ny of those found in Greece, Etruria, and Rome, show
that they were of Egyptian work; and though imitated in Italy and
Greece, the original art was borrowed from the workmen of the Nile.

Such, too, was their skill in making glass, and in the mode of
staining it of various hues, that they counterfeited with success the
emerald, the amethyst, and other precious stones; and even arrived at
an excellence in the art of introducing numerous colors into the same
vase, to which our European workmen, in spite of their improvements in
many branches of this manufacture, are still unable to attain. A few
years ago the glass-makers of Venice made several attempts to imitate
the variety of colors found in antique cups; but as the component
parts were of different densities, they did not all cool, or set, at
the same rapidity, and the vase was unsound. And it is only by making
an inner foundation of one color, to which those of the outer surface
are afterwards added, that they have been able to produce their
many-colored vases; some of which were sent to the Great Exhibition of
1851.

Not so the Egyptians, who combined all the colors they required in the
same cup, without the interior lining: those which had it being of
inferior and cheaper quality. They had even the secret of introducing
gold between two surfaces of glass; and in their bottles, a gold band
alternates within a set of blue, green, and other colors. Another
curious process was also common in Egypt in early times, more than
3,000 years ago, which has only just been attempted at Venice; whereby
the pattern on the surface was made to pass in right lines directly
through the substance; so that if any number of horizontal sections
were made through it, each one would have the same device on its upper
and under surface. It is in fact a Mosaic in glass; made by fusing
together as many delicate rods of an opaque glass of the color
required for the picture, in the same manner as the woods in
Tunbridge-ware are glued together, to form a larger and coarser
pattern. The skill required in this exquisite work is not only shown
by the art itself, but the fineness of the design; for some of the
feathers of birds, and other details, are only to be made out with a
lens; which means of magnifying was evidently used in Egypt, when this
Mosaic glass was manufactured. Indeed, the discovery of a lens of
crystal by Mr. Layard, at Nimroud, satisfactorily proves its use at an
early period in