friends. The curious will learn with interest, that another of
these monuments dates back to the time of Joseph. It has twice
engraved upon it the name Osortosen--perhaps the Pharaoh 'who gave him
to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potiphorah, priest of On,' and raised
the obelisk at Heliopolis, towns thought to be the same. Near to this
is another stela of great beauty, engraved in low relief and
cavo-relievo, coloured. It belongs to Manetho's sixth dynasty,
and is consequently very ancient. One still more so is in
the same collection: it is of the fourth dynasty of that
historian--consequently, of the time when the Pyramids were built. It
is beautifully executed in intaglio and relievo, with the surface
polished. These stelae, of which the collection is very rich, are
composed of various rocks--such as granite, syenite, limestone, the
travertino of the Italians, and sandstone.

While the tombs of Egypt have furnished these monuments, Karnac is
represented by a portion of its great obelisk, and Rome has supplied a
cinerary urn with cremated bones, several sepulchral tablets, and an
altar.

In another room on the same floor, we find an extensive collection of
pottery from the tombs of ancient Etruria, and other parts of Italy;
Roman pottery found in Britain; Samian ware, and articles of that
kind, from Pompeii, Carthage, and South America. The central case is
overflowing with riches, containing as it does nearly six hundred
Etruscan vases in terra cotta. It is a subject of doubt among the
learned, whether these painted vessels, so called, are not in reality
Grecian. Bossi, in his great work on Italy, claims the first
manufacture for the Tuscans; but there is a strong argument in favour
of their Grecian origin in the negative evidence obtained from Roman
Italy, where they are not found, and the positive evidence from the
Grecian subjects depicted on the pottery; besides which, the tombs of
the Greek islands of the Archipelago contain them. Their not being met
with in the Asiatic colonies of the Greeks may go merely to shew, that
although the objects might be Grecian, the trade was Etruscan. It is
well known, too, that at Athens the art of making pottery had arrived
at great perfection. That the Tuscans used these as funereal vessels
at a remote period, is fully established; but the custom of depositing
them in sepulchres is not supposed to have originated with that
people, but to have been brought by colonists from Gree