The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1853-08-03
THE LOST ARTS.

ed before the Boston Mercantile Library Asso-
Grafton, Wendell Phillips
Every antiquarian knows tht scattered up
and down ancient history there are accounts Of
Strange things done by the mechanics of the
o'den time Many of these we find described
u the writings of Herudotus, who lived 400 B.
q, and SO wonderful arc some Of the things
described, that he is often known by the name
Of the Father of Lies. But ChampoIion and
DR.. Young, have lifted up the veil, and given
repeated proofs OF the truth Of many Of Herudo-
| tus assertions.
IT will only be possible TO touch upon few
points, such as glass, metals, and the mechanic
| arts
Glass is one Of those articles which are most
useful IN common life md in some ofits forms
has extended infinitely the range Of scientific
lnquirse, Did the ancients know anything al
| the use OF this articles Seventy years aso, a
| learned Neap5ltan wrote great volume TO
| prove that the ancien,s had no glass Shorty
after, laborer in Poinpe broke into room
hlied with glass in many shapes The ancIents,
It appears, tar exceeded us in some resnectss
Tor we read of malleabe glass, tha, could be
hammered and ofa man who in presenting a
beautiful glass vase 10 Romsn emperor, Drop
pea IL thereby causing il to bend he took a
hammer and reduced it again t, its proper shape.
They had perfection in the art Of colorina
glass that we have not been able to attain
and one writer tells Of u funeral hall broken in.
to, where banqueting tables been set for 1000
years, covered with numerous articles Of glass,
inald with gold, with colors struck through
with the richness Of Raphael, beyond anything
wesknow. There is in the old windows Of Eu-
rope glass, which has been broken and pieced
oy later artists, who have endeavored in vain to
initiate the perfection Of the older work. In
the Roman Catholic Cathedral Genoa thera
was large vase, said to have been bought by
the Queen Of Sheba to Solomon, and subse-
gently used at the Lords Supper, composed Of
a single emerald 1t deemed crime for
any person but the prizes. to touch it /; In l776
a frenchInan was imprisoned seven or eight
years for attempting to test it with diamond.
Inc Jews at one time OF government need Of
tered load OF several millions a rims on the
security of that vase, but it was refused But
when it fell into the hands Of Napoleon the
Great, his savans decided, after close testing.
that 1t was Egyptian glass of great antiquity
and ct its workmanship nothing need be said,
since it deceived even the Jew
Did they know aught Of the telescope or mi
chroscope Some authorities say that the
Hebrews were acquainted with the roundness
of the world, while the Hindoos knew of the
precession of the equinoxes. This they could
not have ascertained without telescope. The
theatre OF Rome was capable of containing So
QUO persons around its great central arena.
where the gladisatoral shows and naval fights
took place. The imperial, box was at one end
and Pliny says Nero had a circle with gem in
it peculiarly shaped, by which he could criticise
the performances if so, he had single opera
glass. In the museums of the Old World, there
are four or five thousand antique gems carved,
and you have to use glass to look at the fine
be the signet ring Of Cheops, 1000 years old,
has npon it carved lines which cannot be prop.
erly appreciated without microscope and so,
how could it have been engraved without mi
croscope,
Color is great test Of chemical art, and Of
all the the Egyptian colors green alone has ia
ded. Now this is what is wanted in our time
The colors Of Sir Joseph Reynolds and Of Rap
haes grow dim in the course of time; but enter
the vault of Nero, and from the arabesaue de-
signs on the ceiling fash back brilliant hues of
purple and crimson, and many antique
painted relics, such as the portraits in ancient
days, have freshness that ou'lives the COM
positions of the present day.
In the mechanic arts. When we look upon
the immense Of the ruins Carnac, upon the
Pyramids, and find pow 10 move such blocks
wanting in our day, werdved TO infer that the
ancient possessed great Mechanical contrvan-
ces. What was that masses by which the great
porphyry block were conveyed from the QUAR-
A'C my AhCuco, Jul OsiC3 VI Which, nOmdn
conquerers, in later times find impossible, with
all their appliances to remove TO Rome?
Or metals Their use and moulding was
one of the earliest triumphs of chemistry
Some learned men, in transating, say that Mo
ses made the people bring the golden calf, while
the chemists Of our day tell US they have no
means of making golden liquid except by heat,
neither OF which would give it form which we
would be pleased to drink.
The Roman walls were built without mortar,
and yet nicely joined tina. you could not get
penknife between them One Of the obelsks
that were taken to France was worked upon BY
an engraver for three weeks, and after spelling
several cases of his best tools, he could only
engrave two lines. These would imply instru.
ments superior to our own. lfChampo!lion can
be trusted, they could be bent double without
breaking. AlIusions to the cold blast may be
found in the Hindoo writings Of seven hundred
years ago, where it is said that a chieftain who
had no sword, and was waiting for to be
forged, grew so impatient that he seized it from
the anvil, while red hot and rushed up a noun
tain side TO join the fray, when The cold cir
tempered it before he met the foe Every one
who has read Sir Walter Scott's wars, know of
the description ofa banquet meeting between
Richard C9ur de Lion and SaIadin when each
| tested the character of his weapon. Richard
cut an iron bar at blow, but Saladin severed a
cushion at touch, and throwing up keschief
| so light that it foated away on the air, drew lis
blade across 1t without any disturbance of its
| easy motion dividing it into two pieces.
Arago says the ancient used steam. He has
seen Oh painted ring the picture of boat
with paddles, which must have been propelled
either by hydrostates or steam and it is well
known tina. the ancient Egyptian priests used
| steam to perform miracles. The priests were
| men of science, and jealousy kept it in their
own privileged order, the basis of their nfiu-
| ence; SO that when Compyses, the persian con-
queror, thundered over Egypt and crushed the
| priesthood, the science that built the pyramids
and piled giant masses Of stone, and performed
| other equally wonderful feats, lost with
| them. There is now in that country canal,
choked up with sand, many miles long, forty
feet deep, and wide enough for two war galeys
to ride abreast; fl00 900 would put it in COM
plete repair; Heropotus tells US it was built by
Sesostris, the contemporar Of Moses
Mr +. concludes by saying that the glory of
modern art was not the property Of privileged
few like ancient science, but poured out its be-
nefits freely upon the universal brotherhood of
man.
THE HAPPY MAN.-The Commonwealth
maks the following extract from phonographic
| report of recent sermon by Rev Theodore
Parker, Of Boston. The original of the pctuie
is understood to be highly esteemed resident
of Newton
"The happiest man have ever known is one
far enough from being rich, in money, and one
who will never be very much nearer to it. His
calling fits him, and he likes it, reioices in lis
process as mucl, as in its result He has an
active mind, well filled. He reads aud he
thinks. He tends his garden before sunrise,
every morning-then rides sundry miles by the
rail-does his 10 hours work in the town
whence he returns happy and cheerful. With
is own smile he catches the earliest smile of