第113章

"On the back of the first page of this most beautiful manuscript are the autographs of the Emperors of Hindustan, Jehangir (the son of the great Acber) and his son Shah Jehan; there is also the seal of Aurangzeb, the son of Shah Jehun.

Jehangir dates the acquiring possession of this treasure A. H. 1025, and Shah Jehun, A. H. 1037.

"A collection of mythological drawings (brought from a fort in Bhutan, where they were taken as plunder) exceedingly well coloured, and richly illumined. Some of the deities resemble those of the Tartars, delineated by the traveller Pallas;others again are pure Hindu and many Chinese;but the most frequent are the representations of Baudh, exactly as depicted in the paintings and temples at Ceylon. The religion of Bhutan and Neipal seems to be like the local situation of those countries, the link of connection between that of the Hindus, with its different schisms, and that of the Chinese with the Tartar superstructure.

"With this book of drawings are several rolls of Bhutan Scripture, very well stamped by stereotype blocks of wood. Some of the blocks accompanied the drawings; they are sharply and neatly cut in a kind of Sanscrit character, and are objects of great curiosity, as, by the accounts of the natives, this mode of printing has been in use for time immemorial.""There are besides in Sir Gore Ouseley's collection 1,100 most beautiful books of Persian and Indian paintings, portraits of the Emperors of Hindustan from Sultan Baber down to Bahudur Shah, finely colored drawings of natural history, and curious designs of fancy, with specimens of fine penmanship in the different kinds of Arabic and Persian characters. Several Sanscrit manuscripts, highly ornamented and richly illumined, some of them written in letters of gold and silver on a black ground. Many of them illustrated with the neatest miniature paintings of the Hindu gods and saints. Two Korans, the letters entirely of gold, with the vowel points in black. The two versions of Pilpais or Bedpai's fables, by Hussein Vaiz and Abulfazl, illustrated with upwards of 700highly finished miniatures; the best historical works in the Persian language, finely written, and in high preservation."The high regard with which the writers of MSS. in ancient Persia were viewed may be learned among other things from the following anecdote:

One of the most eminent among them was in his walks solicited by a beggar for alms. "Money," he replied, "I have none," but taking his pen and ink from his girdle, which are the insignia of the profession (without which they never went abroad), he took a piece of paper, and wrote some word or other upon it. The poor man received it with gratitude, and sold it to the first wealthy person he met for a golden mohur, in value about $2.50.

"Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made Parchment? that Parchment being scribbled o'er should undo a man?"--2 King Henry VI, iv, 2.

The Boston News Letter, 1769, announces:

"The belleart will go through Boston before the end of next month, to collect rags for the paper mill at Milton, when all people that will encourage the paper manufactory may dispose of them.""Rags are as beauties, which concealed lie, But when in paper how it charms the eye;Pray save your rags, new beauties it discover, For paper truly every one's a lover:

By the pen and press such knowledge is displayed, As wouldn't exist, if paper was not made.

Wisdom of things, mysterious, divine, Illustriously doth on paper shine."Gen. Walter Martin, proprietor of the township of Martinsburg, Lewis county, N. Y., erected a paper-mill, which was run by John Clark & Co. This was in 1807. They gave notice that rags would be received at the principal stores in Upper Canada and the Black river country, which (like many of the advertisements of the early papermakers, both in England and America), was accompanied by a poetic address to the ladies, one stanza of which ran thus:

Sweet ladies pray be not offended, Nor mind the jests of sneering wags;No harm, believe us, is intended, When humbly we request your rags."The employment of complementary color screens has made it possible to photograph colors which formerly indicated no contrast with white back grounds in the negative and later in the finished picture.

This discovery has destroyed the value of "safety"papers, based on complete tints or possessing colored lines or words.

"IN MANUSCRIPT.

"The rain storm wields a noisy pen Adown the pane, Wet splashes leaving, blots of strange white ink, Blunders of rain.

"And yet no poems of ecstatic men, Olympic faced, Could be as wonderful as these, I think, In cipher traced."--ISABELLE HOWE FISKE.