298 ON TASTE IN OENAMENTAL DESIGN. Part II. 



which too would have led them to make their constructed 

 tombs round, and not rectangular, as they always are in Egypt. 

 The want of wood, and the desire to employ the same accessible 

 materials throughout a building, led to its adoption ; and it has 

 been conjectured by Dr. Eichardson that the boasted superio- 

 rity of the brick pyramids over those wonders of the world, 

 the stone ones, was owing to the invention of the arch, which 

 was first employed for roofing their chambers. There seems 

 to be great reason for admitting this ingenious hypothesis, 

 which would take back its invention to about 2300 B.C. ; and 

 it is not probable that its origin could date earlier in any other 

 country. But, as in many cases, the real invention is still a 

 question, all we can ascertain is, that those to whom it has 

 been generally ascribed lived long after it was commonly 

 known ; its originator is unrecorded ; and we may be satisfied 

 that it is wiser to adopt from others what is capable of being 

 applied to a useful purpose, than to be perpetually striving to 

 produce "some new thing" for the sake of novelty, or for the 

 credit of its invention. 



77. The early masters of Italy were not too proud to derive 

 hints from each other ; the favourite treatment of some one 

 figure was constantly repeated by them ; and a particular mode 

 of representing subjects may often be traced to a Byzantine 

 original. So too Raphael did not object to borrow from 

 Masaccio ; and like the Greeks of old, in adopting what was 

 beautiful in the works of others, in order to improve his own, 

 he thought excellence of more importance than originality. 



The Greeks, however, in copying from those who preceded 

 them, had" not always the honesty to acknowledge it ; and 

 made up plausible tales to conceal the obligation, as in the 

 case of the Corinthian capital, and the Telamones, Hermes, 

 and Caryatide figures, borrowed from the Egyptians; and 

 numerous arts were claimed by the Greeks which had long 

 been known, and were derived from other countries. We must 



