the prophets, for the work of creation.* Thus in the passages following,—

And the LORD GOD formed man of the dust of the ground. Gen. ii. 7.

His hands formed the dry land. Ps. xcv. 5.

I form the light, and create darkness; Israel, and his Maker:

Isa. xlv. 7, 11, 18.

the Holy One of GOD himself that formed the earth.

-and many others, this is the word used. And in the passages above quoted from the Old Testament, as well as in the Epistle to the Romans in the New, the operation of the potter, and his power to form the plastic material according to his own will, are directly used as illustrations of the creative power and sovereign will of God.

CHNUMIS.

It is interesting to find this idea existent in the minds of the ancient Egyptians. In the accompanying en

The Egyptian word &TEN, has the same meaning.

graving we see one of those forms by which men endeavoured to symbolize, personify, and represent the various attributes of the one living and true God; in which attempt, probably, very much of pagan idolatry took its rise. This figure represents the creative form of Amoun, forming the mortal part of Osiris from a lump of clay upon a potter's wheel, which he turns with his foot, while he moulds the material with his hands. "The inscription which accompanies it reads, Chnum, the Creator, on his wheel, creates the divine members of Osiris, in the shining house* of life; that is, in the disc of the sun. The chamber in which this sculpture occurs represents the .embalming and creating anew of the mummy of Osiris, according to a mythological fable, which has been preserved by Plutarch. Osiris was slain by Typhon, the evil principle, cut to pieces, and his members scattered over all Egypt. Isis, his wife, and Horus his son, collected them together, embalmed him at Philæ, and buried him at Abydos."+

We can scarcely dismiss the subject of Egyptian art without a brief notice of one or two arts that were in a flourishing condition among them, though very slightly, if at all, alluded to in the Sacred

* Rather, "gold house," or "gilded apartment."

Antiq. of Egypt, p. 110. Perhaps we may trace in this myth a glimpse of that grand truth revealed to us in the Word of God, which is the foundation of all our faith; the "new creation" of man, after his ruin through the malignity of Satan.

Scriptures. The first is the manufacture of glass,* which the accompanying scene from the grottoes at Beni Hassan shews to have been carried on in Egypt

GLASS-BLOWING.

as early as the time of Abraham, at least. That the substance at the end of the pipes which the upper figures are blowing, is melted glass, is shown by its being coloured green; and it has evidently just been taken from the fire; and the bottle in the lower compartment agrees in form with bottles of glass elsewhere represented in the sculptures. Specimens of Egyptian glass bottles have frequently been discovered in the tombs, and some are in the British Museum. Glass beads also are numerous, as are also

* Though glass is not mentioned by name in our English version, many critics have supposed that it is intended by the word rendered crystal, in Job xxviii. 17, where it is classed with the most precious productions. The LXX in this passage use the word vaλos (hyalos), which signifies glass.

imitations of various precious stones in glass, stained with the most brilliant hues, counterfeiting the emerald, amethyst, and other gems with a verisimilitude certainly not excelled by the productions of modern art.

The following description, by the learned Winkelmann, of two fragments of antique glass discovered at Rome, is exceedingly interesting, and fully bears out his assertion, that "the ancients had attained a higher degree of perfection in the manufacture of glass than the moderns." "One of these fragments," he observes, "though less than an inch long, and one third of an inch broad, exhibits on a dark and variegated ground, a bird of the duck kind, in brilliant and varied colours, resembling, however, a Chinese painting rather than nature itself. The outline is bold and decided, the colours beautiful and pure, and the whole effect very pleasing, the artist having alternately used a transparent and an opake glass. The most delicate pencil of a miniature painter could not have traced with greater sharpness the circle of the eye-ball or the plumage of the neck and wings, at which part the specimen is broken off. But the most surprising thing is, that the reverse exhibits the same bird, in which we cannot detect the slightest difference in the smallest details; whence it may be concluded that the figure of the bird continues through its entire thickness, The picture has a granular appearance on both sides, and seems to have been formed of single pieces, like mosaic-work, united so skilfully, that the most powerful lens is unable to discover the junction.

"It was at first difficult to form any idea of the process employed in the formation of this picture; and we might have remained for ever ignorant of it, had not the fracture shewn that filaments of the same colours as on the surface of the glass through its whole diameter passed from one side to another. Hence it has been concluded that the picture was composed of many cylinders of coloured glass, which being subjected to heat, became fused into one mass.

"The other specimen is also a fragment of about the same size, and evidently formed in the same manner. It presents ornamental devices of green, yellow, and white, on a blue ground, consisting of volutes, strings of beads, and flowers, ending in conical points. The details are perfectly distinct and free from confusion, and at the same time so minute, that the sharpest sight is unable to trace the fine lines in which the volutes terminate. These devices are continued without interruption through the thickness of the fragment."*

We cannot be certain that the specimens here described were of Egyptian manufacture; but it is at least highly probable, from the known reputation which Egyptian glass enjoyed at ancient Rome, as well as from specimens of similar character actually found in Egypt. Two of these are mentioned by Sir G. Wilkinson as having been brought to England, in the possession respectively of Captain Henvey and Dr. Hogg. "The quality and the distribution of the colours in Captain Henvey's specimen are strikingly beautiful: the total size is about one inch and

* Winkelmann, i. 2, 19.