A Catechism of Familiar Things; / Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. / With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

by Anonymous

The English, Hogarth, Wright, Reynolds, Wilson, Northcote, Gainsborough, Morland, Barry, and others.

The Americans, Washington Allston, Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull, G. Stuart Newton, Thomas Cole, Henry Inman, and a number of others; besides many now living, or but recently deceased.

Upon what materials did the ancients paint their works?

Principally upon wood; the boards or tables were prepared with a thin ground of chalk and size of some kind. Linen cloth or canvas was also employed, but there is no evidence of its use before the reign of Nero. Parchment, ivory and plaster were the other materials.

Evidence, testimony, record.

Who was Nero?

One of the Roman Emperors, a monster of cruelty, extravagance, and debauchery; he raised a dreadful persecution against the Christians, in which St. Paul was beheaded, and St. Peter crucified. At last, being deserted by his army and the senate, he destroyed himself, after a reign of fourteen years.

Debauchery, wickedness.

What is Poetry?