OF CURIOS I TY. 167 



perlbn, think liis time thrown away ? Would 

 fuch a fpedator dcTci-ve to be let into fuch a 

 place ? 



I cannot help on this occafion -calling to 

 mind the manner, in which our prefident uied 

 fometimes to excite attention in his audience 

 by an apt fimilitude, when he was reading up- 

 on tJifdL^s to his pupils. The fimilitude or ra- 

 ther fable was as follows. ' Once upon a, time 

 ' the feven wife men of Greece were met toge- 



* ther at Athens, and it was propofed that every 

 ' one of them fliould mention what he thought 

 ' the greateft wonder in the creation. One of 



* them, of higher conceptions than the reft, 



* propofed the opinion of fome of the aftrono- 

 ' mers about the fixedftars, which they believed 



* to be fo many funs, that had each their pla- 

 ' nets roiling about them, and were ftored with 

 ' plants and animals like this ear:h. Fired with 

 ' this thought they agreed to fupplicatejupiter, 



* that he wotild at leaft permit them to take a 

 ' journey to the moon, and ftay there three days 

 ' in order to fee the wonders of that place, ai;d 



* give an account of them at their return. Ju- 

 ' piter confented, and ordered them to aflemble 

 ' on a high mountain, where there fhould be a 

 ^ cloud ready to convey them to the place they 



M 4 ' defired 



