2. What are the most esteemed paintings? A. Those representing historical events.

2. How many modes of painting are there? A. Five: 1. in oil; 2. in fresco; 3. in water colors; 4. on glass; and 5. in enamel ; to which may be added, miniature and pastel. Painting in oil was unknown to the ancients. The art has received the greatest advantage from this discovery.

2. What are the qualifications of an excellent painter ?

A. He ought to understand mathematics and the laws of proportion, the anatomy of all animals, and no science should be strange to him; and drawing in its highest perfection. He ought to have a perfect knowlege of anatomy and geometry. He ought to be conversant in history and other sciences, and to have great judgment and patience to be sober, and fond of his art.

SCULPTURE.

What is sculpture?

The art of carving or hewing stone or metal into images. Every thing that is engraved or worked in relievo, makes a part of this

art.

Its antiquity appears from many places of the holy scripture....from the idols of Laban, which Rachael carried off, and from the golden calf set up by the Israelites in the desert.

COMMERCE.

2. What is commerce?

A. The art of exchanging one thing for another, or buying or selling merchandize, &c. with an intention to gain.

Q. Has commerce been a long time invented?

A. Men could not exist in society with. out it, and therefore it must be coeval with society, and as ancient as mankind. At first it consisted in nothing more than the exchange of things necessary for life, as it is at present practised on the coasts of Siberia, Norwegian Lapland, and Russian Lapland....amongst many nations of Africa, and Asia, and almost all the Indian nations of America.

Was money, which we find of such infinite use in commerce, known in early ages?

A. The term early ages is very indefinite; besides, we know very little with certainty, of what is called the early ages; we know that money, as a means of exchange, was current in Asia, many ages before the history of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans; and we know that it was common among all the ancient commercial nations, and that at Tyre, and Rhodes, and Carthage, and Athens, they had not only coined money, but also had insurance offices and usu

rers.

2. What nations have made themselves most famous by their commerce ?

A. The Phenicians, Egyptians, Carthagenians, Athenians, Rhodians, Romans, Gauls, and Flemings....afterwards the Venetians, Genoese, Pisans, Etrurians, and Dutch: the Dutch rose upon the fall of the Hansetowns; and the British overwhelmed the Dutch, and became the merchants of the universe; they have carried on the most extensive commerce in the world. Next to England, the United States have carried on the most extensive commerce.

G

2. To what cause was the extension and facility of commerce principally to be attributed? A. To the discovery of the principle of the magnet, and the invention of the mariners compass; the art of printing gave it new force.

2. What is the principle of the magnet?

A. It is a quality in magnets, which always points in one direction, that is to the north....by which means it could be known on board a ship out of sight of land in the darkest night, in what direction she was sailing.

2. What were those towns you call the Hanse towns?

A. They consisted of an association of cities and towns in different parts of Europe, which formed a confederation for the purpose of carrying on trade, and protecting each other against pirates: the name is derived from hansa a league or confederation. They commenced with Lubec and Hamburg in 1109.

The Hanse towns consisted of 72 European cities, among which were Lubec, Hamburg, Rostoc, Stralsund, Wismar, Crypswald, Anclam, Stetin, Colberg, Stolpe, Dantzic, Elbing, Koningsburg, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bruges, Ostend, Dunkirk, Middleburg, Calais, Rouen, Bordeaux, St. Malo, Bayonne, Bilboa, Lisbon, Seville, Cadiz, Carthagena, Barcelona, Marseilles, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, London, &c.

2. What is the state of the Hanse towns at this time?

A. They were reduced to four prior to the French revolution; that is, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubec, and Dantzic....Prussia seized on the latter after partitioning Poland....but in 1810, they were all annexed to the French empire.

AN EPITOME

OF THE

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

CLASS IV....LESSON I.

OF CHRONOLOGY, OR THE DIVISION OF TIME.

"A little chronology will be highly useful.”

WHAT is chronology?

KNOW

A. A science that teaches the method of measuring time, and distinguishing the periods of history and dates of great events: literally, it is a discourse concerning time: as it is applied, it is the measure of time, in relation to human affairs or events; so that the precise point of time, at which any two or more events have occurred, may be so accurately known, as not to be confounded with either, or any other; and in this view it is considered as one of the eyes of history.

2. What is time?

A. Time is the duration of existence; its parts are centuries, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, &c. and by these the larger and less intervals of time are estimated and measured.

2. Are there not many modes of dividing time, as into natural and artificial time?

which we may

A. There are many thus explain.... Day is while the sun illumines the horizon; night, the period during which the horizon is in darkness, from the absence of the sun.

The natural day is also that period of time in which the earth performs a single revolution of its equator.

The artificial or civil day is of various kinds, and accords with the rules or customs of those who begin and close their computation of a day at one or another period of time....some computing from the rising, and others from the setting of the sun....others from noon, and others still from midnight.

The ancient Babylonians, Persians, Syrians, and some of the Greeks, computed their day from the rising of the sun.

The Athenians, Jews, some of the Germans, the Italians, and Chinese, compute the day from the sun setting.

The Arabians, the ancient Umbri, and modern astronomers, from noon, or when the sun is in the meridian. Mariners also begin their journals at sea, and count their day's work from noon.

The Egyptians, Romans, French, Spanish, British, Batavians, some Germans, Portuguese, and the Americans, compute the day from the period when the sun is in our nadir, or in the point opposite to the zenith.

As the time of beginning the day has varied, so have the artificial proportions of the day; some dividing the whole period of the natural day into twelve parts only....some into twentyfour parts, which were counted from one to twenty-four in succession: our mode of dividing the day into two portions of twelve hours each,