PREFACE TO THIRD SECTION 
were severally so many records of their faith and 
worship. Like the hierogh/p/n'cs of Egypt, they 
were the signs of a language perhaps known only 
to the priests; but it was circumscribed by the 
most rigid canons ; and, while the matchless 
beauty of the workmanship demanded admi- 
ration, the sanctity of the symbolical represen- 
tation excited reverence. 
With regard to the great antiquity of those 
pictured vases, as a proof that the author does not 
err in referring some of them to the most remote 
periods of the Grecian history, he has only to 
mention the style of writing which they some- 
times exhibit. In this view of the subject, a 
vase discovered by Mr. Burgon, and now in his 
possession, is doubly valuable ; because the 
inscription it has preserved ', while it manifests 
the great antiquity of the vase itself, also makes 
known, in the most satisfactory manner, the uses 
to which these vessels were appropriated, before 
they were placed within the sepulchres. It 
(1) For the description of this remarkable Vase, and the inscription found 
upon it, the author is entirely indebted to Tliomas Burgon, Esq. o( Smyrna ; 
who not only supplied him with a facsimile of the inscription, but also 
brought to Cambridge his own valuable designs, faithfully copied from the 
original vase, which is at present in Turkey, 
