SCULPTURE. It is beyond human research to ascertain when this art was first practised, and by what nation. We nay, however, safely conjecture that it was almost one of the original propensi: ties of man, and may be said to have been born with him in every climate. This will still appear in the ardent and irresist ible impulse of youth to make represen tations of objects in wood, and the at tempts of savages to embody their con ceptions of their idols. If a command from the Author of our being was neces sary to prevent the ancient Israelites from making graven images, it may be natural ly inferred, that the inhabitants of the rest of the earth possessed similar propensi ties. The descriptions of the Scriptures demonstrate that the art had been brought to great perfection at the period of which they treat ; but they could not be so particular as to enable us to judge whether their excellence approached the remains we possess, derived from other sources.
To proceed methodically on this sub ject, it becomes necessary to make a dis tinction between carving and sculpture : the former belonging exclusively to wood, and the latter so stone. It is extremely probable that every essay at imitating animated objects was in each nation made in wood originally, and it is vain to sup pose the tools were any other lit first than the sharp edges of broken stones or flints ; a visit to the Museum will afford the curious spectator a competent idea of the art of carving with instruments of the above description. The least enlight ened nations possess individuals of supe rior observation, who see the defects of their neighbours, and by instruction or ridicule, produce an attempt at reforma tion : this has evidently been the case amongst the Egyptians and Greeks, who, of all the people of antiquity, made the earliest and greatest progress in the art of sculpture. If the former commenced their imitation of nature in wood, it is probable they soon discovered that it was incapable of a durability commensurate with t heir wishes; they therefore adopted a close grained and beautifull granite, which not only required tools of iron, but those of the most perfectly temperedsteel, to cut it ; and with such they have left us at this very distant time vast numbers of excavated figures, as 'complete and as lit tle injured as if executed within our own memory.
In examining the various sculptures of the Egyptians, we find that a general character prevails throughout their out lines, which demonstrate that the sculp tors were nati% es of Egypt, and that they rigidly copied the expression and charac ter of their countrymen. Had the persons employed in decorating the numerous magnificent works, the ruins of which still surprise the spectator, been invited from other countries, a variation of style in the drawing would have been readily discovered. The circumstance of their figures, both male and female, strongly resembling each other in every instance, proves that this people were not deficient in genius ; and their spirited imitations of animals adds to our conviction, that, had nature been more kind to the Egyptians in their forms and features, their sculptors were fully competent to give an accurate representation of personal grace. Their limited and absurd ideas of religion were a decided bar to improvement, and led them to debase rather than improve the human form : hence we sometimes find the heads of animals attached to the bodies of men, and the ridiculous imputed acts of their idols are represented in strange un natural positions, and those frequently repeated ; hence the idea of grouping their figures was decidedly banished, ex cept in a few cases, when the same out line occurs to the depth of four and five persons, each performing the same acts.
The errors of the Egyptians on this head cannot lie more forcibly illustrated than by mentioning their manner of ex pressing a general punishment ; a gigan tic figure wields a weapon with one hand; and with the othergrasps the hair of a group of kneeling figures, placed in a circle, with three ranges of heads appear ing above each other, the hands, knees, bodies, and profiles, exactly parallel. A second mistake in their sculpture was the disproportion of their figures to the object decorated with them, as it fre quently happens that the same building contains hieroglyphics not three inches in length, which in another part of the structure are extended to several feet. Thus the temple of Apollinopolis Magna, at Etfu, has its side covered with figures half the height of the building, and the front with others not a sixth part of their size.