comes off of itfelf. The Greeks took advantage of that time to procure the wool of thefe animals, and tore it off. It was because they wanted theers at that time, or other inftruments proper for that operation. This cuftom did not fubfift in the time of Hefiod, they knew then to fhear their fheep. I have faid, in the first part of this work, that anciently the mechanics were difpofed in fuch a manner that they could only work ftanding. This custom fubfifted still in Greece to the heroic times, Homer not permitting us to doubt of it. Morcover, the ftuffs which they then made, were very badly prepared. They had not yet found the art of fulling them. That art was not known in Greece till fome time after the ages which we are at prefént speaking of. They give the honour of it one Nicias of Me gara'. A very curious queftion prefents itself to us on this fubject, the examination of which deferves fome attention. Homer gives us to understand, that at the time of the war Varro, de re ruft. 1. 2. c. 11.; Plin. 1. 8. fect. 73. p. 474.; Ifidor. orig. .1.19. C. 27.. Op. & Dies, v. 775. 1 B. 2. chap. 2. * Iliad. 1. 1. v. 31. See Jun. de pict. véter. 1. 1. c. 4. p. 26. It may be objected what Homer fays of the Phaeacians, Odyff. 1.7. V. 105. & 106. Αἱ δ ̓ ἐσές ὑφόωσι καὶ ἡλάκατα τρωφῶσιν and from thence conclude, that, in the heroic times, the women had already quitted the troublesome cuftom of working ftanding. But there is the greatest reafon to think, that the word ought only to refer to those that fpun, and not to those that worked at any trade. This is the more certain, as Euftathius, to whom this paffage was not unknown, says pofitively, in commenting on the 31ft verfe of the 1ft book of the Iliad, that, in the times of Homer, the women did not yet work fitting. 1 Plin. 1. 7. fe&. 57. p. 414. Pliny, by faying that this Nicias was of Megara, gives us to understand, that the art of fulling ftuffs was not known till after the ages of which we now fpeak. Megara, in reality, according to Strabo, had not been built till after the return of the Heraclidae, 1. 9. p. 965. It is true, that we find in Paufanias, 1. 1. c. 39. that Megara was built before the Heraclidae, and that they only repaired it. But the teftimony of Paufanias ought not to overbalance that of Strabo, whofe exactness is acknowledged by the whole world. This is alfo the fentiment of Velleius Paterculus, 1. 1. n. 2. p. 4. of That is sed for 2 of Troy, they used oil in the preparation of their stuffs But what was the end of this practice? In what could it confift? Was it to glofs the ftuffs, to give them more finenefs, or to make them impenetrable to rain or bad wea ther? This is very difficult to determine in a clear and precife manner the poet has not entered into any detail or any explication of thefe different objects. We learn by the modern travellers, that, in China and the East Indies, draw it is ftill a practice to ufe oil for the preparation of maný ftuffs. What they have faid of them will, I believe, give fome light on the question we are about. When the Chinese go a journcy, they have a custom of taking with them a fort of habits, of which the stuff is of a thick taffety done over with many layers of thick oil. This oil has the fame effect on these ftuffs that wax has on our cloths. They render them impenetrable to the rain". The Chinese have another way of ufing oil. They use it to give to their fatins a very lively and very shining luftre . This laft procefs comes near enough to that which they follow in the Eaft Indies for the making of these beautiful cotton ftuffs which come to us from thofe countries. The laft preparation which they give to the thread of which they are made, is to rub them with oil r. Perhaps alfo the Greeks ufed oil, and the heat of the fire to draw the worsted, and spin their wool more finely and more easily. The ftuffs made of these threads dipt in oil, were afterwards fcoured by the means of falts and other preparations which they used in fulling it. We may chufe, among thefe different practices, thofe which we shall think moft agreeable to the text of Homer; for there is room to conjecture, that he meant fome preparation nearly like thofe which I have fhewn. What is more certain, is, that thefe paffages of Homer are almost unintelligible. Iliad. 1. 18. v. 595. & 596.; Odyff. 1. 7. v. 107. a Memoire fur la Chine du P. le Comte, t. 1. p. 246. • Ibid. p. 152. Lettr. edif. t. 15. p. 400. and 401. CHAP. Arts and T CHA P. III. Of Architecture. HE Greeks were not the inventors of architecture, if, by that word, we understand fimply the art of joining together materials, and compofing of them edifices for the convenience and different ufes of life. All policed people have had in this part of the arts, lights pretty near equal. Neceffity fuggefted to them the fame ideas and almost the fame practices, although relative to the temperature of the feafons and the influence of the air proper to each cli mate. But architecture does not confift folely in the work of the hands, and in a fimple mechanic labour. It ought on many occafions to endeavour to produce the greateft effects, to join elegancy with majefty, and delicacy with folidity. It is taste and intelligence which ought then to direct the operations. Neither Afia nor Egypt can pretend to the glory of having invented, or even of having known the true beauties of architecture. The genius of these nations turned towards the gigantic and the marvellous, was more taken with the enormous fize and prodigioufnefs of a building, than with the graces and nobleness of its proportions. It is eafy to judge of this by what now remains to us of the monuments raised in the east, and by the defcription the ancients have given us of those which exift no more *. It was from the Greeks that architecture has received that regularity, that order, that entirenefs which are able to charm our eyes. It was their genius which brought forth those magnificent and fublime compofitions which we are never weary of admiring. We owe to them, in a word, all the beauties of which the art of building is capable. In this fenfe, we may fay the Greeks have invented * I fhall infift more particularly on the taste of the eastern people in architecture, in the article of arts in the third part of this work. VOL, II. C c architecture. architecture. They have borrowed nothing with regard to it from other nations. It is an art which they have entirely created. Greece has furnished the models and prescribed the rules which they afterwards followed when they would execute monuments worthy to defcend to pofterity. We find, in the three orders of Grecian architecture, all that art can produce either for majefty, elegance, beauty, delicacy, or folidity *. Architecture, the fame as the other arts, had but a very poor beginning among the Greeks. Their houfes in early times were only fimple cabins, conftructed in a rude and grofs manner built of earth and clay. They very much refembled the dens and caverns which thefe people fo long had dwelt in. They found afterwards the art of making and burning bricks, and with them to build houses. The Greeks give the honour of that invention to two inhabitants of Attici named Eurialus and Hyperbius. They were brothers: this is all we know of their hiftory. We are ignorant in what time they lived. The different colonies which came from Afia and Egypt fucceffively to fettle in Greece, contributed to the progrefs of architecture. The chiefs of these new colonies gathered the people of many diftricts to build cities and towns, and accustomed their new fubjects to lead a fe dentary life. The origin of thefe eftablishments afcends to very early times. We have feen in the firft part of this work, that the cities of Argos and Eleufis owed their foundations to the firft fovereigns of Greece. They had even, as I have already faid, begun to build temples". The first monuments which the Greeks raifed, fhew us the groffhefs and the little knowledge they had in the art of Building anciently. The temple of Delphos, fo renowned fince for its magnificence, and which, even in the times See a parallel of the ancient architecture with the modern; by M. de Chambray, p. 2. 9 Plin. 1. 7. fect. 57. p. 413. Id.ibid.; Efchy!. in Prometh. vincto, v. 449. &c. Plin. 1. 7. fect. 57. p. 4:3. #Ibid. book 2. chap. 3. : Book 1. chap. 1. art. 5. we we now speak of, was famous for the riches it contained x, the temple of Delphos was originally only a fimple thatched building covered with branches of laurel v. In the time of Vitruvius they faw ftill at Athens, the remains of a building in which the Areopagi affembled in the beginning of their inftitution. This edifice equally grofs and unformed, confifted of a fort of cabin covered with fods. Such was anciently the manner in which the Greeks built. Architecture could fcarce have made any progrefs among those people before the arrival of Cadmus. The Greeks had forgot the art of working of metals, of which the Titan princes had fhewn them the firft elements. It was Cadmus, who, at the head of his colony, brought back into Greece fo neceffary a knowledge. He did more: he taught these people the art of procuring ftones from the bofom of the earth, the manner of cutting them, and using them for the conftruction. of buildings. We meet with almoft unfurmountable contradictions when we will critically inquire into and difcufs the knowledge which the Greeks had of architecture in the ages which we are going over at prefent. We may judge of this by the exposure of the facts which the writers of antiquity have tranfmitted to us on this fubject, If we refer to the testimony and the taste of Paufanias, we must be obliged to place in the infancy of the arts among the Greeks, the most wonderful monuments which these people had raised. That author speaks of an edifice that Mynias King of Orchomena built to fhut up his treafures, Iliad 1. 9, v. 404. & 405.; Plin. 1. 3. fect. 20. p. 173. 7. Pauf. 1. 10. c. 5. 2 Vitruv. 1. 2. c. I. a See infra, chap. 4, Plin. l. 7. fect. 57. p. 413.; Clem. Alex. ftrom. 1, 1. p. 363. © L. 9. c. 36. Mynias might reign about 1377 years before Christ. Paufanias, in effect, places the reign of this prince four generations before Hercules, 1. 9. c. 36. & 37. As this hiftorian reckons twenty-five years for a generation, Mynias fhould have preceded the birth of Hercules about 100 years, which we may fix about seventy years before the taking of Troy. |