1856.] Gems-their Forms and Modes of Mounting. ments, trophies,tand accoutrements of war, chariots, ships, public edifices, cities, either personified, like Rome, by a female with turreted head, or actually represented, as Jerusalem was by the Jews during the Babylonish captivity,§ have made their way down to us. The heavenly bodies likewise, in all their several glories, glow either in transparent gems, or twinkle in a blue sky of lapis lazuli. These luminaries are sometimes personified, sometimes represented under their own form;|| at others, under such figures as the following, 239 all other annular gems were derived. We say the common form, because the Egyptian scarabæus assumes sometimes a long oval, at others nearly a circular figure; but besides the above, some very ancient rings occur, which are square, triangular, polygonal, horned, heart or trefoilshaped, and like a horse's shoe. The engraved surface was seldom flat, but retained generally, more especially in incised stones, some traces of the convexity of the beetle's back, thereby affording the artist greater facility for foreshortening his figures. Of the two kinds of ancient engraving, that in relief, cameo (Gr. yλUTIKη), Latin, scalptura) is much rarer than the incised intaglio (Gr. ávaуλvπTIKη, Latin, cœlatura.) Both cameos and intaglios were anciently mounted according to the usual methods adopted in the present day generally-i.e., set into a fixed bezil, and sometimes into one that revolved round its centre, so as to expose alternately either according to a, no doubt, very veracious legend-the following:-Apollo dropt a ring, with an anchor engraved, into Seleucus' mother's bed, shortly before her accouchement. The discovery of so signal a mark of his favour produced first a deep impression upon the lady's nerves, and secondly upon her son's thigh, which last continued to be transmitted to his children's children for many generations. And to conclude this brief notice of ring devices, we may mention that caricatures, legends,** texts, toasts, logogriphs, and names, sometimes a word, or even initials,+t were as much in vogue formerly as they are now. Stones engraved with the above devices are for the most part oval, that being the common form of the Egyptian scarabæus, from which per omnem Hanc sobolis seriem natura cucurrit imago.'-Grot. * Polycrates' famous ring represented a lyre. + Timoleon wore one, Pompey and Sylla three trophies; Galba a Victory with a trophy. Pliny was only one of many who showed their love for the race-course by adopting a biga for his seal. The words 'If I forget Jerusalem in my mirth, may my right hand forget her cunning,' have been supposed to be allusive in the speaker to a ring of this sort worn on his right hand. || Amphion's device was a rising sun. The western Locrians adopted, according to Strabo, the star Hesperus. The first of these figures is supposed to represent the (full) face of the sun; the second, the (profile of the) moon; the third, (the scythe of) Saturn; the fourth, the (thunderbolt of) Jupiter; the fifth (the lance of) Mars; the sixth (the lookingglass of) Venus; the seventh (the caduceus of) Mercury. Rings bearing such devices always evince, according to Scaliger, great antiquity. Apollonius received from an Indian sage a set of such rings; one for every day in the week. The ancients knew but seven metals-viz., gold, silver, iron, copper, mercury, lead, and tin, and represented them by the same figures as those which designated the planets. As astronomy in the progress of time brought men acquainted with many new planets, so the primary number of seven metals has come to be nearly squared within the last two centuries, thus should it come into fashion again to represent either symbolically, it must be by a much augmented series of symbols. ** Sometimes it was a Latin motto, like Augustus' festina lente; a moral apothegm, such as 'know thyself;' or a toast, as health to the pretty Eutyche,' in Greek, with the letters in relief. + As the well-known P, supposed to be of Christian origin; but, as it occurs on coins of Probus, who was not a Christian, and in inscriptions anterior to Christianity, it was probably only adopted by Christians, who found it convenient, as while it was a recognised symbol, and so would excite no jealousy, it was also significant to them, as resolvable into the initials of Jesus Christ. surface to view. These settings were generally massive, though occasionally care was taken to enclose a transparent stone in so slight a rim of gold that the skin of the wearer might be seen through it. All rings had not bezils, the engraving being sometimes transferred to the metal of which it was composed, and this in cabalistic rings was often engraved with symbols round the hoop. The make of plain alithic rings was, from the oldest times, what it now is; some were a slight hoop, like the modern wedding-ring, some very voluminous; and of these a few, more showy than commodious,'§ were hollow; others were massive, and very ponderous||-pondera gemmæ (Pliny). Many of the latter may be found in every dactylotheca of ancient gems. The materials employed in the composition of rings were extremely various; they occur not only of one or more metals, and of an immense number of stones, but of coral, ivory, bone, amber, jet, shell, glass, wood, coal, porcelain, and even of hair. The metals used in their fabrication were gold, silver, iron, lead, and the mixed metals, bronze and electrum. Of all these, gold and bronze rings are now the most abundant; though it seems probable, from the testimony of ancient writers, that none had so large an issue as those of iron. Whole nations, as the Macedonians and Spartans, were unacquainted with any other; the ring-loving Romans wore none else for four hundred years after they became a people; and long after the introduction of gold rings, the slaves, soldiers, and women of the State, together with a large body of the citizens, still continued to wear them. It is true that, as compared with gold or bronze rings, those of iron are now of rare occurrence; yet when it is considered how extremely liable this metal is to corrode, and how little wrought iron has actually reached us, the number yet extant shows that the adoption of them must have been general. Silver seals are rare, and were worn principally by the emperors at Constantinople. Of electrum rings we have seen no specimen whatever; that they were used is certain, for Heliodorus speaks of a very massive one, in which was set an Ethiopic amethyst as large as a virgin's eye' quantum oculus virginalis circumscribit et occupat. In at least nine cases out often, one metal only was employed in the formation of a ring, but instances are met with of two or more united in the same annulus; sometimes the hoop is composed of two metals, * This is the mode of mounting termed a giro by Italian jewellers, and is wellknown to collectors, who generally prefer it to a more massive form. Its advantages are, that it does not conceal the beauties of the engraving or of the stone, either of which may be viewed at any angle, and also that being a very light kind of setting it is comparatively cheap, three scudi, or about thirteen shillings, being the average price paid. Unless the collector's gems are set, he runs a great risk of losing some at each exhibition, when, as all know to their cost, they are exceedingly apt to slip through the fingers and disappear. + Pliny. The Italians occasionally wear ad memoriam rings, which consist of a series of hoops looped together, so that by dropping one or more off the finger, the rest remaining in situ, the wearer is perpetually reminded of one or more things he may intend to do. The ancients merely shifted their rings for this purpose, or wound thread round the hoop, as we do now-Multum enim signa faciunt et ex alia memoria venit alia, ut quum translatus anulus, vel illigatus commoneat nos, cur id fecerimus.'-Quintil. § Vacui ac cavi etiam majores expectationes quam commoditates præsagiunt propterea quod majorem molem quam gravitatem habent.'-Artemidor. Mr. Wilkinson, in his Antiquities of Egypt, mentions a very extraordinary and interesting one in the possession of a Frenchman at Cairo. It contained twenty pounds' worth of gold,' and 'consisted of a massive ring, half an inch in its largest diameter, bearing an oblong plinth, on which the devices were engraved one inch long, six-tenths in its greatest, and four-tenths in its smallest breadth; on one face was the name of King Horus of the eighteenth dynasty; on the other a horn, with the legend 'Lord of strength,' referring to the monarch; on one side was a scorpion, and on the other a crocodile. while the bezil is of a third kind; thus iron rings turn up with silver or gold bezil, and what is much more remarkable, a silver and even an iron bezil is sometimes inserted into a gold ring. Occasionally a baser metal, as iron or bronze, was coated (as in the forged consular coins, foderati, of Republican Rome) with a thin plate of silver, of which rings there remain not a few extant specimens. It would be difficult to sum up the full number of stones operated upon by the engraver, but of Pliny's long alphabet of gems, few, owing to the inaccuracy of ancient authors, can now be made out with any certainty. The same gem is often described under a variety of aliases; and again, stones are sometimes confounded, which, except in hue and transparency, have little or nothing in common. It seems, however, not improbable from the large legacy of these valuables left to us by the ancient world, that they knew most, if not all, the precious stones which we call gems, par excellence, and set them in rings as we do, though generally uncut, for they considered a fine gem susceptible of injury, but incapable of improvement, by the manipulations of the artist, and therefore contented themselves with exercising their ingenuity upon beautiful but less costly minerals (Pliny). Of all ring stones the cornelian (which the Muse of Menander celebrates by the side of the emerald) was in commonest use, and after it the jasper, agate, and onyx, to which last, following the example of Claudius Cæsar and Scipio Africanus, the 241 Roman world gave its adhesion; since of all the above stones (though they in a certain degree possess the same merit) it stamped the cleanest impression without any adhesion to the wax. These stones, according to the testimony of Clarke, Montfaucon, and others, form the major part in all collections, public and private, and their statement is perfectly consonant to our own experience. Other engraved stones of not unfrequent occurrence in cabinets, are the green semi-transparent plasma—emeraldroot, as it is sometimes called-the grey niccolo, which is a variety of onyx, and rock crystals, variously tinted. Some of these stones were not set into bezils, but were themselves hollowed out to form the ring. Anule qui mistis etiam spectare metallis, Unaque quem totam gemma cavata facit (Grot). Amber, too, and jet (which was formerly considered ripe amber as black olives succeed to green); glass, so artistically coloured and tempered that, as Pliny, in teaching how to make out factitious gems, ingenuously confesses it would frequently elude detection; ivory from the teeth of the hippopotamus; horn from the hoofs of the great northern beast called Alcen, or of the wild ass (Artemidorus); coral, which was more highly thought of formerly than now; shells, cannel coal, wood, as of the Sycamorus ficus, &c.; and finally, porcelain, which Wilkinson reports to have been worn by the plebecite of old Thebes, were similarly wrought up into rings. L TO AN ANTIQUE. (FIGURE OF A WINGED BOY, Asleep.) OVELY Boy! how calm thou sleepest, Yet thy slumber's not the deepest. Half-folded only are thy wings; And thy limbs, half-stretch'd, half-bent, Tell that with all airy things, In a moment's flash awake, is hid And though 'twould seem thine eye The sunshine soft is stealing. But vainly clouds are o'er it hovering, Such slumber to be taking : Nought but joy, Half in slumber, half in waking, Thou from earth and Heaven dost borrow, To joy awake-asleep to sorrow. Ah! just like thee Love doth seem, Living in a long day-dream, Twice ten hundred years have flown, Where art's chief prodigies were plann'd, In his teeming fancy meant Thou shouldst seem to wake at will- Ever sleeping, waking ever, N. N. S. 1856.] 243 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. To the Rev. Augustus Jessopp. DEAR SIR-I have red atten tively and with interest the observations on orthography which you have done me the honor to send to me. Different authors have given different reasons for varying, Southey told me, when he visited me last at Clifton, now some twenty years since, that it would ruin him to spell right, for that fifty copies of his book would never sell. Archdeacon Hare, not inferior even to Archbishop Whately in purity of style and correctness of thought, had the courage to follow my preterites and participles and other words. In my Last Fruits off an Old Tree I have added high authorities. In fact I never have spelt differently from the ladies and gentlemen now flourishing, in the reign of Queen Victoria, without such or without analogy. Our language was first corrupted by the Euphuists: it had reacht perfection under the compilers of our Church service. It fell prostrate in the slipperiness of filth about the court of Charles the Second, when every gentleman wisht it to be thought that he had been an exile for his adherence to royalty so long as to have forgotten his mother tongue. Authors, if not menials, were dependents, and pickt up from under their tables the crumbs of their puf-paste. Cowley and Dryden, and South himself, were richly slovenly. The sublime sanctitude of Milton was as pure in utterance as in thought he never was seized by the prevalent influenza; he never went into places where it could be caught. Bacon, Raleigh, Algernon Sydney, and De Foe, are leaders sermone pedestri; but they differed in the spelling of several words. The French were no less ambitious of polishing their language than their manners. Montaigne and Charron had been contented with homely simplicity; Madame de Sevigné and Menage, not forgetting simplicity, added grace. Even these, and Rochefoucault, and La Bruyiere, and Le Sage, left room for a slight interliniation by Voltaire. François the king was seperated from Français the people, whom he taught also to write aimait and aimaient. Sir, you quote a learned gentleman who reproves his son for ill orthography.' Now what is illorthography but ill-right-spelling? You tell me that we no longer use ill as an adjective. Then ill is illused. But do we not constantly say on ill terms; an ill turn; an ill recompense?' In the very same line you continue nor insert do.' Surely we do insert it when we answer a question, and when we desire to express a feeling intensely: such as, 'I do hope; I do love; I do trade.' In the next line you object to th, as final letters of the present tense and third person, where s is usual. Generally such a termination should be avoided, but never or rarely when the next word begins with s. A writer than whom few are more fashionable, Sir Lytton Bulwer, reverses this rule, even in prose. Permit me to express my dissent from your proposition thatThere is no one who would dream of altering a great writer's language, yet we expect to find the spelling of the new book somewhat different from that of the old.' Scholars and sound laborious critics have been careful in collating the editions of both ancient and more recent authors. Aulus Gellius tells us that Virgil wrote the same word differently; and Heine, his editor, has observed it in the text. Virgil wrote but twenty years after Catullus, yet, althō they were of the same province and neighbourhood, their spelling was unlike. Virgil never wrote quoi, as Catullus did; and, althō he wrote vernacularly in a pastoral, he did not write quojum, but cujum. Catullus used the language of Cicero and Cæsar; Virgil that of Augustus and his court. Gilbert Wakefield has been sedulous in recovering the style of Lucretius. Fortunately we possess the comedies of Terence and of Plautus; treasures of Latinity, held sacred by the great conqueror and the great orator. There we see the very handwriting of the Scipios and the Gracchi. |