It may be asked of what possible use could a barrel-shaped substance, such as is here shewn, be in building? Of what service could it be, being a solid, for domestic or other purposes? Rendered, as it seems, by the peculiarity of its shape, and by all its other characteristics, useless for any common purpose-if we take into consideration the pains used to produce the impression neatly and regularly as it is-and if, at the same time, we consider the abundance of its contents, I think we may reasonably contemplate it, as having been a work, of great public importance at the time it was executed.

It is scarcely possible to pursue the reflections caused by traces of human genius so renerable, without expressions of regret that the characters in which they would speak to us are too obsolete to be comprehended; and that the language they employ has become so totally extinct, that the interesting story it contains is thus likely to be lost for ever. The most ancient literal specimen known to be extant, is the Sigean inscription, which is contained in a tablet, that was disinterred near to ancient Troy. It is engraved on a pillar of beautiful white marble, nine feet high, two feet broad, and eight inches thick, which, as appears by an excavation in the top, and the tenor of the inscription, supported a bust or statue of HERMOCRATES,* whose name it bears. This tablet may be considered to include a specimen of writing, or rather letters engraved on stone, at least 3,000 years old. It is supposed to have been engraven and erected about 500 years before the birth of Christ, and not many years after the publishing of the laws of Solon. It has been contended by some writers, that the art of impression was well known to the ancients: in confirmation of this, they instance the stamps of iron and other metals, with which their cattle,† bales of goods, and various articles of their manufactures were marked: throughout Italy, and other parts of Europe, during the low ages; one instance has been adduced; this is a Roman Sigilum, a signet ring, or stamp, resembling those stamps now used by the Post Office on letters. This is the very earliest specimen we possess of the art of printing by means of ink, or a similar substance. It is nearly two ches long, and one in breadth; on the back is a ring, for the purpose of holding it when the impression is made. The letters are raised, as well as the rim, after the manner of our printing types. The inscription is in two lines, and the letters are in Roman capitals, reversed. The impression given is as follows:

HERMIAE. S. N.

C. I. CAECILI.

*ich signifies Caius Julius Cæcilius Hermias, a person not mentioned in Roman history, ed, therefore, supposed to have been a steward of some Roman officer, or private

*I am Hermocrates, the Son of Phanodicus, of this promontory; and I have presented in the Prytaneum, a with a stand and wine-strainer, as a monument to the Sigeans; if then I endure care on any account I Pe sigeans, and Esopus, and my brethren have erected a monument for me. The Prytaneum was a Hall, in which the Grecian senators feasted together, and entertained, at the public charge, such as daved well of their country.

functionary. This signet was found near Rome, and is allowed to be the most ancient specimen of printing known. A not very dissimilar stamp, in the Greek character, is in the possession of the Antiquarian Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Strutt mentions an engraving, in the British Museum, upon the sheath of a sword, representing five figures in outline, impressions of which might be taken if the metal would bear the pressure.

The signets used by the ancient Jews, were sometimes set in rings and worn upon the fingers, and at others, they were affixed to the bracelet, and carried upon the arm. Thus in Solomon's Songs, Chap. viii. v. 6. it is said, "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm ;" and it is well known that these seals contained the name or monogram of the wearer, for in the directions given to Moses concerning the holy breastplate, Exod. chap. xxviii. v. 9, 11. it is said, “And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold." Again, there is supposed to be an allusion to these engraved bracelet-seals in Genesis xxxv. v. 4, which from the description of them, must have borne a strong resemblance to the Egyptian Name-banners. In Greece, these Name-banners were formed of lead, and were of a circular shape; but in Rome, they were made of stone, of an oblong square, and upon them were inscribed the names of two parties between whom a firm friendship had been established. They were then divided into two parts, and interchanged, so that each one possessed that piece which contained the name of the other, and the production of this, to either party on a journey, ensured a hospitable reception, and kind treatment to the traveller.

The few and simple laws, necessary in the early stages of society, seem at first among the Greeks, to have been set to music and chaunted or sung. Afterwards, they were engraven on a hard and solid substance, as stone, metal, or wood; according to some authors, the laws of Solon, were engraven on tablets of wood, so constructed that they might be turned round in wooden cases: some of his laws, however, were certainly engraven on stone. Josephus, speaks of two columns, the one of stone, the other of brick, on which the children of Seth wrote their inventions, and astronomical discoveries. On the entrance of the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Law was commanded to be engraved on stones, that a genuine exemplar might be transmitted even to the latest generations.

The Arundelian marbles, preserved in the University of Oxford, sufficiently prove for what a variety of purposes inscriptions on stone were used amongst the ancients. Some of the inscriptions on them, record treaties, others the victories or good qualities and deeds of distinguished persons, others, miscellaneous events; most of them, however, are sepulchral. By far the most important and celebrated, is the Parian chronicle, which, when entire, contained a chronology of Greece, particularly of Athens, for a period of 1318 years, namely, from the reign of Cecrops, A. c. 1582, to the archonship of Diognetus, A. c. 264.

The next specimen of antiquity deserving of notice, is the Rosetta stone, now in the British Museum. In the year 1801, during the memorable campaign in Egypt,

the sçavans attached to the French army, discovered in the fort St. Julian, which stands near the mouth of the Nile, on the Rosetta branch, a large broken stone of black basalt, haring an inscription engraved upon it, in three different kinds of characters; namely, the sacred hieroglyphics, the usual letters of the country, or the Enchorial, and the Grek,-from this stone, a large portion of the Egyptian learning of England has been aired; inasmuch, as the Greek inscription, not only details its history, and translates the other two, but it also serves as a key for the identifying of various hieroglyphics, as wel as the Enchorial characters. Although, a considerable portion of the hieroglyphic inscription, and a part of the Enchorial, and the Greek, are broken, enough remains, for them to enlighten each other. The Rosetta stone, as it is called, has not been the only gde to Egyptian literature; but the discoveries made by it, have been considerably sisted by the Egyptian monuments in general; although more particularly, by the green sarcophagus of Alexander, the zodiac from the temple of Dendora, and many other ancient curiosities, which were ceded to the British after the battle of Alexandria. *

In order to give the Athenians an opportunity of judging deliberately on a proposed law, it was engraven on a tablet, which was hung up for some days at the statue of the herves, the most public and frequented place in the city of Athens. And that no man might plead ignorance of his duty, the laws, when passed, were engraven on the walls of the royal portico; and persons were appointed to transcribe such as were worn or defaced, and enter the new ones.

The Romans engraved on brass, even so late as the reign of the emperors. The Roman soldiers, were allowed in the field of battle, to write their wills, on their bucklers or scabbards; and in many cabinets are preserved the discharges of soldiers, written on copper-plates. Tablets of brass of a cubical form, were also used for the writing of public documents; as Plutarch mentions, the finding of a brass plate, with Egyptian characters, at Thebes, in Boeotia; and Pollux states, that the laws of Solon were inscribed apon brass, as well as wood. Polybius mentions, that the treaty made between the Romans and the Carthagenians, at the end of the first Punic war, (B. c. 241) was engraven on brazen tablets; but, Dionysius remarks, that the Roman laws were carved on tablets of oak, because they were not then accustomed to recording on brass. Some account of two brazen books will be found in the Archæologia, vol. 12, and the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 72. The Rev. Claudius Buchanan, in 1807, found the Jews in India, in possession of several tablets of brass.

Lead was employed as well as brass, for preserving treaties and laws. In 1699, Montfaucon purchased at Rome, a book of eight leaden leaves, including two which med the cover, four inches long, and three inches wide; leaden rings were fastened on the

* A great acquisition of Egyptian knowledge is to be acquired, from the researches of Belni, the celebrated , since he not only brought many specimens of Hieroglyphic Paintings and Egyptian antiquities to England, but he also produced the most perfect resemblance in large coloured models, of parts which he was a to bring away. To show the labour, the patience, and perseverance, which this indefatigable traveller to encounter in removing one of the antiquities, now in the British museum; though it was only two miles the River Nile, it took him six months to accomplish, by the assistance solely of the native peasantry, what the aid of any machine. This splendid monument of antiquity, is a bust, of the little or young Memnon, Tutes, it is composed of a single block of Syenite, it weighs twelve tons, and measures ten feet, in height the breast to the top of the head. John Baptist Belzoni, died at Gato, near Benin, in Guinea, on the third of Dember, 1823.

D

back, through which a small leaden rod ran to keep the leaves together. Hesiod's works, it is said, were originally written upon tablets of lead, and deposited in the temple of the muses, at Boeotia. Æneas Poliorceticus, who flourished about seven hundred and twenty years before the Christian era, relates, that the women conveyed secret intelligence, by means of small leaden volumes, or rolls of very thin metal, which they wore as ear-rings. He adds further, that they were beaten with a hammer until they were so pliable, that they were sewed up between the soles of the shoes, and that even the messenger who carried them, was unconscious of the circumstance. Whilst he slept, they were taken out by the person to whom they were addressed, and others replaced without exciting suspicion. In the book of Job, chap. xix. v. 23, 24, is the following text, "Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." Now, the true meaning of the passage is, according to Parkhurst, that Job wished his words to be cut out of the rock, and the interstices to be filled up with thin plates of metal, in the manner of mosaic.

The celebrated Laws of the twelve tables,* among the Romans, were so called from being written or engraved on twelve slabs, or tablets of brass, or ivory, or oak; and hung up for public inspection. The laws penal, civil, and ceremonial, among the Greeks, were engraven on triangular tables of brass, which were called Cyrbes. Trithemius asserts, that the public monuments of France were anciently inscribed on silver.

By a law among the Romans, the edicts of the senate were directed to be written on tablets of ivory, thence denominated Libri Elephantini; and Pliny says, that from want of the teeth of the elephant, which are alone of ivory, they had lately begun to saw the bones of that animal. And the same author informs us, that table-books of wood were in use before the time of Homer. The Chinese, before the invention of paper, engraved with an iron tool upon thin boards, or upon bamboo. In the Sloanian library, at Oxford, there are six specimens of Kufic, or ancient Arabic writing, on boards about two feet in length, and six inches in depth.

The laws on these wooden tablets, as well as those on stone, were inscribed after the manner called Boustrophedon, that is, the first line beginning from right to left, or from left to right, and the second in an opposite direction, as ploughmen plough their furrows. The Boustrophedon writing, is said to have been disused by the Greeks, about four hundred years before the Christian era; but it was in use among the Irish, at a much later period, by whom it was denominated Ciom fa eite.

It is highly propable, that several of the prophets wrote upon tablets of wood, or some similar substance. (See Isaiah xxx. 8., Habakkuk ii. 2.) Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, when required to name his son," asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying his name is John," (Luke i. 63.) These table books, the Romans denominated Pugillares.

Even in the fourth century, the laws of the emperors were written upon wooden tables, painted with white wax, occasionally, both the Greeks and Romans, used a

* The first Decemvirate began at Rome before Christ 452. During this year of their authority, they compiled ten of the twelve tables; the remaining two were added in the following year. Respecting their famous code of laws, it was the decisive sentence of Cicero, that they were justly to be preferred to whole libraries of the philosophers!