olive leaf to the pale verdure of the acacia.1 The Greek jewellers appear to have judged of the genuineness of this stone by plunging it into clear water: for if it were a true emerald it would, they thought, impart its colour to the whole of the surrounding element; if not, a small part only of it would be tinged.2 The ancients possessed a species of bastard emerald, found in vast blocks, so that we read of an emerald obelisk in Egypt, which, though consisting of but four pieces, rose to the height of sixty feet.3 Of this stone, probably, was the famous pillar which adorned the entrance of the temple of Heracles at Tyre. Of real emeralds the largest known does not exceed six inches in length, and two in diameter. It may be observed, that much pains and labour were expended in bringing the emerald to its lustre." The lyncurios or modern hyacinth is enumerated among the seal gems. Its colour is that of flame with an intermixture of deep red, though it is sometimes found of a full saffron hue, or even resembling amber. It has by several writers been supposed to be the tourmaline. The lyncurios was exceedingly hard and difficult to work. They likewise cut and engraved for seals the amber, which Theophrastus describes as a native mineral; the hyaloides, the omphax, the crystal,' the sardonyx, the agate, the onyx, and the amethyst. A gem of extraordinary beauty was once found in the gold mines of Lampsacos, which, having been engraved by a Tyrian lapidary, was presented to the Persian King.9 1 See Baldæus, description of the Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, chap. xxiv. 2 Theoph. de Lapid. § 23. 6 Anselm. Boet. Gem. et La pid. Hist. 1. ii. c. 258, p. 477. 7 Winkelm. ii. 110. 8 Theoph. de Lapid. § 30. Poll. iii. 87. Luc. Dial. Meret. ix. § 2. Cf. de Syr. Dea, § 32. Precious stones of various kinds were employed to represent the eyes in statues, when the white was imitated by thin silver plates. Winkelm. Hist. de l' Art. t. ii. p. 94. 9 Theoph. de Lapid. § 32. Respecting the various processes by which precious stones were engraved, the ancients have left us but a few scattered hints. It appears certain, however, that they polished precious stones with emery,1 and possessed the lapidary's wheel, with all the finer tools at present in use, including the diamond point,2 which there is reason to believe they likewise fixed on the wheel.3 At any rate, they contrived with the instruments they possessed to engrave figures, as of lions, heroes, bacchantes, caryatides, trophies,* both in relief and intaglio, which for beauty and delicacy have never yet been equalled. It was at one time a question whether or not they were acquainted with the microscope," — though how they could engrave without it figures which we require its assistance distinctly to perceive, seems somewhat difficult to comprehend. The gem, for example, called the seal of Michael Angelo, in the French king's cabinet, though it does not exceed half an inch in diameter, contains fifteen figures most elaboborately wrought. A private gentleman at Rome possessed a wolf's tooth on which was a representation of the twelve gods. Cicero commemorates an individual who had written the whole Iliad in characters so minute and in so small a compass, that it could be contained in a walnut-shell." Myrmecides, the Milesian, and Callicrates, the Lacedæmonian, manufactured ivory chariots so small, that they could be covered with the wing of a fly; and wrote two verses in gold letters on a grain of sesame.9 We find mention, however, of burning-glasses as 1 Σμύρις λίθος ἐστὶν, ᾖ τὰς ψήφους οἱ δακτυλιογλύφοι σμήXovo. Dioscor. v. 166. 2 Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 15, with the authors cited by Hardouin. 3 Winkelm. Hist. de l'Art. t. ii. p. 108. Plut. Alexand. § 1. Timol. § 31. Herod. iii. 41. 5 Cf. Senec. Quæst. Nat. i. 6. Macrob. Saturn. viii. 14. 6 Dutens, Origine des Découvertes, &c. p. 265. 7 Winkelm. Hist. de l'Art. t. i. p. 36. n. 4. 8 Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 21. early as the age of Socrates; and a number of lenses, more powerful than those employed by our own engravers, have been found among the ruins of Herculaneum. We may here, also, remark by the way, that the Greek astronomers appear to have been acquainted with the telescope.3 1 Aristoph. Nub. 764, seq. Cf. Aristot. Analyt. Post. i. 31. 8. Barthelemy St. Hilaire de la Logique d'Aristot. t. ii. p. 367. * Dutens, Origine des Découvertes, &c. p. 265. 3 Id. p. 115, seq. Nixon. in Phil. Trans. v. lii. p. 125. 153 CHAPTER IV. INDUSTRY: SMITHS, CUTLERS, ARMOURERS, THE ART OF MINING, CHARCOAL-MAKING, ETC. 1 2 THE earliest smiths in Greece wrought not in iron but in brass, of which, at first, both arms and domestic implements were fashioned. In Mexico and Peru, where, likewise, copper was known before iron, they possessed the art of hardening it to so great a degree, that it would even cut stones and the closest-grained wood. The same or a similar process was known to the ancients, and might still, perhaps, be easily recovered were it any longer an object to be desired. The Greeks always retained a strong partiality for articles of brass, copper, and bronze, and besides statues,3 pillars, and trees, where the fruit was sometimes of gold," employed them in cups, urns, vases, and caldrons, with covers of the 1 Cf. II. §. 48. Magii, Var. Lect. p. 130. 1. 2 The hardness, however, would appear to have been produced partly by the interfusion of different metals, partly by the liquid in which the implements were quenched. Ulloa, Mémoires Philosophiques, &c., t. ii. p. 90. 94. Observations, p. 468. Cf. Voyages, t. i. p. 384. 3 Plut. Philop. § 8. 4 Thucyd. v. 47. 5 It is related of the bronze palm-tree at Delphi with fruit of gold, that the dates were imitated so exactly, that they were pecked at and destroyed by the crows: Ἐν δὲ Δελφοῖς Παλλάδιον ἕστηκε χρυσοῦν, ἐπὶ φοίνικος χαλκοῦ βεβηκός, ανάθημα τῆς πόλεως ἀπὸ τῶν Μηδικῶν ἀριστείων. Τοῦτ ̓ ἔκοπτον ἐφ' ἡμέρας πολλὰς προσπετόμενοι κόρακες, καὶ τὸν καρπὸν ὄντα χρυσοῦν τοῦ φοίνικος ἀπέτρω γον καὶ κατέβαλλον. Plut. Nic § 8. same metal. We also find mention made of brazen mangers, and even maps. 3 With tin, also, the Greeks, even in the Homeric age, were acquainted; and, among other uses which they, in later ages, made of it, was that of lining the inside of their cooking utensils.* At a period beyond the reach of history they obtained a knowledge of the use of both iron and steel, the invention of which they attributed to Hephaistos. Homer, who speaks of axes and other implements of steel, or, rather, of iron steeled at the edge, describes the process of forming it by immersion in cold water. In the manufacture of the Homeric swords steel only would appear to have been, in most cases, employed, since they were extremely brittle, and often shivered to pieces by a mere blow upon shield or helmet. To guard against this effect the superior and more delicate articles were, in later times, cooled not in water but in oil. The Spartans, we are told, quenched their iron money in vinegar which rendered it, they supposed, brittle and unmalleable, consequently of no value but as a token.9 Among the earliest nations who excelled in the smelting of iron and the manufacture of steel were 1 Herod. i. 48. iv. 81. 70. The extraordinary forms sometimes assumed by these vases are in part mentioned by Pollux, who, in describing the poowTOUTтa says, it was a vessel expanding above into the mouth of an ox, or the jaws of a lion. Onomast. ii. 48. In the Royal Prussian Museum there is found a vase, the mouth of which represents that of a griffin. Racolta de' Monumenti più Interressanti del Real Museo Borbonico, e di varie Collezioni private, Publicati da Raffaele Gargiulo, Napoli, 1825, No. 113. See in the same collection a variety of other vases representing the faces of Hermes, the heads of dragons, hippogriffs, wild boars, &c. No. 75, sqq. 2 Herod. ix. 70. v. 49. 3 Il. o. 565. p. 592. p. 561. * Beckmann, History of Inventions, iv. 13. 5 Palæphat. Fragm. ap. Gal. Opusc. Mythol. &c. p. 64, sqq. 6 Il. d. 487. 7 Odyss. . 391. 8 Tenuiora ferramenta oleo restingui mos est, ne aqua in fragilitatem durentur. Plin. xxxiv. 41. 9 Plut. Lycurgus, § 9. |