Chap. 60.] THE EAINBOW. 89 



time, a stone would Ml from the sun^ And tlie tiling ac- 

 cordingly happened, in the daytime, in a part of Thrace, at 

 the river ^gos. The stone is now to be seen, a waggon- 

 load in size and of a burnt appearance ; there was also a 

 comet shining in the night at that time'. But to believe 

 that tliis had been predicted would be to admit that the di- 

 vining powers of Anaxagoras were still more wonderful, and 

 that our knowledge of the nature of things, and indeed every 

 thing else, would be thrown into confusion, were we to sup- 

 pose either that the sun is itself composed of stone, or that 

 there was even a stone in it ; yet there can be no doubt that 

 stones have frequently fallen from the atmosphere. There 

 is a stone, a small one indeed, at this time, in the Grymna- 

 sium of Abydos, which on this account is held in veneration, 

 and which the same Anaxagoras predicted would fall in the 

 middle of the earth. There is another at Cassandria, formerly 

 called Potidsea^, which from this circumstance was built in 

 that place. I have myself seen one in the country of the 

 Yocontii'*, which had been brought from the fields only a 

 short time before. 



CHAP. 60. (59.) THE RAINBOW. 



"What we name Eainbows frequently occur, and are not 

 considered either wonderful or ominous ; for they do not 

 predict, with certainty, either rain or fair weather. It is 

 obvious, that the rays of the sun, being projected upon a 

 hollow cloud, the light is thrown back to the sun and is re- 



^ There is some variation in the exact date assigned by diflferent authors 

 to this event ; in the Chronological table in Brewster's Encyc. vi. 420, it 

 is said to have occurred 467 B.C. 



2 Aristotle gives us a similar accoimt of this stone ; that it feU in the 

 daytime, and that a comet was then visible at night ; Meteor, i. 7. It is 

 scarcely necessary to remark, that the authority for this fact must be re- 

 ferred entirely to Ai'istotle, without receiving any adchtional weight from 

 our author. The occurrence of the comet at the same time with the 

 aerohte must have been entirely incidental. 



3 " Dcductis eo sacri lapidis causa colonis, extructoque oppido, cui 

 nomen a colore adusto lapidis, est inditum, Potidrea. Est onim ttotl 

 Dorice Trpds, ad, apud ; caiofiai^ uror." Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 361. 

 It was situated in the peninsula of Pallcne, in Macedonia. 



* The Vocontii were a people of GaUia Narbonensis, occupying a por- 

 tion of the modem Dauphine. 



