378 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



After having difclofed to them the ufe of an \nr 

 finity of benefits, which Nature has placed on the 

 face of the Earth, obvious to. the eye of Man, wc 

 aided them in difccJvering thofe which (he has de- 

 pofited under their feet ; how water may be found 

 in places the moft remote from rivers, by means of 

 wells invented by Danàus ; in what manner metals 

 are difcovered, though buried in the bowels of the 

 Earth; how, after having them melted into bars,^ 

 they could be hammered upon the anvil, to pre- 

 pare them for being divided into tablets and 

 plates; in what manner, by a procefs the moft 

 fimple, clay may be fafhioned, on the potter's 

 wheel, into figures and vafes of every form, Wc 

 furprized them much more, by (hewing them bot- 

 tles of glafs, made with fand and flint. They were 

 delighted to extafy, to fee the liquor which they 

 contained manifeft to the eye, but fecured from, 

 the touch. 



But when we read to them the books of Mercur 

 rhis Trifmegijlus, which treat of the liberal Arts, 

 and of the natural Sciences, then it was that their 

 admiration exceeded all bounds. At firft they were 

 incapable of comprehending how fpeech could if- 

 fue from a dumb book, and how the thoughts of 

 the earlieft Egyptians could pofTibly have been 

 tranfmitted to them, on the frail leaves of the pa- 



pyius. 



