racy of obfervation, or, what is more probable, the want of care and fidelity in the Hiftorians through whofe hands this account hath passed.

From the whole of this obfcure relation however, I think, we may gather thus much; that it contains three diftinct facts. -the Fall of the Stone into the Egofpotamos-the appearance of a Comet-and fome Prediction or other, whatever it was, of Anaxagoras. That thefe three facts have hitherto been all along confounded together-and that this confufion may, in a good measure at least, be ascribed to their happening nearly at the fame time.

As to the Fall of the Stone, we fee, it is confidered by Damachus himself, as diftinct from what he calls the flame-coloured Cloud, and will give but little trouble in accounting for it: when he fays," that the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, as foon as they recovered from their fright, came together to the place where this Stone fell, but difcovered no figns of Fire:" he muft mean, I fuppofe, immediately; or that they found no vifible Fire burning. For, upon examination, the Stone, if Pliny fays true, was Colore adufto.

The Egofpotamos was a river in, what was called by the antients, the Thracian Cherfonefus, being joined to the Continent only by a small neck of land. The country is rocky and mountainous, as we learn from both Herodotus* and Strabot. This Stone, therefore, might be thrown off from fome neighbouring hill into the river, by fome violent explofion, like that by which another ftone was thrown from the Alps, in the time of Gaffendus, and then kept, as he says, at Aix in Provence‡.

In this, therefore, there is nothing miraculous, as will be readily allowed by fuch as are in the leaft acquainted with chymical experiments. For chymical experiments are nothing more than an artificial combination and mixture of fubftances, and in

Page 254. Edit. Gronov.

+ Lib. vii. page 474.

Pauca adjiciam de lapide quodam infigni, qui Aquis Sextus affer vatur in Borilliano Cimeliarchio, quando & fulmineus habetur, & hoc nomine admodum percrebuit. Annus fuit M.DC XXXVII. ac Dies Novembris XXIX, cum fub matutinam Horam X. ille decidit in montem Vaffonem, Aipium maritimarum unum, ac inter Gulielmos & Pedonem oppida fitum. Erant tunc omnia Nive obdu&ta; erat ferenithmum Cœlum, duoque fuerunt præfertim viri, unus Internuncius, alter in Pago montano degens, qui effe potuerint oculati Teftes.-Deprehenfus eft Lapis qui deciderat, quique effoffus vifus eft vitulino Capiti par, fed nonnihil rotundior, & magis ad formam Capitis humani accedens, Colar metallicus, fubfufcus; exquifita durities, pondus vulgarium Lapidum gravitatem exfuperans. Gaffend. Op. Tom. ii pag 96.

fuch

fuch a manner as is frequently, though imperceptibly, done by Nature herself. And as like caufes will always produce like effects, we may fairly pronounce of the hidden operations of the one, from what we fee daily performed by the other.

Heat, for inftance, is the fame whether natural or artificial, and will, under certain circumftances, produce Fermentation. That again may, and frequently doth, produce a strong elaftic vapour, which, if confined, will force a paffage whereever it can, and carry along with it every thing that oppofeth it. The effects of gunpowder are known to every one: The chief ingredients in it are Sulphur and Nitre. But Sulphur, when powdered, and added to an equal quantity of filings of iron, and with a little water made into a paste, in five or fix hours grows too hot to be touched, and emits a flame *.

There is a natural fulphur abounding in many places † ; and iron, it is well known, is almost every where to be met with. It is found even in all parts of animals, whether fluids or folids, as milk, urine, blood, fat, bones, flefh. Moft countries of Europe produce mines of it, as England, France, Germany, Poland, Norway, &c. That it contains in itself great quanties of fulphur, appears from the sparks it emits, when ignited, and beat by the Smith's hammer; thofe fparks being owing to the fulphur it contains, as no fuch thing is obfervable in any other metal whatever.

The Weight of the Stone then mentioned by Gaffendus, plainly fhews, that it contained a large quantity of metal; and the Colore adufto, in that of Pliny, befpeaks it to have lain, at leaft, in a fulphureous matrix. If therefore the fnow melting upon the Alps, or any hill near the Egofpotamos, found its way to a mixture of iron and furphur, as is not impoffible, upon the principles here laid down, it would have been capable of throwing off a piece of rock as large as either of thofe mentioned by Gaffendus, or Pliny |.

But though what hath been here faid, very eafily and natu rally accounts for the Fall of the Stone, yet that no skill, whether natural or acquired, could foretel fuch an event, is too plain to need any proof.'

In order to fhew that it could be no other than a Solar Eclipfe which Anaxagoras foretold, inftead of the Fall of a Stone, our Author now proceeds to give a particular account of the feveral

Newton's Optic. pag. 354. Boerhaave's Chymift. vol. I. pag. 114. vol. I. p. 95.

Newton. Optic. p. 354

8

+ Newton's Optic pag 359. Boerhaave. Chymit.

Ecliples

Eclipfes which happened about this time; and he gives the moft fatisfactory reasons for fixing upon that which happened in February, in the year before Chrift 478, as the very phenomenon in queftion; concluding alfo, that it was not a Flame-coloured Cloud which Anaxagoras faw, but the Comet which appeared at the time when the battle was fought at Salamis, the date of which he ventures to correct by the time of this appear. ance; for his opinion, the refult of this curious aftronomical. Enquiry, is, that inftead of Olymp. LXXVII. 2. as it is read in Pliny at prefent, it fhould be altered to Olymp. LXXXII. 2.

Leaving the particulars of this ingenious investigation to fuch of our Readers as are fond of aftronomical calculations and chro nological criticisms, and referring them to our Author's performance at large, we fhall proceed to the conclufion of the whole; only observing by the way, that in regard to thofe who may object against this Eclipfe of 478, that it was only annular where greateft, and therefore will not agree with the defcription given by Herodotus. To this it may be answered, fays he, that the History of this fact is delivered by Herodotus, not as a Philofopher, but an Hiftorian*. That therefore the words as dark as night are not to be too ftrictly urged, as implying abfolute darknefs, it being no ways uncommon, in popular language, to make ufe of that expreffion for any great and extraordinary darkness. Add to this, that Herodotus delivers this fact, not as happening within the compass of his own knowlege and obfervation, but as he had heard it related by others; for he could not have been above fix years old at the tine, according to what hath been above quoted from Aulus Gellius. And this, we know, is a feafon of life, when children make but few reflections, and when all appearances are magnified. The horror and confternation they were all in upon the occafion, he might well remember, and the tragical death of Pytheas's fon, must have been frequent matter of discourse among his Ionians. But he knew nothing of the doctrine of Eclipfes, as is evident from his fpeaking of the fun, as leaving his place in the heavens and disappearing.

It is certain, however, from this account, that the army loft fight of the fun, but that might be owing to fome other additional caufe befides the interpofition of the moon's body.

For notwithstanding what Herodotus fays, that there were no clouds, and that the air was very clear, he must not be underflood, perhaps, in too ftrict a manner. The month of Fe

How poor a Philofopher and Aftronomer Herodotus was, appears from his manner of accounting for the overflowing of the Nile. REV. Jan. 1765.

D

bruary

bruary is moist, and the air might be full of vapours, though not carried high enough, nor fufficiently condensed, to form clouds.

It is neither impoffible, therefore, nor improbable, that at the time of this Eclipfe at Sardis, the watery vapours,, thus floating in the atmosphere, might condenfe by degrees, as the fun's light and heat decayed. By this means, towards the middle of the Eclipfe, they might form themselves into a thick mist, which would entirely hide the fun, increase the darkness, and confequently the fears and astonishment of an ignorant and superstitious army.

Proceeding to his general conclufion,. I have now, fays our Author, finished a very long and troublesome enquiry. My defign at firft was nothing more than to fee, if poffible, what 'there was remarkable in the Falling of a Stone into a River, and why the antients fhould be fo careful to tranfmit down to us a fact of fo feemingly fmall importance.

But the circumftances faid to have attended its Fall-its being predicted by the ablest Philofopher of that age-and at a period fo remarkable in hiftory,-all fuggefted, that there must be some mistake at the bottom, and that there must be fomething more in the flory than appeared at firft fight. This infenfibly led me farther than I expected, or intended.

The refult, however, I think, is plainly this. That Xerxes. moft probably came into Europe in the year before Chrift 478; two years later than Chronologers have generally fuppofed him to have done, and that the Olympiads, of courfe, began two years later than they have hitherto been placed..

If what hath been here laid together, fhall at all contribute to the fixing or illuftrating this part of Hiftory, I fhall think my time and pains not ill beftowed. A few remarkable periods in Hiftory, properly determined, are of great fervice in Chronology, and this is as remarkable as any. It is about this time only that the fabulous Hiftory of the Greeks ends, and their true one

commences.?

With refpect to that memorable expedition under confideration, he obferves, that it was of great importance both in itfelf, and as to the confequences attending it. If it did not lay the foundation of, it certainly increased, the mutual jealousy and animofity of the two powerful States at Athens and Sparta,. which broke out at laft in the long and ruinous Peloponnefian War. This likewife was made afterwards one of the main pretences for Alexander's invading the Perfians, which, at the

fame

fame time that it ended with the deftruction of that extenfive empire, opened the way to all our knowlege of the Eaft.'

We have taken the liberty to mention the name of Mr. Coftard, altho' it is not inferted in the title-page of this performance; but we find it subscribed to his addrefs thereof, to the Earl of Northington, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Vicar of Twickenham.

Letters between Colonel Robert Hammond, Governor of the Ife of Wight, and the Committee of Lords and Commons at Derby-Houfe, General Fairfax, Lieutenant General Cromwell, Commissary General Ireton, &c. Relating to King Charles I. while he was confined in Carifbrooke-Caftle in that Iland. Now firft Published. To which is prefixed, a Letter from John Ashburnham, Efq; to a Friend, concerning his Deportment towards the King, in his Attendance on his Majefty at Hampton-Court, and in the Ifle of Wight. 8vo. 2s. Horsfield.

HOUGH these Letters do not afford any new or striking

Tanecdotes, to gratify our hiftorical Readers, yet they tend

to illuftrate and explain the policy of Cromwell, and more particularly to fhew his dextrous and fuccefsful management of that ́ myfterious part of the arcana of State, implied under the general head of Secret fervice money. In the course of these Letters it appears, there was not a step taken by the King, or by any of his Agents, toward his efcape from the ifle of Wight, but the Committee of Derby-Houfe came to the immediate knowlege of every circumftance; and communicated them, with proper inftructions, to Colonel Hammond. By thefe Letters we are likewife made more fully acquainted with the Colonel's wavering and time-ferving conduct, and with his Majefty's precipitate and ill-judged refolutions. As to the circumftances requifite to affure us of their authenticity, they are mentioned in the Preface.

The motives which induced King Charles to retire to the ile of Wight, are contained in a Letter re-printed and prefixed to this Collection, from Mr. Afhburnham to a friend, vindicating himself from the afperfions caft on him, of having betrayed his Majefty into that measure, the confequences of which are fo well known. In this Letter we find, that the King was induced to intruft himself with Colonel Hammond, from his Anfwer to the Deputation his Majefty fent him, previous to his own coming, and which was as follows: That, fince it appeared his Majefty came from Hampton-Court to fave his life, if he pleafed