Three thousand years (2697 B. C.) before our Christian era these Chinese were great potters, had reached to a high point in form and decoration; and porcelain, the finest pottery, began to be made some two hundred years before our era. At that time our ancestors were in a state of gross, if not beastly, barbarism; while _they_ showed skill, taste, refinement, in this and in other ways. As late as the seventeenth century cups and trenchers of "honest tre," or wood, were used in the best castles of England, and the dishes were often square bits of board; and down even to a much later day the fingers were used to carry the meat to the mouth. Some two hundred years, then, before Christ, it appears that the Chinese had discovered and applied to the making of porcelain two fine clays, one called _kaolin_, and the other _pe-tun-tse_; the first is a decayed feldspar; combined, these clays produce the fine semi-transparent body which we call china or porcelain. All china, then, has in a greater or less degree this quality of translucency. It appears, therefore, that most of the Canton ware brought to us is not porcelain at all, but simply a kind of stone or earthen ware, coated with an enamel or "slip," which sometimes may contain porcelain. So, too, the most beautiful Satsuma ware from Japan is not porcelain, but a fine sort of pottery or earthen-ware, the decoration of which is most marked and harmonious. For more than two thousand years the "heathen Chinee" has been working at the production of porcelain--and apparently most intelligently and skillfully. He has accomplished this: 1. The materials used are selected with the greatest care. 2. They are combined, and ground, and mixed, with consummate knowledge. 3. The articles desired are turned and modeled with great precision and dexterity, oftentimes with the keenest perception of beauty of line. 4. The decorations exhibit an exquisite feeling as to value and harmony of color, and freedom of design. This combination of knowledge, skill, and taste, the Chinese were the first to combine in pottery and porcelain, and they have not been excelled. To those who are ignorant, it seems a very paltry thing to make a dinner-plate; but to make a perfect one requires most of the best faculties of man. Ignorant and foolish people hold the china-lovers in contempt; we reciprocate: we believe that the man who does not perceive and enjoy all this beautiful handiwork is willfully ignorant or pitiably stupid: he has our pity and our prayers. Traces of porcelain are found in the ancient tombs and among the mummies of Egypt, in the form of small bottles as here shown (Fig. 98). Just what was their use or significance we do not know; but some think they prove that intercourse existed between those countries in very early days.