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LET us make a short excursion to Egypt, and examine what was the proportion between merit and its recompense in that celebrated region.

AND first of the Pyramids. Can it be necessary to observe what mature experience, what perfect knowledge, and what is the indispensible conclusion, what encouragement of art and genius is implied in the undertaking and execution of these stupendous fabrics. It cost no less a sum than one thousand and six talents to provide the artificers who constructed the great pyramid with the radishes, onions and garlic they consumed in the progress of the work what then must have been the whole amount of what was expended in the remuneration of the architects, and in collecting the materials of stone, iron and tools.

THE Art also of embalming, which is of the highest antiquity, and which took its rise in Egypt, formed of itself a distinct profession; implies no contemptible

progress in scientific acquirements, and, according to antient writers, was sanctioned and encouraged by the wealthy with the most splendid rewards. We may also form some reasonable conjectures with respect to the encouragement given to genius and art from the following examples.

HISTORY can trace with precision very little of the monuments of art or genius before the time of Sesostris. Of him Diodorus Siculus relates that wherever he extended his victorious arms he erected columns upon which his name and nation were inscribed. Herodotus saw some of these pillars, and describes two of them. Each column represented a man holding in his right hand a javelin, in his left a bow; the rest of his armour was partly Egyptian and partly Ethiopian. Each figure had this inscription, written in the sacred characters of Egypt.

"I, Sesostris, conquered this country by the force of my arms."

RUDE as the execution may have been of these trophies of victory, it may not unreasonably be concluded, that art and artists had been progressively encouraged and rewarded.

SESOSTRIS also placed before the Temple of Vulcan a statue of himself and another of his queen. They were thirty cubits high; and who shall presume to assert, that it is not a fragment of one of these statues, obtained by the victorious arms of our countrymen in Egypt, which now forms a valuable addition to the curiosities of the British Museum?

PHARON, another sovereign of Egypt, presented to the Temple of the Sun, two obelisks: each was formed of one solid stone, was one hundred cubits high, and eighty in diameter.

ASYCHIS, king of Egypt, erected a most magnificent vestibule, as an entrance by the east to the Temple of Vulcan. This was adorned with fine sculptures and paintings.

I proceed, however, no further in this track. Enough has probably been said to prove, that, from the remotest periods of history, genius has boldly asserted its prerogative, has preserved its ascendancy in the minds of men, has vindicated its claims, and, as it has provoked admiration, or induced delight, has proudly challenged encouragement, and obtained reward.

PROCEED We now to the Roman empire, the seat of the masters of the world. But here the mind is perplexed with a strange and inexplicable paradox. It would be vain and impertinent to descant on the great powers of genius manifested, in the Roman annals from the foundation of the city to its decline and final overthrow; it would be alike absurd and useless to vindicate that country which produced a Cæsar and a Virgil, a Cicero and a Tacitus. Yet is it not strange to tell, that Rome affords no example of a rival of Apelles, or competitor with Praxiteles. The proud and lofty palaces of Rome were

indeed crowded with the noblest and the most costly monuments of art; but they were obtained by conquest or by purchase. It was not however, till Mummius returned from the conquest of Achaia, that Rome could boast of any of the productions of the great masters; and it is a most curious fact that the picture purchased by Attalus, which I have mentioned above, was the first which was exhibited to the curiosity of Roman citizens. This same Mummius it appears was a barbarian with respect to the arts. He loaded his caravans with the plunder of the country which his arms had subdued; and statues and pictures formed a part of the booty. But when he got them to Rome, he had no other idea but that of converting them into substantial money. He sold them ata public auction. By some accident he had heard that Attalus had given for this same picture the enormous price of one hundred talents. He presumed from this that the tablet possessed some magical and inexplicable virtue: the words of Pliny are, Suspicatus aliquid in ea virtutis

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