mmonly of
catgut.

What is Catgut?

The intestines of sheep or lambs, dried or twisted, either singly or
several together. Catgut is also used by watch-makers, cutlers, and
other artificers, in their different trades. Great quantities are
imported from France and Italy.

Are there no other kind of Instruments besides those already
described?

Yes, music and musical instruments have progressively improved; and it
would be a needless task to enumerate the numbers of instruments of
each kind now in use; many, as for instance the organ, the piano,
musical boxes, &c., are exceedingly complex and ingenious in their
construction, as well as remarkable for the sweetness of their various
sounds; some, as the two first-named, are played with the fingers, and
produce any melody or combination of sound at the will of the
performer; others, as the musical-box, barrel-organ, &c., produce a
particular melody, or a certain number of melodies, by means of
machinery. In the use of the last-named the performer is not at all
indebted to his own musical skill, as he has only to turn the handle
which sets the machinery in motion, and the musical box, or
barrel-organ, will continue playing till it has finished the tunes to
which it is set.

Upon what principle do these last-mentioned instruments perform?

The barrel-organ and musical box both play on nearly the same
principle, though the former is turned by a handle, and the latter
only requires a certain spring to be touched, in order to set it off
or to stop it. Their machinery consists of a barrel pricked with brass
pins; when the barrel revolves, these ping lift a series of steel
springs of different lengths and thicknesses, and the vibration of
these springs when released, produces the different notes.

What is Painting?

The art of representing objects in nature, or scenes in human life,
with fidelity and expression, either in oil or water colors, &c.

_Fidelity_, truth, faithfulness.

_Oil Colors_, those colors which are mixed up with oil, as
the others are with water.

Is not this art of great antiquity?

There is not the slightest doubt of it; but to name the country where
it was first practised, or the circumstances attending its origin, is
beyond the power of the historian. About a century after the call of
Abraham, Greek and Egyptian tradition tells us of a colony planted at
Sicyon, by an Egyptian, who brought with him the knowledge of pai