The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1837-05-06

Cii WV B'i NcNh
When Homer composed his poems lat
least, during the Trojan war; the Greeks
ate the flesh of bulls and of rams, not hav-
ing acquired the art which relieves us from
the necessity of following their example!
Kings and princes killed and cooked their
victuals; spoons, forks, table-cloths, nap
kins, were unknown. They fed sitting,
(the custom of reclining upon beds being
afterwards copied from Asia,) and, like
other savages, they wtre great eaters. At
the time mentioned they had not chimneys,
nor candles, nor lamps; Torches are fres
quehtly mentioned by Homer, but lamps
never. A vase was placed upon tripod,
In which was burned dry wood, for giving
light. Locks and keys We're not common
at that time. Bundles were secured with
ropes, intricately combined; and hence the
famous Gordiah knot. Shoes and stock
ings were not early known among them;
nor buttons, nor saddles, nor stirfups.
Plutarch reports, that Gracious caused
stones to be erected along the highways
leading from Rome, for the convenience of
mounting their horses; for, at that time,
strrups were unknown, though all obvious
invention. Linen for shirts Wis not used
in Rome for many years after the govern
mcnt became despotic: even so late as the
9th century, it was not common in Europe.
Thales, one of the seven Wise men of
Greece, about six hundred years before
Christ, invented the following method for
measuring the height of an Egyptian pyra-
mid. He watched the progress of the sun,
till his body and the shadow were of the
same length, and at that instant measured
the shadow of the pyramid; which conse-
quently gave its height. Amesis, king of
Egypt, who was present at the operation,
thought it a Wonderful effect of genius; and
the Greeks admired 1t highly. Geometry
must have been in its very cradle at that
time. AnaXimander, some ages before
Christ, made the first map of the earth, so
far as was then known. About the end of
OF the thirteenth century, sp6ctacles, for
assisting the sight, were invented by Alex
ander Spina, monk of Pisai So useful
an invention cannot be too much extolled.
Ataperiod Of life when the judgment is in
maturity, and reading is of great benefit, the
eyes begin to grow dim. One cannot help
plying the condition of bookish men before
that invention; many of whom must have
had their sight greatly impaired, while
their appetite for reading was in vigour.
As the origin and progress of writing
make capital article in the present sketch,
they must not be overlooked! To write,
Or, in other words, to exhibit thoughts to
the eye, was early attempted in Egypt, by
hieroglyphics: but these were not confined
to Egypt: figures, composed of painted
feathers, were used in Mexico, to express
IDEAS; and, by such figures, Montezuma re-
,eived intelligence of the Spanish invasion. |
In Peru, the only arithmetical figures known
we're knots of various colours, which served |
o cast up accounts. The second step nat
ually, in the progress of the art of writing,
$, to represent each word by mark, term
ID ALETTER; which is the Chinese way of
writing. They have about eleven thousand
If these marks, or letters, in common use;
md, in matters of science, they employ to
he number of sixty thousand. Our way is
ar more easy and commodious: instead of
marks, or letters, for words, (which are in
nite,) we represent, by marks or letters,
he articulate sounds that compose words:
hese sounds exceed not thirty in nuttiber;
nd, consequently, the same number of
marks or letters is sufficient for writing.
This was at once td step from hieroglyph-
cs, the most imperfect mode of writing, to
etters representing sounds, the Most per-
ect; for there is no probability that the
)hinese mode was ever practised in this
art Of the world. With us, the learning to
cad is so easy, as to be acquired in child
ood; and we are ready for the sciences as