confulted in all his expeditions, and ufed often to kiss, is well known,

The art of engraving precious ftones is of the Gems, highest antiquity, and was known to nations far diftant from each other. The Greeks, it is faid, at first used to feal with pieces of wood that were worm, eaten; and there is a gem in Baron Stofch's collection, the graving of which is a very good imitation of wood in this condition.

A fingle inftance is enough to make us judge to what a height this branch of the art had arifen, and that is the two thousand drinking cups, made of precious ftones which were found by Pompey in the treasury of Mithridates but, indeed, what remains and is every day found will give us the best idea of this matter. Upon this occafion I cannot help obferving, that Euripides has given the name of pedem to a precious ftone fet in a ring, and that nobody as far as I know has explained the reafon of this name. It is because the circle of the ring is like the leather which holds the ftone, and the two ftraps; whence the Romans in their turn gave the name of a ling to a stone fet in a ring, and called it Fronda. We come now to glafs, in which the ancients did amazing things indeed.

In the first place they made much more ufe Glafs. of it than the moderns do. Befides their utenfils for houfehold and ordinary ufe, there were fome appropriated to the prefervation of the afhes of their dead. The two largeft I have feen of this fort were in the Hamilton collection, and are now in the British Museum. The leffer of them, found at Cuma, had afhes in it, and was depofited in a leaden box, the lead of which was fold by the man who had found it, and produced a great deal. At Farnese on the road to Viterbo, about nine miles from Rome, there has been a great quantity of old glafs found, fome of which I examined, and found that it had been enamelled in high relief.

A fe

A fecond use the ancients made of this common glafs was as a kind of pavement to their halls, for which they were not contented with glafs of one colour, but used feveral of different colours, and made a fort of Mofaic of them. Veftiges of the first kind, viz. the uniform, are to be found in the island Farnefe; they are a kind of pannels of green glafs, of the thick nefs of bricks of a moderate fize.

But what the ancients found means to do with coloured glafs is wonderful indeed, if we may judge by two fpecimens which have appeared lately at Rome, and which are not quite an inch long by a quarter of an inch broad. One of them, on a coloured and darkish ground, exhibits a bird, which fomewhat refembles a duck, but is more like a Chinese painting than a draught after nature. The outline is bold and determined, the colours fine and chafte, extremely varied and vivid, and have a very foft effect, owing to the artist's having used opaque and tranf parent glaffes alternately. The pencil of the most delicate miniature painter that ever exifted could not have expreffed better the circle round the eye, nor the ruffled plumes of the throat and wings; at the infertion of which laft the piece is broken off; but what is moft furprizing of all is, that the fame bird is painted in the fame manner on the back of the piece, fo that it is probable it goes through the whole thickness of the glafs. It feems to have been made of feparate pieces like Mofaic.

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It con

The other piece is done in the fame manner. fifts of mouldings and various other ornaments, in green, yellow, and white colours, upon a blue ground. These ran fo well into each other, and the whole work is done with fo much fkill, that the niceft eye can hardly distinguish where the pieces join.

However, the most useful things in glafs belonging to the antique are, the moulds and cafts of gems, and the larger works in relief; of which laft there is an intire vafe.

Many

Many of the paftes of the Intaglios fhew the veins and stripes of the different colours which were upon tlie original gem; as the cafts do the colours of the Ca meos. Mr. Byers has a very curious head of the emperor Tiberius of this fort; and it is to this inven tion that we owe the knowledge of feveral fine antique fubjects, the originals of which are loft.

As to larger baffo relievó in glass we have only bits of them remaining; thefe, however, are fufficient to thew the industry of the artist, They were probably incrufted in the marble or pannels, of rooms, and furrounded with feftoons. The most confiderable work of the kind, is a cameo in the Vatican. It is a long fquare, about a palm in length, and two-thirds of a palm wide, and reprefents Bacchus repofing on the breast of Ariadne, attended by two fatyrs.

The finest things, however, of the kind were the vafes adorned with figures in relievo, often of various colours, upon a brown ground, but fo perfectly executed as to be scarce inferior to the fine vafes of Sardonix, There is but one of thofe remaining entire. It is preferved in the Barberini palace, and is fo fine that writers have taken it for a true Sardonix. What difference between fuch works as these, and the finest china, not a fingle piece of which has ever had a figúre on it that tempts one to afk the name of the artist!

Chap. III. On the Effect of the Influence of the Climate on the fine Arts.

By the influence of the climate, we are to understand thofe effects which are produced upon the hu man figure, and the way of thinking of men, by the fituation of the country they live in, the various temperature of the air they breathe, and the difference of their food. For the exiftence of fuch a difference we have

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have the authority of Polybius *; and what is more, the teftimony of experience, not only in men, but in animals.

The nerves of the tongue muft naturally have lefs fenfibility, and be less flexible, in cold countries than in warm ones owing to the excefs of cold; hence it is that the languages of the Northern nations have fo many monofyllables in them, and that their words are fo clogged with confonants as to make it difficult for foreigners to pronounce them. Gravina has carried this fo far as to attribute the differences of the Italian dialects to this difference of conformation in the organs of fpeech. It is owing to this caufe, fays he, that the Lombards, who inhabit the colder parts of thefe happy climes, have a harfher and clofer pronunciation, whilft the Tufcans and Romans fpeak with a fuller mouth, and in more meafured accents; and the Neapolitans, again, who are ftill nearer to the fea, open a greater mouth, and found the vowel ftill more than the Romans.

Another thing to be confidered is, that as the age of puberty is certainly advanced in warm climates, it is likely that nature exerts a fimilar energy in all her other operations upon the external figure. Those who have not opportunities of making obfervations upon the fpot, may judge by the fire and vivacity always to be seen in the fine black or brown eyes of those who come from these countries.

Moft of the Italian children are born with curling hair, which continues as they advance in life. The beards of the old men are likewife fuller, more flowing, and feem more fitted to the face, than those of the inhabitants of other countries. You might pick out many a good Greek philofopher's head at Rome or Naples, if you were to let the beard grow; but I defy any man to find out a fingle one amongst the Ultramontane pilgrims. The an

*Thofe who wish for correct ideas on this subject, and have time, may amuse themselves by comparing what Montefquieu, and Dr. Fal coner, in a book lately published, have faid upon this fubject, with our author.

cients

cients were aware of this difference, and always used to draw the Greeks and Celts with fhort uncombed hair; as may be seen in two ftatues of captives at the Villa Albani. Light hair is alfo more uncommon in the warmer countries; fometimes indeed you do meet with it, but it feldom runs into the flaxen, which is so apt to make the face look cold and inanimate.

This then being allowed, it follows that ancient artifts would probably reprefent nature as they found her in their own countries; for every body knows that the moderns who have not been abroad long enough to improve themselves, have done the fame. It is a true obfervation, that Rubens' figures are all Flemish. Let us fee if this was the cafe.

Egyptians. The Egyptian ftatues certainly convey a very faint idea of the prefent fat and bloated Egyptians, and there is a very good reafon for it. The ancient inhabitant of that incredibly populous country, was neceffarily fober and industrious; he lived upon little, and that little was mostly the produce of his garden. His body of courfe was not overloaded with fiefh. The direct contrary is the cafe now.

Greeks. The fame may be faid in fome measure of the modern Greek; it is natural to fuppofe that the frequent change of manners and government, and the mixture of their conquerors, must have altered the breed. It has not, however, done it in the fame degree as in Egypt. On the contrary, it is an obfervation made by every attentive traveller, that the blood is finer in Greece than in any other country whatever, and the nearer you approach to Greece, the finer it is. Thus in Italy you feldom fee any of thofe yawning, gaping, half-formed, half-meaning faces, which give you fo much offence in other countries. The Italian features are generally dignified or fenfible; the form of the face is commonly large and determinate, and there is a beautiful confent of parts. Nor is this confined to the higher ranks alone, you meet with it in the lower orders of the people, ef

pecially