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that fhips defigned for navigating the feas ought to be of a different conftruction from those intended for rivers, they would make it their tudy to give fuch a form and folidity to fhips defigned for fea, as would enable them to refift the impetuofity of its waves. They would next endeavour to find out a method of guiding and directing them with eafe and fafety. Sculls and oars were the only inftruments that occurred to them for fome time. It must have been long before they thought of adding the helm. The ancients imagined, that it was the fins of fishes that firft fuggefted the idea of oars, and that the hint of the helm was taken from obferving how birds direct their flight by their tails. The fhape of fhips, excepting the fails, feems to me to be copied from that of fishes. What the fius and tails are to fishes, that the oars and helm are to fhips. But thefe are only conjectures more or lefs probable, and not worth examining to the bottom.

The action of the wind, whofe effects are fo fenfible and fo frequent, might foon fuggeft the ufe of fails. But the manner of adjusting and managing them was more difficult, and would not be fo foon difcovered. This, I am perfuaded, was the very laft part of the conftruction of fhips which was found out. I am confirmed in this opinion, by the practice of the favages and other rude nations, who make ufe only of oars, but have no fails. It would be the fame in the first ages. The firft navigators only coafted, and cautiously avoided lofing fight

of land.

In fuch circumstances, fails would have been inore dangerous than ufeful. It required the expérience of feveral ages to teach

navigators the art of employing the wind in the direction of fhips.

If we believe, however, the añcient traditions of the Egyptians, this art of ufing the wind by means of mafts and fails, was exceeding ancient. They gave the honour of this difcovery to Ifis. But over and above the little credit which is due to the greatest part of the hiftory of that princefs, we fhall fee by and by, that this discovery cannot be afcribed to the Egyptians.

Men must foon have endeavoured to find out fome method of ftopping fhips at fea, and keeping them firm at their moorings. They would at firft make ufe of various expe dients for this purpose, fuch as large ftones, hampers or facks full of fand or other heavy bodies. Thefe they fixed to ropes, and threw into the fea. Thefe methods would be fufficient in the firft ages, when the veffels they ufed were only fmall and light barks. But as navigation improved, and larger fhips were built, fome other machine became neceffary. We know not at what time, or by whom the anchor, that machine at once fo fimple and fo admirable, was invented. We find nothing certain on this fubject in ancient authors. Only they agree in placing this difcovery in ages greatly pofterior to those we are now examining. They afcribe this invention to feveral different perfons. I imagine the anchor, like feveral other machines, might be found out in many different countries, much about the fame time. It is certain, that the first anchors were not made of iron, but of stone,

or even of wood. These last were loaded with lead. We are told this by feveral writers, and amongit others by Diodorus. This author

relates,

relates, that the Phoenicians, in their first voyages into Spain, having amaffed more filver than their fhips could contain, took the lead from their anchors, and put filver in its place. We may obferve further, that the first anchors had only one flook. It was not till many ages after, that Anacharfis invented one with two.

All these different kinds of anchors are ftill in ufe in fome countries. The inhabitants of Iceland, and of Bander-Congo, ufe a large ftone, with a hole in the middle, and a stick thruft through it. In China, Japan, Siam, and the Manillas, they have only wooden anchors, to which they tie great ftones. In the kingdom of Calicut they are of ftone. The ignorance of the first ages, and of many nations to this day, of the art of working iron, has been the occafion of all thefe rude and clumsy contrivances.

Though the firft navigators coafted along the fhores, and took all poffible pains not to lofe fight of land, yet, in the very firft ages, they muft frequently have been driven off to fea by ftorms. The confufion and uncertainty they found themselves in when thefe accidents happened, would put them upon ftudying fome method of finding where they were in thefe circumftances. They would foon be fenfible, that the infpection of the heavenly bodies was the only thing that could afford them any direction. It was in this manner, prohably, that aftronomy came to be applied to navigation.

From the first moment men be gan to obferve the motion of the heavenly bodies, they would take

notice, that in that part of the hea vens where the fun never paffes, there are certain ftars which appear conftantly every night. It was ealy to difcover the pofition of these ftars in respect of our earth. They appear always on the left hand of the obfervator, whofe face is turned to the east. Navigators were foon fenfible that this difcovery might be of great advantage to them, as these stars conftantly pointed out the fame part of the world. When they happened to be driven from their courfe, they found, that, in order to recover it, they had only to direct their fhip in fuch a manner, as to bring her into her former pofition, with refpect to thofe stars which they faw regularly every night.

Antiquity gives the honour of this difcovery to the Phoenicians, a people equally induftrious and en terprifing. The Great Bear would probably be the firft guide which thefe ancient navigators made choice of. This conftellation is eafily diftinguished, both by the brightnefs and peculiar arrangement of the stars which compofe it. Being near the pole, it hardly ever fets, with refpect to those places which the Phoenicians frequented. We know not in what age navigators first began to obferve the northern ftars, for the direction of their courfe; but it must have been in very ancient times. The Great Bear is mentioned in the book of Job, who feems to have converfed much with merchants and navigators. The name by which that conftellation was known among the ancient inhabitants of Greece, and the tales which they related about its origin, prove that

it was obferved for the direction of navigators in very remote ages.

But the abfervation of the ftars. in the Great Bear was a very im

perfect and uncertain rule for the

The

direction of a thip's courfe. truth is, this conftellation points out the pole only in a very vague and confufed manner. Its head is not fufficiently near it, and its extremities are more than forty degrees diftant from it. This vaft extent occafions very different af pects, both at different hours of the night in the fame feafon of the year, and in the fame hour in different feasons. This variation would be confiderably increafed, when it came to be referred to the horizon, to which the courfe of navigators muft neceffarily be referred. They muft have made an allowance for this variation by guefs; which could not but occafion great miftakes and errors in thofe ages, when they were guided only by practice inftead of geometrical rules and tables, which were not invented till many ages after.

It must have been long before navigation arrived at any tolerable degree of perfection. There is no art or profeffion which requires fo much thought and knowledge. The art of failing is of all others the moft complicated; its moft common operation depends upon various branches in different fciences. It appears, however, that, even in the ages we are now examining, fome nations had made fome progrefs in maritime affairs. Thefe difcoveries can be ascribed to nothing, but that love to commerce with which these nations were animated, and their great ardour for the ad

vancement of it. VOL. XII.

Origin of the Cuftom of faluting those who freeze. From Dr. Nugent's Hiftory of France.

Tuting thofe who fneeze, is generally dated from the age of Brunehaut, and the pontificate of Gregory the Great. It is faid that in the time of that holy prelate there was fo contagious a malignity in the air, that those who unluckily happened to fneeze, expired directly. This made the religious pontiff enjoin the faithful certain prayers, accompanied with wishes, that they might be faved from the dangerous effects of the corruption of the air. This is a fable, invented contrary to all the rules of probability; it being certain, that this custom fubfifted from the moft remote antiquity, in all parts of the known world.

HE common practice of fa

We read in mythology, that the firft fign of life given by the man whom Prometheus formed, was fneezing. This pretended creator, as we are told, ftole part of the rays of the fun, and with them filled a phial, which he fealed her metically. He then returned with fpeed to his favourite work, and prefented to it his flafk open. The folar rays had loft nothing of their activity; they immediately infinuated themfelves into the pores of the ftatue, and made it fneeze. Prometheus, tranfported at the fuccefs of his machine, had recourse to prayer, and uttered wishes for the prefervation of that extraordinary being. His creature heard him he remembered the wishes, and took particular care, upon fimilar occafions, to apply them to his defcendants; who, from father to fon,

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have, to this day, preserved it in all their colonies.

The Rabbins, in fpeaking of this cuftom, do not give it the fame antiquity: they tell us, that after the creation, God made an univerfal law; the purport of which was, that every living man fhould fneeze but once; and that, at the fame inftant, he should render his foul to God, without any previous indifpofition. Jacob, whom this abrupt manner of quitting the world by no means fuited, and who defired to have it in his power to make his confcience eafy, and fettle his family affairs, humbled himfelf before the Lord, expoftulated with him once again, and prayed with the utmoft earneftnefs to be exempted from the general law. His prayers were heard, he fneezed, but did not die.. All the princes of the earth being informed of the fact, ordered, with one accord, that for the time to come, fneezing fhould be accompanied with thanksgiving, and wishes for the prolongation of life.

We may trace from thefe fictions, the origin of that tradition and hiftory, which place, long before the establishment of Chriftianity, the rife of this piece of civility, which is at laft become one of the duties of focial life. It was looked upon as very ancient in the time of Ariftotle, who did not know its origin, and has investigated the reafon of it in his problems. He maintains that the first men, prepoffeffed in favour of the head, as the chief feat of the foul, that intelligent fubftance, which governs and animates the whole mafs, have carried sheir refpect for it fo far, as to ho

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I

To M. COLOMIES.

SIR,

THANK you for communicat ing to me your ftudies. I have lately been informed by M. de la Motte le Vayer, that you have 'fent to the prefs fome pieces in which you mention me as your authority for what you advance, concerning the lofs fuftained in our days of what is wanting in the common editions of Livy's Roman Hiftory; I believe I told the ftory to you as I did to many others; I did not indeed fee the battledoors that were made of the skins, on which the loft Decades of that author were written; but I heard it from the mouth of a perfon of unqueftionable veracity, almoft forty years ago, who was then governor to the marquis de Rouvile. This gen tleman affured me, in the most fo. lemn manner, that being with his pupil at one of his eftates near Saumur, and having an inclina.

* Viz, Chriftina,

tion

tion to make him` exercife hirnfelf at Tennis, he ordered some battledoors to be bought for him at that city. On examining the parchment of thefe, he imagined that he faw upon the greater part of them the Latin titles of the eighth, tenth, and eleventh Decades of Livy, which made him ardently defirous of examining this matter to the bottom.

Having immediately gone to the fhop-keeper from whom the battledoors had been bought, he was told, that the apothecary of the abbey of Fontevraud having found, in the corner of a chamber in that abbey, a large pile of parchment MSS. and having read upon feveral of them, that they were the hiftory of Livy, he begged them of the abbefs, telling her, that as the book was already in print, they were of no value; but that the parchments might be of fome fervice to him. The abbefs readily granted his requeft; and he fold them to the fhop-keeper, who ordered a great number of battledoors to be made of them, whereof he fhewed the gentleman upwards of twelve dozens, befides those which he had already difpofed of, and fent to other places. The remaining ones bore, fome in one place, and fome in another, the fame titles and Latin words, which confirmed the fufpicions raised by the firft; namely, that they were the loft Decades of Livy's hiftory. I take pleasure, Sir, in confirming to you, by this detail, what I told you in general, upon this fubject; that you may not be accused of having, without reafon, named me as your authority; meanwhile, continue your labours, and oblige the public by your valuable productions,

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but they abound most under a feeble form of government, incapable of framing or executing falutary laws for fuppreffing them. It appears from a letter of Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, in the ninth century, that the highways were so much infested with banditti, that it became neceffary for travellers to form themfelves into companies or caravans, that they might be fafe from the affaults of robbers. The numerous regulations published by Charles the Bald, in the fame century, difcover the frequency of these diforders; and fuch acts of violence were become fo common, that by many they were hardly confidered as criminal; and for this reafon the inferior judges, called Centenarii, were required to take an oath, that they would neither commit any robbery themfelves, nor protect fuch as were guilty of that crime. The hiftorians of the ninth and tenth centuries give pathetic defcriptions of their outrages. They became fo frequent and audacious, that the authority of the civil magiftrate was unable to reprefs them. The ecclefiaftical jurifdiction was called in to aid it. Councils were held with great folemnity, the bodies of

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