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         INTERIOR                   DECORATION.
  THERE are few branches of knowledge which have been more neglected
than the origin, character, and adaptation of the different styles of Interior
Decoration.   This is the more remarkable when we consider the science,
research, and practical experience that have been brought to bear on the
different arts and sciences, at the present day.
   It will, therefore, be our object, in the following pages, not only to
give
the practical information necessary to the execution of the accompanying
designs, but also to investignte the rise, progress, and decline of the various
styles of decoration, as used by the architects of the present period,-such
as
the Greek, Roman, Arabesque, Pompeian, Gothic, Cinque Cento, Francois
Premier, Elizabethan, and the more modern French. In doing this, great care
will be taken to divest the work of any bias to one particular style, to
the dis-
paragement of the rest, but to lay before the profession and the public such
useful knowledge as will enable every one to distinguish between the beautiful
and the imperfect.
   If we turn to the pages of antiquity, we shall find the Athenians dis-
played the same simplicity and elegance in their interiors that so strongly
characterized the exterior of their buildings ; for it is chiefly from the
poetical and historical works of the Greek authors that we can gather infor-
mation as to the manner of fittings up employed by the Greek artists.   
  It
has been very frequently remarked, that the works of Homer contain but
few descriptions of the architectural decorations of that period, except
in one
or two instances, where he describes the walls of the palace of Alcinous,
"which were covered with a blue cornice or capping."       He seems
also to
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