of the Ancients reJpeSl'mg Glafs. 1 03 



to him. Fruits, * fays he, viewed through glafs, 

 appear much larger, and more beautiful. The 

 ilars alfo appear magnified in a humid atmo- 

 fphere. If a ring be put into a bowl of water, 

 and viewed there, it feems to approach to the 

 eye, or in other words, is magnified j which the 

 fame author obferves, is the cafe with every body 

 that is viewed through a fluid. Seneca-}- fays 

 here exprefsly, that water, as a medium, has the 

 fame effed with glafs. It is worthy remark, that 

 the effe(5t of the prifm in exhibiting the original 

 colours that are combined in light, was a fail 

 well known in the time of Seneca ; and from his 

 exprefiion, we may conje6ture the experiment to 

 have been frequently praclifed. " A rod of 



* Poma per vitrum afpicientibus multo majora funt. 



Senec. Qujeil:. Nat. I. 3. 



t Poma formo.lora quam fint videntur, fi innatant vitrO, 

 Sidera ampliora per nubem afpicienti videntur : quod acies 

 Doltra in humido labitur, nee apprehendere quod vult hdeli- 

 ter poteft. Quod manifellum fiet, fi poculum impleveris 

 aqua, & in id conjeceris annulum. Nam cum in ipfo fundo 

 jaceat annulus, facies ejus in fummo aqua; redditur. Q«iic- 

 quid videtur per humorem longe amplius vero eft. Quid 

 niirum, majorem reddi imaginem Solis, qu^e in nube hu- 

 inida vifitur, cum de caufis duabus hoc accidat : quia in 

 nube eft aliquid vitro fimile quod poteft perlucere, eft aliquid 

 & aqua;, quam fi nondum habet, tamen jam apparet ejus 

 Js^atura, in quam ex fua vertatur ? 



Senec. Quaft. Natur. L. I. C. 6. 



H 4 ^lafs. 



