most distinguished public edifices, and for private instruction and ornament. They carved or engraved on the exterior of their temples and palaces representations of their divinities, the wars and victories of their kings, their religious rites and the processions of their priests, with hieroglyphical explanations. The walls of the chambers were, also, embellished with similar works. In the more ancient method, they first drew the subject and inscription on the plain stone, and then cut away the ground within the outlines a very small depth below the surface, so that the heroic figures and hieroglyphic characters were sunk instead of being raised after the improved manner of the Egyptian bas reliefs, in the reign of Sesostris and the Pharaonic sovereigns, prior to the introduction of the Greco-Egyptian style of design, by Alexander and the Ptolemies. This very early mode of engraving the work below the surface, led the learned President, De Goguet, into an error. Although he had not, himself, visited Egypt, he rashly ventured to contradict Paul Lucas's account of the numerous bas-reliefs at Andera, near Thebes. His contradiction is not more peremptory than erroneous:- "The ancient inhabitants of Egypt never knew to work in bas-relief, they only knew to engrave; this is a fact which all the monuments in ancient Egypt, joined to the testimony of all the ancient writers, does not permit us to doubt of." The President, by the word "engruve," means the mode of sinking the work below the surface, and his confident protest is rendered more unaccountable, as, in the very next page, he has inserted, without contradiction, an extract from the account of Grainger, another traveller, whose correctness he praises, and who, in describing the very same edifice as Lucas, says "the walls without are covered from the top to the bottom with the Egyptian divinities, in bas relief." This account of the multitude of bas reliefs is further confirmed by other uncontradicted extracts in Goguet's volume.

The specimens of the most ancient manner must have been almost all destroyed by time or the ravages of invaders. They are rarely noticed except by the President just mentioned. On the contrary, the statements of Paul Lucas and his contemporaries are authenticated by De Non, Belzoni, Champollion, Latronne, and all late travellers. The ruins of almost every temple, palace, and sepulchral monument, which they have described, being enriched with bas reliefs and inscriptions, executed with great mastery of the chisel.

The Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians, according to the accounts of Herodotus and Diodorus, appear to have had nearly the same manners, customs, religion, and skill in the arts. They early acquired a facility in metallurgy, which furnished such a large share of employment to the founders in bronze, gold, and silver; and to the artificers with the graver and chisel. The enormous statues in gold, set up in the temple of Belus, and mentioned in Scripture, are proofs of their proficiency in Babylon. The Egyptians erected colossal statues of their kings in stone, and of various small dimensions, in the metals. On the pedestals they engraved the names, with heroic epithets and short applausive sentences, expressive of their zeal, or attributed great qualities. They engraved, in like manner, on the statues of their queens, of the royal children, and of their chief priests. They also engraved in Babylon, Nineveh, and Egypt, figures, inscriptions, devices, and ornaments, on small tablets of gold, silver, brass, and copper. They had a method of hardening copper, which has been long lost; but on ordinary matters, for dispatch and facility, to avoid the trouble of deep incision, they wrote with an iron style on sheets of lead. Their personal ornaments and domestic vessels for state and shew, were, chiefly, of the precious metals, in

which sacred and profane history prove they abounded, and these were curiously embellished with the graving tool.

In all the divisions and kingdoms into which Egypt became separated, the same genius, the same sources of wealth, the same laws, religion, manners, and customs, the same arts and sciences, the same grand architectural taste, and the same passion for sculpture and engraving prevailed. In This, Thebes, and Memphis-in Tanis, Bubastis, and Sais, the chisel and graver were the promulgators of the laws and religious ordinances, the teachers of the people, and historians of the monarchy. Notwithstanding the differences of language, these two commanding implements held the same rank and performed the same dignified functions in Phenicia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, and the various states in lower Asia.

A very brief reference to the history of the Jews will shew the graving tool was there employed in the most sacred offices. The incision of inscriptions on plates of metal was early in use among that people. The highest authorities concur in attributing their knowledge of this art to their abode in Egypt. St. Stephen remarks of Moses that "he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." In Exodus, it is expressly stated that the words-" Holiness to God" were engraved (in Hebrew characters) on the plate of gold which Aaron wore on his mitre. In this instance, the words must have been cut with a graving tool in the present manner. The graphic art is not mentioned as a new invention, or anything uncommon, which is quite sufficient here to shew its general practice. The tables of the law delivered to Moses were said to be the work of God. "The writing was the writing of God engraved upon the tables." If any pattern had been wanted, here was one of which the Jews, who were expert in metallurgy, might have availed themselves to practice engraving on plates of metal. The engraving of the laws on the substituted tables was the work of human hands.

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All these facts are so well authenticated, by different historians, that it might be deemed an act of supererogation to adduce them here; but that they are, on this occasion, brought together to place more immediately under notice the extraordinary circumstance of the very close approach made, in those remote ages, to the art of multiplying impressions from engraved surfaces. At present, when an inscription is cut on a block of wood; an historical design, a landscape, or portrait on a plate of metal, the artist considers the work accomplished. If the paper previously duly damped, the printing may be commenced immediately, and the impressions circulated as soon as they are properly dried. Hundreds may be struck off in a few hours; and thousands in a few days sent to distant parts of the world. Care and method are all that are necessary to render any person of common understanding an expert hand at this business. Nearly the same facilities attended the process in the first use of it in the 15th century, before the invention of moveable types. As soon as the letters were cut on the block, the German, who practised it, could print away on damp paper, and distribute, or publish, in all directions, without delay or difficulty.

Thus it is clear that the ancient nations of Asia and Egypt, in those very remote ages, had arrived within reach of one of the most powerful moral instruments ever invented by man, although they had not the good fortune to hit upon the discovery. When Columbus presented the egg to the Spanish courtiers, to set it standing upright on one end, they pronounced it impracticable, although they needed but a motion of the hand to accomplish the seeming impossibility. But they had only a few minutes to determine. To speak metaphorically, with the exception

of the people of China and Japan, man held this calcographic and typographic egg in hand more than thirty centuries, and never once thought at all of the mighty revolution in human affairs, which it was capable of effecting.

To sum up a part of this retrospect, the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and other nations in lower Asia, used the chisel and graving tool. They engraved seals, stamps, and signet rings. The Jews learned to use those implements during their stay in Egypt. The latter people, if we may judge from their admirable use of the chisel, as is still to be seen in their magnificent monuments, must have also been very skilful in the use of the graving tool on wood and metal. They were in the practice of engraving inscriptions and figured designs on blocks of wood and stone, and plates of gold, silver, and copper. After their invention of the papyrus, they had that excellent material for taking off impressions. Nothing was wanting but ink, a thing of easy composition, and a happy thought of a moment. But, unfortunately for themselves and posterity, it did not occur to them; and although the practice of engraving continued in general use among all nations to the present day, the art of printing, with the exceptions already mentioned, remained an undiscovered secret upwards of three thousand years.

Persons of a mere mechanical turn see little or nothing but the tools, with which they work, and the method of working, drilled into them in a seven years apprenticeship. From this class little is to be expected in the way of invention or improvement in any of the arts. But artisans of enlarged minds look beyond mere manual forms and results, to the principles by which they are put in motion and executed. A principle carried into practice, in two other inventions among those early nations, might have furnished hints for the multiplying impressions from engraved inscriptions or designs. As already noticed, seals and engraved signets were in use, and impressions taken from them. It is only necessary here to instance his signet given by Judah, the son of Jacob, to Tamer, with his bracelets and staff. They also used engraved stamps or dies for stamping coins, each piece of which received its current value from its bearing a genuine impression of the same stamp, as well as from its weight and purity. The early use of coined money may be seen by the 400 shekels of silver paid by Abraham to Keth, for the burial ground, and the money sent by Jacob with his sons to purchase corn in Egypt. These arts, although different in the process of cutting or working, from engraving on blocks of wood and metal, afforded a fair example of the principle and facility of multiplying impressions not only from seals, signets, stamps, and dies, but from every other engraved flat surface.

The Greeks, of whose matchless skill in sculpture, architecture, and all the refinements of the purest taste, we have, still, many admirable specimens, were equally expert with the burin. As they borrowed their first ideas of the fine arts from Egypt, it is but reasonable to suppose they applied them, generally, to the same purposes. The opulent citizens of Athens, Corinth, and other flourishing cities, vied in the expense and beauty of their state furniture. It was customary to have tables inlaid with plates of gold, silver, brass, or copper, embellished with inscriptions, allegorical devices, portraits of celebrated men, groups of figures from the poets, or historical designs. Their costly vessels, for their select entertainments, were, generally, of gold or silver, richly enchased or adorned by the graver in a similar style. In almost all the commonwealths, into which Greece was divided, the system of popular representation by election, furnished a certain source of employment to the graver. I need only instance Athens, where the Senate of Five Hundred, April, 1835.-vol. II. no. ix.

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annually chosen, the great Council of the Areopagus, the Amphyctionic Council, the nine archons, all the judges, magistrates, and civil officers were elected by ballot. The name of each candidate was engraved on a tablet of brass, and put, with the black and white beans, into the balloting urns. As the duration of office was very brief, the frequent recurrence of elections must have enabled the engravers to execute writing with correctness and beauty. It is the custom of artists to rub a dark mixture with undrying oil, general nut-oil and lamp-black, into their plates in progress, to "throw up," as it is technically termed, their work, and enable them to judge the depth of their strokes and the effect of the whole. This method was, probably, also, used in ancient times, but, perhaps, with a different mixture; and it may well excite astonishment, that neither accident nor invention led any of those ingenious Greeks to discover the mode of multiplying impressions from their engraved plates, although they, thus, may be said to have had the mode within their hourly grasp. In Rome, some of their great councils and officers were not elective, yet many were; and nearly the same practice was observed as in Greece. The name of each candidate was inscribed on a tablet, and one, with each name, given to every voter, to throw that of his choice into the balloting chest. In embellishing their public edifices with paintings and a profusion of statues and bas reliefs in marble and bronze, and in the use of rich figured enchasing and engraving on their gold and silver vessels and other metal ornaments, they followed the Greeks.

It is utterly impossible to form a notion of the advantages which would have resulted to mankind, if among their numerous, useful, and admirable inventions, the early nations had combined the means of which their ingenuity had put them in possession, to multiply impressions from engraved surfaces as practised in the fifteenth century and at present. They would, by that simple combination, have been enabled to have printed many large editions and innumerable copies of their most valuable manuscript volumes. Job was contemporary with Jacob, and lived in Arabia, where, in his time, alphabetic characters were used, and books written, for Job mentions writing a book. It is supposed that Moses, who lived some years in Arabia, learned alphabetic writing there, or in Egypt. All the works of the poets, historians, philosophers, and men of superior genius and learning, in every department of literature, the sciences and arts, being in manuscript, there were, comparatively, only a very confined number of copies extant. Transcribing was tedious, and very expensive; and was, also, opposed by great difficulties. It was customary for the possessors of rare manuscripts to hoard them up in jealous privacy, as treasures, which must lose a portion of their rarity and value by being generally read or copied. They were, also, curious in penmanship, and transcribers were paid extravagantly. Excellence in this art continues to be highly prized in many parts of Asia. We may form some idea of former times by the fact that in Persia, where printing is, to this day, unknown, or not practised, Sir J. Malcolm states that a few lines by one of those penmen are often sold for a considerable sum." He adds, "I have known seven pounds given for four lines by Derveish Mujeed, a celebrated penman." In the early ages none but persons of wealth could afford to pay for transcribing a copy; and reading was an accomplishment almost unknown to the million. Even among the higher orders, there were only a very few who could read, and the demand for transcripts of the most highly prized authors must have been very limited. We know, now, when books are so plentiful as to be within the reach of every industrious mechanic, what a pride is felt by the possessor of

any unique production of genius, and, in how many sales, a rare copy of a first edition in the infancy of printing has brought extraordinary sums. I need only instance the Bibliomania of the Roxburgh Club, and the amount of nearly 2000 guineas, paid by a noble collector in London, for a rare printed copy of one of the Italian poets, of which a modern perfect edition is to be had, in almost every bookseller's shop, for a few shillings. These examples of enthusiastic veneration may enable us to form some idea of the lynx-eyed vigilance, with which the ancients guarded their original manuscript volumes by their celebrated writers, from being depreciated in rarity and value by transcription. This jealousy was chiefly caused by the great expense of procuring copies, already noticed. That expense made the best manuscripts rare, and their rarity rendered them still more expensive. The use of printing, in the 15th century, gradually dissipated, with very limited exceptions, a similar jealousy in Europe; and respecting the printing of valuable manuscripts, if printing had been brought into use in the early ages of Babylon, Egypt, and Greece, it would have there had a similar effect, and multiplied editions of all their most esteemed compositions.

In the unsettled state of nations, in those remote times, books were greatly exposed to mutilation and destruction by ignorance, or accidents of flood and fire. It was then the barbarous custom of conquerors to rase or burn the great towns and cities of the vanquished; to put the inhabitants to the sword, and to lay waste their countries. In those devastations, books, works of art, and almost every thing valuable, but the gold and silver spoils, were destroyed. What masses of literary treasure, what paintings and statues, were consumed by Cambyses, the first ravager of Egypt, and were burned at the destruction of Persepolis, of Carthage, and Corinth, of Jerusalem, Palmyra, and Tadmor; and in the repeated desolations of Italy, the sackages and conflagrations of Rome, by successive hordes of barbarians. Four hundred thousand chosen manuscript volumes were burnt in the Alexandrian library; two hundred thousand at Constantinople by order of the Emperor Leo the 1st. The Turks prized the Alcoran as the only book ordained by Mahomet for the salvation of true believers; all others they held in abomination, as profane and impious. Their ruthless progress was a war of extermination against knowledge and literature. In every town and city, which they conquered, they consigned the books to the flames. After they had taken Constantinople, the public baths and ovens were heated during forty days with the contents of the libraries, instituted in that magnificent capital. How the heart of every lover of literature and the fine arts sinks, and his soul goes, as it were, into mourning, at these melancholy and disastrous recollections!

In this long succession of destructive wars and conflagrations, the far greater portion of the literature of Egypt and the contemporary nations of Asia, and that of Greece and Rome, disappeared and are lost for ever. But a very scanty residue has escaped to the present day. From the consummate art, with which the Iliad is composed, it is evident that poetry had been successfully cultivated for many ages before Homer, and that a numerous succession of poets had flourished antecedent to his time. From their works, he acquired the method and skill of composition, having received from nature that sublime genius, which no study can acquire. According to Plutarch, Hesiod and Homer contested for the prize of poetry at Chalcis. But of their predecessors in song, not a poem, nor a line of their poems, is in existence. The entire of their works has perished, and their very names are unknown. It is true that a printed book is as liable to destruction as a manuscript volume.