To the Orient we look for the birthplace of man, and in it we also find the cradle of Art. How it spread eastward to China and westward to Egypt, we may not be able, with precise accuracy, to tell; but this we know, that in and between these two countries the ceramic art had been carried to a lofty eminence long before Europe had awakened from barbaric slumber. Western history was, in fact, scarcely beginning, when Eastern civilization was in one direction fading, and in another was tottering to its fall. In beginning with Egypt, the most ancient relics of primitive art pass first in review. To that wonderful country, long hidden under a thick cloud of mystery, we must, in fact, first turn, no matter what may be the subject demanding investigation. It had reached antiquity before the oldest countries of the West were born. In the ceramic art, it appears as the centre from which radiated the two great branches, many centuries afterward converging in Southern Europe. On the one hand is the silicious-glazed pottery, which, after moving eastward, reached Europe in a slightly altered form; on the other is the glazed and unglazed terra-cotta, which the Greeks took up and carried forward to a new and higher perfection. Egypt thus appears as the fountain-head of ancient art. The progress it made toward comparative perfection will be hereafter referred to. Meantime it may be pointed out, that, while fortunate in one respect, Egypt was unfortunate in another. The banks of the Nile gave a never-failing supply of pure and plastic clay, admirably suited to all the purposes of the potter. When the periodical inundations took place, they left a deposit of exceptionally pure silt extending from the banks of the river to the furthest margin of the flood. The material was thus ready to the potter’s hand. The counter disadvantage was the absence of the materials required for the finest ware, or their presence in such form as scarcely to suggest their combination. The Egyptians appear to have carried their ceramic art to a full development at a very remote stage of their history, or, in other words, they soon arrived at the point beyond which they never passed. The limitation laid upon them was that of material. The result of this is shown by the other directions in which their art branched off. It seemed impossible to accomplish anything in clay to vie with the precious metals and stones. For purposes of ornament, therefore, clay was discarded. It was worked by slaves (Fig. 30), and fashioned into domestic vessels and bricks; and when the nearest approach to porcelain was made, then only do we meet with ornamental works, or those of a more strictly artistic character.