m 



MODE. 



MODELLING. 



tribe* of Israel, this tract of country was given to Reuben and Gad ; 

 bat by the command of God, the Israelite* left the Moabite* in undis- 

 turbed pcenation of their country. (Deut ii. 9.) During the existence 

 of the Hebrew kingdoms, the relations of the two people* were some- 

 timra friendly, but more frequently hostile, and the detail* are given 

 or alluded to in many part* of the historical books nf the Old Testa- 

 ment According to Josephus, the Moabite* were reduced to subjection 

 by Xebuchadneuar in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem. 

 (' Antiq ' x. 9, 7.) Their name ultimately disappeared in that of the 

 Arabian*. 



The Moabite* were a pastoral people. (2 Kings, iii. 4.) Their country 

 was well adapted for rearing cattle, and also produced corn and wine. 

 (Kuth, i. 1 ; Is. xvi. 8-lu.) It contained many mountains and fertile 

 valleys, and was well watered by the Arnon, the Zered. and other rivers 

 which fall into the Dead Sea. The land is now desolate, the sand and 

 alt of the desert and the Dead Sea continually encroaching upon it ; 

 but the number of ruins of towns, the remains of ancient highways, 

 often paved, with milestones bearing the names of some of the Romtfn 

 emperors, the forms of the ancient fields, which may yet be traced, 

 all testify to the former existence of a large population, which the 

 fertility of the land was able to support, and which must have con- 

 tinued to exist to a period much later than the time when the Scripture 

 accounts of this people cease. 



Ar was their capital, called also Rabbah-Moab, and the ruins still 

 bear the name of Rabba. The ruins are upon a low hill in a plain 

 through which runs the stream Boni-Hamed, which falls into the Dead 

 Sea. They occupy a space of about a mile in circumference, with 

 many remains of private houses, but none entire. The principal objects 

 are a temple or palace, of which a wall and some niches yet remain, the 

 gate of another building, and two Corinthian columns. As there were 

 no springs in the district, two reservoirs were formed, of which the 

 largest has been cut out of the solid rock. There are also several 

 cisterns. 



(Burckhardt's TrarcU in Syria ; Irby and Mongles's Trareli ; Mac- 

 michael's Juurney ; Lord Lindsay's Letters.) 



MODE, in ancient music, is the order of the sounds forming what 

 may, in modern language, be called the different scales. 



The ancients differed exceedingly among themselves in their defini- 

 tion* and on the divisions and names of their modes or keys. Obscure 

 on every musical subject, they are nearly unintelligible on this : they 

 all agree, however, that a mode is a certain system of sounds, and it 

 appears that this system or succession is in itself nothing but a given 

 diapason, or octave, made up of all the intermediate sounds, according 

 to the genus. 



In the earliest Greek music whereof we have any account there were 

 but three modes, of which the key-notes were at the distance of one 

 tone from each other. The lowest of these was called the Dorian, the 

 highest the Lydian, and the I'hri/i/ian was placed between the other 

 two. Subsequently, by dividing the tones into semitones, two other 

 mode* were produced, the Ionian and the -,*Wian, the first of which 

 was placed between the Dorian and Phrygian, and the second between 

 the Phrygian and Lydian. At length, by extending the system above 

 and below, new modes were established, which took their names from 

 the former five, adding the preposition hyper (tixip, above) for the 

 higher, and hypo (inri, btloic) for the lower. Thus the Lydian mode 

 was followed by the Hyper- Dorian, the Hyper- Ionian, Ac., in ascending; 

 and after the Dorian mode followed the Hyi>o- Lydian, the Hypo- 

 jKoliaa, Ac., in descending. 



In the ' Essai sur la Musique,' by M. Labonle, is a comprehensive 

 table of the modes, with the Greek musical characters, &c. ; and in the 

 Philosophical Transactions ' (vol. li., part 2) will be found a table of 

 the tame kind, to " show the tuning of the lyre in every mode," by Sir 

 Kr.uict* Styles, an industrious inquirer and a learned original writer on 

 the subject. 



Of the then existing mode* Plato rejected some, thinking them 

 capable of operating prejudicially on the manners, and Ptolemy 

 reduced the number to seven ; the Utter, therefore, confined all the 

 mode* within the compass of an octave, of which the Dorian mode is 

 the centre, so that the Mixo-Lydian was a 4th above, and the Hypo 

 Dorian a 4th below; the Phrygian a 6th above the Hypo-Dorian; 

 the Hypo-Phrygian a 4th below the Phrygian ; and the Lydian a 5th 

 above the Hyi>o- Phrygian : whence results the following order : 



r . Mixo.Lvdfan. 



K ... I.; ill. III. 



. . . riityiam. 



r . . . Dorian 



n . . . Ilypo.Lj-dliu. 



A ... Hypo-Pnrygian. 



o . . Hypo- Dor inn. 



From these seven modes, with the Hypo-mixo-Lydian, added, it is 

 said, by Guido, were formed the eight ecclesiastical modes, or tones 

 uf the Itonvui Catholic Church. 



M*tf, in modern musical language, signifies the same as Key ; but, 

 though a far more convenient term, is very rarely used in that sense in 

 'this country. [Ktv.J 



MODELLING in clay is *o completely a practical art, and depends 

 so much on the experience and formative skill of the modeller, that, 



beyond a few remarks on the necessary consistency of the clay, nothing 

 more can be given here than an account of the nature and uses of the 

 tooU, and some description of the sculptor's process. 



The tools, called modelling tools, are made of wood and wire, but no 

 tool is more useful than the finger ; indeed tools have been invented as 

 mere aids to the fingers, and are designed to do wh.it they cannot 

 perform. Wire tools are the most useful, being fashioned into loops 

 of various shape* and sizes, round and angular, and fixed into wooden 

 handles. They accomplish any required form without driving the clay 

 on to any already modelled part, the superfluous clay remaining in it - 

 place while the wire passe* under it and until the tool is removed, 

 when it either falls of its own weight, or is removed by the slightest 

 touch of the modeller. The wire tools are most efficient when applied 

 to concave surfaces, especially those in the close or narrow folds of 

 drajK-ries : the wire is sometimes notched or indented, to give a rough 

 surface to the clay. The wooden tools are made of box and ebony, of 

 various shapes and sizes curved, straight, pointed, rounded, and flat 

 and broad ; the broad tools being notched, and designed chiefly for 

 working the large convex mnsncc, or large folds in drapery. In model- 

 ling a bust, especially the features, great nicety ia required, and the 

 modeller must be particularly careful not to injure what is already done, 

 by retouching with the tool while clay is adhering to it, or he may- 

 risk the complete destruction of his work. : the adhering clay will drive 

 up the surface. A good method to guard against this accident is to 

 keep the wooden tools which are used for the finer work soaked in oil ; 

 the clay is then not liable to adhere, and much time is accordingly 

 saved in finishing the model. The above is perhaps, without practical 

 demonstration, all that can be usefully said about the working tools. 



The clay used is common potters' clay, but should be of the best 

 quality. It must be so wet that it wjl not stand in a mass much 

 higher than its own width without support. The clay adheres much 

 more to the tools when wet, but it is at the same time much IIMJ. 

 easily and quickly worked, a matter of great consequence, as the 

 patience of the artist is less tried, and some expenditure of time is 

 saved. The supports for the clay are a. most important consideration, 

 for if not properly attended to, the finished work, the fruits of months 

 of labour, might suddenly fall to pieces by its own weight. Tin- 

 support of a figure of the heroic or ordinary size (seven feet) in com- 

 paratively easy, but this also exacts strict attention, especially if in any 

 very active or unusual attitude. Sculptors generally model figures of 

 the ordinary size upon a bench or stand called a banker, about thirty 

 inches high, and about thirty inches square, for a bust it must of 

 course be much higher ; above this a solid circular plinth is fixed 

 on a wooden bos, and is revolved upon six or more wheels, or what are 

 better, short slightly conical rollers, fixed to the plinth near the cir- 

 cumference : the plinth moves more easily on such rollers than \ 

 and the rollers afford a more solid support and last longer. A revolving 

 plinth is necessary to enable the sculptor to see his work on all sides in 

 any light, and it enables him to work on all ports, in one spot, or in 

 the same light. On the centre of the plinth there must be fixed ver- 

 tically a strong iron bar, about the height of a man, and from about six 

 to ten inches in circumference, according to the weight of the figure ; 

 it must necessarily be strong and firmly fixed, as it is the main support 

 of the whole skeleton of supports. In loosely draped linurc*, which 

 are proportionally heavy, it is advisable to fix a vertical beam of 

 to the main iron bar; for though the bar will keep the clay i-rpen- 

 dicularly in its place, it is no provision against the sinking of a great 

 mass ; and the quantity used in some figures, even of the heroic eizc 

 only, amounts to about two tons. Two cross pieces of wood n< 

 fixed to the main bar at the shoulders and the loini-. from whii -li tin- 

 uppoi-U of the arms and legs must be started ; and a thini 

 be fixed in the middle to diminish the weight of clay : the supports of 

 the legs must bo bars, straight or bent, according to the position of the 

 legs; but the supports of the arms, when nut detached from the body 

 or drapery, may generally be mode of twisted thi< -k nipper wire, 

 pieces of wood being twisted in with it at diort intervals and at right 

 uigliw, like the pieces of paper in the tail of boy's kite. The In 

 if separated, will require similar care; indeed the clay slum: 

 gradually built up against a complete skeleton of supports anil 

 ciently strong not to yield in the least to the weight of the clay 

 the model is finished. The building of such a skeleton for a figure uf 

 the heroic size is often the work of a week or more, and it would be 

 always advisable for the young sculptor, in modelling his first figure, to 

 procure some experienced hand to construct his skeleton of supports 

 for him. If an arm is slightly cleviuvd, and detached from the figure, 

 the support might bo so contrived as to allow the arm to IK; removed at 

 pleasure, which would enable the sculptor to model the part beiir.-ith 

 t with much greater ease, and would considerably diminish the i 

 '.njury to the arm. The contrivance is easily accomplished, for nothing 

 Jiore is required than a pipe or tube in the shouhler Mipport, which 

 could receive and hold firmly the skeleton support of the arm, which 

 might be a bar of wood or of metal ; or thick or twisted wire, when of 

 a small size. In modelling a bust very little support is necessary, an 

 upright piece of wood with a cross-bar at the shoulders being quite 

 sufficient; but a small cross-bar at the head would do no harm. 



Another essential part of modelling is preserving the moisture of the 

 clay, which should be always uniform if possible ; it must never be 

 allowed to dry, and it can be kept moist with very little ft- 



