= 
1808.] Anecdotes of Public Schools and Literary Establishments. 429 
sea waters, continue undisturbed, as long 
as those waters remain in a State of tran- 
quillity; or, at least, they experience only 
an internal agitation, which is slightly 
manifested externally. 
But when the waters of the sea are set 
into motion by storms, or by the intro- 
duction of an active mass which rides 
upon their surface, with violence and 
rapidity, the volatile vapours contained 
in the bosom of the sea escape, and rise 
up a fine mist, which forms an atmo- 
sphere round the vessel. 
This atmosphere advances with the 
vessel, and is encreased every moment by 
fresh emanations rising from the bottom 
- of the water, 
_ These emanations appear like somany 
small clouds, which, joining each other, 
form a kind of sheet projecting forwayd, 
one extremity of which touches the ship, 
whilst the other advances in the sea, toa 
considerable distance. 
- Bat this train of vapours is not visible 
to the sight ; it escapes observation hy the 
transparency of its particles, -and is con- 
founded with the other fluids which com- 
pose the atmosphere. 
But as soon as the vessel arrives within 
2 circumference, where it meets with 
other homogeneous vapours, such as those 
which escape from land, this sheet, which 
till thattime had been so limpid and sub- 
til, is suddenly seen to acquire cunsis- 
tence and colour, by the mixture of the 
two opposite columns, 
This change begins at the prolonged 
extremities, which, by their contact, are 
united, and acquire acolour and strength ; 
afterwards, in proportion to the progres- 
sion of the vessel, the metamorphosis 
increases and reaches the centre: at last 
the phenomenon becomes the nore ma- 
nifest, and. the ship’ makes its appear- 
ance. 
_. For, the Monthly Magazine. 
ANECDOTES of PUBLIC SCHOOLS and LITE- 
RARY ESTABLISHMENTS im all Na- 
‘TIOks. ; 
MONG the Magi and- the Bramins, 
{who were the first that united the pro- 
fession of religion with thatof the sciences: 
temples and woods were the places in 
which they assembled their disciples, and 
where they infused a due mixture of mys- 
tery into their religious and_ philosophical 
The library of Alexandria, 
yas. 
We which was called by the Egyptians “ The 
agazine of Remedies for the Soul,” was 
“not so ancient asthat of Sicyon, ..Berytus 
d Benares. boasted of their schools ; 
the latter is: esteemed by Voltaire’ the 
most ancient university in the worlds 
Among all these nations, the ruins of ob4 
servatories, meridians, and other estab- 
lishments for instruction, are still disco 
verable. Moschus the Pheenician gave’ 
to the world the first example of the 
leader of asect. Lt ‘is believed that the 
Jews set apart to the cultivation of let- 
ters one particular place, which they call- 
ed “ the City of Letters’—Urbs Litera- 
rum. Solomon erected at Jerusalem his 
college called Domus Sapientie—* The 
House of Wisdom,” which contained # 
public library, and, according to some 
writers, a cabinet of natural history: 
Susa had a royal library; Crete a Ly 
ceum, the rival of that at Athens. Ci- 
cero mentions an ancient academy among 
the Rhodians. The Jaw called by the 
Romans, Lex Rhodia, De Juctu Retium, 
was borrowed by them from the maritime 
code of those islanders. Eumenes, King 
of Pergamus, was a protector of letters; 
and the library of his royal city has been 
compared by some historians to that of 
Alexandria. It has been pretended that 
the first academies were of Egyptian es- 
tablishment; that the Egyptians had pri- 
vate colleges where the priests employed 
themselves in studyimg the mysterious 
operations of nature, and the art of ma- 
gic; that the mysteries of Eleusis were 
derived from one of these collegiate esta+ 
blishments. Meyer, who wrote a history 
of these secret assembiies, speaks’ of the 
College of Samothrace, the members or 
which believed that they'enjoyed the pe- 
culiar assistance of the gods throughout 
all the trials of life; of the College of 
Persian Magi, who knew how to perform 
very extraordinary things, and from whom 
Apollonius Tyaneus derived bis knows 
ledge of sorcery; of the College of Bra- 
Imins, who commanded the elements, and 
called down rain and tempests, winds 
and thunder, at their will; of the Celtic 
College of Druids, who also penetrated 
into the secrets of Nature, and who, as 
some. say, were able to predict future 
events; of the Roman Collese of Au- 
gurs, whose mystic ceremonies imposed 
the belief of prophetic powers. 
The school of Pythagoras is the earliest 
specimen we have of a college among the 
Greeks. The Pythagoreans lived in com- 
mon. .The olympic games at Pisa, and 
the festival-of the Panathenaa, ought to 
be considered as establishments for in- 
struction. The Portico, the Academy, 
the Lyceum, are only the  distingnish- 
ing appellaions of the most: celebrated 
schools 
