APPENDIX. if 



artificial glue or gum was made ufe of, which mu^ have 

 been as often as they let thefe flripes of the ribband or 

 •pellicle dry before arranging them. 



Pliny* fays, the books of Numa were 830 years old 

 when they were found, and he wonders, from the brittle- 

 nefs of the infide of the paper, it could have lafted fo long. 

 The manufcript in my pofleffion, which was dug up at 

 Thebes, I conjecture is near three times the age that Pliny 

 mentions ; and, though it is certainly fragil, has fubftance 

 and prefervation of letter enough, with good care, to laft as 

 much longer, and be legible. 



If the Saitic paper was, as we imagine, the firft invent- 

 ed, it fhould follow, contrary to what Ifidore advances, 

 that it was not firfl invented in Memphis, but in Upper 

 Egypt in Seide, whofe language and writing obtained in 

 the earlieit age, though Lucan feems to think with ifi- 

 dore, 



N ■ >. <;n jlumineas Memphis coritcxere biblos 



■KoVcfM. 



Lucan, lib. iii. 



Aptfr ihe Treroglyphics were loft, perhaps fometime be- 

 fore, we know nothing the Egyptians adopced fo generally 

 a paper, and there were probably J religious reafons that 

 k .' :d in thofe eaiiy days the people from falling upon 



Vol, V. D the 



"* Plin. liD. xiii. cap. 13. $ Scruples about cleaunsfs. 



