We are of opinion, say some travellers, that ebony, when used in houses, was employed to form a sort of panel-work in numerous compartments, and disposed in complicated, but regular forms; the ribs or framework being ebony, while the compartments were filled up with the polished ivory. This idea is suggested by the frequent occasion we have had to notice such panel-work in different parts of Western Asia, particularly as used for ceilings. In this case, however, wood only is used, often valuable wood; and if not painted, the ribs being gilt, or covered with a colour different from the body of the work, so as to suggest the idea of a different substance. The Orientals still exhibit much partiality for inlaying their grand apartments, but we are not aware that ivory is now employed for this purpose. Looking-glass is commonly adopted, and some of the most splendid halls of regal palaces are thus inlaid with it: ornamental work in stucco is also much employed in interior decoration, and the manner in which certain prominent parts are covered with gilding, and other parts richly covered with intervals of clear white, has often suggested ideas of ivory, ebony, sapphire, and fretted gold, which ancient descriptions indicate. The Egyptian ceilings were remarkable for their richness, variety of forms and colours, and thus resembled our modern carpets. The columns of the Egyptians present a great variety of styles, proportions, and dimensions, though always heavy, and almost invariably imitations of some arborescent production of their own country; sometimes representing the trunk of a tree. Such were the pillars of the little temple adjoining the palace of Luxor, from whence the heavy tapered shaft of the Dorians seems to have originated, and others representing bundles of reeds, or the whole plant of the papyrus bound together at different distances, ornamented at the base with palm-leaves. The carved capitals of the Egyptian columns are also found to be representations of almost all the flowers and leaves peculiar to Egypt, frequently exhibiting the most delicate and minute parts of the plant, such as the petals, capulas, pistls, seeds, &c.* The bell-formed capitals were generally preferred and adopted, but erroneously supposed to represent the full-blown lotus. Columns of this description are usually met with in the great halls of the temples, and are undoubtedly the most elegant of the Egyptian orders. The plant, however, from which this capital is borrowed or taken, is frequently seen in the sculptures of the tombs at Thebes. The polygonal columns may be considered as the oldest of the Egyptian orders, and if they are not the grandest, are certainly preeminent for the chasteness of their style.‡ EGYPTIAN TASTE.—We shall briefly examine the monuments still existing in Egypt, the probable sources of those primitive modes; and in addition to what has already been stated, and in reference to the present subject, it will be necessary to explain the general character and principles of these aboriginal structures, with the view of ascertaining whether, and to what extent, they have influenced the more perfect science of the Grecian architecture. Of ancient Egypt, we have observed that the government was not only extraordinary in its enactments, but contemplated extraordinary results, which were pursued with an undeviating purpose by the hierarchy through an unknown suc *The Egyptian columns had their swell at the bottom of the shaft. The palm and lotus seem to have been preferred for ornamenting the capitals and sometimes at the bases, and more frequently introduced than other plants. The latter being an abundant production of the Nile, was partly held sacred, and as emblematical of its annual overflow; whilst the first being the most common, and in such varieties of species, furnished innumerable models for their imitation. The one alluded to is that of the date-palm, which grows in clustered stems.-(W.) I have imagined, that the form of this capital was taken or derived from the leaf of the Faba Ægyptiaca, a plant now unknown. (Wilkinson's Egypt.) The tombs of the Mameluke kings of Egypt are extremely grand and picturesque; like all the Arabian edifices, they are built with limestone or basalt and with an alternate layer of black; they have staged towers crowned with turban domes, and trilobed-headed arcades to the upper stories.-(Wilkinson's Egypt.) M cession of ages, forbidding every progressive improvement; hence the uniformity of an imperfect character in their works, exhibiting much of the elements, but none of the perfections of taste. The external durability to which in all things the priests aspired, (of which the king was the chief,)* pointed out a style of architecture, especially in their sacred edifices, which contained, as most substantial, the sublimest forms and the largest masses. Hence in these mysterious structures, whatever deficiency may be perceived in beauty or grace, is compensated by vastness and ponderosity, the most powerful elements of the grand and sublime. In beholding these mighty fabrics, and then laying aside the associations of unnumbered ages, if neither the most refined nor agreeable emotions be experienced, the imagination must certainly be exalted to a high pitch of awe, astonishment, and admiration. Long lines, unbroken surfaces, simple contours, immense blocks, even while the individual forms are destitute of proportion, harmony, or grace, will ever produce a solemnity of effect. What are the huge sepulchral pyramids of stone, or those mausoleums erected for the kings of Egypt+,-one of which at its base is supposed to be as large as the area of Lincoln's-inn-fields (square) in London; or, according to Strabo, seven hundred and fifty feet each side, by four hundred and eighty feet in height, built B.C. 1575,--but the astonishing idea of simplicity? What is the tall astronomical obelisk but a monument of the same form and order? The like may be observed of the inclining Egyptian temple, imposing, as it still is, in infinite dignity, but a form which is but the frustum of a pyramid, as the pillar is that of the cone, a construction well adapted for external duration. Again, the situation in which, as well as the time when, this singular style of architecture happened to arise, will be found to have imparted to it many of its principles and decorations. Exposed to the beams of a hot sun, the apertures of the buildings in that country were small when compared with the masses: placed in a region seldom visited by rain, their edifices had, therefore, no pediments or inclined roof, as we find was afterwards necessarily the case in Greece. The palm-tree and the lotus rising on all sides, as we have before noticed, furnished the architects of this country with elegant shafts for their columns, and foliage for the capitals. The reeds from the banks of the Nile, single or grouped, afforded them bands for their entablatures and bold large concave cornices, from whence in all probability the Greeks in after times derived their triglyphs.§ The bright sun ever riding over their wide plains, was portrayed above their temple doors, as symbolical of the presiding genius of the land, and not unfrequently associated with the celestial signs of the zodiac. Their sculptures consisted of the winged globe and serpents, the crocodile, the *The Kings of Egypt were always of the order of priests. + The Egyptians had a notion of returning to life again, body and soul, after a period of three thousand years; from this it has been supposed, they intended their edifices should endure, that they might see them again in good preservation when they came back; but they will still sleep on to the end of time, when all will rise together, both Egyptian, Greek, and Roman, at the last day of accounts.-(Belzoni's Researches in Egypt, vol. i. p. 273.) The window-openings and doors, like the temples themselves, were always inclined.—(B.) § The Egyptians being a primitive nation, they had to form everything without any model (that we are acquainted with) before their eyes to imitate; yet so fertile were their inventive faculties, that to this day new orders of architecture might be extracted from their ruins. If we observe the Egyptian capitals, do we not see a complication of orders in one mass, which, if divided, would produce numerous hints for new ideas? If the man of taste was to inspect the various representations of the lotus-flower on their capitals, he would plainly see that not only the Doric and the Corinthian orders have been suggested from them to the Greeks, but that more might still be formed. There is reason also to believe, that the Ionic order originated in Egypt. The capital of the columns of Tentyra, those in the small temple of Edfu, and, lastly, the others in the small temple of Isis, in the island of Philoe, sufficiently indicate this. The name of the Deity, to which the first and third of these temples are dedicated, seems to strengthen this supposition. We know that. Isis is the Io of the Greeks, and from whom the name of Ionic was no doubt derived, and it is very probable that he who introduced the order gave it that name as having been taken from the temple of that goddess.-(Belzoni's Researches in Egypt, vol. i. p. 277.) cat, the monkey, the stork, and the beetle, and numerous other animals. The objects of their veneration provided them with additional forms of architectural embellishments. If we further take into consideration the varied observances of sacerdotal mystery, by which the disposition of the sacred edifices were regulated, and the different contemporaneous events, which frequently conferred a character on the collateral decorations of their edifices, we shall be prepared to allow the great influence of contingent circumstances, in constituting the Egyptian style of architecture what it was. SUMMARY OF EGYPTIAN ART. As to the venerable remains of Egyptian grandeur, when we take a summary view of them, we find that they are standing earliest in time, characterized by the greatest degree of primitive simplicity, and the test of what may be called experiment in art; but it now becomes us to inquire, before the merit of national design can be granted or their architectural labours admitted among the works of genius-Do these lofty effects arise from principle, or are they purely accidental? Are they the meditated results of science and taste among these people, or are they merely the inevitable consequences of the large and enduring styles which their political systems recommended? Upon the nature of the answer to these questions will, in a great measure, depend the rank of the Greeks as original inventors and refiners of taste, of whose architecture we have soon to treat. Now there can be no doubt as to the pyramids of the Egyptians, that the imposing effect and sublimity of these piles are incidental, not inherent; it is the grandeur of the mass, and not any beauty of proportion. The imagination is indeed subdued by vastness, but the fancy is not delighted, having nothing to trace of any well-preserved resemblance to any acknowledged prototype; nor is the judgment either instructed by their deriving their elements from no known or immediate source. We discover, say some, neither imitation, nor creative taste for imitation, among the Egyptian works, as they are ever destroyed by some monstrous incongruity, and originality becomes aimless through interminable variety of accessories; hence is a science beyond the rules of necessity, necessarily imposed by the leading intention of durability; and we discover nothing in the architecture of Egypt like that universal harmony found in Greece. The character of the Egyptian architecture is evidently that of massy grandeur, and may be said to be adapted for giants rather than men, and therefore not so generally appropriate for domestic residences. The ornaments are generally heavy in execution, and offer no repose to the eye. The Egyptians, says Strabo, "worshipped every divinity but the Graces." In a passing note, we may say, the same is that of the character of the architecture in India, which greatly partakes of that of the Egyptian, but with still more of the incongruous, for here the massive simplicity of the original, or at least the earliest examples, are broken down; being loaded or fettered with pretended Hindoo ornaments, in which clear manifestations appear of mixed art, and where that of the Egyptian predominates. When the Greeks first, or soon after, began to erect temples, there existed no science complete in itself, or whose principles had been elicited from the chaotic mass of materials by which they could have been directed in their own matchless monuments. Whatever of grace and of beauty, of dignity and truth, of sublimity and harmonious proportion; whatever of architectural excellence, grounded on the most profound principles of taste, and established on the same basis of geometry; whatever of all this can be discovered in the edifices of Greece, she owes to the superiority of native genius. Yet the obligations to Egyptian predecessors were neither few nor unimportant. The parallelogram of the Greeks, in which the breadth bore a proportion to the length, was a form of all others best suited to beauty, chasteness, and sublimity. The Egyptians adopted that of the quadrangular square, therefore much less imposing in its effect. Columnar architecture was however practised so early, that whether it originated in Egypt or was introduced is not now known with certainty, though it is most probable that it began in Egypt, for here the system of ornament had its rise, or at least it is to be traced in their primeval remains; and as not a single detail was afterwards introduced that was not either in a rudimental or perfected state, here especially the beautiful idea of the floral ornament. Lastly, in the works of Egyptian art, very excellent examples of order are to be met with; and specimens of mechanical practice, both in that of laying the materials and enriching them by an intermixture of various forms, may be observed in almost every instance of their works. All these elements moreover jarring among themselves, whether as wholes or parts, were to be selected, arranged, methodized, and animated by grace, harmony, nobleness; in short, the science of architecture was yet to be perfected. PHOENICIAN ARCHITECTURE. The Phoenicians, like the Egyptians, were eminent in the art of building, and from them, as some authors suppose, they first learnt the rules, and afterwards carried the art into Boeotia in Greece, while the pastoral people of that country where living in a primitive state, without any fixed government or settled abode. The Phoenicians are generally supposed to have been the descendants of Noah, who branched from Ishmael, and settled on the coast of Palestine, and that they are the same people described in the Old Testament as the "Canaanites," and afterwards by the Greeks as Phoenicians.+ Sidon, their capital, so often spoken of in Scripture, was founded by Sidon, the eldest son of Canaan ; but it was afterwards eclipsed by Tyre, in 1252 B.C., their own colony, and called the sister of Sidon. The once renowned and pompous city of Carthage in Africa (now Tunis), which was long the rival of Rome, and country of the immortal Hannibal, was also one of their provinces.§ This enterprising people at first inhabited the islands of Cyprus and * The Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. (Numbers, xiii. 29.) + Calmet, vol. i. 272. Great Zidon (or Sidon), the country of the Phoenicians, was situated on the Syrian coast, and extended from Tyre to Aradus. It was founded by Sidon, the eldest son of Canaan, consequently one of the most ancient cities in the world; it was remarkable for its manufactories and merchandise; and its mountain-tops were covered with forests, from which the Tyrian king supplied cedar to Solomon to build his famous temple and palace. Homer mentions those people frequently, and always as excelling in many ingenious and useful arts, giving them the title of Toλvvro daλoi; and accordingly, all superior articles, all good workmanship in making vessels for use, and all ingeniously combined trinkets and toys, are ascribed by him to the skill and industry of the Sidonians. Thus the queen of Troy intending to offer a mantle to Pallas: “Herself, the while, her chamber, ever sweet With burning odours, sought. There stored she kept Of fair Sidonians, wafted o'er the deep It glitter'd, and was lowest placed of all." When Telemachus expressed strong admiration of the wealth and splendour in gold and silver, ivory and brass, which the palace of Menelaus exhibited, the latter accounts for it by observing, that his treasures had been collected in his perilous wanderings, during which he had visited the shores of Cyprus, Phoenicia, and Sidon. The Sidonians, in 351 B.C., being besieged by the Persian army, they burnt their beautiful city to the ground. § Carthage is supposed to have been founded by a colony of Tyrians in 1233, and the city built by Dido, 869. It was afterwards destroyed by P. Scipio, 146, and re-edified by order of the Roman senate in 123 B.C. * Rhodes, and which, being a barren soil, they there applied themselves to merchandise and works of art, which they carried to great extent and perfection. It is probable that their architecture was of a style differing from that of the neighbouring nations, as Strabo in speaking of Tyrus and Aradus, two islands in the Persian Gulf, says, the Persians at that time had public edifices resembling those of the Phoenicians. Bromley says they were the inventors of an order of architecture which they generally used in their buildings, but he has not given us any description of it; probably he means those pillars executed by Hiram for Solomon.+ It is even supposed by some, that those early people were the Cyclops mentioned by Homer, who built the walls of Tyrus,‡ by whom the first authenticated fabrics of stone were erected. Their mode at first was to cut every stone so as to fairly join against each other, forming polygons: the next was that of having three courses of square stone, laid checkered-wise, and those courses above them were laid alternately straight and square. The first method is still known by the name of "Cyclopean masonry," and is generally adopted in rough stone walls. We know in respect to the mechanical talents of these people, that Solomon, when he built his splendid temple and beautiful palace at Jerusalem, for the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, whom he had espoused, applied to Hiram king of Tyre for materials and artificers, which were sent from Sidon. This sufficiently proves that the Phoenicians were, even then, great proficients in the art of building. We have a further testimony of the advanced state of the arts among these people at a very early period; for when Moses sent out his spies to explore Canaan, and to inform him what places the Canaanites inhabited, whether tents or strongholds, they brought him word that they had cities, which were walled and very great; that Hebron had been built seven years before Zoar in Egypt, and that they saw giants among them, or the sons of Anak, who came of the giants.§ Of the city of Tyre, in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth chapters of Ezekiel, we have a sublime and poetical description, as being a place of perfect beauty and splendour, and situated in the midst of the sea: it contained lofty houses, which its builders had made perfect in beauty, and was surrounded by a high wall, on which were erected watch-towers at certain distances, the usual mode of protecting towns in the East. "The men of Arvad (Aradus) with their army were upon thy walls, and the Gammadims were in thy towers; they hung their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect." Thus runs the whole of the two chapters, which are worthy of notice for their striking description of this once flourishing but now annihilated city.|| *Gouget, Origine des Loix, tom. ii. p. 295. + See the first book of Kings, vii. 13, 15, &c.; Joshua, xix. 28; Bromley's Arts, i. 181. The orders of the Persians at Persepolis are unique; at the base of the column is an ornament which resembles an inverted lotus-flower; the shaft is marked by very shallow flutings, and each pillar is formed of three pieces in height; the first joint is covered by another inverted lotus-flower, and above this rises a capital like the palm-leaf capital of ancient Egyptian temples: above this again are four scrolls, then a square fluted plinth with Ionic volutes, and, lastly, above all, an animal resembling a ram. The cornices are similar to the Egyptian, and have also winged globes.-(Buckingham's Travels.) Colonel Leake's Morea. § Numbers, viii. The giants are only known in fable, not found in the Hebrew Pentateuch; 'giants' is therefore an erroneous translation. The sons of Anak were merely men of an extraordinary stature; such as have been in all ages; and which exist at the present day among the North American Indians, and in various islands of the Southern Pacific.-(Bellamy's New Translation of the Pentateuch.) Tyre, built on an island in the sea at no great distance from the land, was the most celebrated city of Phoenicia, and the ancient emporium of the world. Its colonies were numerous and extensive; it was the centre of an immense commerce and navigation, the nursery of arts and sciences, and the capital of, perhaps, the most industrious and active people that ever lived. (Styp. Dic. p. 2039; Strabo and Bochart, &c.) Here was once a magnificent temple dedicated to Hercules, and that city was one of the first that received the faith of Christ, who himself visited the coast of Tyre and Sidon, and miraculously healed the daughter of the woman of Canaan. An early traveller who visited Tyre, the goodly city, (Benjamin of Tudela,) thus describes it. "One day's journey," says he, "from Sidon is Tyrus, furnished with a most commodious haven, which it containeth within itself, and receiveth ships between two towers built on both sides, so that a brazen chain being ex N |