s6o 
WONDERS or ART. 
Deity, and delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai, 
no doubt, no more tlian can the hieroglyphic 
Uie most ancient periods, engraved on the marbles oi ,jt/ 
nt present so abundant in the collections of Europ<^'^j,,c, 
remain to this day, and will be, for centuries to ' 
lasting proof of the high advance in tlie ^ 
well as in chemical science, of a nation, who, at 
period, could fabricate instruments to cut them so , 
indelibly on the almost impenetrable granite. - 
In countries destitute of stone, like Chaldaea, an ; 
substance, clay, intermixed with reeds, and indn 
lire, was made use of for that purpose. Of this 
formed into square masses, covered witli mystic 
the walls and palaces of Babylon were, for the nj t 
constmcted ; and it has been seen in the accoun 
vellers who have visited these ruins, examined 
and observed those reeds intermingled with their su jp , 
how durable, .through a vast succession^ of aS*^’ 
bricks, with their inscribed characters, have'remain^ , 
real meaning, or that of the Persepolitan arro' j^r 4 i' 
AvtiA meaning, cu Uidi ui uie rcisc^^umau 1 
obelistical characters,]and the still more complicated^ m ^ 
phics of Egypt, however partially decyphered b) 
hours of the learned, will, perhaps, never be lan‘ ^ 
their full extent, by the utmost ingenuity of man- ^ 
Of the litumen with which these Babylonian jp 
cemented together, and which was plentifully if. [t 
the neighbourhood of Babylon, it taay be pfoP^ 
place to remark, that it binds strongei than mof'^ 'j 
i strongei 
time becomes harder than the brick itself. It q( 
penetrable to water, as to the early descendant’. ol 
was well known, for both the outside and the 
ark was incrusted with it. Gen. vi. 14 . It 
to add here, tliat the bitumen, to deprive it of i‘.’ ^ 
rl 1 It 1 M 
and render it capable of being applied to tlie bt'n 
boiled with a certain proportion of oil, and tbnt ' jj j|)P^ 
tenacity longest in a humid situation. Mr- n' .il* 
f j*' ll* 
us, that it is, “ at present, principally used iiy 
boats, coating cisterns, baths, and o^er places gciKM 
come in contact with water. The fragments o* ‘pj ^ 
over tlie ruins of Babylon are black, shining 
somewhat resembling pit-coal in substance and ®r^ii( 
It will not be forgotten, tliat the custom, abov® 
