The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-01-17
KNowLEDoE OF THE ANcrEN1s.
Fhe Debt of Modern Times TO the Pnst--AB-
client and Modern Progress.

We talk of modern progress; we gaze with
pride upon this invention and that, which
we fondly believe originated in our day and
generation; we consider ourselves, in fact,
sal geneffs. So short sighted are we, or so
needless, that we fail to acknowledge our
debts to the past The railroad dates back
to Egypt, says Wendell Phillips, and Arago
claims that they had knowledge of steam.
Humboldt in his Cosmos" says that the
Chinese 1000 years before our era had mag
netic carriages with which to guide them
selves across the great plains of Tartary, ON
the principle of the compass. The Romans
used movable types; magnifying lens of
rock crystal with true optical lens the
origin of the microscope--was found in
Ninevah; experiments foreshadowing pho
Biography began to be made more than three
centuries ago, the principle of the stereo-
scope was known to Euclid, modern tunnel
ling was anticipated by that under the Eu-
pirates at Babylon. Aristotle's mental
philosophy has hardly received any new
suggestions or marked improvements from
modern thinkers. So-called spiritual mani.
festatlons, such as table-turning aud spirit
writing, have been practiced in China from
time immemoral before Confucus was
born. Egyptian sculpture and hieroglyphs
demonstrate the existence of mesmerlsm in
those early days Balaam evidently con-
suited cltirvoyant-"a man in trance
with his eyes opened" man appeared
before Aristotle who could read on one side
of brazen shield what was written on the
other. Plautus in one of his plays says
What aud although were by my contin-
ual slow touch to make him as if asleep I"
The principles of Fourierlsm are discussed
IN the Confessions of Augustine" Even
the iced cobblers, upon which we pride our
selves as original concoctors, were described
seven centuries ago; "A cup of snow
water into which was sprinkled sugar, and
mixed with it the juice of grape" Marcus
Aurelius was III favor of free government
Ito use his own words" the idea of
pollty in which there is tue same law for all,
pohty administered with regard to equal
Fights aud equal freedom of speech, and the
idea OF II kingly government which respects
most of ali the freedom of the governed"
In Pompeii, during the process of exhuma-
ton, a room was found filled with glass OF
every descriptiOn--cut, ground and stained.
The Neapolitans were clcverer in their imi
tatiuns than we are to-day. Their glass
gems deceived the most praoticed eyes, and
the celebrated vase of the Geneva Cathedral,
which was considered a solid emerald, and
according TO the legend WAS the gift of She
ba's Queen to King Solomon, and the cup
out OF which the Savior ate his Inst supper,
was discovered to be no precious stone at
all, only clever, wonderful imitation
Leather cut in ornamental designs for wall
decorations were found at Pompeii. Table
draperies embroidered in applique were dis
covered in the tombs of Egyptian queens.
Spectacles aud several magntying gasscs
must have been used as far back as Nine
vah's proud reign; how otherwise could an
entire treatise on mathematics he engraved
on stone twenty inches long and ten widef
Cicero said he had seen the entire Had writ
Ten on skin, so that it could be rolled up in
the compass Oh uuISHell, tue WfllinB Oh
course so fine as to be indistinguishable TO
the naked eye The Pompeian red CLOVIS
as richly to-day as when put on by the artist
who lived when Christ was born. Neros
retreat. built over fifteen hundred years ago,
flashes out the undimmed colors of its
painted walls, when modern light is admit
ted, while our pictures and rament fade
during the lifetime of generation Damas.
Gus blades are as perfect today as when they
came from the makers hands, eight centur-
les ago, yet our steel must be gilded before
it can stand the atmosphere of Asia. We
eat desiccated fruits and fish and meat with
the pleased assurance that the process is an
outgrowth of Yankee ingenuity but in the
tomb of the Ptolemies was found the desic.
Gated liver of the great woman Pharaoh OF
the eighteenth dynasty. - Washington Re.
pubic.