their speed, and their easiness in tacking about, was still more admirable than their enormous bulk. All this was the invention of that prince, who had a wonderful genius for arts, and found out abundance of things unknown to the architects. These ships were the admiration of mankind in his age, who could not have believed this had been possible, if they had not seen it.

I have made these remarks, to shew how important it is, in reading the Greek and Latin authors, to be very careful to observe exactly whatever relates to the building of vessels, their forms and different kinds, and to the different alterations that have happened in sea affairs, with reference to navigation, in the descriptions they give us of fleets and engagements at sea.

I must however advertise the youth in general, that there are certain wonderful facts related by the ancients, of which they would do well to suspend their belief a while, till they have been more carefully examined. [«] Pliny says, that in the time of Tiberius, they had found out the secret of making glass mallea, ble, but this invention was entirely stifled for fear it should lessen the price and value of gold, silver, and all sorts of metals. [b] Dion tells us of a workinan, who designedly letting a glass vessel, which he offered to Tiberius, fall to the ground, presently gathered up the pieces, and after he had handled them a little, shewed the vessel whole and without a fracture. Other authors after Pliny have related the same fact; and yet the learned declare, that this pretended inalleability of glass is a mere chimera, absolutely rejected by sound physics. And Pliny himself, owns, that what was said of it was grounded inore on report, than any certain foundation.

I question whether more credit is due to what the same [c] Pliny relates of a small fish, called by the Greeks Echeneis, and by the Latins Remora, which fastening itself in the rudder of the galley that cried the emperor Caligula, stopt its course in such manuer,

[a] Lib. xxxvi. cap. 6. [6] Lib. lvii. p. 617. [c] Lib. xxxi. c. 1.

that four hundred rowers were unable to remove it one way or other,

II. HONOURS PAID TO LEARNED MEN.

There are many things proper to be observed in ancient history, concerning the honours paid to such as have been inventors of arts, or have carried them to perfection, or in general to the learned of the first rank, who have been distinguished in a particular manner. But my design does not admit me to dwell long upon this subject, affecting as it is to us..

[d] One cannot read the letter, which Philip king of Macedon wrote to Aristotle, without admiring to find, that it was a greater satisfaction to this prince to have. the first philosopher of his age, and the most learned man the world ever produced, for a tutor to his son, than it was to have been his father.

The singular value that Alexander the Great had for the poems of Homer, and the respect he paid to the memory of Pindar, when he stormed the city of Thebes, have gained him no less reputation than all his conquests; and we almost as much admire him, when, dismissing the pomp of royalty, he chuses to discourse familiarly with the famous painters and sculptors of his time, as when, marching at the head of his army, he spreads an universal terror.

The glorious protection which Mæcenas gave men of letters, employing all the interest he had with his prince in doing them service, has rendered his name immortal, and acquired the age of Augustus the glory of being always regarded as the golden age of literature, and the rule of good taste in every kind of learn. ing.

[e] When we read that the king of Spain and cardinal Ximenes, going one day to a public act, which was held in the new university of Alcala, insisted upon the rector's walking between them, (a preroga tive which that university has ever since preserved) it [d] Aul. Gel. lib. ix. c. 3. [e] Hist. de Ximen, par M. Fléchier, liv. vi,

is plain that this public homage was not paid to the person of the rector, but that a great king and a great minister intended by this means to inspire a taste for learning and the sciences, which always return the glory with usury which they receive from princes.

The singular privileges, which our kings formerly granted to the university of Paris, the mother and model of all others, arose from the same principle; and the reputation which it has acquired to itself and the kingdom, throughout the whole Christian world, shews, that the kings, who have been our founders, have not been mistaken in their views, and that all their expectations have been more than fulfilled. And thus it will be in all ages. Arts and sciences will always flourish in the states where they are honoured; and in return, they will reflect infinite honour upont the states and princes, who give them encouragement, I cannot here avoid inserting a fact which lately happened, and almost within our own view; a fact which deserves to be celebrated in all languages, and inscribed in shining characters in all records of literaturé. It is what passed in England at the interment of the famous Sir Isaac Newton, the Archimedes of our age, both for the sublimity of his reasonings in theory, and the force of his industrious and inventive genius int practice. I shall only transcribe what is said upon this subject, in the beautiful panegyric made upon him by M. de Fontenelle, with his usual eloquence, at the opening of the academy of sciences in the year 1727.

"His body was exposed upon a bed of state in the "Jerusalem chamber, a place from whence persons of "the highest rank, and sometimes crowned heads, "are carried to their graves. He was conveyed thence "into Westminster Abbey, the pall being supported "by my Lord Chancellor, the Dukes of Montrose and

Roxburgh, and the Earls of Pembroke, Sussex, "and Macclesfield. These six English peers, who discharged this solemu office, give room to judge, "what a number of persons of distiction must have "made up the funeral pomp. The Bishop of Roches

"ter read the service, attended by the whole clergy of "the church. The body was interred near the en"trance into the choir. We must go back to the an"cient Greeks, if we should find examples of a like "veneration paid to learning. Sir Isaac Newton's family copies still nearer the example of Greece, by "a monument they are about to erect for him, which "will cost a considerable sum. The Dean and Chap"ter of Westminster have allowed it to be raised in a part of the Abbey which has often been refused to "noblemen of the first rank. No country or family, though he had chosen them, could have expressed "more gratitude to his memory."

I have no need to ask pardon for this digression. Whoever has the least regard for the public good, and the honour of learning, cannot but be very much affected with this kind of solemn homage, which the nobility of a powerful kingdom, as it were in the name of the whole nation, pays to learning and merit. III. OF THE MEASURES OF TIME AND PLACE,

AND OF ANCIENT COINS.

I add this article, not with a design to enter into the discussion of these points, which are generally very difficult, but to give youth a slight knowledge of them, and to lay before them a table of the different sums, which often occur in authors, and which of themselves. do not present to the mind any clear idea of their value. The elder [f] Pliny says, that Roscius, the most famous actor of his time, gained five hundred thousand sestertia a year. Apud majores Roscius histrio H. S. quingenta annua meritasse proditur. We read in [g] Paterculus, that Paulus Æmilius brought two hundred millions of sestertia into the public treasury, Bis millies centies H. S. ærario contulit. Youth do not expressly know the value of these sums. The table informs them at one cast of their eye, that the first sum amounts to six hundred and twenty-five thousand livres, and the second to twenty-five mil lions of our money.

[] Lib. vii. cap. 39.

1. Measures of Time.

The Greeks reckoned by Olympiads, every one of which contains the space of four whole years. These Olympiads took their name from the Olympic games, which were celebrated in Peloponnesus, near the city of Pisa, otherwise called Olympia. The first Olympiad, in which Chorebus carried the prize, begun, according to Usher, in the summer of the year of the world S228.

According to the same Usher, Rome was built a little before the beginning of the eighth Olympiad, in the year of the world 3256, at the time that the great empire of the Assyrians was destroyed by the death of their last king Sardanapalus, when Joatham reigned at Jerusalem, and consequently in the days of Isaiah. From the foundation of Rome to the battle of Actium, are reckoned seven hundred and twentythree years.

2. Measures of Roads.

A point is the smallest part than can be described.
Twelve points make a line.

Twelve lines make an inch.

Twelve inches make a foot.

Two feet and a half make the common pace.

Two common paces, or five feet, make the geometrical pace.

This being supposed, the most noted itinerary measure stands thus.

The stadium was peculiar to the Greeks, and consisted of a hundred and twenty-five geometrical paces; and consequently twenty of them must go to a com mon French league, which consists of two thousand five hundred paces.

The mile, among the Romans, consisted of eight stadia, or a thousand geometrical paces; somewhat less than half a league.

The league of the ancient Gauls is one thousand five hundred paces.

The