ment, and whatever position it is made to assume, the point of
view is the same: the identical profile of the human body with the
anomaly of the shoulders seen in front. It is a description rather
than a representation.

But in their mode of portraying a large crowd of persons they often
show great cleverness, and, as their habit was to avoid uniformity,
the varied positions of the heads give a truth to the subject without
fatiguing the eye. Nor have they any symmetrical arrangement of
figures, on opposite sides of a picture, such as we find in some of
the very early paintings in Europe.

As their skill increased, the mere figurative representation was
extended to that of a descriptive kind, and some resemblance of the
hero's person was attempted; his car, the army he commanded, and the
flying enemies, were introduced, and what was at first scarcely more
than a symbol, aspired to the more exalted form and character of a
picture. Of a similar nature were all their historical records, and
these pictorial illustrations were a substitute for written documents.
Rude drawing and sculpture, indeed, long preceded letters, and we find
that even in Greece, to describe, draw, engrave, and write, were
expressed by the same word.

Of the quality of the pencils used by the Egyptians for drawing and
painting, it is difficult to form any opinion. Those generally
employed for writing were a reed or rush, many of which have been
found with the tablets or inkstands belonging to the scribes; and with
these, too, they probably sketched the figures in red and black upon
the stone or stucco of the walls. To put in the color, we may suppose
that brushes of some kind were used, but the minute scale on which the
painters are represented in the sculptures prevents our deciding the
question.

Habits among men of similar occupations are frequently alike, even in
the most distant countries, and we find it was not unusual for an
Egyptian artist, or scribe, to put his reed pencil behind his ear,
when engaged in examining the effect of his painting, or listening to
a person on business, like a clerk in the counting-house.

The Etruscans, it is said, cultivated painting before the Greeks, and
Pliny attributes to the former a certain degree of perfection before
the Greeks had emerged from the infancy of the art. Ancient paintings
at Ardea, in Etruria, and at Lanuvium still retained, in the time of
Pliny, all their primitive freshness. According to