1809.] 
tions. ‘* Among the Babylonians (says 
‘he) are to be found planetary obser- 
vations, made 720 years ago, cut out on 
bricks.” This was undoubtedly owing to 
a difficulty, or rather ignorance, of writ= 
ing, which made it necessary to use so- 
lid. bodies to keep the invention of arts 
and sciences, that they might not be ef- 
faced by barbarism, anda more ealight- 
ened posterity deprived of their use. 
This, custom, Sir, appears to have been 
of long continuance; for, in Porphyry, 
we find Arimnestus, the son of Pytha- 
goras, olfering in the temple of Juno a 
brass plate, containing a scheme of the 
sciences. ‘ Arimnestus (says Malchus) 
on Is return home, set up in the temple 
of Juno, a brass table as -a gift to poste- 
rity: it was two yards in diameter, with 
this introduction: ‘ Arimnestus, the son 
of Pythagoras offered me to the deity of 
this temple, as the fruits of his wakeful 
nights, which were well compensated by 
the pleasure of an acquaintance with the 
sciences.’” Simus, the musician, having 
conveyed it away, assumed to himself a 
rule taken from it, and passed it upon 
the world as his own. ‘The sciences ex- 
hibited were seven in number: but Simus, 
cutting off that part which contained one, 
occasioned the loss of all the others. 
By this it appears, how long the great 
men of antiquity continued thocel any 
other means of acquiring those astonish- 
ing lights which they diffused over the 
world. Pythagoras and Plato are sup- 
ees to have learned philosophy only 
rom the inscriptions engraven in Egypt 
on the columns of Mercury: this was 
likewise their method for the improve- 
ment of others. An Italian writer, in 
his Chronicles of Calabria, tells us, that 
*« M. Aurelius kept, among his favourite 
curiosities, a stone which Pythagoras had 
placed over the door of his school, on 
which was this sentence, engraven by 
the philesopher’s own hand: “ He, who 
knows not what he should Linnie, is a 
brute among brutes; and he who knows 
no more, is but a man among brutes; 
but he is a gad among men, he Poe 
all he can know.”—-Even our inventive 
age has not a more effectual preservative 
against the injuries uf Time, or any surer 
way of rendering the Haines of our heroes 
the admiration of posterity. tis what 
Annibal did in a temple of Juito, in the 
province where he spent the summer af: 
ter the battle of Cannz: He dedi- 
cated (says Livy) au altar, with a long 
detail of his ashievements, engraven in 
and the Use of ancient Inscriptions to History. 
459 
Punic and Greek.” This instance, by 
the way, may corroborate the opinion, 
that all inscriptions, relative to the fame 
of great men, should be in the common 
language of the country where they are 
placed. This Annibal adopted, and no 
man was ever more found of honour and 
reputation. The two languages he em~ 
ployed in his eulogium were certainly the 
most general of any. The Punic, unques- 
tionably, had the preference in this in- 
scription, as the language of those upow 
whom all his greatness depended; and. 
when he added the language which was 
then the most universal, he was equally 
actuated by ambition and_ policy, by 
causing his enemies to repeat his praises, 
and recording to his descendants the su- 
periority of Carthaginian valour. 
The inscriptions which are likewise to 
be met with in Herodotus, Diodorus Si- 
culus, Polyzenus, Krantzius, Olaus Mag- 
nus, &c. the manner in which they are 
introduced, and the authorities drawn 
from them, are sufficient proofs that this 
was the primitive way of conveying in- 
structicn, or perpetuating glorious ace 
tions... This is more particularly con 
firmed in a dialogue of Plato, called Hyp- 
parchus, where it is said, that the son of 
Pisistratus, of the same name, ordered a 
system of agriculture to be ‘carved Ou 
pillars, for the instruction of busband= 
men. The universality of this practice 
hkewise appears from this expression of 
St. Gregory of Nazianzen, in his funeral 
eration on his brother, where, speaking 
of his Jearning, he says, “‘ the East and 
West areso many columns whereby it is 
made public ;” so that it is not a ground- 
less conjecture, that the archives of cities 
and empires, for a long time, consisted 
only of such memorials 3 ; I mean stones, 
marble and brass pillars, plates of cops 
per, lead, and other metals. ‘“ Afters 
wards (says Pliny), public monuments 
and inscriptions on sheeis of lead came 
in use: and in the Maccabees we find, 
that the treaty of alliance of the Jews with 
the Romans was written on plates of 
brass, which they sent to Jerusalem, that 
the Jews night always have before their 
eyes a memorial of the contract between 
them.” Itis probable, that the Lacedes 
monian records were of similar materials. 
Tacitus allies to the same practice 
among the Messenians, where he relates 
the disputes between them and the Spar- 
tans, concerning a temple of Diana.— 
“‘ The Messenians,” says he, “ produced 
the ancient division of Peloponnesus, 
made 
