As it does not come within the scope of the present work to inquire into the origin of sculpture generally, I shall not here venture to give an opinion whether the art was invented by ADAM or his good angel RAZIEL, or whether it was introduced at a subsequent period by TUBAL-CAIN, NOAH, TRISMEGISTUS, ZOROASTER, or MOSES. Those who feel interested in such remote speculations will find the “authorities” in the second chapter of Evelyn’s “Sculptura.” Without, therefore, inquiring when or by whom the art of engraving for the purpose of producing impressions was invented, I shall endeavour to show that such an art, however rude, was known at a very early period; and that it continued to be practised in Europe, though to a very limited extent, from an age anterior to the birth of Christ, to the year 1400. In the fifteenth century, its principles appear to have been more generally applied;--first, to the simple cutting of figures on wood for the purpose of being impressed on paper; next, to cutting figures and explanatory text on the same block, and then entire pages of text without figures, till the “ARS GRAPHICA ET IMPRESSORIA” attained its perfection in the discovery of PRINTING by means of movable fusile types.[I-4] [Footnote I-4: Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing, p. 215, 2nd edit.] At a very early period stamps of wood, having hieroglyphic characters engraved on them, were used in Egypt for the purpose of producing impressions on bricks, and on other articles made of clay. This fact, which might have been inferred from the ancient bricks and fragments of earthenware containing characters evidently communicated by means of a stamp, has been established by the discovery of several of those wooden stamps, of undoubted antiquity, in the tombs at Thebes, Meroe, and other places. The following cuts represent the face and the back of one of the most perfect of those stamps, which was found in a tomb at Thebes, and has recently been brought to this country by Edward William Lane, Esq.[I-5] [Footnote I-5: Author of “An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, ’34, and ’35.”] [Illustration]