| Show IBB wat ARTS linstid if tin fati ij a houi joui democrat notwithstanding the great advance in invention and burca present century in respects there are many wonderful wonder tul arts and sciences cien ces in which the ancients have never been equaled and the bechet of which has long ance perished the chemistry f the moat ancient period had reached a point which modern chemists have never ap preached pro ached in the letters ortho catholic priests who hrat visited china which were published in france years ago they relate that they were chown a glass transparent and which was filled a liquid made by the chinese which to be as clear as water tina liquor was poured into the gla then looking through it it seemed to be filled with thia was not owing to any becu of the fluid but to the glass itself the chinese confessed that they did not make them hut that they were the plunder of bome foreign conquest many centuries before wendell phillip in his lecture on the lost arts in speaking of malleable glass tella of a roman who in the age of tiberius had been banished and returned to rome bringing a wonderful woud erful cup this cup he dashed upon the marble pavement and it was crushed but not broken by the fall although somewhat dented with a hammer be easily bent it into shape again it was brilliant transparent but not brittle lie further states that the ro mans obtained their chemistry from the Ara binne and that they brought it in to spain eight aitu ries ago in the books of that age there is a kind of glass boken of that if supported on one end by its own weight in a daya time would dwindle down to a fine line so that it could be curved around ones wrist like a bracelet the art of luminous pointing was japanese years ago and an extract from one of their old has been translated as follow one su ngoh many years apo had a picture of an ox every day the ox left the picture irame to graze and to within it at night this picture came into possession of the bic geror tai of the sung dv nasty A D who chewed it to his courtiers and t them for an explanation which none of of them however could give at last a certain buddhist priest said that the japanese found some nacreous substance within the flesh of a certain kind of oyster they picked up when the rocks were bared at low tide and that they ground this into color material and then painted pictures with it which were invisible by day and luminous by night the secret simply was that during the day the figure of the ox was not visible and it was therefore said that it left the frame to go grazing many instances of remarkable mechanical ingenuity are related by ancient authors in alie year 1 78 the twentieth of queen belizi beths reign one mark ot a blacksmith made a lock of eleven pieces of iron and braes with a hollow key to it that altogether weighed lut one grain of gold he also made a gold chain corn posed of forty lb ace links which he fattened fait ened to the lock and key in the presence of the queen he put the chain about the neck of a flea which drew it with ease after which ho put the lock and key flea and chain into a pair of sc iks and they altogether weighed but one grain and a half this almost incredible story is couched vouched for by an old writer an ancient carver was also so proficient in microscopic mechanism that he made an ivory chariot with four wheels and as many harnessed horses ju sy small a compass that a fly might have hidden them all under its wings the same artisan made a ship with all her decks masts yards rigging aud sails which took up scarcely more room than t e carrot chr rot the silver sphere a most noble and ingenious which was presented to sultan solyman the magnificent bv hia imperial majesty ferdinand is mentioned by paulus javius as showing the keeping time with the motions of the celestial bodies in their various configurations it was carried to constantinople by twelve men and there put together by the arldt that made it an artificer named cornelius van once made an instrument like an organ that being beet in the open air under a warm sun would play airs without the keys being jed but wold not play in the shade for this reason it is opposed up posed that it was air by the fun that caused the harmony george an englich man made a ship with all things pertaining to it to move as if it ed upon a table all hands were aloft a woman made good music on a flute and a little puppy cried in the all of which variety quaintly saya an old author was very pl canut and diverting Pr oclus whose fame in mathematics equaled that of archimedes is said to lave made burning glasses in the reign of anastasius of euch wonderful that at a great distance he burned and destroyed the and thracian fleet of ships that had blockaded byzantium the damascus blades as marvels of perfect cleel have long been famous and even those used in the crusaded cru sadea are as perfect to day aa they were eight centuries ago one on in london could be put into a scabbard almost as crooked as a boork and bent every way wibb ut breaking the point of this aboid could bo made to touch the hilt The poeta have the perfection of the oriental deteel and many damom writers baye gung its phalm scott in hit R ard cicur do lion biles to him tho wonderful yond erful Bire for which be ia noted and lie norman monarch responds by tc cring a I 1 ar alea on he 11 nor of the tent saladin bays can nut do that but he lakes an idar down pillow from a couch and drawing his keen blade across it it falls in two pieces at this feat rid ard hayg thia is the black art it ia magic you cannot cut that which has no creais tance ladin to elbow liioi that anch is not the case takes a ecard from his shoulders which is so liht that it almoas floats in the air and tossing it up severe it before it can descend that scotts by no means nn exaggeration is proved by a tra veler who relates that he ouro sawa man in calcutta throw a handful of loss bilk antu the air and a hin doo severed it into pieces hiir saber |
