus, with elaborate representations of the Muses.  Here is Terpsichore with the lyre of dancing, Thalia with the mask of comedy.  And now the way lies once more forward, into the

Fifth division.