vention, that of making glafs from the fine fand that covered their fhore; and had alfo communicated to them the fecret of ftaining it of various colours to imitate precious stones; for, that they were thoroughly acquainted with the process is incontrovertibly evident from the great column of emerald formed by Phoenician artifts, and which, according to Herodotus, who faw it, adorned the ancient temple of Hercules at Tyre. That column was undoubtedly fabricated of glafs* ftained of the colour of that gem, and by night was probably filled with lamps, as it is faid, amidst the darkness of the midnight hour, to have illuminated the whole of that auguft fabric. The learned author of the tranflation of Herodotus, a work equally valuable to the English reader for the fidelity of the text, and the various erudition dif played in the notes, especially those of a my thological allufion, is inclined to dispute this very early knowledge of the Phoenicians in the fabrication of glafs; but he will candidly own that the voice of claffical antiquity is at least very loud in favour of the judgement * Herodotus, lib. ii. cap. 44. which affigns it to them. Among those claffics eminently ranks that diligent collector of their opinions, Pliny, who not only expreffly affirms what has been previously mentioned, that this ancient people first made glass from the very fine fand and pebbles on their shore, thrown into accidental fufion with the ashes of burnt vegetables that lay scattered over that shore, but, fpeaking of the manufac tures of Sidon, intimates that they also knew the art of making specula,* glass mirrors and, though they may not be allowed to have applied, in making them, that tin which they fo abundantly imported from Britain, yet they knew how to procure, in fome degree, a fimilar effect, by tinging the posterior furface with fome opake fubftance, which would naturally cause images to be reflected from the fuperior. The ancient mirrors, indeed, were not generally made of glass, but of metallic fubftances: from the context, however, it is most probable that Specula vitrea were here intended; and the Sidonians were not the only ancient people who fabricated these glass * Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvi. cap. 22. mirrors, mirrors, for they appear to have been also manufactured, at a very remote period, in the glass-houses of the great Diospolis, in Upper Egypt, in which city all the laborious operations of chemistry were carried to a high degree of perfection. In teftimony of this, we have only to recur once more to those stupendous existing monuments of their skill in this respect, the mummies, fome of them covered with GLASS of varied colours; on which subject, so much in point, let us again hear M. Dutens, who, on this topic at least, has certainly not advanced any thing that will not admit of strict investigation, and even of ocular proof. "There were alfo in those mummies of Egypt many things befides, which fall within the verge of chemistry; fuch as their gilding, which is fo very fresh, as if it were but of fifty years standing; and their stained filk, still vivid in its colours, though after a series of thirty ages. In the Museum of London there is a mummy covered all over with fil * "The ancients also understood gilding with beaten and water gold. Es inaurari argento vivo legitimum erat. Nat. lib. xxxiii, cap. 3. Vitruv. lib. vii. cap. 8.” Plin. Hift. lets lets of granated glass, various in colour, which fhews that this people 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 fame colours, and fet off in the fame taste, as the dyes in which almost all other mummies are painted; fo that it is probable, that this kind of ornaments, being very expensive, was reserved for perfonages of the first rank only, whilst others, who could not afford this, contented themselves with an imitation of it in painting." This existing specimen of their skill is extremely curious and valuable; but, if those who have recorded the hiftory of the progress in science of the ancient Egyptians can be depended upon, they foared to a far greater height of excellence in this branch of chemical exertion; for, they fabricated coloffal statues of their gods and kings in coloured glass; and, according to Theophraftus, had erected in the temple of Jupiter Hammon an obelisk compofed of four emeralds, that is, of glass Duten's Inquiry, &c. p. 241. of of the colour of that gem, not less than forty cubits in height, and four in breadth.* Another coloffal ftatue of Serapis, the Sun, nine cubits high, and confifting of one folid emerald, is mentioned by Pliny, from Apion, as in his time preferved in the labyrinth. Sefoftris is also faid to have presented to the king of the Lydians a ftatue of Minerva, compofed of one emerald, four cubits high; and tradition has immortalized the great smaragdine, or emerald, table, on which the renowned Trifmegiftus, having engraved the fecrets of the Hermetic art, caufed it to be buried with him.† Arrian, or whoever was the author of the Periplus, acquaints us, that, in the glass-houses of Thebais, they endeavoured to imitate the vafa murrbina of India; and that they made in abundance thefe falfe murrhins, in which they drove a confiderable commerce with the Arabian and Roman merchants; but, as Pliny positively asserts that these imitative vessels were of glafs, it is evident that the true Theophraftus de Lapid. p. 394. + Pliny, lib. xxxvii. fect. 19. Fabricius Bibl. Græc. lib. i. cap. 10, p. 98. myrrhins |