88 



occasion he was in a clipper-built ship, when overtaken by 

 a hurricane. The captain was ignorant of the laws of rotary 

 storms, aud disregarded, for the time, the advice of a 

 landsman. Dangers thickened even in the calm which fol- 

 lowed the first stage of the tempest. The ship was suddenly 

 taken aback, and narrowly escaped being pooped : the stern- 

 way was such, that they passed their late wake at three miles 

 an hour. The captain now listened to the principles laid 

 down, and by following the directions for steering in such 

 cases, was soon in safety. 



Tenth Meeting — March 4, 1850. 



J. B. YATES, Esq., in the Chair. 



The President exhibited a copy of the Encyclopedia of 

 John Henry Alstedius, a Protestant Divine and professor at 

 Weissemburg, in Transylvania. He was the author of about 

 sixty works on different subjects, according to a list given by 

 himself in a preface to the third edition of the work above- 

 mentioned ; and he fairly earned the title of " Sedulitas'^ con- 

 ferred upon him (by anagram) in the following lines by an 

 anonymous author : — 



" Sedulus in libris scribendis atqiie legeudis 

 Alstediua nomen Sedulitatis habet." 



It will be seen that the word Sedtditas is composed of the 

 same letters as those which are found in the name Alstedius. 

 In the year 1610, he published the first edition of his 

 Encyclopedia. A second edition followed ; but it appeared 

 in a much more comprehensive form, A. D. 1630, in two 

 large folio volumes, wherein he professes to reduce into 

 system the several branches of art and science then known 



