Notwithstanding none can feel a higher respect for Professor Beckmann, to whom we are indebted for many of the preceding observations, than we do, yet strongly as we are influenced with this impression, we cannot help observing, consistent with that duty we owe to the public, that we cannot divest ourselves of the opinion that he is only trifling with the public feeling, perhaps for the ostentatious display of his own learning: so many objections of so little weight are raised, that he really appears to write for the purpose of raising new objections to passages, which, in our comprehension, are extremely simple. We cannot help applying to him a passage which occurs in a song of the Swan of Twickenham, who sings:-- “Gnawed his pen, then dashed it on the ground, Striking from thought to thought, a vast profound. Plunged for the sense, but found no bottom there, Yet wrote, and floundered on in mere despair.” We would not be illiberal or capricious, nor do we presume to any extra portion of intelligence; yet, we think we can in a few words discuss the topic, and perhaps, satisfactorily, on which he has employed so many pages. Those terms which have troubled the professor with learned difficulties really appear to us susceptible of an easy interpretation, and applicable to both or either of the senses in which they are used, as are any words in the language of ancient Rome. Accordingly, we find the term _creta_ implies either chalk, fuller’s clay, loam, white paint, or Asiatic earth, termed creta Asiatica; and, in brief it appears a mere generic name for any kind of earth, raised from below the surface of the soil: this is its true sense. But there cannot be a question, from what is known of the preparation of clay and earth for _terra cotta_ and other plastic purposes, which undergo a variety of washings, kneadings, &c., that similar preparations were requisite, in order to bring it to so curious, so delicate a purpose as that to which the terra sagillaris was applied. And _fosse_, in the sense used by Varre, admits of nearly a similar description, it appearing as a pronomen for the same thing; and indicates either peat, marl, loam, chalk, or any earthy substance which may be raised from below the terrestrial surface. We have evidence every day in our fruit shops, that in certain countries this kind of earth is yet employed for closing up jars of dried fruits brought from Oporto, Smyrna, and other countries; as these appear to be composed of white chalk of a texture somewhat similar to common mortar. The warmth of the atmosphere, where it is used, soon hardens and prevents the passage of air to the contents; the jars themselves being oftentimes only dried in the sun. Thus it appears that prepared earths were first used for the purpose of sealing; their adhesive, or, as Virgil has it, their tenacious qualities, being wonderfully improved for manual labour. Next, paste was employed, prepared from dough.