arabaeus which, under the hands of the Etruscan cutter, lost at
once all specific character. He might be Scarabaeus anything: he is not
_pilularius_; and, instead of being made of basalt, porphyry, smalt, and
very rarely of _pietra dura_, as in Egypt, he is engraved in carnelian,
onyx, sardonyx, and all the rare and lovely varieties of _pietra
dura_,--which, being essentially the same, change their names with
their colors,--but mainly in an opaque carnelian, admirably calculated
to show off the beauty of the workmanship. The change from use to
ornament is abrupt, and perceivable in the earliest Etruscan examples,
and proves conclusively to me two disputed points; namely, that the
_Scarabaeus pilularius_ and his allied notions came from Egypt to
Etruria, and that the Etruscan and Egyptian races were utterly diverse
in origin and antithetic in intellectual character. The eminent
utilitarianism of the latter leaves no room for purely artistic effort,
while the former literally _non tetiget quod non ornavit_. Even the
pictorial and sculptural representations of the Egyptians were
absolutely subservient to history or worship; but the Etruscans cared so
little for their own history as to leave us almost no inscribed
monuments, though the remains of their taste and skill stand side by
side with what we have of Greek work. They seem, indeed, to have been a
more absolutely artistic people even than the Greeks, in whom art was
exalted by a certain union with intellectual culture, the result of
which was, of course, a larger growth and nobler ideal than the more
ornamental Etrurian mind could attain. This points to an Eastern origin
more in kinship with the Persian than the Greek, and to-day only
illustrated by the Persian ornamentation.

The Scarabaeus then, instead of the rude, straightforward representation
of the Egyptian workman, assumes a more elegant form, with elaborate
sculpture of all the insect characteristics, the edges of the wings and
the lines that divide them from the chest being exquisitely beaded and
wrought, and the claws being relieved and modelled with the highest care
and most artistic finish. The form of the image, in fact, generally
resembles more the beautiful green beetle which I have often caught in
the mountains around Rome, than his plebeian and utilitarian cousin, the
_Scarabaeus pilularius_. The contour of the stone beneath the Scarabaeus
proper is markedly distinguished from the insect portion, and o