ing alike facred to Apollo and the mufes. Of Helicon, fee more in the note on ver. 557. book iv. Ver. 788. Third example. To which we may add what Pliny fays, lib. vii. cap. 7. that it often caufes abortion in women. Our tranflator has omitted the fourth example, which Lucretius brings of an ointment made of the testicles of the beaver, which by its naufeous Imell, fays Pliny, makes women with child mifcarry: But Lucretius fays only, that it ftupifies women, and throws them afleep; and that if they smell the odour of it at the time when they have their monthly disease, it makes them let fall whatever they hold in their hands. This in the original runs thus: Caftoreoque gravi mulier fopita recumbit, are very offenfive and hurtful to man, are gers rated in the very bowels of the earth. Ver. 882. In these ten verfes, the poet bran the 9th and last example; and fays that the mis in which metals are dug, exhale fuch nos damps and vapours, as often kill the wretch who are condemned to that flavish drudgery Thus, from thefe veins of the earth, as wel from the other things above mentioned, breat forth poifonous and deadly exhalations. Ver. 806. It is obferved, that all metals han not the fame fiell. Gold, heated in the crucite is fweet: Silver not so pleasing: melted ba stinks: and the team of melted iron is intolerans Ver. 812. In these ten veríes, he concludes y way of fimilitude from the inftances above gr That in these places, which are called Averni, earth exhales virulent and deadly vapoure, a fends out noxious atoms, which kill the bir they are flying over those places. Ver, 822. In these nine verses, he adds anoth but ridiculous caufe, why the birds drop co dead into the Averni: As if the vapours, the hale from thence, change the air into vaca, " rather totally expel, and drive it away, fo that birds cannot bear themfelves up, nor fupport flight in a mere void. Ver. 793. In these three verfes he brings example fifth, of bathing: for, fays he, it is hurtful to continue long in a hot bath immediately after eating. The custom among the Romans was to bathe before fupper: but the riotous used to bathe themfelves alfo after fupper; and this they did to procure digeftion. See Pliny, lib. 29. However the phyfician in Perfius advises his paVer. 831. There are many things fo tient not to bathe after eating, that being a cuflently well accommodated to the use of mas? tom very pernicious to health: but the glutton- they are alone fufficient to evince a bountify ous youth, refufing to take his advice, paid dear gracious Provicence: Thus in fummer we for his obftinacy, if the effects of his bathing ter is cold, as if it were ordered fo on purp were truly fuch as they are defcribed by that poet, Sat. iii. ver. 30. in thefe verles: Turgidus hic epulis, atque albo ventre lavatur, Pana tamen præfens, cum tu deponis amictus moderate the heat of that season: and on the Ariftotle fays this is caused by an ftafis," i. e. "circumobfiftentia," a reciprocit and furrounding on all fides, by means of * where heat is, thence cold is expelled: ** cold, thence heat. And Cicero, after the c of the Stoics, explains it thus: " Omues partes Mundi, tangam autem maxinas, fulta fuftinentur: quod primum in terra a perfpici protest: nam & lapidum confiés, que tritu elici igem videmus: & recenti fe terram fumare calentem: atque etiam exp jugibus aquam calidam trahi, & id maxim bernis fieri temporibus, quòd magna vis, t cavernis, contineatur caloris; eaque hieme denfior: ob eamq. caufam calorem infitum in t ris contineat arctius," Lib. ii. de Nat. Dest Therefore, fays he, all the feveral parts world are fupported by heat: this is evide Ver. 800. In thefe two verfes, which contain from the nature of the earth itself: for, by fir example 8th, the poet obferves, that fulphur anding and rubbing of ftones, we urge out fire, all bituminous matter, whofe fteams and vapours new-dug ground exhales a warm imoke: be Ver. 796. Example 6th in two 'verfes, and example 7th in two verfes likewife, need no explication. e draw warm water out of our wells, and that o chiefly in winter: the reafon is, because much at is contained in the caverns of the earth; and e earth becomes more denfe and contracted in nter; and for that reafon keeps in the more fely its innate heat and fires. There are fome, wever, who controvert the truth of this matter, I affert it to be only a vulgar error, and not a d and certain' obfervation. But most are of a itrary opinion, and affign two causes of this eft: One of them they call privative; the other, itive: The first of them is, by reason of the arture of the heat, or hot bodies (for we are nitted to speak thus in the school of Epicurus, of Ariftotle too, who will not allow, that acats pafs from fubject to fubject), out of the h. That innate heat of the earth is occafioned fubterranean fires; and evaporates in fummer, acted by the ambient heat: for, according to obfervation of Hippocrates, like things refort ke, and naturally delight to be together. er. 841. But it may be objected, that though Divine Power be not in all fprings and wells, certainly visible in the fountain, that is at the ple of Jupiter Ammon, of which Curtius, lib. lect. 7. fays: " Ammonis nemus in medio cum vehementiffimus eft calor, frigida eadem inclinatio in vefperum, calefcit; media e fervida exæftuat: quoque propius nog verd lucem, multum ex nocturno calore decrefcit, e fub ipfum diei ortum affuoto tempore lancat:" In the midst of the grove of Ammon, is a fpring of water, called the Water of the at fun-rifing it flows out lukewarm, at when the heat is moft violent, it comes out cold in the evening it grows warm again; idnight it gushes out very hot; and as the I wears away, and the morning approaches, eat it had in the night decreafes, till about fual time, at break of day, it becomes again ly warm. This is confirmed by Pliny, lib. p. 103. by P. Mela, lib. i. cap. 8. in these ds: "Ammonis Oraculum fidei inclytæ; & ,quem folis appellant:-Fons media nocte et: mox & paulatim tepefcens, fit luce frigitum, ut fol furgit, ita frigidior: fubinde per idiem maximè rigit: funt deinde tepores ite; & prima nocte calidus: atque, ut illa prot, ita calidior : rúrfús, ut eft media, perfervet." may we omit the teftimony given by Ovid. tam, lib. xv. ver. 308. in these words: -Quid? non & lympha figuras que capitque novas? medio tua, corniger Ammon, da die gelida eft; ortuque, obituque calef cit. the cold of the night, squeezes down and tranfmits the feeds of fire into the water, which by that means grows warm; but the fame earth being loofened and fet at liberty by the heat of the day, receives, and, as it were, fwallows them in again: and thus the waters lofe much of the heat they had in the night. Befides, that very water, which becomes warm, because the cold and chilling night depreffes and keeps down the feeds of fire, grows cold again in the day; because the beams of the fun, darting into the water, and rarifying it, open a free paffage for those feeds to get out into the air: For the heat of the fun diffolves ice in such a manner, as to release and fet at liberty the flender ftalks of corn, and other things of like nature, which by the cold of the night, were detained and bound in icy fetThis is contained in twenty-eight verfes. Thus Lucretius affigns two caufes; but whether either of them be true or not, it is not worth while to inquire, fince the thing itself is a mere fiction: for none of our hiftorians or geographers, who defcribe fountains, pretend that they ever faw this. Yet we have pretty good authority for a fountain, that was difcovered not long ago in the woods, near Clermont in Auvergne whose waters freeze hard in the months of July and Auguft; but never in the winter. "Prope urbem Claramontem fons, nuper inventus, dicitur, La Cave de la glace: Qui fons certe mirabilis : nam ejus aqua, Julio, & Augufto menfibus, gelu vehementer aftringitur, minime vero hyeme," fays a certain eye-witness of it. ters. Ibid. Ammon.] Jupiter Ammon had an oracle that was in great renown with the Egyptians and Africans, and a temple in Lybia, to the east of the country of Cyrenaica, to the west of Egypt, and to the north of the Garamantes and Nafamones, in a moift and palm-bearing foil, though all the country round be moft dry and defert. The origin of this is variously reported: the most common opinion is, that Liber or Bacchus, after he had conquered all Afia, and was leading his army through the deferts of Lybia, was in danger of perishing, he and all his men with thirst : In this diftrefs a ram appeared to him, and with his horn fhowed him a fountain of water : now he fuppofed this ram to be his father Jupiter, and therefore erected a temple to him, and gave him a ram's head and horns. He called him Ammon from the fand, which in Greek is, йppos, or JápMos. But Plutarch," lib. de Ifide," feems to deny this name to be of Greek extraction, and fays it is derived from the Egyptian language: Whence fome believe that Ham or Cham, the fon of Noah, and who was the first that cultivated the land of Egypt, was worshipped under that name: others will have Ammon to be the fun; Macrob. likewife Potanus in Meteor. And Ammi8, lib. iii. But this too, fays Lucretius, is al-Saturnal. lib. i. cap. 21. "Ideo & Hammonem, ed in vain, and fignifies nothing: For though y are mistaken, that impute the cause of it to fun, who, as they pretend, when he is beneath earth, warms thofe waters through the body the whole earth thick as it is; yet the reafon y be, because the earth, being contracted by quem Deum folem occidentem Libyes exiftimant, arietinis cornibus fingunt, quibus maximè id animal valet, ficut fol radiis; nam & apud Græcoa rõ xapaxgios, apellatur." And, to strengthen this opinion, the Hebrew word "Hamma," fig. nifies the fun and heat: But whoever it was the was there worshipped under the name of Ammon, Alexander the Great, when he was in Egypt, went to this temple, and made the priests acknowledge him for the fon of their god. Ver. 847. In thefe eight verfes the poet confutes their opinion, who believed, that the water of the fountain of Ammon grew cold by day, and hot in the night, for the fole reafon of the departure, or acceffion of the sun: And this he proves to be impoffible by an argument, "a majori," as they call it. For, if the fun cannot warm the open and naked body of the water, when he shines upon it from above, much less can he impart his heat to the waters through the thick and close-compacted body of the earth: For the heat of the fun muft of neceffity pafs through the whole body of the earth to warm by night the waters of that fountain: And yet we fee that even our houses fhelter and protect us from the fierceft of his beams. Ver. 855. In these nine verses, he afcribes the firft caufe of the nocturnal heat, and diurnal cold of the waters of the fountain of Ammon to the feeds of fire or heat, that are in the earth about that fountain, and beneath the water: He explains this in the manner that follows: The earth, fays he, being compressed by the cold of the night, fqueezes out, and tranfmits into the water, thofe feeds of heat; by means of which the water grows hot: but, being loofened by the heat of the day, she receives again into her bowels those very fame feeds, and thus the water becomes cold. Ver. 864. In thefe five verfes, he refers the fecond cause to the heat of the fun as if it were poffible that the water, which in the night is made hot by the feeds of fire, could grow cold again in the day, by reafon of the beams of the fun penetrating into the fame water, and rarifying it in fuch a manner, as to open a free paffage into the air for those feeds of fire. Ver. 867. Here our tranflator had his eye upon Cowley; who fays, So the fun's am'rous play Ver. 869. In thefe twenty-five verfes, he mentions a spring, that will both extinguifh a lighted torch, if it be plunged into the water, and light it again, if it be moved gently to touch the furface of the water: The reafon of which, fays he, is, because there are in that water, or in, the earth under it, many feeds of fire, which, breaking out of the water, stick to the tow, or torch newly extinguished, and fet fire to them again. Nor is it more incredible, that feeds of fire should force their way out of water, than that a spring of fresh water fhould rife up in the middle of the fea : And we every day fee candles, torches, &c. that are but just put out, kindle again, even before they come to touch the fire towards which they are moved. Lucretius mentions neither the name nor place of this miraculous fpring: but having fhown that there is nothing wonderful or divine in the fpring of Jupiter Ammon, he here attacks the founts a Jupiter of Dodona: for he never gives any cu ter to that god. Now, not far from Dodora city of Epirus, there was a grove of oaks f to Jupiter, where the oaks are faid to have nounced oracles; though others fay the a-fmwere given by two doves fitting on thefe and one of which flew away to the templeApollo at Delphi, the other to that of Ju Ammon, where they continued their old tra fortune-telling. Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 103, fays Dodone Jovis autem Fons, cum fit gelidus, & merfas faces extinguat, fi extinctæ admovea accendit." And Gaffendus, on the tenth book Laërtius, page 157, fays, that not far from Sn noble, there is an ardent fountain, that wil fire, if it be touched with a lighted torch, continue burning for more than a few days. P. lib. xxxi. cap. 2, fays, that there is a founta India, called Lycos, whofe water will lig candle; and he reports the fame thing of an at Echbatan, which Solinus confirms to be And fince we are on this fubject of word fountains, we will mention fome of the ma corded by the ancients, and whose effects, i = are indeed miraculous. There is a fountain i Island Cea, that perfectly stupifies thofe tha of its waters: Plin. lib. xxxi. cap. 2. As near Clitor in Arcadia, whofe water c loathing of wine: Plin. Loc. citat. And Metam. xv. ver. 322. Clitorio quicunque fitim de fonte levärit, Vina fugit; gaudetque meris abftemius unda On the contrary, the water of Lynceftis in Ma donia inebriates, fays the fame poet, ver. 329. Huic fluit effectu difpar Lynceftius amri, Quem quicunque parùm moderato guttun Haud aliter titubat, quam fi mera vina bible. And Plin. lib. i. cap. 103, reports from M that there is a fountain in the land A whofe waters have the taste of wine, and ineh." likewife. The river Athamas in Phthia ki...” wood, if it be thrown in, in the wate moon: Ovid. Metam. xv. ver. 311. Admotis Athamanis aquis accendere lignum Narratur, minimos cum Luna receflit in orbes. A river at Coloffa turns wood into firm Plin. lib. xxxi. cap. 2. And Ovid says, the C nians, have a river that petrifies the bowed thofe that drink of it: and brings a ftony b nefs on all things that touch the waters. Flumen habent Cicones, quod potum fases re But Pliny fays only, that a ftony bark g over wood, thrown into this river; and tha lake Velinus, now Lago di Pie di Luca, the riva Silarus and Surius turn wood or leaves into m Nat. Hift. lib. ii. cap. 103. A fountain at perene in Lydia turns earth that is moifer 671 ports the like of the rivers Lycus and Erafinus; the first in Lydia, the other in Arcadia; which is likewise confirmed by Ovid. Metam. lib. xv. ver, 273. Sic ubi terreno Lycus eft epotus hiatu, Thus Erafinus dives, and, blind in earth, But far from thence knocks at another door: Dryden. with its waters into ftone, Pliny, lib. xxxi. cap. 2. There are two fountains at Orchomenus in Eubora; the water of one of them confers memory: that of the other caufes forgetfulness, Plin. loco sitat. Mutianus witneffes, that there is one at Cyzicus, which delivers from the uneafy paffion f love. A pool at Samofata breeds a fort of flime, hat burns when put into water, and is extinguifhd with earth. Plin. lib. ii. cap. 104. Whatever thrown into the lake Sides, or Sideris in India, ftantly finks to the bottom. Idem, lib. xxxi. cap. The waters of a fountain at Zama in Africa, nder the voice harmonious, Idem, lib. xxxi. cap. There is a lake at Troglodyte, the water of hich grows bitter, and then again fweet, three mes every day, and as often every night. Plin. b. xxxi. cap. 2. And many other wonderful ftoes are related of other rivers and waters; but I ay not omit to mention what many now living ve experimented, and know to be true. There e two baths or fountains at Baia, not far from ples, into one of which, when a dog is thrown, is immediately deprived of fenfe, and feems to dead; but, thrown into the other, he comes to mfelf, and revives in as little time. And from ence the place is called Grotto del Cane. Ver. 877. In thefe seventeen verfes, Lucretius ues, that the reason why the water of this ntain kindles tow, &c. may be this: Thofe Is of fire, rifing up to the furface of the water, In the three first of these verses, the poet tells y there be condensed, and gathered together in us, he is going to dispute of the virtue or power ha manner, as to kindle any combuftibles, that of the loadftone; which, though Lucretius acapt to take fire, if they be advanced to them. knowledge but one, is known nevertheless to have as too fountains of fresh water bubble up in the a twofold power, or two different virtues, which ft of the fea; and as thofe feeds of fresh wa- are thus distinguished: 1. The power, by which rifing up, join into one body, and flow in a it attracts the fteeb to itself. II. The power, by am of fresh water; fo too these feeds of fire, which it directs both itself and the steel towards g up, and combining into one, may easily the poles of the world. The first of these is callite a flame. Thus a candle, newly extinguished its attractive power, the second, its directive. if put to a burning taper, or to fire, catches in, and is lighted even before it touch the me. Ver. 879. Thus Alpheus, a river of Peloponne- -Alpheum fama eft huc, Elidis amnem, Ver. 894. The following 156 verses, contain a difputation concerning the loadstone. And here too, fays Creech, the drift of the poet is the fame as in all his other difputations; which has not been hitherto obferved. For Hercules is faid to have found out this ftone; and no doubt his godfhip is well-pleased that men fhould hold themfelves obliged to him for fo great a benefit; and that the virtues of that ftone are afcribed to him. Jupiter has already loft his fountains, and why should the poet give quarter to the fon, fince he never would fpare the father? As to the first of them, though it may feem a very hard paradox, nay, even an abfurdity, to affert, that attraction is unjustly afcribed to the loadftone, and that we speak not properly, when we fay, that it draws and attracts iron, yet we should not want great authority, nor even experiment itfelf, to confirm this affertion. For, in the first place, Renatus Des Cartes, in his principles of philofophy, has these express words: "Præterea magnes trahit ferrum, five potius magnes et ferrum ad invicem accedunt; neque enim ulla ibi tractio eft." This too is folemnly determined by Cabius: Nec magnes," fays he, "trahit propriè ferrum, nec ferrum ad fe magnetem provocat; fed ambo pari conatu ad invicem confluunt." And with thefe authors agrees the affertion of fia, and who, in his tract of Magnetical Bodies, deDoctor Ridley, phyfician to the emperor of Ruffines magnetical attraction to be a natural incitation and difpofition, conforming to contiguity; and not a violent and forcible attraction, and haulor a union of one magnetical body with another, ing of the weaker body to the ftronger. And this is likewife the doctrine of Gilbertus, who terms this motion a coition, which, fays he, is not made by any attractive faculty, either of the loadstone, or the iron, but by a fyndrome, or concourfe of both of them: a coition always of their vigours, and of their bodies likewise, if not obftructed by their bulk, or fome other impediment; and therefore those contrary actions, which flow from oppofite poles or faces, are not fo properly expulfion and attraction, as fequela et fuga," a mutual following of, and flight from, each other. Moreover, the foregoing opinions are confirmed by feveral experiments: For, I. If a piece of iron be fastened to the side of a bowl, or bason of is a word of Saxon extraction; but the Frem Pronuba fit natura Deis, ferrumque maritat Flagrat anhela filex, et amicam faucia fentit Now Lucretius, the better to explain the tractive virtue of this ftone, premifes four head. er chief pofitions, which, though he has per them already, yet, because of the great diffic of the task he is now going to undertake," thinks fit to inculcate here again. I. That cer corpufcles are continually flowing out of all the in twenty-fix verses. II. That no concrete ba is fo folid, as not to contain fome empty water, a loadstone, fwimming freely in a boat of cork, will presently make to it. II. If a fteel, or knife, untouched, be offered towards a needle that is touched, the needle moves nimbly towards it, and ftrives to unite to the steel, that remains without motion. III. If a loadftone be filed very fine, the powder, or duft of it, will adhere and cleave to iron that was never touched, in like manner, as the powder of iron does likewife to the loadftone. And, IV. Laftly, if a loadstone and fteel be placed in two fkiffs, or fmall boats made of cork, and within the orbs of their activities, neither of them will move, while the other stands ftill; but both of them, if I may use the expref-fpaces, in twenty-three verfes. III. That the fion, hoift fail, and steer to each other; infomuch, that if the loadstone attract, the steel too has its attraction; because, in this action, the alliciency is reciprocal, and, being jointly felt, is the reafon, that they mutually approach, and run into each others arms. Thus, therefore, upon the whole matter, more moderate expreffions than are often ufed, would more fuitably exprefs this action; which, nevertheless, fome of the ancients have delivered in the moft violent terms of their language. Thus St. Auftin calls the loadftone, " mirabilem ferri raptorem ;" and Hippocrates, aitos OTI Tòv cídngov ågráğa" Lapis, qui ferrum rapit:" Galen, difputing against Epicurus, ufes the term, iazev, which feems likewife too violent. Ariftotle alone among the ancients speaks more warily, and calls it, aídos ösis ròv oidngov xiva, the flone that moves the iron, and him, Aquinas, Scaliger, Cufanus, and others have followed. I return now to Lucretius, and must first obferve, that our tranflator has omitted the third and fourth verfes of this argument, in which the poet explains how this ftone came to be called the magnet: Thefe verfes run thus in the original: Quem magneta vocant patrio de nomine Graii; Magnetum quia fit patriis in finibus ortus. pufcles, that are emitted from things, do mtą- i. e. which ftone the Greeks call the Magnet, from the name of the country; because it is produced and found in the country, inhabited by the Mag-made by corpufcles that flow from the mag netes. This country is a region of Lydia, and called Magnesia, whence the inhabitants had their name. Ariftotle, by way of excellence, calls it barely, aides, the ftone: Some," Herculeus lapis," either because Hercules firft difcovered it; or from the city Heraclea, where it is faid to be found: or, laftly, from its great ftrength, or wonderful power. The Italians call it " pietra d'ainante," the loving ftone: the name of the load Bone, by which it is commonly known among us, and into which all bodies, that otherwife tend Ver. 897. In these fix verfes, he takes norit the firft power and virtue of the loadstone, fays, that it draws five, or more iron rings, |