Mention of the “candlestick of pure gold” (Ex. xxv. 31) may lead to the inference that the primitive artificial light was that of the candle. But “candlestick” in connection with the lighting of the temple is clearly a misnomer. The lamp was the original artificial light-giver, unless we choose to except the torch; and if less indispensable than in patriarchal times, it is still a favorite dispenser of nightly cheer. Prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, the lamp had practically no evolution. It was the same in principle at that date as when it illuminated the desert tabernacle. Even the splendid enameled glass or decorated Persian pottery lamps of Damascus and Cairo, and the magnificent brass or bronze lamps of Greece, Rome, and the European cathedrals, gave forth their dull, unsteady flame and noisome smoke by means of a crude wick lying in a saucer or similar receptacle of melted lard, tallow, oil, or some such combustible liquid. A prime improvement was made in lamp-lighting in 1783, by Leger, of Paris, who devised the flat, metallic burner, through which he passed a neatly prepared wick. A further improvement was made in 1784 by Argand, of Paris, who introduced a burner consisting of two circular tubes, between which passed a circular wick. The inner tube was perforated so as to admit of a draught of air to feed the flame on the inside of the wick. In order to similarly feed the flame on the outside of the wick, he invented the lamp chimney, which was at first a crude thing of metal. It, however, soon gave way to the glass chimney, which has up to the present taken on many improved forms, designed to secure more perfect combustion and a brighter, steadier glow. [Illustration: TALLOW DIP.] [Illustration: MODERN LAMP.]