tain torrents, either lying in the channel of the stream, or mixed with sand and gravel left on its banks. With regard to mines, various accidents, besides the impetuosity of torrents, might discover to mankind the mineral substances which the earth concealed in her bosom. Examples of such accidents sometimes occur at the present day. A gold-mine was discovered in Peru, about a century and a half ago, by the cleaving of a mountain in a thunder-storm. The famous mines of Potosi were first brought to light by another kind of accident. An Indian, climbing up some rocks, covered with trees and bushes, in his efforts to ascend, took hold of a small tree, which came up by the roots, and by this means betrayed an ingot of silver.

But, if it be easy to imagine how the first men might discover metals, it is difficult to conceive how they arrived at the art of working them. It is only by means of fire, that we can prepare metals for our use. Even before they can be forged, they must be melted and refined, and cast into pure masses, to be afterwards divided at pleasure. These operations are difficult, and require no little dexterity, knowledge, and reflection.

As fusion is the first means used for these purposes, we may suppose, that volcanoes might originally suggest the idea of metallurgy. What renders this conjecture more credible is, that those persons to whom antiquity has assigned the invention of this art, lived in countries famous for the action of volcanic fires. Ancient writers, however, have given a different account of this discovery. They are pretty generally agreed in ascribing it to the burning of forests, where the soil contained metallic ores. The violence of the fire, according to them, having melted the metals, they flowed out, and diffused themselves on the surface of the ground. It was in this manner, as the old traditions of Greece assert, that iron was discovered on Mount Ida; and it is to a similar accident that historians attribute the discovery of the silver-mines on the Pyrenees.

VOL. IV.

R

By whatever means the art of fusing metals was discovered, there is every reason to believe, both from the nature of the different substances, and the evidence of history, that iron,—the most important of them all,—was the last of being discovered and applied to use. It is not found, like silver and gold, in a pure state, nor is it easily distinguished in the ore. But, independent of this, it is the most difficult of all the metals to bring into fusion, and to render ductile. A piece of this metal once melted, is as untractable as ever, and not more malleable than flint. In order to be rendered fit for the forge, therefore, considerable art must be previously employed. It must be melted a second time, and beat with heavy hammers; it must then be heated again, till it is on the point of fusion, and once more put under the hammer. This operation must be repeated again and again, till at length this hard and brittle mass becomes the tractable and malleable substance, so useful in the arts.

It will not be matter of surprise, then, that the use of silver, and especially of copper, preceded, in many countries, the use of iron. This is the testimony of all antiquity; and we are also informed, that they had acquired the art of tempering this metal with tin, so as to give it most of the properties of iron. We know, however, that tools of iron were employed in very early times. The writings of Moses are sufficient to establish this fact. It is evident, from the manner in which this most early and authentic of authors speaks of iron, that it had been in use long before his time. The country of Canaan is described as "a land whose stones are iron,”* and he compares the severity of the servitude of the Israelites in Egypt, to the heat of a furnace for melting this metal. But what is most worthy of attention is, that we find mention made of swords, knives, axes, and, what is more to our present purpose, of tools for cutting stones, all formed of iron. They must, therefore, have known the

* Deut. viii. 9.

art of tempering this metal, and even of converting it into steel.*

These notices, as they show some of the difficulties that the art of architecture had early to contend with, will serve to exalt our conceptions of the ingenuity exerted by ancient nations, in erecting those stupendous fabrics, which still remain, to humble the pride of modern artists, and confound their imaginations.

NINTH WEEK.-THURSDAY.

ARCHITECTURE.-ITS MODIFICATIONS BY THE INFLUENCE OF HABIT AND RELIGION.

BEFORE entering on the interesting subject of the architectural remains of antiquity, a few observations seem to be called for in reference to the circumstances which gave rise to the different styles of building prevalent in different countries, and we find some valuable hints on this subject in the posthumous volume of Mr Hope, of which I avail myself.

In the preceding paper, I have run over in a cursory manner, the state of the earliest tribes as to their means of shelter, and the uses which they made of these means; and I have now to observe, that the habits which they early formed in the art of building, did not entirely change with their materials, but in many instances produced an influence on their taste, even when their circumstances were greatly altered. In every country where new materials were employed, the shapes and modifica

* See Deut. iv. 20; Numb. xxxv. 16; Levit. i. 17; Deut. xix. 5, and xxvii. 5. The manner in which tools of iron are mentioned in the last noted passage, shows that it was the only metal then in use for cutting stones. "And there thou shalt build an altar unto the Lord thy God,-an altar of stones: Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them." Compare this with Exodus xx. 25, and Isaiah viii. 31.

tions, which had naturally arisen from their original use of other natural productions, were in a certain degree preserved, or rather imitated; and policy and religion seem even to have given to this method the sanction which might be thought to be denied to it by reason. It reminded the tribe of its earliest infancy, and its primitive arts. It was connected with the worship of the God from whom these were always supposed to be derived, and with all their most interesting and powerful associations.

From this universal propensity to retrace, in the later methods of construction, the forms of the earlier materials, we see the architecture of the Chinese still resembling, in all its parts, the original type of the tents of their Tartar ancestors. In the wooden pillars, destitute of bases and capitals, which in such numbers support the ceilings, we trace the poles; in the roofs, which, from these pillars, project so far, convex alike in their spine, their sides, and their ribs, we observe the awning of hides or pliant stuffs spread over ropes and bamboos; in the curling spikes which fringe their eaves, the hooks and fastenings; in the lowness, and spread, and clustering of the different parts, the whole form, appearance, and character belonging to the residences of the original herdsmen. Chinese houses seem to cling to posts, which, when planted in the ground, have struck root, and become fixed; the palaces look like a number of collected awnings; and the very pagodas and towers in their loftiness, would appear to be nothing more than a number of tents piled on the top, instead of standing by the side of each other.

Even that other swarm from the Tartar hive, which, at a later period, under the name of Turks, overwhelmed the Greek empire, distant as are its dominions, enables us to trace in the stationary dwellings of the inhabitants, the form of the portable tent of its Nomadic ancestors. While the mosques and public buildings of this people, partake of the fashion of the once flourishing empire

which they subdued, their private habitations, from the roof of the meanest cottage, to the porch of the grandest kioschk or palace, in its low-spreading expanse, its widely extended eaves, broken at various angles, supported by numerous pillars, and almost reaching to the ground, still strikingly recal the same model, and differ little in shape and distribution from the real Tartar tent.

The architecture of the native Hindoos is of a character altogether different, and its type may be traced in the gigantic caves of Ellora, and the temples of Eliphanta and Benares. It represents, in a form less ponderous, the cavern dug in the solid rock, or the pyramidal dwelling composed of the rude materials which had been extracted from the bosom of that rock, in forming the huge excavations.

In the buildings of the ancient Egyptians, derived from a similar origin, the fancy may please itself by tracing the preservation of this same form. The temples, the mausoleums, all the subsisting remains of that people everywhere, are considered by Mr Hope, as deriving their original type from the cavern cut in the side of the rock, and the dissevered fragments again raised in the neighbourhood. "Not merely the catacombs," says our author, "but the edifices springing aloft from the ground, in the spread of their space, in the slope of their sides, in the overhanging of their brow, in the mass of their solid parts, in the smallness and lowness of their apertures, in the thickness and shortness of the pillars that support these, resemble the ridge of rock partially pierced, or the insulated mountain rising from its wide base, and tapering to a narrow apex."

In the Greek edifice of stone and marble, it is more obvious, that the form of the primitive cabin in which it originated, constructed of the stems, branches, and foliage of trees, was religiously preserved. Every later improvement for use, every more elaborate addition for ornament, which was displayed in these, only appeared as a supplement to the fundamental form, and was in no