ON EGYPT.
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The discoveries recently made in the land OF
the Nile, come to us like revelations yelling up
from the dark d, pths Of oblivion. Proud of our
newborn freedom from the bonds of ignorance,
elated with our rapid advancement in the arts
and sciences, we fondy fancied that we had at
tanned height which would have rendered the
anclents dizzy to have even conceived. But our
pride is checked while contemplating this W on
drous land. We look down through the dark vista
of ages beyond the commencement of recorded
time, and find that many of our proudest achieve
ments are mere limitations, often poor and i'm
perfect, of people whose glory had passed ere
antiquity begun.


These observations were suggested by Mr..
Wilkinson's elaborate work on ''the manners and
customs of the ancient Egyptians" from which
we learn, that it was not in architectural and me-
chanical power alone that their genius was mani
tested, but in various processes in the arts. of
these we may mention, that they possessed the
art of engraving or sculpuripg hard stones, in a
manner which cannot but excite our wonder,
hieroglyphics being frequently cut into basal and
synte, to the depth ofmore than two inches.


Glass blowing was long thought to be a COM
paratvely modern invention, but instead of being
such, the Egyptians were undoubtedly acquainted
with it as early, at least, as the first Osirtasen,
upwards Of $500 years ago, as is proved by their
paintings, sculptures, and the specimens of glass
which have been found bearing inscriptions. In
the paintings of Benz. Hassan. executed in the
reign of the above monarch, we have figures Of
glass blowers engaged in their employment; and
Captain Henvoy, of the Royal Navy, found a
glass bead containing the name of monarch, who
lived 1900 years before Christ.


"Such was the skill of the Egyptians" says
Wilkinson, "in the manufacture of glass, and in
the mode of staining it of various hues, that they
counterfeited, with success, the amethyst and
other precious stones, and even arrived at an
excellence in the art, which their successors have
been unable to retain, and which European work
men are unable to initiate; for not only do the
colors of some Egyptian opaque glass offer the
most various devices on the exterior, distributed
with the regularity of a studied design, but the
same hue and the same device pass in right lines
directly through the substance. So that, in what