Plutarch lib. de Quæftionibus Romanis: but Cicero fuggefts another reafon, for lib. ii. de Divin. he fays, that the Greeks and Barbarians take the omens from the right to be beft, as the Romans do thofe from the left. Hence the Romans may, in the affair of divination, be faid to fpeak often after their own manner, often after that of the Greeks. However, it is certain, that amongst the Romans, in "aufpiciis, quæ finiftra funt, begè eventura putantur," the aufpices on the left were thought to forebode good fuccefs: as Alexander ab Alexandro in his Gen. dier. lib. v. cap. 13. & Tiraquel. on that place prove at large; without omitting the reafon of it: for they acquaint us, that in taking their "Aufpicia ex cœlo," their aufpices or omens from heaven, which was the chief kind of all; and on which they moft depended; the thunder or lightning that came from heaven, was fuppofed to come from the right hand of God, when it was on the left of the aufpex, or footh-fayer: as, on the contrary, when it happened on his right fide, they believed it to come from the left hand of God; becaufe, they always took it for granted, that his face was turned towards the aufpex. Thus too Donatus, on the "intonuit lævum," of Virgil, which I cited befere, fays, "Quod dixit lævum, dcbet profperum intelligi: cujus ratio hæc eft ; læva in aliis contraria fignificant; in facris autem fignis idcircò profpera accipiuntur quæ læva funt, quia facrificantis, vel precantis latus lævum dexterum eft ejus, qui pof tulata largitur:" So likewife in the omens taken from the voices of birds, the rule was, that thofe on the left were always lucky; "femper cantus Olcinis, quum finifter eft, fecundiffimus fuit," fays Alexander ab Alex. in the place above cited: indeed he makes fome exceptions to this doctrine, but delivers it in general to be true. And here we may obferve by the way, that of the birds, from which the ancients took their augurics, fome were called Ofcines, and from the voices of these they drew their divinations; and others Præpetes, from the manner of whofe flight, they took their omens: crows, fwallows, kites, owls, and fuch like birds, were counted inaufpicious, and others, as vultures, eagles, fwans, &c. in fome cafes portended good luck, in others bad: but even this depended too on which fide the bird was; and fome birds were held to be lucky on one fide, and unlucky on the other. was lucky on the left, a crow on the right: "Cornix à finiftrâ, corvus à dextrâ, ratum facit," fays Cicero, de Divin. lib. i. A raven But which augu ries did the ancient Greeks and Latins take to be left, which right? for both of them, though they fpoke differently, yet meant the fame thing that is to fay, the oriental omens, or thofe that came from the caft, did to both of them feem to be the beft, for this reafon, because the beginning of light and motion is from that part of the heavens: and yet what the Greeks called right omens, the Romans called left. Concerning the Greeks it is manifeft from Homer, Iliad. xii. ver 239. where Hector fays, that he values not the augural birds, whether they go to the right towards the Aurora and the fun; or to the left towards the dusky weft: "Eriæi digi Iwai ægòs hã e' qizióvls, Ergısıga tolys, woj Çóður úsgóırla· As to the Romans, it is evident from Varro, who, Epit. Quæ lib. v. fays, " A deorum fide cum in meridiem fpectes ad finiftram funt partes mus. di exorientes, ad dexteram occidentes: factum arbitror, ut finiftra meliora aufpicia, quam dextera, efle exiflimentur" Feftus Pompeius quotes this paffage, and mentions others of the ancients of the lame opinion: which Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 54. confirms in thefe words: “ Læva, profpera exiftimantur, quoniam lævà parte mundi ortus eft.” Now the reafon of the different appellation is, becaufe, in taking their auguries, the Greeks turned themfelves towards the north, the Romans towards the fouth. But to inquire why they did fo would engage me into too long a digreffion. Ver. 90. See below, ver. 379. Ver. 92. The poet invokes his mufe in thefe four veries, of which, our tranflator, not having fully rendered them, obliges me to give the ori ginal. Tu mihi fupreme præfcripta ad candida calcis Currenti fpatium præmonftra, callida Mufa, Calliope, requies hominum, divůmque voluptas; Te duce ut infigni capiam cum laude coronam. Whence we fee, that, notwithstanding what fome imagine, that Lucretius never finifhed his poem, or at least writ more bocks that are loft, he never propofed to himfelf to write above fix; and that he is now haftening "ad præfcripta candida faprema calcis:" which Seneca helps us to explain: for that author, Epift. 19. teaches, That what ia the Circus was in his days called Meta, the goal, the ancients called Calx, becaufe the end of the courfe was often marked with chalk. Cal was one of the mufes, fo called from aλòs, beau ty, and, ros, a voice: he was mother of Ot pheus, and prefident of heroic verfe. See booki ver. 932. Ver. 93. This verfe our tranflator feems to have been fond of: for he repeats it from book i ver. 950. where it is placed with as little autho rity from Lucretius, as it is here. Ver. 96. Lucretius begins his difputation of meteors; and firft of thunders: the various motions and differences of which he explains feveral ways and I. in thefe thirteen verfes, teaches, that the noife of thunder is made by the collifion of clouds, that are driven and dashed against one another by adverfe winds. And if it be objected, that clouds are rare and thin bodies, and there fore very improper and unlikely to make fo great a noife, the answer is, that the clouds do not equal flones and wood in density; nor on the other hand, are fo rare as mit, or fmoke: for then indeed they would vanish away: but they are however of a middle nature between both, and denfe enough to contain hail and fnow. Diogenes Laertius fays, this was the opinion of Epicurus and Anaxagoras, and we read in Ste as, that Democritus and the Stoics too were of fame belief: nor does Seneca oppose it, cap. Nat. Quæft. where he fays, Quid enim quemadmodum illifæ manus plaufum edunt Mifarum inter fe nubium fonus poteft effe mag. quia magna concurrunt?" Since even the Is clapped together make a noife, why should the noife of clouds dafhing against one ano. be great, feeing they are great bodies that , and ftrike one another? And to one that ted," nubes impingi montibus nec forum "that clouds ftrike againft mountains, but : no noife, he answers: "Non quomodocuntubes illifæ funt, fonant, fed fi aptè funt ofitæ ad fonum edendum. Adverfæ inter nus collifæ non plaudunt: fed palfa cum á collata plaufum facit," the clouds do not a found in what manner foever, they are d against one another, but only when they impofed in a due manner to make a noise: sacks of our hands ftruck one again!t anodo not make that found of applaufe, as when ap one palm against the other. This was pinion of many of the ancients, and, if we give credit to fome of our philofophers at this t is next to truth. 98. For the Epicureans denied that it ever rs, when the tky is clear; and therefore e when he was about to leave that foolish n, as he calls it, fays, -Namque diefpiter 10. In thefe fix verfes, he explains, by a iton, the noife that clouds make when they hed by winds against one another, and at le time brings a fecond explication of thunFor one fingle cloud driven by the wind, is mes rent afunder by the violence of the nor fhall we condemn this interpretation, ompare the node that a cloud fo torn makes, he ruffling of curtains that are hung up in theatre; with that of paper when you tear ily, or of clothes hung abroad, and ruffled wind. dius obferves, that what Lucretius in this advances, that the noife of thunder may be by the mutual confrication of clouds, that against one another; like the noife made by r curtains ruffling in the wind, and the like, gether improbable, but agrees but ill with in doctrine. For having, ver. 102. afligned dle confiftency to the clouds, he banishes them that drynefs and folidity, which of neall fuch bodies must have, as, by their collixcite a found, that can be perceived from Beides, that fort of noile, which is made in ouds, is not like the mutual arictation of foKies. For then one only noite anfwers to nly blow; but the rear of thunder lafts, and ared. Nay, fometimes the cloud grumbles confiderable space of time; aud fince the pretends, that this is done by contrary winds that violently drive the clouds against one anoTM ther; we add, that when two oppofite winds, fuppofe the north and the fouth, contend with each other, no thunder, but roaring blasts only are then heard. And this laft obfervation is ftrong against Lucretius; for it never thunders except when the clouds move flowly, at least not when the rack drives with violence; and, which is chiefly to be confidered, the clouds grumble, and burft out in thunder, when they are not agitated by winds. The Roman theatres were uncovered at top; and to keep off the fun or rain from the spectators, curtains were spread over them, as appears by what Lucretius himself fays, book iv. ver. 75. Propertius too mentions thefe curtains, lib ii. Eleg. Nec finuofa cavo pendebant vela theatro. Quintus Catulus was the first who introduced the use of them, when he dedicated the capitol; and Lentulus Spinter first brought up the ufe of filken curtains, in the Apollinarian games. This we have from Pliny, lib. xxiii. in these words: "Vela in theatris tantum umbram fecêre, quod primus omnium invenit Q. Catulus, cum capitolium dedicaret. Carbafina deinde vela primus in theatrum duxiffe fertur Lentulus Spinter, Apollinaribus Ludis." Of these curtains fee more, book iv. ver. 75. Ver. 115. In these fix verses, he gives us a third explication of the noife of thunder. Sometimes the noife of thunder is like a crafhing, or creaking found; and this happens when the clouds do not meet full; but as we call it, but only rudely justle and fhock the fides of one another in an oblique manner, From whence proceeds that clan-. gour, which Lucretius calls" aridus fonus," a dry found; and our tranflator, ver. 118, a harsh murThus Milton: mur. -The clouds, Juling, or pufh'd by winds, rude in their fhock, Tine the flant lightning, &c. Ver. 119. Dryden in Treïlus et Creffida, defcribes this fort of thunder-clap. It comes like thunder, grumbling in a cloud Ver. 121. These cight verfes contain the fourth explication. Wind, fays he, pent up in a cloud, rages to get free. Thence proceeds a grumbling noife, till the wind having burst its paffage, makes a dreadful roar. Pliny, lib i. cap. 4. favours this opinion, and fays, " Poffe fpiritum nube cohibitum tonare, naturâ ftrangulante fonum dum rixetur, edito fragore cum erumpat, ut in membranâ fpiritu intentâ." That wind, while it continues fhut up in a cloud, may thunder; becaufe fo long as nature chokes the found, it makes a grumbling noife, but when the wind frees its passage, and breaks out, it gives a horrid clap; as when we break a bladder, blown hard with wind. If you are difpofed to laugh, fee Ariftophanes in Nubibus, Act. i. Scen. 4. Moreover, this was like wife the opinion of Strato, and Diogenes, but chiefly of Leucippus, Empedocles, and Ariftotle i who allow nothing but this to be the caufe of Ut cum armata manus tormento exclufit aheno cloud, and their ftruggling with the moisture, Now Lucretius for the eighth caufe of thunder, in the room of their stars, fubftitutes the flame of lightning. which, falling from a dry cloud into a wet, hiffes like red hot iron, when plunged into the fmithy. This was particularly the opinion of Anaxagoras. Ver. 149. Explication ninth. That he may be fure to omit none of the caufes of thunder; he in those fix veries, fets the very clouds on now, Fit tremor, horrendumque fonat; tum plurimus fire; and pretends, that as laurels and other things antè Sternit iter fragor, et gemitu faxa ita refultant; And by Milton in Paradife Loft, book vi. -Immediate in a flame, But foon obfcur'd with fmoke, all heaven appear'd, roar Embowel'd with outrageous noife the air, crackle in the flames, clouds may do fo too. Ver. 152. Pliny, lib. xv. cap. ult. fays that Ca to dininguished between two forts of laurel; the Delphic, and the Cyprian; this laft has a fhort blackish leaf, turning up at the edges and indented. The other, a very large leaf, and bears very large berries, that turn from green to red; with this the victors at Delphi, and thofe that triumphed at Rome, were wont to be crowned. Pom peius Lernæus added a third fort of laurel, which he called "muftas, quod muftaceis fubjiceretur." Lucretius here calls it" Delphica laurus,' the lau rel being a tree facred to Apollo, because, as Pi Now though thefe implements of mischief were ny, Nat. Hift. lib. xv. cap. 30. fays, many very wholely unknown to the ancients; yet Epicurus fine laurels grew on the Mountain Parnaffus; and in Lacrtius, lib. x. ufes almoft the fame compari- becaufe, as the interpreter of Hefiod fays, ing fon, and fays, that thunder may be made by windęs indices. Dryden from Chaucer's Tax of fhut up in hollow clouds, even in like manner as our veffels burft with noife, when they are heated by included fire. Moreover, Anaximander and Metrodorus feem to have been of the fame opinion. For they held thunder to be a wind conceived, and enclosed within the bowels of a thick cloud; and which, breaking out with violence, makes the noife we call thunder; and that the Jightning is caused by the breaking of the cloud. In like manner, added Anaximenes, who fubfcribed to this belief, as the fea, when dafhed and broken with oars, fparkles and fhines. Ver. 135. In thefe fix veries, he gives explication fix:h. The cloud, fays the poet, may likewife be broken to pieces by the winds, when they beat hard upon them; and none can doubt but that winds can fhatter the clouds, fince we often fee that they tear up the ftouteft trees, and tofs the broad roots into the air. Ver. 141. Explication feventh, in these four verfes. If you like not thefe reafons, imagine the air to be an immenfe fea, and the clouds its waves. Let them dash against one another, and they roar no lef than the vexed billows of a biterouscean, when they infult the fhores that bound them. Ver. 145 some philofophers taught, that thunder was cauled by the falling of itars into a wet the Flower and the Leaf. The laurel is the fign of labour crown'd, ground: From winter winds it fuffers no decay; Because Daphne flying from Apollo, to whee love, the would not confent, was changed into a laurel See the next note. Ver. 153. Pliny, lib. xv. cap. 3c. "Laurus manifeftò abdicat ignes crepitu." The laurel, by its crackling in the flames, fhows its natural detellation of fire. This alludes to the known fable of Phœbus and Daphne, who was feigned to be the daughter of the River Peneus in Theffalia, because the banks of that ftream abound with laurels. With this yield to his defires, who would have offered vio nymph, Phœbus fell in love, and the, refufing to lence to her, fled from him, and in her flight ar riving on the banks of her father's flood, and inploring his affiftance, was changed into a laurel. Her transformation is defcribed at large by Ovid. Metam. 1. and finely tranflated by Dryden, a follows: Scarce had the finifh'd, when her feet the found t Phœbus loves her ftill, and, cafting round r bole his arms, fome little warmth he found: er. 155. In thefe four verfes is contained the unders, hail, and many little fragments of fall in fome places, but chiefly in the northern atcs. Therefore, that noife may well be afed to the breaking into fhivers of congealed frozen clouds. o this last opinion fubfcribes our countryman iks forth from its confinement. And accord- David. iii. Ver. 159. Hitherto of thunder: He comes now inquire into the caufes of lightning, which may ftruck out of hardened clouds, dafhed against e another; in like manner as fire is out of iron, nt, or wood; for we ought to believe that fome ds of fire are lurking in the clouds, as well as thofe other things, fays Lucretius in these fix rfcs. But before we proceed any farther, it will be ceflary to obferve, that under the general name thunder, three feyeral things are comprehend ed: I. The noise, which the Greeks called Beovrh, the Latins, tonitru, in English, thunder. II. The corufcation, by the Greeks called 'Asgarǹ, by the Latins, fulgur, which answers to what we call the lightning. II. What the Greeks call Kigavàs, the Latins fulmen, and we a thunderi o't. I know that the ancients, especially their poets, no lef than we at this day, often confounded thefe three things, taking one of them for the other, thought they are different, as will more plainly appear by what fhall be faid by and by, when I come to explain the difference between the fulgur and fulmen of the ancients. I now return to Lucretius, who held, that as in ftone, iron, and wood, there are feeds of fire, which by attrition may be forced out, and ftruck into fparkles. So in the clouds likewife there are feeds of fire, that by the attrition of those clouds, caufed by the violent force of the wind, may be struck out into lightning. For though the clouds be moift, yet fire may nevertheless be generated and produced by their attri tion. This Seneca feems to confirm, Nat. Quæft. eo nio lib. ii. cap. 25 and 26, where he fays, that nei- Therefore, what the Latins called fulgur, is nothing elfe than light emitted from the flame of fuimen, and diffused through the air. Yet Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 43. Seneca, lib. ii. cap. 16. and 18. and Ariftotle, lib. ii. de Meteor. cap. 9. will have the fire of fulgur to be more loofe and rare, inafmuch as it only cleaves the cloud, and vanishes into air; but the fire of fulmen to be more compreffed and clofe; because it breaks the cloud with violence, and fometimes dafhes against the earth. But this feems probable only in the corufcations without thunder; but cannot be in thofe that are attended, "cum tonitu ac fulmine." For fuch corufcations break the cloud to pieces, and cannot be faid to cleave it, but rather to scatter and difperfe it on all fides, while the fulmen itself is directed to one part only. And thus the very mo. ment that the matter of fulmen is kindled, the fulgur or corufcation is produced; but this fulgur is momentary, because the flame of the fulmen is fo too: and if the fulgur have fometimes any duration, the flame of the fulmen mult of neceflity con tinue the longer. This is manifeft in our can. non; which being fired in the night, a corufca. tion from the flame of the powder is diffufed all around; whence men that stand at a distance eafily guefs, that they fhall foon hear the report. and fays that Gaffendus, and all that follow him are mistaken in their interpretation of it. Now to confirm this opinion of Epicurus, we may ob ferve, that feveral of the ancients feem to have been of the fame fentiments: For Heraclitus, as Seneca, lib. ii. cap. 56. witneffes, held, that this Ver. 162. This and the two next verfes our tranflator has added to his author. The thoughtfulguration is like the attempts of our fires, when feems to be taken from Waller's fea-fight. Ver 165. But if thunder and lightning be both made by the fame collifion of the clouds, why do we fee the lightning before we hear the thunder? Becaufe, fays he, in thefe twelve verfes, light is fwifter than found: For common experience evinces, that the fpecies of a vifible thing is fooner conveyed to the eyes, than the noife it makes is to the ears. Thus Ariftotle, lib. ii. Meteor. fpeaking of lightning, fays, γίνεται δὲ μετὰ τὴν πλη γῆν, καὶ ὕφερον τῆς βροντῆς, ἀλλὰ φαίνεται πρότερον διὰ τὸ τὴν ὄψιν πρότερον τῆς ἀκοῆς· The corufcation is made after the itroke and after the thunder; but it is feen first, because the fenfe of fecing is fwifter than that of hearing: And in the fame place he brings an inftance of men rowing a boat in the water, and fays, that they are feen lifting up their oars the fecond time out of the water, by that time the noife of the firft ftroke is heard. That the action of light is quicker than that of found; and that light is therefore fooner conveyed to the eyes, than found to the ears, is true beyond any contradiction; and the inftance Lucretius brings to prove this affertion is juft: for nothing is more certain, than that we fee the motion of the hatchet, lifted up the fecond time to ftrike, before we hear the found caufed by the firft blow, even though we are placed but at a fmall diftance from the ftriker. The reafon of which is, because the "materia fubtilis" in lucid bodies, which is the medium by which we fee, confifts of particles, that are much lefs, and more folid than thofe of the air, the medium by which we hear: And confequently the motion of that fubtile matter is more quick than that of the air: becaufe more ftrength is requifice to overcome the resistance of a greater body, than that of a lefs: Befides, the greater body lofes much of its motion, in conquering the refiftance of the body it meets: Therefore the air, whofe particles are intricate, and, like thofe of all other fulphureous bodies, twifted and entangled in one another; and in their magnitude far furpaffing thofe of the fubtile matter, whofe very name fuppofes fomething the most minute that can be conceived; therefore, I fay, the air cannot move with equal fwiftnefs, as does the "materia fubtilis," whofe particles being extremely minute, and folid, and inflexible, must therefore move more nimbly, and retain their motion longer. And this is the reafon that the fenfe of feeing is quicker than that of hearing. Ver. 177. In thefe fourteen verfes, he fays, that if thunder be caufed by the winds breaking and tearing the clouds, lightning is likewife made by the fame winds, that by the fwiftnefs of their motion grow hot, and kindle into flames, as they are agitated and whirled about in the bowels of the clouds. Thus Creech interprets this paffage, they begin to kindle, and refembles the first uncertain flames, now dying, now rifing again at every puff of the bellows. And we learn from Plutarch de Placit. Philofoph. lib. ii. cap. 3. that Metrodorus believed, that this corufcation is produced, when a cloud is affaulted and dafhed to pieces by the wind. And thefe opinions are like theirs, who hold, That motion is the cause of heat: For we fee many things grow hot by mo tion, as wheels, the axletrees on which they are hung, &c. Ver. 183. This is no truer than what Virgil writes of the arrow of Aceftes, Qui tamen æthereas telum contorfit in auras, -volans liquids in nubibus arfit arundo, n. v. ver. 520. Who, fhooting, upwards, fends his fhaft to show Digd. Ver. 193. In these twenty-three verfes hea fwers the objections of thofe, who pretend that the clouds, though they are broad, yet cannot be deep or thick enough to contain within their bowels, fuch vaft hollows, as could be capable to enclose so much wind: To which he adds fomething of the winds grumbling within the clouds, and then burfting out into flames. Ver. 197. For this and the following verfe, nur has tranfcribed them from the Bishop of Roche tranilator has no authority from his author: but fter's Plague of Athens, and repeats them again almoft word for word, ver. 1099. of this book. Where indeed they are better applied than here: For how come the winds, that, in the preceding verfe, whirled the clouds through the air, which implies a violent and fwift motion, to be able to move but flowly in this, and to groan under the weight of their burdens? Dennis fpeaking of a row of oaks, as he calls them, fays fincly, The tempeft fees their strength, and fighs, and pafles by. Ver. 203. Sir R. Blackmore gives a lively defcription of thefe mountain-clouds in the following verles: |