much credit to them, that a king of Babylon had made a prefent to a king of Egypt, of an emerald four cubits long and three broad'. He, adds that the Egyptians boasted also of having in their temple of Jupiter an obelisk of forty cubits in height and four in breadth, compofed of four emeralds. Another writer pretends, that, in his time, they still had in the labyrinth of Egypt a coloffal ftatue of the god Serapis, nine cubits high, which was only of one emerald ». Cedrenus laftly affures us, that, in the reign of the Emperor Theodofius, they faw at Conftantinople a statue of Minerva of one emerald four cubits high. This was, fay they, a present made formerly by Sesoftris to the King of the Lydians. Tradition alfo fays that Hermes Trifmegifthus had graved upon one of these stones the process for the great work, and had it buried with him ». Without doubt thefe relations appear very fabulous and greatly exaggerated. We should be tempted, at first fight, absolutely to reject them. But yet let us examine what could produce them, and what could have been the foundation of them. I know not at prefent of any emeralds in any place of the fize of thofe I have mentioned, nor even that come near them. They fhew, it is true, at Genoa a vase of a confiderable fize, which they pretend is an emerald. But I think I have ftrong reafons to doubt whether it be truly a fine ftone I fhall therefore range it in the clafs of those works to which they have improperly given the name of emerald. But whence comes the error? what can have occafioned it? 'Tis about this I am going to propose fome conjectures. : We might say that all the astonishing works of which I' 1 Ibid. p. 394- m Ibid. n Apion. apud. Plin, 1. 37. fect. 19. p. 776. • Page 322. This is what the alchymifts call even at this time the emerald table. See Conringius de Hermet, Med. 1. 1. c. 3. p. 31.; Fabricius, bibl. Gr. t. 1.1. 1. C. 10. p. 68. *This vafe is full of blafts and bubbles, a proof that it is only coloured glafs. Mercure de France, Aout 1757. p. 149. & 150. See l' Efcarbot hift. de la N. France, p, 847.; Le Mercure Indien. c. 7. p. 21.; Journ. des scav. Nov. 1685. p. 282. have spoken, were made of that fpecies of ftone called bafe emerald. It is found in pieces of a confiderable fize; we may have feen tables of a very great extent. This explication is not abfolutely without probability, and in fome fort would clear up the difficulty. But I prefer the following one. The art of making glafs is a difcovery which goes back to very remote antiquity. The ancients used to work and caft pieces much more confiderable than we do at present. I fhall only give for example thofe columns of glass with which the theatre built by the care of Scaurus was ornamented. The ancients knew likewise the art of giving to glafs all forts of colours . I should think then that those aftonishing works which Herodotus, Pliny, and the other authors fay were of emerald, were only coloured glass. The facts, by this means, become probable. By this hypothefis, it is easy, for example, to explain the particularities of the column which was seen in the temple of Hercules of Tyre. Herodotus fays it was of emerald, and that it gave at night a great light. Now, in my opinion, it was a column of glass, of the colour of an emerald. It might be hollow, and they might put lamps within which would make it look luminous during the night. I find in an ancient author a fact which confirms pèrfectly the explication I propofe. We read in the feventh book of the recognitions of Saint Clement, that St Peter was defired to go into a temple in the ifle of Arad *, to fee there a work worthy of admiration. These were columns of glass of an extraordinary height and fize. Is it not probable that Herodotus meant fome fuch work as this? But the Greeks, instead of speaking juft the fact, have, according to their custom, imagined a column of emerald, which fhone during the night. Let us add likewife, that it might happen that Herodotus was deceived by the artifice of the Tyrian priests. Plin. 1. 36. fect. 24. p. 744. ↑ Ibid. fect. 66.67. & 1. 37. fect. 26. t L. 2. n. 44. N. 12. t. 1. p. 555. apud patres apoftolic. edit. Antuerp. 1698. in fol. *It was in this ifle that the Tyre of which Herodotus fpeaks was built. I will fay no more on this subject. I even perceive I have dwelt perhaps too long upon it. Yet I hope to be easily forgiven these little digreffions I have fallen into. I thought it would be allowed me more freely, as it is the only time I fhall have to treat of this matter. THE CHA P. III. Of Architecture. HE art of building comprehends many objects, and includes many parts which make fo many diftinct claffes separated from each other. We may confider architecture either with relation to folidity and the boldness of the-defign, or on the score of regularity, of elegance, of taste, and the magnificence of buildings. I could only give conjectures of the ftate and progrefs of this art in the first part of my work. There remain too few particulars of what happened in that remote antiquity to form any judgment upon it. We are abfolutely ignorant of the tafte which reigned then in buildings. We find, in the ages we are now examining, facts which relate to the different parts of architecture. By the expofure which I am going to make, the reader will judge of the progress of this art, and of the rapid improvements which the Egyptians and the people of Afia Minor had made in it. We fhall begin with the Egyptians. Their monuments are the first in date, in the fpace of time which makes the fubject of this fecond part of our work. ARTICLE I. Of the ftate of architecture among the Egyptians. WE E have feen, in the preceding books, that the origin of arts was very ancient in Egypt. The works of which I am going to give an account would prove it, in a Part 1. book 2. dependently dependently of the testimony of hiftorians. How indeed could the Egyptians have executed them, at the times we are now confidering, without a prior knowledge of more and different inventions? Sefoftris, whofe reign falls about the beginning of the ages we are now running over, deferves for many reasons to be ranked among the most famous monarchs of antiquity. This prince, after having employed the first years of his reign to over-run and conquer a vaft extent of country, gave himfelf up ever afterwards to find out ways to make his kingdom flourishing. Equally great in peace and war, he fignalized his leifure by monuments whofe duration will greatly outlive his conquefts. The different countries where Sefoftris had carried his arms, enabled him to make many difcoveries. He made use of them to enrich Egypt with many very useful inventions This prince undertook works of very difficult execution and of a prodigious expenfe. The object of these labours, by immortalizing the name of Sefoftris, was to contribute alfo to the fecurity and utility of Egypt. The first care of this monarch, was to find out the means of putting his kingdom in fafety from all incurfions. Egypt was open on the eaft fide. Sefoftris raised a wall in that part, which extended from Pelufus to Heliopolis, which is about 1500 ftadia. He afterwards cut divers canals, fome to water the lands, the others for the eafe and intercourse of commerce from town to town, and for facilitating the carriage of merchandise. The want of water fit for drinking is at this time one of the greatest inconveniencies to which Egypt is fubjected. Sefoftris had remedied it. He had directed his works in fuch a manner, that the towns most b Diod. 1. 1. p. 65.; Athenod. apud Clem. Alex. cohort. ad Gent. p. 43. Athenodorus might be in the right in saying, that the conquests of Sefoftris gave to this prince the means of bringing into Egypt many able workmen. But when he adds, that it was from Greece that thefe workmen came, we fee very plainly it is a Greek who speaks, and who, right or wrong, would extol his nation. The Greeks in the time of Scfoftris were too unpolished to have any able artifts among them. Diod. 1. 1. p. 67. diftant diftant from the Nile never wanted water, or the means of getting it easily. According to fome authors, Sefoftris had projected the junction of the Red fea with the Mediterranean, by a canal which coming from the Red fea fhould fall into the Nile ». But the enterprise was not finifhed. They pretend, that the apprehenfion of laying Egypt under water, or, at least, the corrupting the waters of the Nile by the mixture of the waters of the sea, deterred Sefoftris from this project i. This motive might have fome foundation. It is fince believed, that they were affured, that the level of the Red fea was much higher than the lands of Egypt *. Some modern geographers are of the fame opinion. Others, at the head of whom we may place Strabo, think otherwife . What is certain, is, fay they, that the canal, projected by many fovereigns of Egypt, has never been executed". The many canals which Sefoftris caufed to be made, were not the only works he undertook for the emolument of Egypt. The kings his predeceffors were content to oppose the inundations of the Nile by banks which hindered the waters from fpreading farther than need required. But these precautions were not fufficient. As the land of Egypt is flat and level, if it happened, that the Nile broke its banks, moft of the towns and their inhabitants were exposed to be overflowed. To prevent this accident, Sefoftris caused terraffes to be raised in many places, of a confiderable, height and breadth. He ordered the inhabitants of all the towns, to whom nature had not furnished the like ramparts, to leave them and go and build houfes on the caufeys, which he had caufed to be made, to the end that they and their flocks might be sheltered from the floods •. These towns raised with immense labours, and rifing like & Herod. 1. 2. n. 108. h Marfham, p. 376. i Ibid. * Ibid. 1 Buffon, hift. nat. t. I. p. 104. & 391. See m Strabo, 1. 17. p. 1158.; Riccioli Almageft. t. 1. p. 728.; Fournier, hydrograph. 1. 18. c. 9. p. 625.; Journal des fcav. Fevr. 1668. p. 21. alfo la rem. du P. Hardouin, ad Plin. 1. 6. fe&t. 35. p. 341. note 4. n See les mem. de Trev. Juillet 1705. p. 1257. 6. • Herod. 1. 2. n. 137.; Diod. I. 1. p. 66. iflands |