Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 27 
pyrotechny depends on the property which nitre possesses of 
accelerating or determining the combustion of inflammable sub- 
stances, even when these are excluded from the air, and as all 
the compositions used in this art bear an analogy to gunpowder, 
it is plain, that the antiquity of gunpowder is implied in that 
of pyrotechny. Yet it is probable, as before suggested, that the 
art of making fire-works by means of nitre and inflammable 
substances, is of more ancient date than that of making gun- 
powder as we now know it. The one can, in fact, be done ina 
certain way, by almost any mixture of combustible substances 
into which nitre enters in a sufficient proportion; whereas duly 
to select the proper combustibles, to proportion the ingredients, 
to mix and to granulate them, requires a degree of contrivance, 
attention and practice, which was not likely to have occurred 
till long after. It is even probable, that ordnance was derived 
from some kind of fire-works ; it was much more likely at least 
to have originated in this manner, than from Barthold Schwartz's 
mortar; a fable so often repeated as to have become a matter 
of general belief. 
Without therefore thinking it necessary to examine the ques- 
tion of gunpowder particularly, which is in itself but a branch 
of pyrotechny, I may attempt to trace backwards to the oldest 
records that have come down to us respecting any compositions 
of this nature. These, as already observed, lead us to India; 
and if any hesitation is felt in allowing to the oriental nations, 
from a time so remote, an art which only reached us long after, 
we must recollect, that astronomy and algebra were known in 
India equally long before they had found their way into Europes 
The latter, in particular, is of very recent introduction. In the 
same manner were printing and the mariner’s compass known 
to the Chinese; long before they had been introduced among 
the western nations, although both of them were inventions 
fully as likely to have spread. If we are inclined to ask why 
the messengers of Justinian, who brought silk from that remote 
empire into the west, did not also bring gunpowder and fire- 
works, we must also explain why they did not bring the art of 
