This part of the country, that is to fay, from the Me- winds, that arife in Greece, bear thither: This diterranean to Cairo, rather than on the contrary, Profper Alpinus, who was himself an eye witnefs in the more inland parts of it; but that it does fo, of it, relates in these words: "Cayri, in toto fere is allowed by the unanimous confent of all. We augmenti fluminis tempore, Etefiæ, perflantes finmust therefore travel out of Egypt; for the cause gulis fere diebus ab orto fole, ufque ad meridiem, of this inundation. No doubt but a plenteous ac- multas nubes nigras, craffas, pluviofas in altiffimos ceffion of waters fwells the river, before it washes ufque Libya, Ethiopiæque montes, propellunt atthe land of Egypt: And this it was that perfuaded que afportant: in quibus montibus hæc concreffome to believe (fee the note on ver. 733.) that centes, in pluvias vertuntur, quæ, ab his in Nilum the Nile increafes by means of the fnows that melt cadentes, funt caufæ ipfius augumenti. Obfervain Ethiopia. And indeed they are certainly mif- tur quotidie Cayri, dum flumen hoc augetur, qua taken, who hold with Herodotus, that it never die multæ nubes fupra Ægyptum verfus meridiem nows in that country: For they go contrary to à feptentrionalibus iis ventis afportatæ tranfierint, xperience and obfervation: Neither are thofe multùm flumen augeri; atque ex contrario, clara others to be credited, who affert, that at the fea- apparente die, nullifque nubibus in eo cœlo apon when the Nile inundates the land of Egypt, parentibus, parùm crefcere: Et hæc eos nunquam it is the depth of winter in Ethiopia. For who fallit obfervatio," Lib. 1. de Medic. Egypt. At can believe that the fnow, which was congealed Cairo, fays he, during almost the whole time of by cold, can be diffolved by cold likewife? the fwelling of the river, the Etefias blow almost would be repugnant to the laws of nature, who every day, from fun-rifing till noon, and bring, as ordained, that things congealed by cold fhall and drive before them, many black, thick, and se melted by heat. The third caufe is affigned to rainy clouds into the high mountains of Libya rain, (fee the note on ver. 730.) and to this ad- and Ethiopia: In which mountains, these clouds here the authors of greateft note, though it has gathering together, are turned into rains; which, been long and ftrenuoufly oppofed by fome of no falling from thence into the Nile, are the cause of mean reputation: They who call it in question, its increase: It is obferved every day at Cairo, object the great heat of the country, and the that fo long as this river is increasing, on what carcity of vapours; but there are feveral things, day foever many clouds are brought by those of which thefe perfons ought not to be ignorant : northern winds, and carried over Egypt towards The firft is, that in thofe countries there are the fouth, the river that day fwells very much; wo winters, and as many fummers, in the year; and, on the contrary, that in a clear day, when no hough of unlike effect indeed, if compared with clouds appear in the fky, it increafes but little. ars. The winter is more fevere with us; but And this obfervation never fails them. It is creot fo mild with the Ethiopians, as not to pro- dible enough, that when the clouds are come inluce fnows in the mountains, together with con- to Africa, they are refolved into rain, not that, tant rains, that continue for 40 days, as is affirm- as Lucretius thought, it is fqueezed out of them, by the natives, as well as by travellers into thofe as water out of a fponge, but because, by reafon arts. This truth Democritus has learned in his of the cold of the place, the included fire of the ravels, and, as by tradition, delivered it down to clouds flies away, or is extinguished; and then pofterity, till at length it became known in Italy, the vapours grow thick, and return into their by the care of our Lucretius. Befides, in fum- former nature. But on what day the rains begin mer, the fun is nearer to Ethiopia, than it is to to fall, and how much time the waters take up in us; and his rays, though troublesome to the in- their courfe, while they are flowing into the Nile, habitants, yet fuffer themselves to be overcast by has not been inquired into, or at leaft is doubta very thick mift, that hangs over a certain moun- ful But this in our age we know for certain, tain, which mariners call Serra Leone, perhaps that these things happen in the kingdom of Guyfrom the noise it makes; for it generally roars, oma, which is fubject to the emperor of the Abyfand from the dusky mift almoft continually darts fines. Hence the great hofpitality of the Egypout lightning, together with dreadful thunder, tians to the Abyffines, that come to fojourn among that is heard 40 miles around. And a mafter them; not fe much out of gratitude, as for fear of a fhip, as he was failing to the island St. of a famine and general inundation: For the moThomas, obferved, that all this happened when narch of Ethiopia, whom we commonly call the fun ftruck perpendicularly on Ethiopia. Let Prefter John, commands the cataracts of the fuch then, as object the heat of the country, make Nile; for which reafon the emperor of the Turks the most of that weak argument; nor will they pays him a yearly tribute, on condition, that he fare better, who deny vapours to that region. do not divert the waters of the Nile, nor fuffer For they ought to reflect on the lakes and rivers them to come in too great a quantity, either of that Africa contains; and to have fome regard to which would be the deftruction of Egypt. Hence the ocean that washes its coafts: all which may in the laft age fprung up a cruel war, as Natalis furnish an immenfe quantity of matter for future Comes relates. In the year 1570, fays he, Selim rain; and then especially, when the fun, retiring, emperor of Conftantinople, who was then at war permits the inferior elements to extend their own with the Venetians, received an unfortunate piece bound: The Mediterranean too conduces fome-of news; for David, the great king of Ethiopia, thing to increase the ftore, by gratefully fending whofe empire extends from the equinoctial, almoft into Ethiopia a vast quantity of clouds, which the to either tropic, fince many kings are fubject to him, had begun to destroy, by an inundation of, the river Nile, the city of Cairo, and all the neighbouring country of the Turks, together with many other cities thereabouts: The reason of this hoftility was, becaufe Selim owed him 400,000 crowns for two years tribute; for he paid him 200,000 a year: Now the country of Egypt has not rain enough to render the land fertile; for it rains there very feldom, and the foil is of all others the most fruitful, and owes its fertility to the waters of the Nile, which are in the power of the king of the Abyffines, who can send them down in what quantity he pleafes, and either refresh the thirsty land with a gentle flood, or, by cutting certain dykes, pour in fuch an inundation, as will lay wafte the whole country. Now the Sultan, because he would not pay the tribute that was due, levied a great army, and, invading Arabia, put all to fire and fword. Thus Natales Comes, hiftor. lib. 23. But more prudently Ofiris, who, if we may give credit to Diodorus Siculus, lib. vi. cap. 2. when he was in the mountains of Ethiopia, mounted up the banks on either fide the Nile, that the inundation might not be too great; and made fluices to let in only fuch a quantity of water, as would be neceffary for the fertility of the land: The increafe of the Nile, therefore, is more due to rains than melted fnows; whatever Anaxagoras fay to the contrary: And indeed the true cause of the overflowing of the Nile is only the great rains that conftantly fall in Ethiopia, from about the beginning of June, to the month of September: This is teftified by Alvarcz Fernandus, and many others of late date: And, in confirmation of their opinion, it is obferved, that the river Niger fwells at the fame time, and never fails to increafe when the Nile does: And that the rains, which fall in Ethiopia, are the caufe of the fwelling of the river Niger, is certain beyond difpute: Nor was this unknown to Pliny, who, lib. v. cap. 8. fays, " Nigro fluvio eadem natura quæ Nilo." Befides, the reed papyrus grows on the banks of both thofe rivers, and they produce the fame forts of animals. Gaffendus, page 1084. on the tenth book of Diogenes Laertius. See Profper Alpinus propofes two problems concerning the Nile, but defpairs of the folution of either of them: 1. Why that river conftantly fwells the 17th of June at fun-rifing? II. How, by weighing the earth, or fand of the river, the inhabitants foretel the measure and degree of its increafe? For, fays he, in the month of June, feveral days before the sun's acceffion to the tropic, they take fome of the fand of the river, that has been kept and dried for a whole year before; they weigh this fand in fcales, and, by adding or fubtracting, make the number of the weights anfwer exactly to the drachms of the fand: For example, let us fuppofe the fand to weigh three drachms, which they lay by, and kecp in a dry place, clofe fhut up on all fides: this they weigh every day, and obferve it nothing increafed or diminished in weight, till the 17th day of June; an which day they find its weight augmented: and from the weight, more or lefs increafed, they foreknow that the river will be more or less aug. mented likewife: and from the knowledge of the exact increase of the weight, they know for cer tain before hand, how many cubits the river will fwell that year: The caufe whereof, fays the fame Alpinus, I cannot conceive, can be difcovered by narural principles. His very words are as follows: "Nam menfe Junio, ante folis ad tropicum accef fum, multis diebus Egyptii terram illiufce fluminis toto integro anno adfervatam, et ficcatam, arefactamque accipiuut, quam lance expendunt, fa ciuntque ut ponderum numerus, addentes, ac fub. trahentes, drachmis fedulo refpondeat: ut exem pli gratia, terra fit trium drachmarum pondere, quam in loco ficco, undique conclufo reponunt, et confervant: quotidieque librantes, ipfam obfer vant nihil auctam, nihilque imminutam pondere effe, ufque ad diem decimam feptimam menfis Ju nii, in aqua die au&am ipfo pondere inveniunt; ex cujus pondere, multùm vel parùm aucto, mul tùm vel parùm flumen illud auctum iri prænocunt à diligentique per aucti illius ponderis notitia, quoties etiani cubitibus ipfam fit augendum, certo prænofcunt. Quorum caufas naturalibus principiis poffe cognofci, nullo modo fieri pofle arbitror." However, it is not forbid to inquire into this matter: Now Seneca acquaints us, that in the tenth and eleventh year of queen Cleopatra, the Nile did not increafe at all; which, he allo tells us, on the authority of Callifthenes, had happened in former ages for nine years together; Of this Ovid was not ignorant, when he fung: Dicitur Egyptus caruiffe juvantibus arva Imbribus, atque annis ficca fuiffe novem. Let this fuffice for the inconftancy of its increase: and as to the uncertainty of the time, there was a remarkable delay of it in the reign of the emps for Theodofius, which is recorded by Nicephons and Sozomen. Nor can that be imputed to the want of rain; for the Nile, not long after, fwell ed to fuch a degree, that the higheft parts Egypt were covered with the inundation: Now, though thefe events happen but feldom, yet they are fufficient, if not to deftroy, at leaft to render fufpected, that generally believed conftancy of time: Let us nevertheless grant Alpinus, what he for feven years fucceffively observed with great diligence and fedulity: the rather, because it is not civil to diftruft, or derogate from, the teftimony of an eye-witness: The question is, Why the Nile begins every year to increase, for the moft part, at a certain day? The caufe mult proceed from the conftant and certain return of the feafon, which the invariable conftitution and revolution of the heavens have prescribed them: For, fince the fun is at that time at his remotel distance from Ethiopia, nothing can hinder the vapours from coming to a confiftency, nor from condenfing into rain, because the ambient air is changed from hot into cold, at leaft has lost its effe: vefcency. And the winds, that blow from the north, cannot there, as they frequently do with us, haften the winter; for in that scorching limate, the matter of the winds is foon diffolved, I to prove that the exhalations that flow from ma and their piercing nature qualified immediately. And fo much for the solution of the firft problem: The other is not fo difficult, though at first fight the cause of it seem obfcure. For the fand that has been long kept for the fake of making the exeriment, being grown thorough dry, and, as I nay fay, thirsty, does, when it is exposed to the arrounding air, attract to itself the moisture, ith which that air is newly grown damp, and he weight of the dry body is increased in proporon to the degrees of its dampness: And that the ear approaching waters of the Nile taint the air ith humidity, the fagacity of the birds in Egypt a pregnant and convincing proof: For they neer lay their eggs, except in fuch a place, as they erceive before hand, will not be covered by the undation. Men, indeed, who enjoy a perfect are of health, are lefs fenfible of fuch fmall mutions of the air, as nevertheless brute animals em to have fome foreknowledge of, and of hich even inanimate bodies give foreboding ns. The geefe, we know, often gaggle, and e frogs croak in uncertain weather, but not in ttled fair, which cinders fticking to the tongs reshow: The very ftuff of lamps give bodings Tais, and that too fo vifible, that even our dging maids perceive them: Virg. Georg. 1. 390. ny things, are hurtful and deadly to many things. Having premised this, he comes to the question, and fays, that a noxious vapour breathes from the Averni, and either that poisonous steams ftrike with fudden death the birds that fly over them, or that the rifing exhalation attenuates and drives away the air to that degree, that the birds cannot fupport themselves, nor fuftain their flight in fo void and empty a space, and that, falling into that void, they forthwith expire. This is contained in ninety-fix verses. cnocturna quidem carpentes penfa puellæ d Ver. 735. Lucretius does not acknowledge a Ver. 737. In these seven verfes, the poet pre- Deep was the cave, and downward as it went For the Greeks called it "Aogves, from the priva- 12. Τῇ μὲν τ' ἐδὲ ποτητὰ παρέρχεται, ἐδὲ πέλειαι. i. e. Where neither dove, nor other bird can fly. Ver. 741. Lucretius: Remigii oblitæ pennarum vela remittunt. -Velorum pandimus alas. And, on the contrary, birds are faid to swim -Volat ille per aëra magnum Remigio alarum. But not only Virgil after Lucretius; for all the ancient poets used this metaphor. Ovid, in his Epiftles, applies it to mens arms: -Remis ego corporis utar. I'll ufe the bodies oars. See more, book v. ver. 315. Lucret. "Molli cervice profufæ :" A fine image of a fainting, dying bird; and not unhappily rendered by our tranflator. Ver. 743. This verse runs thus in the original: Qualis apud Cumas locus eft, montemque VefeOppleti calidis ubi fumant fontibus auctus. [vum, In which two verfes the poet teaches, that there is fuch a place at Cuma, and on the mountain Vefuvius. Cuma was a city of Campania, not far from Puteoli, now called Puzzuolo, in the kingdom of Naples: but of Cuma there are no footsteps remaining. The lake Avernus is to this day called Lago d'Averno, and lies between Baia and Puzzuolo. Near this lake there are now to be feen the remains of two caves; one on the fouth fide of it, ftill called Grotta di Sibylla, where dwelt the Cumaan Sibyl, and feems to be the mouth of that paffage under ground, which led from Avernus to Cuma, but is now ftopt up by the falling in of the earth; the other is that which to this day leads from Puzzuolo to Naples, being dug through the mountain Paufilypum, now known by the names of Antignana and Conocchia. Now the true nature of the lake Avernus was this: The waters of it were very clear and deep: whence Herodotus, lib. 4. calls them cerulean, that is to fay, black; for all deep waters feem of that colour. This lake was furrounded with steep rocky hills, covered with thick woods, that rendered it inacceffible, except in one place only. This we learn from Strabo, lib. v. And Pliny, lib. xxxi. cap. 2. acquaints us, that all that tract of land abounded with innumerable fprings of hot water, mixed with fulphur, alum, falt, nitre, and brimftone. But that the vapours which steam from this lake are fatal to birds, is by Strabo, in the place above cited, deemed a fable, because of the clearness and transparency of the water of which Aristotle too takes notice. Vefevus, or Vefuvius, is a mountain of Campania, not far from Naples, and that vomits out flame and fmoke, like Etna in Sicily. Sir R. Blackmore defcribes it thus: As high Vefuvius, when the occan laves His fiery roots with fubterranean waves, Difturb'd within, does in convulfions roar, And cafts on high his undigested oar, Difcharges maffy furfeit on the plains, And empties all his rich metallic veins, His ruddy entrails: cinders, pitchy smoke, And intermingled flames the fun-beams choke. Ver. 744. In these feven verfes the poet says, there is fuch another place at Athens, at the very top of the tower, near the temple of Pallas. Eft & Athenæis in manibus, arcis in ipfo Vertice, Palladis ad templum Tritonidis alma Of Athens, fee the note on the first veríe of book. Ibid. Minerva.] She was the fame with Pa who was called Minerva, either from to threaten, because she is painted in ar or from memini, I remember, because the to be the goddess of memory; or rather frem old word minervo, I admonish, because the g good advice to men, as being the godde wifdom and of arts. She was called Pallas, the Greek word whλw, I shake, because i feigned to be born out of the brain of J and armed, and brandishing a fpear. She to be the first who invented building, andto have built herself the tower at Athens, wi was called Axgoro, because it stood highest place of the city. Hence Virg. E v. 61.. -Pallas, quas condidit arces, Ipfa colat. She refufed to marry with Vulcan, and k virginity. Whence the fame Virgil, E ver. 31. calls her innupta Minerva. S likewife called Tritonis, or Tritonia, either the Greek girn, which fignifies a head, iz as we faid before, fhe was produced ext head of Jupiter; or because, in the time Ogygius, he was firft feen in the habit. gin, on the banks of the river Triton. T confirmed by Pomponius Mela, lib. i where, fpeaking of Triton, the name di and river in Africa, not far from the Sp nor, he fays, that Minerva was called T becaufe, as the inhabitants believe, the " there; and that they celebrate her birt ludicrous fports, of virgins contending another. "Unde," fays he, "Miner men inditum eft, ut incolæ arbitrantur, à tæ: faciuntque ei fabulæ aliquam fidem quem natalem ejus putant, ludicris virgi ter fe decertantium celebrant." Thus to L lib. ix. ver. 347. Torpentem Tritonos adit illæfa paludem: Hanc & Pallas amat: patrio qua vertice Terrarum primam Libyen, (nam proxima eft, Ut probat ipfe calor) tetigit: ftagnique qu Vultus vidit aquâ, pofuitque in margine p Et fe dilectâ Tritonida dixit ab undà. Or perhaps the Latin authors allude to the epithet of Pallas, who, Iliad. ii. ver. 15* elsewhere, is faid to be ȧrgurúm, untamed of fear, from privative &, and ege, to treats Ver. 746. The raven, fays Lucretius, to an averfion to that place, that, although fir are offered there, he will not even then near it, though the smell of the tempting feem to invite his hunger to tafte. Ver. 748. Lucretius alludes to the knew ble of the nymph Coronis, who, flying Neptune, who would have offered violer: her, was changed by Minerva into a raven, and permitted nevertheless to attend her train: But when that goddefs had given Erichonius, fhut up in a basket, in charge to Pandrofos, Herfe, ind Aglauros, with orders not to open it, the raen faw them tranfgrefs the commands of Minera, and acquainted her with it: for which garulity fhe banished her from her protection and rain. The fable is related at large in Ovid. Meim. 2. by Coronis herfelf, who fays, eta Dea refero: pro quo mihi gratia talis edditur, ut dicar tutelâ pulfa Minerva. -Mea pœna volucres dmonuiffe poteft, ne voce pericula quærant. Ver. 751. In thefe four verfes the poet fays, here is a place in Syria that ftrikes dead in a aoment any four-footed beaft. But Lambinus elieves the poet fpeaks of the Plutonium in Hiepolis, not far from Laodicea; which is a cave called from Pluto, because it was believed to the breathing hole of that infernal god. Stra2, lib. 13. defcribes it to be a hole in a hollow lace, under the brow of a mountain, wide nough to receive the body of a man, but imenfely deep; that it is prefent death to any anial that goes into it. Bulls, fays he, led to the ace, drop dead immediately. He adds the like fparrows, that were put in at the mouth of it. which we add, what is reported of the cave lled Panium, at the foot of mount Libanus: hat it exhales a vapour, that caufes likewife dden death. Ibid. Syria Is a province of Afia, and the geft of that quarter of the earth. It is genelly divided into four: Syria, Affyria, Cœlofyria d Leucofyria. Ver. 755. In thefe eight verfes he fays, that thefe things proceed from natural caufes : herefore the poets falfely taught, that thefe werni are the gates of the roads that lead to ell: which fables they invented only to strike a rror into eafy believers. And he promifes, that e will explain all thefe matters, and show the atural caufes of these feeming wonderful effects. Ver. 757. The Latin poets, when they treat f the affairs of their own country, make that Avernus, of which ver. 743. to be the gate of ell. Virg. Æneid. vi. ver. 126. -Facilis defcenfus Averni. And Æneas, with the Sybil, defcended that way. But when the fame poets defcribe the affairs of he Greeks, they place the gates that lead to the nfernal manfions in the caves of the mountain [ænarus, which is a promontory of Laconia, in the most fouthern part of Peloponnefus, between the Laconic and Meffeniac Gulfs, and now called Capo Maina. Orpheus is faid to have defcended this way, Georg. iv. ver. 467.: and fo too are Hercules and Thefeus, in the Herc. Fur. of Se neca. Ver. 758. The fmutty gods.] The infernal gods. Lucretius names Orcus, whom Silius Italicus takes for Cerberus, and others for Charon: but Cicero, de Naturâ Deorum, lib. iii. cap. 43. for Pluto, the brother of Jupiter and of Neptune; and to whom by lot fell the empire of hell. He ravifhed Proferpina, the daughter of Ceres. He was called Dis, as well as Pluton, both which names he has from riches, which are faid to be dug out of the bowels of the earth. For he was called Dis by the Latins, from divitie, and Pluton by the Greeks, from wheres, which fignifies the fame thing. Ibid. Manes. Of the manes, and the feveral acceptations of the word, we have spoken at large in our note on ver. 52. of book 3. Ver. 760. Pliny fays, that the breath of elephants draws ferpents out of their holes; and that the breath of deer burns them. Elephantorum anima ferpentes extrahit, cervorum item urit." Nat. Hift. lib. xi. cap. 53. But if this be falfe, the raillery of Lucretius is not the less sharp and pleasant. Ver. 763. In the following forty-nine verses, the poet, before he demonstrates that all thefe things happen by natural caufes, puts us in mind of what he taught in the first and second books, viz. that in the earth are contained atoms of many various fhapes; and that by reafon of the dif. fimilitude of their nature, and the different texture of their figures, fome of them are beneficial, others pernicious to men; but that fome of them are hurtful to the eyes, others to the ears, others to the tongue, &c. all which he confirms by feve ral examples. Ver. 777. In these five verfes, he brings example firft of things that are hurtful to man; but fays nothing of the name of the tree, whofe fhade is offenfive. Pliny, lib. xvii. cap. 12. fays, that the fhade of the walnut-tree offends the head, and that no plants will thrive under it. Fayus, in his note on this place, cites these two verses of Virgil, Eclog. x. ver. 75. Surgamus; folet effe gravis cantantibus umbra, Juniperi gravis umbra; nocent & frugibus um bræ. and But the fhade of the juniper is very grateful, being an odorous tree, and that fuffers nothing venomous to grow near it. But the meaning of Virgil was, that to continue long in the fhade, might be dangerous, because of the cold fome editions read not cantantibus, but cunctantibus. And Lucretius means the fame thing, and not the fhade of any particular tree. The shade of the box-tree, however, is said to caufe the headach. Ver. 782. In these fix verses, he proposes his fecond example. What tree he means is hard to fay: fome fuppofe it to be the box; of which Pliny, lib. xvi. cap. 10. But befides that the "floris odore necare," which are the words of Lucretius, agrees but ill with that tree, why fhould he fend us to Helicon for a tree that is very plentiful in Italy? Helicon is a hill in Bootia, not far from Parnaffus, which our tranflator here means by the learned hill: and they have both of them equal title to that appellation, be |