The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-05-19
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CHILL Or xf1E ANClEN3
. LOST ARTs-The subject sueae~ - 4 rscsn;tn-
Iatory remarks respecting the qrcsstc perota Of io.t
arts" Ii the Thebans, 500 years before Christ,
knew less in some departments Of useful knowledge
than ourselves, they also in others knew more One
great proof Of the genius Of that splendid line of po
tentatss, entitled the 18th Thsbian dynasty, il that
the PRACTICAL chemical Astronomical and mechanical
knowledge which they shared with the pssusly [sci-
entIhcI colleges was in some respects greater than
our own. They made glass in great Profadon (Dlo-
aorus Sc1Ias) and burning glasses and lenses for
by the aid of microscopes Ptolemy describes An as
rolabe they calculated eclpses; they said that the
moon was diversified by and land (Platarch defa-
cie mtnG; that one lunar day equal to Is Of the
earths that the earth 3 diameter was third of the
moons; and that the moons mass was 10 that of the
earth as to IL All these things show good instru-
menis They made gold potable (inferentialiy Mo-
ses did So who was Scribe brought up by the sove.
reign Pontif, and nursed in the wisdom of the
Egyptians an art lost till recently recovered by
French chymist. Their workmanship in gold n re-
corded by Homer, and their golden clockwork, by
which thrones moved must have been exquistsly in
genious. They possessed the art of emperng copper
tools to cut the hardest granite with the most
minute precision This art we have lost. We see
the scuptors in the act of cutting the inscriptions
the granite obelisks and tablets. We sec pictorial
copy of the chises and tools with which the opera
ton was performed. We see the tools themselves
There sculptor's tools at the Museum, the
paired - whilst the blunt extremity is fattened
by blows of the mallet) But our tools would not
cut such stone with the precision of outline which the
inscriptions retain to the present day Again, what
mechanical means had they to raise and fix the
nous imposts on the ntels of their temples at Kar-
nacs Architects confess that they could not
raise them by the usual mechanical powers. Those
must therefore, be put amongst the lost arts
That they were familiar with the principle of Arte-
sian wells has been lately proved by engineering in
vesgations carried while boring for water in the
great Oasis. That they were acquainted with the
principle of railroads is certain that is to say that
they had artificial causeways, levelled, direct and
grooved, (the grooves being anointed with oil) for
the conveyance from great distances of enormous
blocks of stone, entire stone temples, and colossal
statues of half the height of the monument Rem.
nants of iron it is said, have lately been found in
these grooves Finally, M. Arago has argued that
they not only possessed knowledge of steam power
which they employed in the mysteries Of their
Pagan freemasonry the Oldest In the world, of which
the Pyramids were the lodges, but the modern steam
engine is derived, through Solomon de Caus the pre-
decessor of Worcester, from the invention of Hero,
the Egyptian engineer. The contestof the Egyptian
saphos with Moses before Pharaoh, pays singular
tribute to their union Of knowledge and power No
supernatural aid is Intimately Westminster Revie.c