lteration will take place in its value; which depends on the relation
between it and the annual production of other wealth."

According to another calculation, all the gold now in the world is
supposed to be equal to about $3,410,000,000; but the whole amount of
either of the two precious metals in old times is not easily
ascertained, nor can any definite comparison be established between
their former and present value. And still less in Egypt, than in
Greece and Rome, no standard of calculation being obtainable from the
prices of commodities there, or from any other means of determining,
the value of gold and silver.

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FOOTNOTES:

[21] At this meal, contrary to the usual custom, women were present.

[22] According to tradition, many Makedonians were killed by the
Persians taking hold of their long beards, and pulling them to the
ground. Alexander, in consequence, had his troops shaved during the
battle.

[Page Decoration]

DOMESTIC UTENSILS.

The immense number and variety of statues, lamps, urns, articles of
domestic use, in metal or earthenware, etc., discovered at Herculaneum
and Pompeii, have rendered the Museum at Naples an inexhaustible
treasury of information relative to the private life of the ancients.
To give an adequate description of the richness and variety of its
contents would far exceed the whole extent of this work, much more the
small space which it can have; but that space can not be better
occupied than in describing some few articles which possess an
interest from the ingenuity of their construction, the beauty of their
workmanship, or their power to illustrate ancient usages or ancient
authors.

Writing implements are among the most important of the latter class,
on account of the constant mention of them, as well as of the
influence which the comparative ease or difficulty of producing copies
of writing is always found to exert over society. On this head there
is no want of information. The implements used are frequently
mentioned, especially in familiar writings, as the letters of Cicero,
and their forms have been tolerably ascertained from various fragments
of ancient paintings.

It is hardly necessary to state that for manuscripts of any length,
and such as were meant to be preserved, parchment or vellum, and a
vegetable tissue manufactured from the rush _papyrus_, were in use.
The stalk of this plant consists of a number of thin concentric coats