We are unable to discover who first found out the art of making porcelain, nor is it known whether the Chinese were indebted to chance for it, or to the repeated efforts of inventive genius; we cannot even determine its antiquity with precision; we know only from the annals of Feou-leang, a city in the district to which King-te-tching belongs, that, since the year 442 of our era, the workmen of this village have always furnished the emperors with porcelain; and that one or two mandarins were sent from court to inspect their labours. It is, however, supposed that the invention of porcelain is much older than that epocha.

The Chinese have lately discovered a new substance proper to be employed in the composition of porcelain. It is a stone, or rather species of chalk, called hoa-che, from which the physicians prepare a kind of draught that is said to be detersive, aperient, and cooling. The manufacturers of porcelain have thought proper to employ this stone instead of kaolin. It is called hoa, because it is glutinous, and has a great resemblance to soap. Porcelain made with hoa-che is very rare, and much dearer than any other. It has an exceedingly fine grain; and with regard to the painting, if it be compared with that of the common porcelain, it appears to surpass it as We are indebted to father d'Entrecolles, a mission- much as the most elaborate miniature does a common ary of the church of Rome, for a very accurate ac-oil painting. This porcelain is besides so light that count of the manner in which porcelain is made in it surprises those who are accustomed to handle other China. We shall therefore give his account of the kinds; it is also much more brittle. Chinese manner of making it, as abridged by Grosier When hoa-che is taken from the mine it is washin his "general description of China." The princi-ed in rain or river water, to separate it from a kind of pal ingredients of the fine porcelain are pe-tun-tse yellow earth that adheres to it. It is then pounded, and kao-lin, two kinds of earth from the mixture of put into a tub filled with water to dissolve it, and afwhich the paste is produced. The kao-lin is inter-terwards formed into cakes like kao-lin. We are mixed with small shining particles; the other is purely white, and very fine to the touch. These first materials are carried to the manufactories in the shape of bricks. The pe-tun-tse, which is so fine, is nothing else but fragments of rock taken from certain quarries and reduced to powder. Every kind of stone is not fit for this purpose. The colour of that which is good, say the Chinese, ought to incline To pe-tun-tse and kao-lin, the two principal elea little towards green. A large iron club is used for ments, must be added the varnish from which it debreaking these picces of hard stone; they are after-rives its splendour and whiteness. This is of a whitwards put into mortars, and by means of levers head-ish colour, and is procured from the same kind of ed with stone bound round with iron, they are reduced to a very fine powder. These levers are put in action either by the labour of men, or by water, in the same manner as the hammers of our paper-mills. The pulverised mass being afterwards collected is thrown into a large vessel full of water, which is rapidly stirred with an iron shovel. When it has been left to settle for some time, a kind of cream rises on the top, about four inches in thickness, which is skimmed off, and poured into another vessel filled with water; the water in the first vessel is stirred repeatedly and the semi-fluid material collected, until nothing remains but the coarse dregs, which by their own weight precipitate to the bottom; these dregs are carefully collected and pounded anew.

assured that hoa-che, when prepared in this manner, without the mixture of any other earth, is alone sufficient to make porcelain. It serves instead of kaolin, but it is much dearer. Kao-lin costs only tenpence per-pound; the price of hoa-che is half a crown; this difference, therefore, greatly enhances the value of porcelain made with the latter.

stone which produces the pe-tun-tse, but the whitest is always chosen, and that which has the greenest spots. The stone is first washed and pulverised; it is then thrown into water, and after it has been purified it throws up a kind of cream. To one hundred pounds of this cream is added one pound of che-kao, a mineral something like alum, which is put into the fire till it becomes red hot and is then pounded. This mineral gives a degree of consistence to the varnish, which is however carefully preserved in its state of fluidity.

The next process consists in again purifying the pe-tun-tse and the kao-lin. The workmen then proceed to mix these two substances together. For fine porcelain they put an equal quantity of the kao-lin With regard to what is taken from the first vessel and the pe-tun-tse; for the middling sort they use it is suffered to remain in the second until it is form- four parts of the kao-lin and six of the pe-tun-tse. ed into a kind of crust at the bottom. When the wa-The least quantity put of the former is one part to ter above it seems quite clear, it is poured off by three of the pe-tun-tse. When this mixture is fingently inclining the vessel, that the sediment may not be disturbed; and the paste is thrown into large moulds proper for drying it. Before it is entirely hard, it is divided into small square cakes, which are sold by the hundred. The colour of this paste, and its form, have occasioned it to receive the name of pe-tun-tse.

The kao-lin, which is used in the composition of porcelain, requires less labour than the pe-tun-tse. Nature has a greater share in the preparation of it. There are large mines of it in certain mountains, the exteriour strata of which consist of a kind of red earth. These mines are very deep, and the kao-lin is found in small lumps, that are formed into bricks after having gone through the same process as the pe-tun

ished, the mass is thrown into a large pit, well paved and cemented in every part; it is then trod upon, and kneaded until it becomes hard. This labour is so much the more fatiguing as it must be continued without intermission: were it interrupted all the other labourers would be unemployed. From this mass, thus prepared, the workmen detach different pieces, which they spread out upon large slates, where they knead and roll them in every direction, carefully preserving them in a solid state, and taking care to keep them free from the mixture of any extraneous body. When this paste has not been properly prepared, the porcelain cracks, and melts or becomes warped.

After a piece of porcelain has been properly formed it passes into the hands of the painters. The hoa

pei, or painters in porcelain, are equally indigent with
the other workmen; they follow no certair plan in
their art, nor are they acquainted with any of the
rules of drawing; all their knowledge is the effect
of practice, assisted frequently by a whimsical ima-
gination. Some of them, however, show no incon-
siderable share of taste in painting flowers, animals,
and landscapes, on porcelain, as well as upon the
paper of fans, and the silk used for filling up the
squares of lanterns.
The labour of painting in the
manufactories of which we have spoken is divided
among a great number of hands. The business of
one is entirely confined to tracing out the first col-
oured circle which ornaments the brims of the ves-
sel; another designs the flowers, and a third paints
them; one delineates waters and mountains, and an-
other birds and other animals: human figures are
generally the worst executed.

The tsou-you is a kind of varnish procured from white flint, which has the peculiar property of making those pieces of porcelain upon which it is laid appear to be covered with an infinitude of veins in every direction; at a distance they would be taken for cracked vases, the fragments of which have not been displaced. The colour communicated by this varnish is a white, somewhat inclining to that of ashes. If it be laid upon porcelain, entirely of an azure blue, it will appear in the same manner to be variegated with beautiful veins. This kind of porcelain

is called tsoui-ki.

its colours, and all the intended ornaments, it is transported from the manufactory to the furnace, which is situated at the other end of the village of King-te-tching.

The small pieces of porcelain, such as teacups are enclosed in cases about four inches in height Each piece is placed upon a saucer of earth about twice as thick as a crown piece, and equal in breadth to its bottom. These small cases are also sprinkled over with the dust of the kao-lin. When the cases are large, the porcelain is not placed in the middle, because it would be too far removed from the sides, and consequently from the action of the fire.

These piles of cases are put into the furnace, and placed upon a bed of coarse sand, half a foot ir thickness: those which occupy the middle space are at least seven feet high. The two boxes which are at the bottom of each pile remain empty, because the fire acts too feebly upon them, and because they are partly covered by the sand. For the same reason, the case placed at the top of each pile is also suffered to be empty. The piles which contain the finest porcelain are placed in the middle part of the furnace; the coarsest are put at its further extremity; and those pieces which have the most body and the strongest colouring are near its mouth.

These different piles are placed very closely in the furnace; they support each other mutually by pieces of earth, which bind them at the top, bottom, and middle, but in such a manner that a free passage is left for the flame to pass every where around them.

The Chinese make vases ornamented with a kind of fret-work, perforated in such a manner as to resemble very fine lace. In the middle is placed a Before each of these furnaces for baking porcecup proper for holding any liquid; and this cup lain there is a long porch, which conveys air, and makes only one body with the former, which appears supplies in certain respects the place of a bellows. like lace wrapped round it. The Chinese workmen It serves for the same purposes as the arch of a had formerly the secret of making a still more sin- glass-house. "These furnaces," says father d'Engular kind of porcelain; they painted upon the sides trecolles, "which were formerly only six feet in of the vessel fishes, insects, and other animals, height and the same in length, are constructed now which could not be perceived until it was filled with upon a much larger plan; they are nearly two fathwater. This secret is in a great measure lost: the oms in height and four in breadth; and the sides following part of the process is, however, preserved. and roof are so thick that one may lay the hand upThe porcelain which the workman intends to paint on them without being incommoded by the heat. in this manner must be extremely thin and delicate. The dome or roof is shaped like a funnel and has a When it is dry the colour is laid on pretty thick, large aperture at the top, through which clouds of not on the outside, as is generally done, but on the flame and smoke incessantly issue. Besides this inside. The figures painted upon it for the most principal aperture, there are five others smaller, part are fishes, as being more analogous to the wa- which are covered with broken pots, but in such a ter with which the vessel is filled. When the col- manner that the workman can increase or diminish our is thoroughly dry, it is coated over with a kind the heat according as it may be found most convenof glaze, made from porcelain-earth, so that the azure ient: through these also he is enabled to discover is entirely enclosed between two laminæ of earth. when the porcelain is sufficiently baked. Having When the glaze becomes dry, the workman pours uncovered that hole which is nearest the principal some varnish into the vesssel, and afterward puts it aperture, he takes a pair of pincers and opens one upon a mould and applies it to the lathe. As this of the cases: if he observes a bright fire in the furpiece of porcelain has received its consistence and nace, if all the cases are red-hot, and if the colours body within, it is made as thin on the outside as of the porcelain appear with full lustre, he judges possible, without penetrating to the colour; its exte- that it is in a proper state; he then discontinues the riour surface is then dipped in varnish, and when fire, and entirely closes up the mouth of the furnace dry it is baked in a common furnace. The art of for some time. In the bottom of the furnace there making these vases requires the most delicate care is a deep hearth about two feet in breadth, over and a dexterity which the Chinese perhaps do not at present possess. They have, however, from time to time made several attempts to revive the secret of this magick painting, but their success has been very imperfect. This kind of porcelain is known by the name of kia-tsing, "pressed azure."

After the porcelain has received its proper form,

which a plank is laid, in order that the workman may enter to arrange the porcelain. When the fire is kindled on this hearth, the mouth of the furnace is immediately closed up, and an aperture is left sufficient for the admission of fagots about a foot in length, but very narrow. The furnace is first heat-" ed for a day and a night, after which two men keep

The Chinese divide their porcelain into several classes, according to its different degrees of fineness and beauty. The whole of the first is reserved for the emperour. It is much to be doubted whether any of the largest and and finest porcelain of China has ever been brought to Europe; the missionaries at least assure us that none of that kind is sold at Canton. The Chinese set some value upon the Dresden porcelain, and still more upon that which comes from the manufactories of France.

continually throwing wood into it, and relieve each when bruised, they diffuse a strongly aromatick other by turns. One hundred and eighty loads are odour. The flowers, which grow at the ends of the generally consumed for one baking. As the porce- branches, are disposed in bunches, and are formed lain is burning hot, the workman employs for the of a long calyx, divided into four segments, and a purpose of taking it out long scarfs, or pieces of corolla, consisting of four roundish notched petals cloth which are suspended from the neck." of a very pale blue colour. This same calyx, gathered before the unfolding of the petals, is, properly speaking, the clove, the gathering of which is the principal object of the cultivation of the clove-tree: this business begins in October, and ends in February, at which time the cloves have acquired a reddish colour, and a certain degree of firmness. Large cloths are spread under the tree to receive the blossoms, which are brought down by strongly shaking the branches, or by the use of long reeds. They require to be dried quickly, but are first immersed in boiling water; this is said to be done in order to prevent injury from worms, but more likely it is in order to increase the weight. After this they are spread upon hurdles, covered with leaves, and exposed for a few days to smoke and a strong heat. This fumigation is followed by drying the cloves in the sun, and it is considered as a proof of the moisture being sufficiently evaporated when, upon raising the outward petals with the nail, the inside displays a bright red colour. The clove, to be in perfection, must be full-sized, heavy, oily, and easily broken; of a fine smell, and a hot aromatick taste, so as almost to burn the throat: it should make the fingers smart when handled, a:.d leave a greasy moisture upon them when pressed. The upper part, that is the corolla, should be of rather a lighter brown than the calyx, and should be easy to separate from it. The best variety of the Amboyna cloves is called the royal clove, by way of distinction; it is smaller and blacker than the other varieties, and is very

CLOVES.

FOR the clove, we are principally indebted to the island of Amboyna. This island, which is situated near the western point of Ceram, is called by the Malays Ambun, which word signifies dew.

scarce.

From the unopened flowers is distilled an aromatick oil, formerly much in repute. The best is brought from Amboyna in bottles, but a considerable quantity is drawn off in this country.

The clove-tree requires a rich and fertile soil; it is requisite that every weed and shrub in its immediate neighbourhood should be carefully removed, which practice has given rise to the idea which some travellers have entertained, that it attracts to itself all the nourishment of the soil in which it grows. The tree, if left to its natural growth, would rise to a considerable height, but a low stem sending off branches at its origin is preferred, for the facility of gathering the fruit.

The cloves which have been left upon the tree produce a fruit of an oval form, and about half an inch in diameter, containing a single kernel. This is called the mother clove, and is made into a sweetmeat by the Dutch. It is by this berry also that the tree is propagated; if put into the ground im mediately upon being gathered, it produces the The botanical name of the tree which produces clove-tree, and flowers at the end of eight or nine the clove is Caryophyllus aromaticus; its bark is years. Each tree yields annually on an average thin and smooth like that of the beech, and its trunk, upward of two pounds of cloves, and continues to which is composed of an extremely hard wood, does bear flowers for a hundred years. It is the custom not rise above five feet in height, but divides itself with the natives of Amboyna to plant one of these into several principal branches, the boughs of which trees upon the birth of a child, in order, by a rough are covered with leaves and flowers in the month of calculation, to know its age; and these the Dutch March. The leaves are placed opposite to each did not dare to extirpate for fear of an insurrection, other, are of a dull green colour, smooth, and re- when they made their annual progress of devastą semble ju form and consistener those of the laurel; Ition through the Moluccas.

• ARCHITECTURE.

THIS beautiful and important branch of the fine arts, combines within itself painting, sculpture, building, and some of the higher portions of mathematical science. Michael Angelo Buonarotti, the great founder of modern architecture, possessed these attainments in a very eminent degree, and was consequently enabled to leave to posterity a monument of his art, unequalled by any but that of the celebrated Sir Christopher Wren. And if we go back to a still earlier period, we shall find that most of the great edifices of antiquity required as intimate an acquaintance with the exact sciences, as with the merely ornamental branches of design. Of the paramount importance of architecture little need be said whether we consider it, as some have done, as a mechanical science, sheltering beneath its ample wing the several employments of masons, carpenters, smiths, and all those artizans whom modern refinement has rendered necessary for the enjoyment of life, or as a fine art, exercising the highest powers of the human mind, and becoming the parent and preserver of painting and sculpture, whose very existence may be said to depend upon it.

We may now take the subject of architecture somewhat more in detail, and in accordance with our plan, proceed to examine the various "orders," as they are called, commencing with the Tuscan.

[Tuscan Order.j

The Tuscan order, as an antique, exists only in the works of Vitruvius, the description in which, being very obscure, has left a wide field for the ingenuity of modern architects. Among these Palladio, composed two profiles; one from the descripVOL: V-9

tion of the ancient master, and the other, accordin to his own idea of a simplification of the Dorick That of Vignola, however, has been most generall approved and adopted.

The base of this order consists of a simple torus with its fillet; it is, as are in general in all the Ro man orders, accompanied by a plinth.

The proportions, from Sir W. Chambers, are a follow the column, fourteen modules; the entabla ture, three modules, fifteen minutes. Of the former the base occupies one module; the shaft, (including the astragal, which divides it from the capital,) twelve modules, and the capital one. Of the latter the architrave, (including the fillet,) thirty-one minutes and a half; the frieze, the same; and the cornice, forty-two minutes.

The intercolumniations, in all the orders except the Dorick, are the same; viz., the eustyle, which is most common and beautiful, four modules, twenty minutes; the diastylé, six modules; and the aræo style, seven modules.

The Tuscan order admits of no ornaments, nor flutes in the columns; but rustick cinctures are sometimes represented on the shaft, an example of which occurs in the accompanying illustration, fig. 1.

This order may be employed in most cases, where strength and simplicity are required, rather than magnificence; such as prisons, market-places, arsenals; and the inferiour parts of large buildings.

The Dorick Order. We now come to an order, of which numerous ancient examples exists, and which will, in consequence, furnish us with more materials for description than the preceding. It is represented at fig. 2. The origin of the Dorick order is thus described by Vitruvius :

Fig. 1. Fig. 2.

"Dorus, son, of Hellen and the nymph Orises, reigned over Achaia and Peloponnesus. He built a temple of this order, on a spot sacred to Juno, at Argos, an ancient city. Many temples similar to it were afterward raised in the other parts of Achaia, though at that time its proportions were not precisely established." This account, is very incredible, and is now generally rejected.

From theory, however, we must now proceed to fact and description, and will commence with the Dorick of the Greeks, referred to by Vitruvius, (who nevertheless confounds this with what was commonly executed at Rome in his time.) The most perfect example is the order of the Parthenon, or temple of Minerva, in the Acropolis at Athens, erected. under the administration of Pericles, who lived about four hundred and fifty years before the Christian era. We cannot do better than give the dimensions of this singularly fine specimen. The columr, (including the capital,) ten modules, twenty-eigh minutes and a half; the whole entbalature, three modules, twenty-seven minutes and three quarters; the capital, twenty-seven minutes and three quarters; the architrave, (with its fillet,) one module, twelve minutes and three quarters; the frieze, to

[Dorick Order.]

the square member of the corona, one module, nineteen minutes; and the cornice, twenty-six minutes. Diameter of the column at the top, one module, sixteen minutes.

without a base, comparing it to a man, but I am, at the same time struck with the idea of a person without feet, rather than without shoes; for which reason I am inclined to believe, either that the architects had not yet thought of employing bases to their columns, or that they omitted them in order to leave the pavement clear, the angles and projection of bases being stumbling-blocks to passengers, and so much the more troublesome, as the architects of those times frequently placed their columns very near each other, so that, had they been made with bases, the passages between them would have been extremely narrow and inconvenient. Accordingly, to supply this defect, as it was considered in this order, most architects have employed the attick base, which is common to all the orders except the Tuscan though belonging, perhaps more peculiarly to the Ionick.

It consists of two tori, with a scotia and fillets between the upper of which, in this version, resembles an inverted ovolo. The fillet above the upper torus is always connected with the shaft by a curve, as is also that under the capital, for which reason they are commonly considered as part of the shaft. The plinth, or square member beneath, is usually understood, in Roman architecture, as an indispensable appendage to the base, though Palladio has omitted it in his Corinthian order; but it is rarely found in the Greek specimens. To save this order, however, from the sad humiliation of being obliged to borrow a shoe when required to wear one, Vignola provided it with this appendage. His base consists of one large torus with one considerably smaller resting upon it, surmounted by the fillet.

M. Le Clerc has, however, we apprehend, discovered the true reason why, at least in the latter Greek specimens, the base is omitted; namely, the very narrow intercolumniations. In the Greek order alteration is not probable, and perhaps not desirable; but in the Roman, where this addition has been long provided for us, and the intercolumniations adjusted accordingly, the omission would be certainly improper.

To proceed to the order designated by this title by the Romans. Very few ancient examples of this variation exist. The most perfect is that of the theatre of Marcellus, if, perhaps, we except that misshapened pile, Trajan's column, which is gener- The most striking peculiarity in this order is the ally pronounced to be Tuscan. It is, therefore, prin- triglyph, (supposed by Vitruvius to be the end of the cipally indebted for its existence to the modern Ital- joists laid transversely on the beam of the archiian architects, who, having little of antiquity before trave,) which forms the technical distinction between their eyes appear to have bestowed more attention the Grecian and Roman Dorick, being in the former upon this order than the others, and it must be con- always placed at the corner of the entablature, and fessed that they have made of it a very elegant de- in the latter, invariably over the centre of the colsign, though, as before observed, essentially differ-umn. This circumstance is a corroboration of the ent from the original and true Dorick. The meas- objection against the notion of the timber prototype; ures, from Sir William Chambers, are as follow: for, following the idea of the Egyptian origin of the base, thirty minutes; the shaft, thirteen modules, Greek architecture, there is found in the large holtwenty-eight minutes; and the capital, thirty-two lowed crown moulding of the temple of Tentyris, a minutes; the architrave, thirty minutes; the frieze to capital of triglyph, forty-five minutes; and cornice, forty-five minutes. Upper diameter of column, fifty minutes.

decoration very similar to the Dorick triglyph, the extreme parts of which are placed at the angle, like the Greek Dorick, but which, from their situation, bear not the least resemblance to the ends of pieces In no example of antiquity is the Dorick column of wood. The triglyph is surmounted by the muprovided with a base. This circumstance has occa- tule, in the Greek, and in some Roman examples sioned no small perplexity to some of those fanciful incled, but in most modern profiles horizontal: on writers, who seek in every point some analogy to its fit are represented guttæ, or drops. The spathe human figure, or the trunk of a tree. Vitruvius, ces between the triglyphs on the frieze, are called indeed, has told them that the base is a shoe, first invented to cover the nakedness of the matronly prototype of the Ionick order. "But," says Monsieur Le Clerc, "I must own I cannot consider a column

metopes, which, in the modern Dorick, are invariably perfectly square, and generally enriched with sculptures. Those which formerly adorned the metopes of the Parthenon were brought to England