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PORTLAND TRANSCRIPT, .
NS eres = LSS TET eran
down and took her hand — Oh! how its chill ning, the plates were reported to have been|muck T
went to my heart. nelted.
“Her agony was short, and [ trust her bliss) ‘he “ Works and Days” of Hesiod, a poem
is supreme,” said the aged minister of God, |deposited in the temple of the Muses, was
who stvod by me, in a consolatory tone,“ [t| Written, as Pausanias, who professes to speak generally that of the beech, the wood of
is well with her, young man ;—* the Lord | from occular evidence, informs us, on
artars in Russia, composed of long
strips of thick bark varnished, the writing be-
ing white on a black ground.
Our Saxon ancestors, too, made use of bark
plates of] which was used for writing tablets in the mid-
gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed |lead. Other instances of the use of the same /dle ages, instead of that vf the box or citron,
be the naine of the Lord,” — continued he, as| Material are on record.
he noticed a tear drop on the pale hand within} Wooden tablets were also in frequent use.
my own. The ancient Chinese employed them; and
From the time of Jane’s fall and of my pur-|#ecording to Pliny, they were in use
suit of the Indian, to my return, an hour had |the Greeks before the days of Homer,
passed by, in which the doctor had arrived,|Were usually thin pieces of wood,
and after dressing the wound, and doing all in| Smooth, and highly polished,
his power to re-animate Jane, he had given | bare wood was written upon,
her up as one dead. And there she lay in her |stile, an instrument we shall
among
which was employed by the Romans. From
soc, the Saxon word for beech, is derived,
probably, our English word book.
The use of bark, however, came in time to
These) be, in a great measure, superseded by that of
inade | the papyrus of Egypt. From papyrus comes
At first the}our English word paper.
by means of aj plant, a variety of rush, not confined to the
presently de-| hanks ofthe Nile,as was once supposed. It ri-
This is a marshy
silent, fixed beauty, with a stream of her pure |seribe. They were afterwards covered with |ses from a large creeping root, and attains the
blood trickling slowly down her face, which| wax.
no one had the courage to wipe away.
when IT imagined that [ ielt a compression of among the Romans
one of her fingers.
These waxen tablets, were in conse- height of several feet, having a stem of a tri-
Iwas | quence of the facility of erasing or altering | angular shape, with a large tufted head. The
telinquishing the hand I held for that purpose, | what was written upon them,continued in use| plant was exceedingly t
5 1 > I s Pp g
etul for other purpo-
long after softer substan-|ses than that of making paper. From the low-
My heart beat audibly,|ces were introduced, and the writing afier it,/er part we
formed drinking cups; other parts
and my whole frame thrilled with a strange | was finished, if intended to be preserved, was| more flexible, served for ribs of boats;* others
emotion.
«Nathan, what ails you? — are you faint?! These tablets were used by the Roman
asked Mr. Jones, seeing me start. boys at school. They must however, have
“No—sir,” I faltered, “ but — where's the | heen somewhat clumsy, if there was any
doctor? —she is not dead! see here!” and I ground in fact for the accident introduced in
showed my hand clasped in hers. The doc- one of the comedies of Platus, ofa school
tor was by my side in an instant with restora- master who had his head broken by one of
tives. them by a refractory pupil.
|
transferred to paper or parchment,
7 * * *
, .
It was not until the minister had, in a voice They were sometimes fastened togethers |
trembling with emotion, repeatedly whispered |forming a book ealled by the Roman codex, |
in Mrs. Noyes? ear —‘* Woman! bless God— | from it
resemblance to the trunk of a tree di-|
thy child lives! arouse thee! the lost is found |Vided into boards, a term which was after-|
—the dead restored!” that shook off her leth- | Wards retained to designate a book or manu-/
argy ; and then — but why need I continue,” |S¢ript of any sort, and particularly a collection |
said the old man, tears coursing down his fur- of laws hence our modern term, code.
rowed cheeks— ‘there is Jane Noyes — my The edicts of the Rom n Senate, magis-|
wife —and here am I, both old, and both ready | tes, and emperors, were written on plates |
for the grave.” of ivory. |
“Little thought I, Jane,” said the old man,| But stone, metals, wood, and the harder
taking grandmother’s hand — “little thought I, substances, as we may readily conceive, would,
when E took your cold hand and pressed it to often be found inconvenient in use, and might)
my aching bosom, that you would be spared | "ot always be athand when wanted. A cheap-|
to me — that we should hold felle wship, tread-| et material would be sought, and one tore |
ing the same pathway of life, nearly three | easily obtained. Leaves were in very common
score yerrs,
that moment was a barren pl:
ert, and I fain would have forsaken it and
gone with you through the dark valley, — the
valley of death, But an -omnipresent being
had you in his keeping, and raised you up, and
blessed you aud me. To Him, then, let us
now bend the knee in thanksgiving? —and
we all bowed ourselves in prayer —and the
tremmious voice of the old man was poured out
nations, particularly in the east, where nature,
throws up a vigorous growth prodigal of! fo-
liage.
to me, a des-
The Egyptains wrote on leaves of the
palm, and the same material is still in use. in
many parts of the oreintal world. The “Sy-
billine teaves” are familiar to all.
And we|
still speak of the leaves of a book, a phraseol-
ogy which obviously had its origin in the very)
primitive custom of writing on\ the leaves o |
plants and trees. The use of leaves. y
I by the cireumstance that they re-
quired little preparation to fitthem or the
purposes to which they were appropriated, |
and they were very naturally therefore resort- |
ed to in a rude and pristine state of soc ety. —|
Linen, too, was used in very ancient times,and |
solgnnly and confidingly.
ELhcrep MISCELLANY
from the New York Review.
ORIGIN OF PAPER.
The materials used in most ancient times to
write upon, were hard substances, as stone! specimens of writing on this mate
rt are sul]
found in good preservation in the envelope of|
Egyptian mummies,
The bar
as less pe
brick, metals, and wood. ‘The Decalogue, as
ail know, was eagraven on tables of stone. —
Nor was the custom of making use of this ma-
terial confined to the Jews. The Greeks as
tie Arundelian marbles testify, were in the
of trees was afterwards employed
hable thanl eay ‘The use of it,
as a material for writing upon, has been com-
one, not only “nes | mon in every rezion of the
listo-
habit of engraving on s
mental inscriptions, but edicts, treati The inne,
Brass was also used. | bark was selected as best suited tothe ob ect,
. * called by the Romans tiger, whence the Lat-
e, but in Egypt, iy name for a book, aud our modern Library. |
aud amoung the early inhabitants of ttaly, The | The Romans generally made use of tie linden
laws of Solon, it would seem, were engraven jor ciel tree, for this purpose.
both on wood and brass, for there are author-
ities for both. ‘Those of the
among the Romans, as some of the old writers
tlobe aud still con-
|tinues in several parts of Asia,
rical, and other events.
The prac ving on these substance
prevailed, not only in Gre
| Several specimens of writing on bark are!
welve ‘Tables!
still preserved in the collections of the curiot
Some of these are fromthe Malabar c
dast. —|
aflirm, were esgraven on slabs of oak. They | There isin one of the Libraries in England, a
Hletter ofan Indian Nabob, on a piece of bark|
ovo yards in’ length, and richly ornamented |
was not, however, found to be secure against [with gold. Some Scandinavian love letters, |
injury of the elements, far when the Capitol, | written on bark are still extant. And a library
in which theywere kept, was struck by light-| was pot long since discovered among the Cal-
appear, however, if not originally, yet very
early, to have been engraven on brass, which
shown his insensibility to geni
were manufactured into cloth, sails, ropes,
wicks for lamps, and similar articles ; and the
root was converted into fuel,
Paper made from this plant, for a long time
constituted an important article of export from
Egypt, and the manufacture of it conferred
great wealth. Of the value of the manufacture
some estimate may be formed from an anec-
dote whichis on record, of an individual by
the name of Firmus a native of Seleucia, but
afterwards a residentof Egypt, a friend and
ally, as he professed himself, of Zenobia, the
celebrated Queen of Palmyra. Firmus, on
his own account it would seem, however, and
not to restore the fortunes of Zenobia, raised
an army, which he asserted he could maintain
by the sole profits ofthe manufacture and sale
of paper. The revenue of his paper-mili must
e such an asser-
tion. How far his confidence in his resources
would have been justified by the event, we
cannot say, for he was not permitted to con-
tinue the experiment. The forces which he
have been great to to author
had hastily collected, proved insufficient to
No, my aged partner, the world | use for tha reception of writing, in different Cope With the fierce Aurelian, at the head of
> e
his Roman veterans. The soldier emperor on
his return from Palmyra, where he had just
s and learning
by the execution of the philosopher Lon-
ginus, made a detour and crushed the army of
the paper merchant of Egypt at a single blow,
The usual mode of obtaining paper from
the papyrus was totake off the outer rind, or
bark, which was
flake off the thin ¢
the innermost being esteemed the best.
rejected, then to separate or
ats which lay underneath,
The
thin filmy coats, moistened with the water of
the Nile, “hich was
however, to posses
supposed, erroneously,
some glutinous quality,
were then placed ac
oss each other, and press-
ed and dried, after which they were sinvothed
with a roller,and polished with some hard sub-
The delic that
stance, te article is called
jtice paper, brought fromthe Est at the pres-
| .
jent day, is >
aid to be a similar membranous
substance, taken from the bread fruit tree.
The Romans,on becoming masters of E
ypt,
bestowed much attention on the manufaeture
of paper from the reed of the Nile, and intro-
duced into it important improvements. In the
*
ceording to the testimony of Pliny and other
ancient writers, the Egyptians made use of this ma-
terial in constructing their boats. Sinall barks were
formed from the papy
Ss woven compactly together
and covered externally with some resinous sub
nee, to exclude water. The ‘ari of bulrashes,’ as
our trans
ator has it,‘daubed with slime and pitch,”
in which Moses was exposed, was no doubt, a. ite
tle bark of this dese When his mother saw
that she could no longer conceal him, ‘she took an
ark of papyrus,’ as the verse is rendered by. Geddes.
‘and having daubed it with bitumen and, pitch, she
ption.
put the ehild imo it,and laid if among, the sedges| the
by the brink of the river.’ Exodus, ii,8,,
seventh century of the Christian era, the use
of this piper became in a great measure su-
perseded and in the eighth became rare. From
the time of the irruption of the Saracens into
Egypt, its manufacture and export greatly de-
clined, and appeared to have soon ceased.
Parchment and yellum had now been in-
troduced, the former prepared from the skins
of sheep and goats, the latter, which was
mach less abundant, from that of very youug
calves,
The preparation of skins forthe purpose of
writing, bad been long known, but anew im-
pulse was given to the art by Eumenes,king of
Pergames, in Asia, about two centuries and a
half before the Christian era. ‘The cireum-
stances are thus stated, Eumenes and his con-
tomporary, Ptoleiny Philadelphus, king of
Egypt, who were riva! collectors of books
vied with each other in the magnificence of
libraries, To defeat and bumble his competi-
tor, the wily Exyptian undertook to deprive
him of a supply of paper, for which he was
dependent on Egypt, by prohibiting its expor-
tation, But the genius of Eumenes soon tri-
umphed over this obstacle. He turned his
attention to the manufacture of parchment
and his success was complete. His literary
projects were promising, and his subjects were
enriched by the introduction ofa new article of
manufactureand commerce. Whether the sto-
ry be entitled to credit in every particular. or
not, certain it is,that the stat ely library of Pe-
gamus became one of the chief ornaments of
the city, and the best parchment was long
known by the name of Pergamena, from the
place of its manufacture.*
Parchment was of different colors, white,
yellow, and purple when goldor silver letters
were used in writing.
Vellum, whieh was used in the middle ages
was, as before intimated, a richer material.
There is still extant an imperfect manuscript
copy ofthe Gospels inthe Gothic translation
of Ulphilas, first Bishop of the Goths, on vel-
lum, of a violet color, all the letters of which
are silver, except the initials, which are of zold.
It is called the Silver Book of Ulphilas. Asile
says that itis bound in massy silver.t Iisa
manuscript of singular beauty, and consti-
tutes one of the most curious remains of Chris-
ian antiquity. It was found in the Abbey
of Werden, in Westphatia ; and is pres
in the University of Upsal, in Sweden.
Most of the ancient manuscripts now. in
existence are on parchment; very few on pa-
pytus, which was mere frail and perishable.
Parchment at length yielded to the use of
paper, of a different material from that before
Cotton paper was
not introduced. This was known as early as
the eighth or ninth century, though the use ef
it did not become general in Europe until the
erved,
used in its manufacture.
end of the twelfib or beginning of the thir-
teenth, Its origin is a matter of dispute. It
was introduced into Europe, however, Ly the
Arabs, during their dominion in Spain. The
Arabs are said to have become acquainted
with itin Bucharis.
{twas at first a coarse
fabric,made of raw cotton, but after the Christ-
ians obtained
possession of the paper-tmills
established by the Arabs, it soon became im-
proved in quality and texture.
Linen paper was very gene rally substituted
for cotton, as s the middle of the four-
teenth century. in use earlier
*What we
respecting the Pergamenean library, leave us very
an from Pliny, Plutureh and
imperfectly informed on the subject of its history.—
Bayle exhibits the opinions of some ancient and
seme moderns concerning it. It is said to have
contained 200,006 volumes or more. .
1Origin and Progress of Writing, p. 87. We have
said thatthe manuscript is ou vellum. ‘This was
long considered indisputable. It is proper to add,
however, that a recent traveller, who has subjected
manuscript to critical examination, expresses,
some doubt on this pout,
¢