19-4 Essay npon the Art of the Tniindry 



of which is a mixture ot" several metals, and of which all 

 the designs are pieces of silver hardened, gives us an idea, 

 although verv imperfect, of a similar work. 



The Assyrians and the Bahylonians were very dextrous 

 in casting metals. Scroiramis * ornamented her gardens 

 with bronze animals of cverv description ; and in the temple 

 of Belus were seen statues in gold of Jupiter, .Juno, and 

 Rhea t, of an enormous size, and wrought with the ham- 

 mer. An attempt has been made to throw some doubt upon 

 the recital of Diodorus J, who relates all these wonders upon 

 the faith of Ctesias, whose authoritv is much questioned: 

 but if we reflect, that in these antient limes the gold of all 

 Asia was collected in the single city of Babylon j if we be- 

 lieve the Bible §, \\hich says, that from the time of Solo- 

 mon gold became so common in Jerusalem that silver lost- 

 its value ; that Nebuchadnezzar, in short, erected a statue 

 of gold sixty cubits high and six broad in the plain of Dura, 

 near Babylon |[, Vv-e shall find the report of Diodorus by no 

 means exaggerated. It mav be asked, -if elegance and cor- 

 rectness reigned in these works ? lliis may be doubted with 

 so much the more propriety, that the ruins of Perscpolis do 

 not give a favourable opinion of the taste or precision of the 

 Asiatics in the arts of design «[. 



Hiram, the Phoenician, is the most antient founder whose 

 name has been handed down to us in history. Solomon, 

 brought him from Tyre**, in order to make the works in 

 bronze which were to decorate the temple of Jerusalem. He 

 made two columns in bronze, each of them 18 cubits high 

 (31 feet, taking the cubit at 1 fool nine inches) j with two 



•¥ She reig-ned 1740 years before the vulgar xra. 



•}• The names of these Greek divinities must Iiave bee:T unknown to tlie 

 Assyrians nt that poriod. What Diodorus Siculub relates of Sc.nirarnis may 

 justlv be regarded as fabulous. — Xole l-y M. JSlilluu 



\ Uook Ji. 5;). 



§ Kings, book ii. ch. 9. See Calmet's Dissertations upon tlie Riihes left 

 bv David to Solomon : Commentaries upon the Bible, vol. ii. p. 155. 



11 Daniel, ch. iii. ver. 1. He reigned 606 ycar^ before the vulgar a:ra. 



*( Gog\iet de I'Ori.tjiiie dcs I,ois, dcs Arts, et des Sciences. 



** A. 101.5 before the vulgar Kra. 



capitals 



