SCULPTURE AND MASONRY. 37 Nevertheless, it was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that it rose to any height in France. Carving, or sculpture in bas relief, on metals, has improved greatly. Ballin and Thomas Germain were already very skilful in this at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and acquired an incontestable celebrity by their beautiful handiwork. We cannot help feeling some surprise when we consider the very trifling progress made in masonry, not in its principles, but in their execution, which may be said to have long remained stationary. Observe the manner in which foundations are laid, and displaced earth removed; the scarcity of materials, and the difficulty of transporting them from place to place. Every thing is done by the strength of the arm, or by means which should belong to an uncivilized nation, whilst, four thousand years ago, the Egyptians, and other nations, now extinct, used machines for removing and lifting stones, earth, &c. Nevertheless, a very mediocre intellect could supply this art with numerous improvements, valuable for saving time and labour. Walls, among the ancients, were built of large stones, or bricks, two deep, and the interstices filled up with fragments of stone, &c., rudely thrown in, and which were united in a mat, with mortar. Vitruvius recognises two species of masonry, the inertum, which he regards as ancient, and the reticulatum, which he indicates as in use in his day, which was twenty-seven years before Christ. In fact, the aqueducts of Lyons and Frejus, and most of those in the vicinity of Rome, the mausoleum of Augustus, &c., are constructed in this manner. At the present day, we sacrifice solidity to beauty of appearance. The machine for raising the waters of the Seine to the top of the Marly mountain, carrying it down again, and thence to Versailles, is, undoubtedly, the greatest invention of the time of Louis XIV. The elevated situation of Versailles, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, presented innumerable difficulties to the accomplishment of this vast project. But the age of Louis XIV., so fertile in superior minds, resolved one of the greatest problems in mechanics, and proved that there is no limit to human genius. It was begun in 1676, and put in activity in 1682. It cost 7,000,000 livres, and the maintenance of it amounted to 71,016 livres. The mechanism of this admirable work is the conception of a carpenter of Liege, who could not read or write, named Rennequin Sualem, from whom the idea was taken by the Chevalier Deville, who was acquainted with Sualem's talents. When this poor man came to intrust his project to him, he hastened with it to Paris, and offered the plan to Colbert, who shortly afterwards, by dint of intrigues and impudence, caused it to be believed that he was the inventor, and that the mechanic had been a passive instrument in his hands. So it is that the poor are sometimes the victims of the rich. THE MARLY HYDRAULIC MACHINE. 39 Sualem retired to Bougival, where he had a house, and there terminated a life of bitterness and disappointment. He was buried in the church in that place, together with his wife. The following is the epitaph on their tombstone. HERE LIE The honourable persons, RENNEQUIN SUALEM, Sole inventor of the Marly machine, Aged 64 years; And of MARIE NOUELLE, his wife. Aged 84 years. For a long time the Marly machine has been in disuse. It began to be observed that the amount of water transmitted decreased daily, whilst the expenses increased. The government endeavoured to discover a means of simplifying it, so as to lessen the latter. A meeting was held for that purpose in 1783, on motion of the Count d'Angivilliers, but with no good result. It was not until some years afterwards, that a new and less expensive mode of raising water to Versailles was discovered. HE glorious art of printing was invented at Haarlem, in Holland, by Laurentius Coster, who used wooden characters. A man named John Geist fleisch, elder brother of Guttemberg, who worked as a mechanic under Laurentius Coster, carried away some of these types secretly to Mayence, his native place, where Guttemberg, taking advantage of this act of dishonesty, associated himself with Faust or Fust, a goldsmith, and began to print, aided by a young man, Peter Schoeffer, who invented the use of metal types, in 1452. It is not easy for us to imagine how many difficulties surrounded the first attempt at printing. Those who interested themselves in it, and printed cheaply, found themselves reduced to great poverty. More than six thousand writers were occupied at Paris, in copying and colouring manuscripts. Nevertheless, in spite of all impediments, the art acquired great importance, as improvement after improvement was added, and success succeeded success. Paris beheld many printing establishments spring up one after another within her walls. The following is a list of the towns in which printing offices were successively established in the fifteenth century. In 1475 one was established at Laguenais, Printing, protected by Louis XI. and Louis XII., was in a short time powerful enough to resist all the machinations of its enemies. Having intellect on its side, it spread over all Europe with marvellous rapidity. The efforts of mind, which had heretofore died unheeded, now spread themselves through the mass of the people, enlightening and improving, where mental darkness had before prevailed; but, like all great novelties, printing had its detractors. Francis the First yielded to the complaints of the malcontents, and, on the 13th January, 1535, ordained the entire suppression of all printing in the kingdom, under penalty of hanging; but on the 23d of February following, the Father of letters, reflecting, perhaps, that there was something tyrannical and odious in such a decree, revoked it, and commanded the Parliament to send him |