of the reputation they acquired, might be shewn from this single article on chemistry. How the Egyptians formed that cement, which they applied in rearing those monuments which still subsist, remains a secret yet to us unknown; though it be past all doubt, that they prepared it in a chemical way, so hidden however from us, that we daily lament the loss of it. They must also have had some method of tempering steel, far superior to ours, as the deep and sharp inscriptions on their obelisks and temples abundantly testify. The numberless mummies which still endure, after so long a course of ages, proves that the Egyptians carried chemistry to a very high degree of excellence. In their mummies alone there is such a series and contexture of operations, that some of them still remain unknown, notwithstanding all the attempts of the ablest moderns to recover them. The art of embalming bodies, for example, and preserving them for many ages, is absolutely lost. All the essays to restore this art have proved ineffectual; nor have the reiterated analyses made of mummies, to discover the ingredients of which they are composed, had any better success. Some moderns have attempted, by certain preparations, to preserve dead bodies entire, but all to no purpose. The mummies of Lewis de Bils, or Bilsius, of Copenhagen, who flourished about 1680, have long since been in a state of corruption. There were also, in the composition of the Egyptian mummies, many things beside, which fall within the verge of chemistry; such as their gilding,* so very fresh, as if it were but of fifty years' standing; and their stained silk, so vivid in its colours, though after a series of thirty ages. In the British museum there was, and may be still, a mummy covered over with fillets of granated glass, various in colour, which shews that these people, at that time, understood not only the making of glass, but could paint it to their liking. It may be remarked here, that the ornaments of glass, with which that mummy is bedecked, are tinged with the same colours, and set off in the same taste, as the dyes in which almost all other mummies are painted; so that it is probable, that this kind of ornaments, being very expensive, was reserved for personages of the first rank only; whilst others, who could not afford this, contented themselves with an imitation of it in painting. It would be easy to make a more extensive enumeration of the particulars of the chemical processes which altogether concurred towards the composition of a mummy; but I proceed now to take notice of their manner of painting upon linen, which, if I mistake not, is still a secret to us. After having drawn the outlines of their design upon the piece of linen, they filled each compartment of it with different sorts of gums, proper to absorb the various colours: so that none of them could be dis That the ancients understood the art of gilding with beaten or water gold is attested by Pliny. Æs inaurari argento vivo, legitimum erat.-HIST: NAT: lib. 33, c. 3. tinguished from the whiteness of the cloth. Then they dipped it for a moment in a cauldron full of boiling liquor, prepared for the purpose; and drew it thence, painted in all the colours they intended. And what was very remarkable, the colours neither decayed by time, nor faded in washing; the caustic, impregnating the liquor in which it was dipt, having penetrated and fixed every colour intimately through the whole contexture of the cloth. This single instance is sufficient to give us a very high conception of the progress that chemistry had made among the Egyptians, though their history affords a thousand others of a similar kind not to be wondered at among a people so very active and industrious, where even the lame, the blind, and the maimed, were in constant employment; and so little were the Egyptians subject to envy or jealousy, that they inscribed their discoveries in the arts and sciences upon pillars reared in holy places, in order to omit nothing that might contribute to public utility. The emperor Adrian attests the first part of their character, in a letter written to the consul Servianus, upon presenting him with three very curious cups of glass, which, like a pigeon's neck, reflected, on whatever side they were viewed, a variety of colours, representing those of the precious stone called obsidianum, which some commentators have imagined to be the cats-eye, and others the opal. This art of imitating precious stones was not peculiar to the Egyptians; the Greeks, who, indeed, derived their knowledge from those great masters, were also very skilful in this branch of chemistry. They could give to a composition of chrystal, all the different tints of any precious stone they wanted to imitate. Pliny, Theophrastus, and many others, give some instances of this; but they most remarkably excelled in an exact imitation of the ruby, the hyacinth, the emerald, and the sapphire. I insist not upon what Diodorous Siculus says, that some of the Egyptian kings had the art of extracting gold from a sort of white marble; nor upon what Strabo reports of their manner of preparing nitre, and the considerable number of mortars of granite that were to be seen in his time at Memphis, which were intended for chemical purposes; but I cannot in silence pass over their hatching the eggs of hens, geese, and other fowls, at all seasons, and in different ways, first renewed among the moderns by Reaumur, and now daily practised in London and Paris. The method adopted by Reaumur was precisely that of the Egyptians, according to the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, Aristotle, and Flavius Vopiscus. Chemistry being a principal branch of medicine, it will not be amiss to mention some particulars, wherein the Egyptians have contributed to the perfection of that science. I set aside the history of Esculapius, who was instructed by Mercury or Hermes, and I come to facts. Their pharmacy depended much on chemistry; witness their manner of extracting oil, and preparing opium, for alleviating acute pains, or relieving the mind from melancholy thoughts. Homer seems to have had this last in view, when he introduces Helen as ministring to Telemachus a medical preparation of this kind. They also made a composition or preparation of a clay or fuller's earth, adapted to the relief of many disorders, particularly to render the fleshy parts dry, and thence to cure the dropsy and the hemorrhoids. They knew all the different ways of composing salts, nitre, alum, sal cyrenaïc or ammoniac, so called by them on account of its being found in the environs of the temple of Jupiter Ammon. They made use of the litharge of silver, the rust of iron, and calcined alum, in the cure of ulcers, cuts, boils, defluxions of the eyes, pains of the head, &c., and of pitch against the bite of serpents. They successfully applied caustics. They knew every different way of preparing plants, herbs, and grain, whether for medicine or beverage. Beer had its origin among them,* a circumstance very little known. Their unguents were of the highest estimation, and most lasting; and their using remedies, taken from metallic substances, is so manifest in the writings of Pliny and Dioscorides, that it would be needless, nay tedious, to enter into further details. Dioscorides, especially, often makes mention of their metallic preparations, such as burnt lead, ceruse, verdigrease, and burnt antimony; all which they made use of in their plaisters, and other external applications. It should be observed here, that I have had nothing in view but the pharmacy of the Egyptians, otherwise I might have made mention of the Theric, that famous composition of Andromachus the physician of Nero, which has at all times been in high estimation, and is now in as much repute as ever. What little I have advanced respecting the medicinal chemistry of the ancients, must suffice upon this occasion; the Greeks and Romans presenting too vast a field to be comprised in an article of this kind. Hippocrates especially, the contemporary and friend of Democritus, was remarkably assiduous in the cultivation of chemistry. He not only understood the general principles of it, but was an adept in many of its most useful combinations. Passages are quoted from Plato, that are now received as axioms in chemistry. Galen knew that the energy of fire might be applied to many important purposes, and that by the instrumentality of it many secrets in nature were to be discovered, which otherwise must for ever lie hid; and he gives many instances of this in several parts of his writings. Dioscorides has transmitted to us many of the mineral operations of the ancients, and in particular that of extracting quicksilver from cinnabar, which is in effect an extract description of distillation. These are abundant proofs of the genius, industry, science, and civilization of the ancient Egyptians, and if their posterity are now degenerated This fact is confirmed by Pliny. Conficitur potus ex Hordeo, quem Zythum vocant, odoris et saporis jucunditate vero non multum cedens.-Lib. 13, c. 5. to the lowest grade in social existence, the cause of the decline must solely be attributed to bad government. The same reverse may happen at a distant date to England, if the people become indifferent to political institutions, and cease to advance with the spirit of the age. If the system once becomes stationary, it will soon retrograde, and the arts and sciences will droop and languish. The past and present state of Egypt is a memorable instance of the instability of human affairs, and a warning to modern nations, that the prosperity of all states depends on the proper cultivation and exercise of the intellectual faculties. SPECIMENS OF THE POETRY OF JEAN-BAPTISTE JEAN-BAPTISTE ROUSSEAU Occupies an honoured station on the summit of the French Parnassus. He was born in 1671, and enjoyed the inestimable advantage of studying during twenty years under the immediate auspices of the acute and judicious Boileau. The pupil proved worthy of the master, from whom he imbibed that purity of style and correctness of taste which pervade all his compositions. His psalms and his odes are an imperishable monument to his glory, so long as the love of literature is cultivated among mankind. J. B. Rousseau possessed a most exact and delicate ear, and had the rare judgment of selecting the most appropriate stanza for each of his subjects. There is not much depth of thought or originality of conception in his writings, but the lyric poet is not expected to think so profoundly as the philosopher who reasons. The chief merit of our author is the harmony of his versification, the richness of his metaphors, and the roundness of his periods; though, on occasions, he manifests the glowing energies of a bold imagination. We propose to give a few specimens of his psalms, and of his four most celebrated odes, to wit, those he addressed au Comte du Luc, au Prince Eugène, au Duc de Vendôme, and to Malherbe. The following extract is from his psalms, descriptive of the wonders of creation. I. Dans une éclatante voûte Il a placé de ses mains II. L'univers, à sa présence, Il prend sa course, il s'avance, We take our next specimen from the psalm on the "apparent temporal prosperity of the wicked," which, in many passages, is vigorous and beautiful. Le Comte du Luc, one of the patrons of Rousseau, plenipotentiary at the peace of Baden, and ambassador in Switzerland, had long and faithfully served France in her diplomatic negotiations. His health was feeble and his constitution greatly impaired; the poet, in the following ode, desires to express his gratitude for past services, to compliment him on the public services which he had rendered to the state, and at the same time to anticipate his speedy convalescence and the enjoyment of a green old age. Rousseau commences the ode with describing the state of excitement which he feels when the spirit of poetry seizes on him. He compares himself to Proteus, when he wishes to escape the importunities of those who consult him, and to the priestess of Delphi, when filled with the energies of the God whose oracles she is about to pronounce. This commencement appears, at first view, somewhat irrelevant, but Rousseau handles his subject with the skill of a master in his art, and justifies the pomp and vehemence of his exordium. I. Des veilles, des travaux, un faible cœur s'étonne. Dont nous suivons la cour, Ne nous vend qu'à ce prix ces traits de vive flamme, |