ject of pursuit, we need not suppose that our fellow countrymen labour under any physical deficiency with regard to the arts of design. It will therefore be my object, with a view at some future time of suggesting the means of success, to take a brief survey of the excellence attained in former periods, and of the circumstances connected with it.

It is pretty clear that the carving of wood and stone is of prior date to the invention of pictures; which require a nicer and more refined process of art, and has an assigned origin in the story, of the Maid of Corinth, tracing the features of her lover in an outline on the wall while sculpture is coeval with the records of the most remote ages.

THE first habitations seem to have imitated the stems and branches of trees; and the first monuments were a heap of stones or an upright pillar. In the 28th chapter of Genesis, we find that Jacob took the stone which had served for the

support of his head during the night, and set it up for a pillar. Joshua raises a heap of stones over Achan. God is called "the stone" of Israel. When the Tribes of Israel pass the river Jordan with the ark in a miraculous manner, each is commanded to set up a stone for a memorial. The pillar of Eliseg near Langollen, which Mr. Pennant supposes to be the most ancient monument in Britain, is of similar character.

As the art advanced, two stones were erected with a traverse over them; the Pyramids of Egypt were built, and the astonishing caverns of Elephanta and Salsette, were hewn from the native rock by the Indian devotee. The first efforts of skill seem throughout the world to have been consecrated to religion, and the theology of each nation is usually blended with astronomical science. The idea impressed on the mind by these primæval structures, is that of duration. Stonehenge in our country, and the wall of China are erections of a cor

At

responding character, and their massy indestructible solidity in all its rude simplicity, is perhaps more awful and majestic than any succeeding productions of a polished age. The overflowing of the waters of the Nile produced an easy and luxuriant vegetation in Egypt, and from the leisure thus afforded for mental occupation, that country became the cradle of the arts and sciences. Thebes are still to be seen the remains of a temple, unrivalled in the world, and worthy of the city with a hundred gates. The circumference of this temple * measured thirteen stadia, the breadth of the walls twenty-four feet: the thickness of one of the portals is forty feet, and the height of two obelisks before it, each consisting of a solid block of granite, more than sixty-three feet, besides the part buried in the sand. The walls of marble (says Savary †) appear everlast

See Diodorus Siculus, lib. ii. chap. 30. Pococke and Norden, and Maurice's Indian Antiquities, lib. iii.

+ Savary's Egypt. vol. ii. p. 41.

ing the roof which rises in the centre is sustained by eighteen rows of columns ; those under the most lofty part are thirty feet in circumference and eighty in height.

IF Homer's chronology be correct, which there seems no reason to doubt, Thebes was in its glory 1200 years before Christ. But though these structures have a sublime grandeur from their vastness; we must look for the perfection of the art in Greece, and at a much later age, about 800 years afterwards, when Pericles flourished.

THE intervening period is not however to be passed without notice. About 1000 years before Christ, Solomon finished the dedication of the temple; and before this era the stupendous walls of Babylon, and its hanging gardens were erected. To the same time may be referred the magnificent capital of India, Palimbothra*.

* See Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. i.

ALL these edifices are remarkable for a display of enormous wealth, and gorgeous magnificence, rather than of fine taste. As to the riches expended on them, we may refer to the computation of Arbuthnot, who reckons (and he is more moderate than Gray in his Memoria Technica) that David laid up, in preparation for building the temple, 620 millions of pounds in gold, and near 200 millions in silver. This sum, however, is not to be compared with the wealth of Sardanapalus; who, when besieged by Arbaces, king of Media (about 700 years A. C.) made his funeral pile in despair, and heaped upon it a thousand † myriads of talents in gold, and ten times as much in silver. This account, derived from Athenæus, may appear incredible; but at the same time no modern European treasure can give adequate notions of the boundless extent of Asiatic opulence. For instance, a wealthy Bythi

† Athenæus, lib. xii. Rollin. lib. ii. p. 201.