100 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
teriór
in date to the opening of the last century, presents upon its upper
table a very minute head of Julia, daughter of Titus, slightly
scratched in, in an unfinished manner, and without any internal polish.
Its microscopic size and general sketchiness agree so closely with
those characÂterizing the other tours de force, the signed
works, of Louis Siries, that I have little hesitation in assigning to
that over-refining Frenchman all the credit of this performance.
"In tenui labor, at tenuis non gloria,"
was
the belief of the skilful artists who expended such an infinity of
pains upon the pieces above noticed, and in their day they had their
reward in the unbounded admiration of their contemporaries. I shall
conclude my notice of the subject, which I have endeavoured to make as
complete as possible, by introducing one work of the kind, upon which
the Scottish Horace has bestowed poetic immortality (Buchanan, Hendec. XI.) :—
