But the heraldry of mankind is a boundless theme, and we might by simple beat of drum heraldic collect almost a countless host of crests, badges, and quarterings truly emblematical, and adopted and intended to point out peculiarities or remarkable events and fancies in the histories of the coat-armour families of the world. The emblematism of bodily sign or action constitutes the language of the dumb. An amusing instance occurs in the Abbé Blanchet's "APOLOGUES ORIENTAUX," in his description of "The Silent Academy, or the Emblems: "— "There was at Hamadan, a city of Persia, a celebrated academy, of which the first statute was conceived in these terms; The academicians shall think much, write little, and speak the very least that is possible. It was named the silent Academy; and there was not in Persia any truly learned man who had not the ambition of being admitted to it. Dr. Zeb, an imaginary person, author of an excellent little work, THE GAG, learned, in the retirement of the province where he was born, there was one place vacant in the silent Academy. He sets out immediately; he arrives at Hamadan, and presenting himself at the door of the hall where the academicians are assembled, he prays the servant to give this billet to the president: Dr. Zeb asks humbly the vacant place. The servant immediately executed the commission, but the Doctor and his billet arrived too late,―the place was already filled. "The Academy was deeply grieved at this disappointment; it had admitted, a little against its wish, a wit from the court, whose lively light eloquence formed the admiration of all ruelles.* The Academy saw itself reduced to refuse Doctor Zeb, the scourge of praters, with a head so well formed and so well furnished! The president, charged to announce to the Doctor the disagreeable news, could scarcely bring himself to it, and knew not how to do it. After having thought a little, he filled a large cup with water, but so well filled it, that one drop more would have made the liquid overflow; then he made sign that the candidate should be introduced. He appeared with that simple and modest air which almost always announces true merit. The president arose and, without offering a single word, showed, with an appearance of deep sorrow, the emblematic cup, this cup so exactly filled. The Doctor understood that there was no more i.e., the space left between one of the sides of a bed and the wall. Employed figuratively, this word relates to a custom which has passed away, when people betook themselves to the alcove or sleeping room of their friends to enjoy the pleasure of conversation. D room in the Academy; but without losing courage, he thought how to make it understood that one supernumerary academician would disarrange nothing. He sees at his feet a roseleaf, he picks it up, he places it gently on the surface of the water, and did it so well that not a single drop escaped. "At this ingenious answer everybody clapped hands; the rules were allowed to sleep for this day, and Doctor Zeb was received by acclamation. The register of the Academy was immediately presented to him, where the new members must inscribe themselves. He then inscribed himself in it; and there remained for him no more than to pronounce, according to custom, a phrase of thanks. But as a truly silent academician, Doctor Zeb returned thanks without saying a word. He wrote in the margin the number 100,-it was that of his new brethren; then, by putting a o before the figures, 0100, he wrote below, they are worth neither less nor more. The president answered the modest Doctor with as much politeness as presence of mind. He placed the figure 1 before the number 100, i.e. 1100; and he wrote, they will be worth eleven times more.” The varieties in the Emblems which exist might be pursued from "the bird, the mouse, the frog, and the four arrows," which, the Father of history tells us,* the Scythians sent to Darius, the invader of their country,-through all the ingenious devices by which the initiated in secret societies, whether political, social, or religious, seek to guard their mysteries from general knowledge and observation,-until we come to the flower-language of the affections, and learn to read, as Hindoo and Persian maidens can, the telegrams of buds and blossoms,† and to interpret the flashing of colours, either simple or combined. We should have to name the Picture writing of the Mexicans, and to declare what meanings lie concealed in the signs and imagery which * Herodotus, in the Melpomene, bk. iv. c. 131. So in the autumn and winter which preceded Napoleon's return from Elba, the question was often asked in France by his adherents,-"Do you like the violet?" and if the answer was,-"The violet will return in the spring," the answer became a sure revelation of attachment to the Emperor's cause. For full information on Flower signs see Casimir Magnat's Traité du Langage symbolique, emblématique et religieux des Fleurs. 8vo: A. Touzet, Paris, 1855. In illustration take the lines from Dr. Donne, at one time secretary to the lord keeper Egerton : "I had not taught thee then the alphabet adorn tomb and monument, or peradventure to set forth the art by which, on so simple a material as the bark of a birch-tree, some Indians, on their journey, emblematized a troop with attendants that had lost their way. "In the party there was a military officer, a person whom the Indians understood to be an attorney, and a mineralogist; eight were armed: when they halted they made three encampments." With their knives the Indians traced these particulars on the bark by means of certain signs, or, rather, hieroglyphical marks;— "a man with a sword," they fashioned "for the officer; another with a book for the lawyer, and a third with a hammer for the mineralogist; three ascending columns of smoke denoted the three encampments, and eight muskets the number of armed men." So, without paper or print, a not unintelligible memorial was left of the company that were travelling together. And so we come to the very Early Examples-if not the earliest of Emblematical Representation, as exhibited in fictile remains, in the workmanship of the silversmith, and of those by whom the various metals and precious stones have been wrought and moulded; and especially in the numerous specimens of the skill or of the fancy which the glyptic and other artizans of ancient Egypt have left for modern times. For the nature of Fictile ornamentation it were sufficient to refer to the recently published Life of Josiah Wedgwood;* but in the antefixa, or terra cotta ornaments, derived from the old Etruscan civilisation, we possess true and literal Emblems. As the name implies, these ornaments "were fixed before the buildings," often on the friezes "which they adorned," and were See also "REAL MUSEO BORBONICO," Napoli Dalla Stamperia Reale, 1824. Vol. i. tavola viii. e ix. Avventura e Imprese di Ercoli. Vol. ii. tav. xxviii. Dedalo e Icaro. Vol. iii. tav. xlvi. Vaso Italo-Greco depinto. Vol. v. tav. li. Vaso Italo-Greco,— -a very fine example of emblem ornaments in the literal sense. fastened to them by leaden nails. For examples, easy of access, we refer to the sketches supplied by James Yates, Esq., of Highgate; to the Dictionary of Gk. and Rom. Antiquities, p. 51 ; and especially to that antefixa which represents Minerva superintending the construction of the ship Argo. The man with the hammer and chisel is Argus, who built the vessel under her direction. The pilot Tiphys is assisted by her in attaching the sail to the yard. The borders at the top and bottom are in the Greek style, and are extremely elegant." And the pressing of clay into a matrix or mould, from which the form is taken, appears to be of very ancient date. The book of Job xxxviii. 14, alludes to the practice in the words, "it is turned as clay to the seal." Of similar or of higher antiquity is "the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet," Exodus xxviii. 11. And "the breastplate of judgment, the Urim and the Thummim," v. 30, worn "upon Aaron's heart," was probably a similar emblematical ornament to that which Diodorus Siculus, in his History, bk. i. chap. 75, tells us was put on by the president of the Egyptian courts of justice: "He bore about his neck a golden chain, at which hung an image, set about, or composed of precious stones, which was called TRUTH."* Among instances of emblematical workmanship by the silversmith and his confabricators of similar crafts, we may name that shield of Achilles which Homer so graphically describes,† "solid and large," "decorated with numerous figures of most skilful art; "— or the shields of Hercules and of Æneas, with which Hesiod, Eoea, iv. 141-317, and Virgil, Æneid, viii. 615-73, might make us familiar. Or to come to modern times,-to days Η Εφορει δ' αυτος περι τον τραχηλον εκ χρυσης αλυσεως ηρτημενον ζωδιον των πολυτελων λίθων, ὁ προσηγόρευον ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΝ.” + Iliad, xviii. 478, “ Ποίει δὲ πρώτιστα σάκος μέγα τε στιβαρόντε, 482, “ Ποίει δαίδαλα πολλὰ ἰδυίῃσι πραπίδεσσιν.” our very own,-there is the still more precious, the matchless shield by Vehm, whereon, in most expressive imagery, are hammered out the discoveries of Newton, Milton's noble epics, and Shakespeare's dramatic wonders. We may, too, in passing, allude to the richly-embossed and ornamented cups for which our swift racers and grey-hounds, and those "dogs of war," our volunteers, contend; and the almost imperial pieces of plate, such as the Cæsars never beheld, in which genius and the highest art combine, by their "cunning work," to carve the deeds and enhance the renown of some of our great Indian administrators and illustrious generals; these all, truly "choice emblemes," intimate the extent to which our subject might lead. But I forbear to pursue it, though scarcely any path offers greater temptations for wandering abroad amid the marvels of human skill, and for considering reverently and gladly how men have been "filled with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship." Exodus xxxi. 3. Of glyptic art the most ancient, as well as the most ample, remains are found in the temples and the other monuments of Egypt. Various modern explorers and writers have given very elaborate accounts of those remains, and still are carrying on their researches; but of old writers only Clemens, of Alexandria, who flourished "towards the end of the second century after Christ," "has left us a full and correct account of the principle of the Egyptian writing,"* and has declared what the subjects were which were included in the word hieroglyphics; See Kenrick's Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. i. p. 291. and as + See the Stromata of Clemens, vi. 633,-where we learn that it was the duty of the Hierogrammateis, or Sacred Scribe, to gain a knowledge of "what are named Hieroglyphics, which relate to cosmography, geography, the action of the sun and moon, to the five planets, to the topography of Egypt, and to the neighbourhood of the Nile, to a record of the attire of the priests and of the estates belonging to them, and to other things serviceable to the priests." |