which survived its spirit. At the time of Philostratus (A. D. 200) Athens carried on a considerable commerce in ivory statues of the manifold Gods of the Grecian and Roman mythology. 66 Apollonius, whose life he relates, being about to embark at the port of the Piræus for Egypt, went on board a vessel ready to set sail for Ionia, whose freight consisted of statues of divinities, some of gold and marble, and some of ivory and gold. "Do you consecrate them?" said the philosopher to the merchant. "No," replied he, "but I sell them to those who will consecrate them." "Do you not see," answered Apollonius, that you make a merchandise of the Gods? The ancient statuaries did not act thus. They did not go about to cities carrying Gods to sell, but they resorted to them with their talents, and the instruments of their art, whether to carve the marble or to work the ivory, and they were furnished in the temples with the rough material out of which to form the statues *." The complete establishment of Christianity under Constantine extinguished altogether the demand for works of art, in connexion with the purposes of religion. The altars of the false Gods were destroyed, and their temples deserted; many of the great works of bronze and marble were removed to Constantinople; but the colossal statues of ivory and gold probably perished in the shrines where they were reared. The account of the destruction of the colossal statue of Serapis, at Alexandria (A. D. 389), may lead us to conjecture how the ivory statues, which were once objects of even greater reverence, had become marks for the popular indignation, in the sudden change from superstition to contempt. "A great number of plates of different metals, artificially joined together, composed the majestic figure of the deity, who touched on either side the walls of the sanctuary. * Philostratus, de vitâ Apollon. Tyan, lib. v. cap. 8.] It was confidently affirmed, that if any impious hand should dare to violate the majesty of the God, the heavens and earth would instantly return to their original chaos. An intrepid soldier, animated by zeal, and armed with a weighty battle-axe, ascended the ladder; and even the Christian multitude expected, with some anxiety, the event of the combat. He aimed a vigorous stroke against the cheek of Serapis ; the cheek fell to the ground; the thunder was still silent, and both the heavens and the earth continued to preserve their accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious soldier repeated his blows: the huge idol was overthrown, and broken in pieces; and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously dragged through the streets of Alexandria. His mangled carcass was burnt in the amphitheatre, amidst the shouts of the populace; and many persons attributed their conversion to this discovery of the impotence of their tutelar deity" The last mention which we find of the Olympian Jupiter is made by Libanius, a contemporary of Julian the Apostate; and Julian himself speaks of the ability of Phidias, to execute small works as well as colossal, as if he were personally acquainted with his statues. Of the immense quantity of works in ivory which Greece and Rome produced, a head smaller than the usual size, a statue about eight inches in height, and a bas-relief, are all that remain to ust. This species of sculpture doubtless fell into disuse under the Byzantine emperors. At this time also the elephent was no longer required in Europe, to furnish a brutal gratification to the Roman multitude. He was at peace for a thousand years in his native forests. Then arose the demands of modern commerce; and now the hunters once more chase him, wherever the demands of the trader have penetrated, * Gibbon, chap. xxviii. See Winkelmann. that Europe may have billiard-balls and chess-men, snuff-boxes and pin-cushions*. But this circumstance is only one of the many examples that might be produced, to shew that as the principle of Exchangethe vital power of civilization-advances amongst mankind, the minutest wants of society call forth profitable labour to supply them. The splendid efforts of ancient power, employing capital wrung by conquest or domestic oppression from the inglorious cultivator or the despised slave, have left monuments upon which we gaze with wonder and humiliation. But it is consolatory to reflect, that if a Pericles could raise the Parthenon, and a Titus the Colosseum, the quiet power of a British manufacturer may do more to advance the perfect civilization of the earth, by calling forth new combinations of profitable industry, than all the convulsive efforts of the most powerful minds of antiquity. And yet it is probable that civilization would never have received its highest impulses without such efforts. "Even in these vanities we discover how fertile those ages were in other kind of wits than these of ours t." *Of the employment of ivory in the domestic arts of antiquity there are many notices in ancient writers. Amongst the Greeks, works in ivory constituted an extensive manufacture. Demosthenes (the father of the orator) had a manufactory of cabinetware, in which there was a great consumption of ivory. He also used it in another manufactory that he had, a knife-manufactory, for knife-handles. When he died, he left one talent's worth of ivory in the establishment. He was also a wholesale dealer in the commodity, and supplied the inferior tradesmen. These facts are stated in the oration of "Demosthenes against Aphobus." Montaigne, book iii. chap. 6. CHAPTER XIV. THE FOSSIL REMAINS OF ELEPHANTS. "GOD, in his Providence, to check our presumptuous inquisition, wraps up all things in uncertainty, bars us from long antiquity, and bounds our search within the compass of a few ages *." Such were the views of a writer of the seventeenth century (a period when the antiquities of Greece and Rome were diligently investigated), as to the necessarily limited extent of human research into the mysteries of times long past. And, indeed, when we consider that at this period the monuments of the historical æra were alone studied, and that men had not begun, with any approach to scientific principles, "to read the records of nature, and to raise a chronology out of them †," we must perceive that it was a natural and not unphilosophical idea that there were precise limits to investigation which man was forbidden to pass; and that a very few pages even of the history of his own species were open to his perusal. Amongst the many circumstances which led to a very general belief with persons of contemplative habits, that all things were wrapt in uncertainty, none perhaps had a larger influence upon their speculations than the occasional discovery of considerable quantities of fossil bones. Comparative anatomy, up to the time of the late John Hunter, was * Daniel the historian, quoted in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Hooke's Posthumous Works, quoted in Lyell's Geology. very imperfectly understood, even by those who were skilful in the anatomy of the human animal. But, at any rate, a century ago, no one dreamt that a system could be perfected which, taking a single bone, or a single tooth of some animal remain, would demonstrate that such a small portion of the body must necessarily belong to a creature formed in complete relation to that single part. When, therefore, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, bones of remarkable form and dimensions were occasionally found, the scientific persons of the day were busied in conjectures, which generally ended, as mere conjectures must do, in a conviction that all was uncertainty. Thus, in the time of James the First, Lord Cherbury was appointed by the King to make inquiry touching some bones found near Gloucester. Bishop Hakewill, in his account of this discovery, evidently considers that no very satisfactory conclusions could be deduced from the circumstances which had excited sufficient attention to demand an investigation by the authority of the King himself. "His lordship shewed me the bones he had collected, which were a huckle-bone, part of the shoul der-blade, some parts of a tooth, and the bridge of the nose, all of a huge bigness: but his lordship's opinion was, that they were not the bones of a man, but of an elephant, because Claudius, who brought elephants into Britain, did build that city, for which he voucheth Ponticus Verunticus de rebus Britanicis, who saith, the ancient name of the city was Claudicestria and Mr. Camden, as you rightly observe, saith, that the Romans had a colony thereabout. His lordship told me, that these bones were found mingled with those of oxen, sheep, and hogs, and he shewed me the tusk of a boar found amongst them. There was a great square stone lying by them, which VOL. II. 2 H |