112 On the Manufacture of Glass, Porcelain, ^c. 



a reference to the plate, from which, too, some idea may be ob- 

 tained of the fineness of the lines composing the devices.* 



Not only were these various parts made at different times, 

 and afterwards united by heat, rendered effective on their sur- 

 faces, by means of a flux applied to them, but each coloured 

 line was at first separate, and, when adjusted in its proper 

 place, was connected with those around it by the same process ; 

 and these, as Winkelmann very properly suggests, were cylin- 

 ders or laminae, according to the pattern proposed, which pass- 

 ed in direct lines through the substance or ground in which 

 they were imbedded. 



Paw, Goguet, and other antiquaries, had long ago been con- 

 vinced that glass was known to the Egyptians as well as the 

 Phoenicians, at a very remote period, and the immense eme- 

 ralds mentioned by ancient authors were considered glass imita- 

 tions of those precious stones ; a conjecture rendered still more 

 plausible by the experience of modern times, which shews that 

 the most noted jewels of Christian churches are frequently for- 

 med of the same materials. Such were the colossal statue of 

 Serapisjf in the Egyptian labyrinth, nine cubits, or thirteen 

 feet and a half in height ; an emerald presented by the King 

 of Babylon to an Egyptian PharaohJ, which was four cubits 

 or six feet long, and three cubits broad ; and an obelisk§ in 

 the temple of Jupiter, which was forty cubits, or sixty feet in 

 height, and four cubits broad, composed of four emeralds. || 



The opinions of those writers respecting the early invention 

 of glass is now fully confirmed ; and whether the first idea 

 originated with the Phoenicians, or their neighbours the Egyp- 

 tians, we have satisfactory evidence of its use 3300, or perhaps 

 3500 years ago. 



Of the different purposes to which glass was applied by the 

 ancients, Winkelmann gives a further account in the same chap- 

 ter, where he pronounces his opinion, that " generally speak- 

 ing, it was employed more frequently in ancient than in mo- 



• This reference is to a coloured plate in Mr Wilkinson's work, 

 t Plin. lib. xxxvii. 5, on the authority of Apion, surnamed Plistonices. 

 % Plin loc. cit. on the authority of Theophrastus. 

 § Plin. loc. cit. See also Theophrastus on Stones, s. 44. 

 It To have made them of glass required extraordinary gkill. 



