fore a statue, a bust, or a medallion existed. Stones of a cubic form were their more general symbols; and a collection of thirty rude fragments, placed near each other at Pharæ, in Achaia, is recorded to have formed an assemblage of divinities, by the artless invention of distinguishing each stone by the name of a deity.

Winkelman, whose learned works are composed with all the enthusiasm of a votarist, points at the first rudeness of the art of sculpture. The rustic god Terminus was nothing but a field-post, whose quiet duty consisted in marking the bounds and limits of grounds; yet from such a block the human form divine gradually took its rise. Castor and Pollux were indeed twins, but only formed by two pieces of parallel wood, joined by a wand or rod across, as thus II, and this form is still preserved in their sign in the Zodiac.

Can we imagine a ruder state of the arts than that which the representation of the Graces exhibits at this early period? It consisted simply of three white stones. When this rude symbol was exchanged in the course of time for a more refined image, the Greeks were solicitous to preserve some idea of the original type, if we may credit the conjectural D'Hancarville. He says, "the union of these three white stones, which indicated the Graces at Orchomenos, was preserved, when sculpture converted these stones into statues; the point by which they were joined became the hand by which each of them reposes on the arm of the others, while by that, which is not confined, they hold their distinguishing attributes. This charming attitude continued to indicate the aid they lend to each other, the harmony which renders them inseparable, and the pleasure they derive from their union. Such we see them on medals, and on gems." Afterwards they

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placed heads on these blocks; the progressive form of the figure was seen only in the breasts or middle of the image, to mark the sex, which the face probably was two deformed to indicate. An incision served to mark the formation of the thighs; and it was a long time before they conceived the idea of forming the legs.

The seals of the Greeks in early times were rude contrivances, and according to Winkelman a piece of worm-eaten wood, or the bark of trees, served their purposes. The most ancient gems, about the time of Homer, when the Indian engraving tools were first introduced among the Greeks, must have been rather signs than true representations of nature. Such were the following: Death was represented with crooked legs; Beauty and Youth were expressed by long tresses of hair; Power, by long hands; and Swiftness and Agility, by long feet. Often, indeed, these inartificial inventions were so dark that we find them accompanied by the names of the subjects meant to be represented; the modest consciousness of the artist was too sensible, that he was equally deficient in character and expression. What a contrast between these first abortions of human art and the exquisite forms of a Phidias and a Praxiteles!

But the invention of HIEROGLYPHICS has been employed by every nation, before they possessed an alphabet. These truly may be termed the originals of engraving. With these they covered their columns, their obelisks, the walls of their temples, their palaces, and their tombs. Beneath the statues of their heroes the engraven symbols traced their history.

The Egyptians, who so constantly employed their graver on such hard substances as granite, basalt, and the marbles from their invaluable quarries, were not long before they attained the art of

engraving in intaglio on all kinds of metals, and finally on precious stones. The holy writings particularly notice the art— Witness the seal-ring, which Pharaoh took from his finger to place on that of Joseph.-The stones in the breast-plate of the high priest were engraven with the names of the tribes; the words are remarkable, "With the work of an engraver in stones, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave them; and set them in owches of gold, and put them on the shoulders of the ephod." Even the names of the artists are honourably recorded; and no common mind is supposed to be capable of excelling in such delicate performances, for " it was put in the heart of Bezaleel, that he might teach them that were filled with wisdom to work all manner of work of the engraver.

But though the Egyptians brought to some perfection the mechanical, they made but little progress in the poetical, part. Their invention was barren, and of the beautiful they had no conception. Their figures are generally executed with care, but the design is hard and stiff. We find on these Egyptian stones the divinities of the country, and all those symbolical and hieroglyphical figures which still serve to excite, not to appease, the curiosity of the learned.

But what can we hope from a people, whose artists were compelled by their priests to conform to certain unvarying attitudes ; no artist was permitted to alter the practice, or change the principle of his unfortunate predecessor.

Stiffness and immobility formed the characteristic of the Egyptian artists; their taste was for the colossal, and the solid; and here it was sublime. But it is reasonable to conjecture, that the

defects of the artists of this ancient and mysterious nation arose from their religious restraints; for when they freed themselves from the stated regulations of the priests, which they were allowed to do in their imitations of animals, they were not without their excellence. Their sphinxes and lions are admirable for the charm and finish of their art. In these we trace a variety in the outline; a free and flowing form; a fine disposition of the parts ; and animation expressed in the muscles and veins.

The art of engraving on precious stones in the East, was cultivated not so much to gratify an ostentatious luxury as from the necessity which compelled these people to have recourse to seals or stamps; for no writing was held to be authentic unaccompanied by the seal of the person who dictated it. Jezebel, writing a letter in the name of Achab, carefully impresses it with the seal of that Prince, that her orders may be executed without hesitation. The Persian monarchs practised the same custom; and Ahasuerus presented his ring to Esther, as a mark of his confidence. Alexander, the conqueror of Darius, always used the seal of that unfortunate monarch when he sent his letters into Asia. At Babylon, the Great had each their particular signet.

The art of engraving could make but little progress with these people. The eastern religious codes, in which the existence of the Fine Arts seems never to have been imagined, forbade the representation of all images, so that the engraved stones of the Arabians and the Mussulmen exhibit nothing but inscriptions; sometimes they bear the name of the proprietor, or a passage from the Koran. Genius will however stretch its wings, though they are chained; and the true Mussulman would sometimes venture, though his taste was bad, into the regions of Fancy. We have seen a cast

of a gem on which the writing is so arranged, as to form the figure of a man on horse-back. Of this fantastic and depraved taste we have had several specimens in Europe*.

Among the Egyptian gems, of which there are more intaglios than cameos, the greater part have the form of the consecrated scarabeus or beetle, and the figures (or subject of the gem) are engraven on its surface. They afterwards ground or cut away the lower part of the scarabeus, preserving the upper surface, cut into an oval form, to be more commodiously set into a ring or seal. Such was the origin of the oval engraved stones, which are still called scarabs, although the figure of the insect no longer appears. The scarabeus was considered by the Egyptians as a symbol of the sun, the source of generation, probably because they imagined that the scarab possessed the faculty of self-production; it was also regarded as an emblem of courage, for they imagined that all these insects were males, and consequently beheld them with a kind of veneration.

The Etruscan scarabs, which are numerous, rarely exceed the natural size of the insects they represent; but those of the Egyptians are frequently of an extraordinary thickness, and some are four inches in length. We shall shortly exhibit the particular form of one of these gems, and point out the manner by which they curiously contrived to introduce their figures.

* A drawing of the head of Charles I. is in the library of St. John's College, Oxford. It is wholly composed of minute written characters, which at a small distance resemble the lines of engraving. The lines of the head and ruff are said to contain the Book of Psalms, the Creed, and Lord's Prayer. Of this kind is the portrait of Queen Anne, preserved in the British Museum. It is not much above the size of the hand. On this drawing appear a number of lines and scratches, which are said to include the entire contents of a thin folio volume shewn on this occasion to the spectator. In the Menagiana we find several accounts of this species of curious idleness, much like that of the great artist who transcribed the Iliad, and compressed it into a nutshell.

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