Behind the cella, another niche contained a statue of Bacchus, who was, perhaps, the same god as Osiris.  An expurgation room, intended for ablutions and purifications, descending to a subterranean reservoir, occupied an angle of the courtyard.  In front of this apartment stands an altar, on which were found some remnants of sacrifices.  Isis, then, was the only divinity invoked at the moment of the eruption.  Her painted statue held a cross with a handle to it, in one hand, and a cithera in the other, and her hair fell in long and carefully curled ringlets.

This is all that the temples give us.  Artistically speaking, it is but little.  Neither are the other monuments much richer in their information concerning ancient architecture.  They let us know that the material chiefly employed consisted of lava, of tufa, of brick, excellently prepared, having more surface and less thickness than ours; of peperino (Sarno stone), which time renders very hard, sometimes with travertine and even marble in the ornaments; then there was Roman mortar, celebrated for its solidity, less perfect at Pompeii, however, than at Rome; and finally, the stucco surface, covering the entire city with its smooth and polished crust, like a variegated mantle.  But these edifices tell us nothing in particular; there is neither a style peculiar to Pompeii discernible in them, nor do we find artists of the place bearing any noted name, or possessing any singularity of taste and method.  On the other hand, there is an easy eclecticism that adopts all forms with equal facility and betrays the decadence or the sterility of the time.  I recall the fact that the city was in process of reconstruction when it was destroyed.  Its unskilful repairs disclose a certain predilection for that cheap kind of elegance which among us, has taken the place of art.  Stucco tricks off and disfigures everything.  Reality is sacrificed to appearance, and genuine elegance to that kind of showy avarice which assumes a false look of profusion.  In many places, the flutings are economically preserved by means of moulds that fill them in the lower part of the columns.  Painting takes the place of sculpture at every point where it can supply it.  The capitals affect odd shapes, sometimes successfully, but always at variance with the simplicity of high art.  Add to these objections other faults, glaring at first glance,—­for instance, the adornment of the temple of Mercury, where the panels terminate alternately in pediments and in arcades; the facade of the purgatorium in the temple of Isis, where the arcade itself cutting the cornice, becomes involved hideously with the pediment.  I shall say nothing either, of the fountains, or of the columns, alas! formed of shell-work and mosaic.