20 PROGRESS I ITS LAW AND CAUSE. 



of one set of sounds, several sets of written signs used for 

 distinct purposes. Finally, through a yet more important 

 differentiation came printing ; which, uniform in kind as it 

 was at first, has since become multiform. 



While written language was passing through its earlier 

 stages of development, the mural decoration which formed 

 its root was being differentiated into Painting and Sculp 

 ture. The gods, kings, men, and animals represented, were 

 originally marked by indented outlines and coloured. In 

 most cases these outlines were of such depth, and the ob 

 ject they circumscribed so far rounded and marked out in 

 its leading parts, as to form a species of work intermediate 

 between intaglio and bas-relief. In other cases we see an 

 advance upon this : the raised spaces between the figures 

 being chiselled off, and the figures themselves appropriately 

 tinted, a painted bas-relief was produced. The restored 

 Assyrian architecture at Sydenham exhibits this style of 

 art carried to greater perfection the persons and things 

 represented, though still barbarously coloured, are carved 

 out with more truth and in greater detail : and in the 

 winged lions and bulls used for the angles of gateways, we 

 may sec a considerable advance towards a completely 

 sculptured figure ; which, nevertheless, is still coloured, 

 and still forms part of the building. But while in Assyria 

 the production of a statue proper seems to have been lit 

 tle, if at all, attempted, we may trace in Egyptian art the 

 gradual separation of the sculptured figure from the wall. 

 A walk through the collection in the British Museum will 

 clearly show this ; while it will at the same time afford an 

 opportunity of observing the evident traces which the inde 

 pendent statues bear of their derivation from bas-relief: 

 seeing that nearly all of them not only display that union 

 of the limbs with the body which is the characteristic of 

 bas-relief, but have the back of the statue united from 

 head to foot with a block which stands in place of the 



