34f3 On the Catoptrical and Dioptrical 



of a Jewish lady's toilet, as described in the third chapter 

 of Isaiah.) — 2. Pliny, lib. xxxiii. cap. 9. says: u Optima 

 (specula) apud majores Jiebant Brundusina, stanno et cere 

 mixtis. In the time of onr forefathers, excellent mirrors 

 were made at Brundusium, of a mixture of tin and copper." 

 The same writer has these words : " Specula quoque ex eo 

 (stanno) laudatissima, Brundusii temperabantur, donee ar- 

 gen'eis uti ccepere et ancillce. Highly praised mirrors were 

 manufactured at Brundusium, till the very maid-servants 

 be«;an to use silver ones." — 3. Seneca, in his Natural Ques- 

 tions, book i. ch. 17, and also in his 8Sth epistle, says, 

 that there were mirrors as lar^re as the human body *, and 

 that they were not thought suitable furniture for apartments 

 unless they were adorned with silver, and gold, and precious 

 stones ; so that one such mirror would cost a lauy more 

 than the national dowries formerly given to the daughters 

 , of great officers who had fallen in battle. — 4. Mnratori, in 

 his Thesaitr. Inscript. class 7. p. 521), has preserved this 

 inscription, which proves, that the mirror-makers were so 

 numerous as to form a corporate society : " M. Ogvlino 

 Feroci .... ./Editvo JEdis Concordia . . . Collegivm 



, . . . Spfculariorvm .... Patrono Optimo. DD 



Dedicated, by the Company of Mirror-makers, to their ex- 

 cellent Patron, Marcus Ogulinus Ferox, Warden of theTem- 

 ple of Concord." — 5. There are not many mirrors remaining, 

 either of the antient Romans, or of other nations. Yet 

 M. Cailas, in his Recueil d'Antiq. t. iii. p. 331, says, that 

 " there were sent him from Aries several antient Roman 

 mirrors, one of them four inches in diameter, which still 

 fits a case of the same metal, with the greatest exactness." 

 (The kind of metal is not mentioned.) 



II. "Glass Mirrors.— 1. The following words are 

 cited by Oleaster, from Rabbi Abraham : — W Mos erat om- 

 nium mulierum suam decorare faciem, et apt are tiaram, 

 singula mane, in speculis tends, aut viti-eis. It was the 

 custom of all the women, to adorn their face and to adjust 

 their head-dress, every morning, in brazen or glass mirrors." 

 Here Ahat adds, that he might cite many similar passages 

 from Andreas Placus, in his Lexicon Biblicon, and from 

 other authors. — 2. Anthony of Padua, who died in the year 

 1231, in a sermon, on the fifth Sunday after Easter, cites 

 St. James, ch. i. v. 23 : — " If any man be a hearer of the 

 word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his. 

 natural face in a glass," or mirror; and he adds, " Speculum 



* Sec § 83 of the last letter. 



nihil 



