Handbook of archaeology, Egyptian - Greek - Etruscan - Roman . here adopt the wordsof Dr. Croly. The importance of these relics to learned investi-gation, to the artist and the amateur, to the natural and elevatingindulgence felt in looking on the features of the mighty dead,deserves to make them a favourite study with the accomplished mindof England. Gems illustrate the attributes and tales of mythology,the costumes of antiquity, the fine romances of the poets, thecharacters of the early languages, the great historic events, and theprogress of the arts; the countenances of Virgil and Maecenas
Handbook of archaeology, Egyptian - Greek - Etruscan - Roman . here adopt the wordsof Dr. Croly. The importance of these relics to learned investi-gation, to the artist and the amateur, to the natural and elevatingindulgence felt in looking on the features of the mighty dead,deserves to make them a favourite study with the accomplished mindof England. Gems illustrate the attributes and tales of mythology,the costumes of antiquity, the fine romances of the poets, thecharacters of the early languages, the great historic events, and theprogress of the arts; the countenances of Virgil and Maecenas, ofCicero and Alexander, live only on gems; the Venus of Praxiteles,the head of the Phidian Minerva, the Apoxuomenos of Polycleitus,that triumph of ancient statuary, are to be found only on gems;the restorations of the Venus de Medici and the Laocoon have beenmade from gems; they offer an endless treasure of the brilliantthoughts, and buried wisdom, the forgotten skill, and the vanishedbeauty, of a time when the mind and form of man reached taras. Beryl. ORIGIN AND HISTORY. The period of the invention of the art of engraving on preciousstones is unknown. The art is evidently of the highest seem to consider that all evidence tends to prove the orientalorigin of this art. Stones have been discovered with inscriptions inSanscrit, the earliest language of India ; some attribute its inventionto Assyria, as many engraved stones have been found there in theform of cylinders; but in the practice of this art, as well as others, ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 253 Egypt still maintains over all other nations its high antiquity, de-monstrated not only by historical data, but also by monuments whichhave come down to the present time. The king of Egypt, whochose Joseph for his minister, gave him his signet ring as a testi-mony of his delegated authority, and Joseph lived about 1700, gems adorned the ephod and pectoral of the high priestof the Hebrews, and
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Keywords: ., beryl, bookillustration, bookillustrations, dolphin, lineart, taras
