ef the Ancients reJpeSiing Glajs. \ox 



through which they come, be not direfl or refli- 



linear. , 



This, tliough only true, with fonne limitations, 

 Ihews him to have had no inconfiderable know- 

 ledge of the nature of the fubjedl in queftion. 



A c Virgil,* when he means to commend 



'the clearnefs of the Fucine lake, com- 

 pares the water of it to glafs-, a circumflance 

 which Ihews the clear kinds of glafs to have been 

 well known in his time. 



, ^ , Horacet is more exprefs, and men- 



A. C 30. . , r • 1 /I . 



tions glals in terms, that fhew its clear- 

 nefs and brightnefs to have been brought to great 

 perfedion. In particular, he compares the foun- 

 tain of Blandufia to glafs, and fays it was even 

 brighter than that fubftance ; an exprefilon that 

 carries great force, no glafs at prefent poflefllng 

 that quality, in a higher degree, than fomefpring 

 waters. 



In the time of Strabo, the making 

 Chriiluin. ^f glafs was undoubtedly well under- 

 A. D. 27. ftood, and had become a great article 



quo Strabo r r n /• 1 



^bjjf^ of manufacture, as appears from the 



following account given by this author: 



* Vltrea te Fucinus unda 

 Te liquidi fleveie lacus. 



Virg. ^neid. VII. 759, 



^ Perlucidior vitro. Hor. Carm. III. Ode II. 



S|)lendidior vitro. Hor. Carm. III. Ode ^III. 



H 3 Between 



