Acrobats (detail), Japanese handscroll, nineteenth century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Henry J. Bernheim, 1945.

Happiness

Volume XII, Number 3 | summer 2019

Miscellany

The Talmud tells of a third-century rabbi named Joseph who died, saw a heavenly paradise, returned to life, and told his father of a world to come that would be “the reverse of this one—those who are on top here were below there, and vice versa.” “My son,” said his father, “you have seen a corrected world.”

Happiness does not dwell in herds, nor yet in gold.

—Democritus, c. 420 BC

Lapham’sLapham's seal iconDaily

The Colosseum, attributed to Robert Eaton, c. 1855.
Deja vu logo

DÉjÀ Vu

Monumental Mistakes

2023:

Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.

c. 1850:

Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.

More