of Oil and Water, 44 • 



quonlam mitiget naturam afperam, lucemque 

 deportet." Plutarch propofes as one of his 



natural que ft ions, Ah» n -m GaAaVIj}? tAata Kxretffa^^of^try!i 

 yn/lai >ccc1ci(pa.mx y.a, yccM^r) ; " Why doCS the fca, whcn 



fprinkled with oil, become more ferene and 

 tranfparent?" 



We find alfo, that the knowledge of this 

 effeifl of oil was common in the earlieft ages 

 after the revival of learning, from a curious 

 pafiage in the Nanfragmti of Erafmus ; " Non 

 nulli," fays he, fpeaking of the various efforts 

 of the faiiors in the ftorm, *' procumbentes 

 in fabulas adorabant mare, quicquid erat olcL 

 effundeotes in undas." A note in the Elzevir 

 edition of Erafmus' Colloquies, thus iiluf- 

 trates the paffage ; " Ea natura eft olei, ut 

 lucem alterat ac tranquillet omnia, etiam mare, 

 quo non aliud elementum implacabilius." 



Nor has this property of oil been confidered 

 merely as a matter of fpeculation and amufe- 

 ment to philofophers : it has been applied, from 

 time immemorial, by the natives of various and 

 diftant countries, who could not have learned 

 it from each other, to the mod important ufc 

 in procuring provifionsj by the filhermen on the 

 coaft of Provence, to enable them more readily 

 to fee the mufcles and other (hell fifh under the 

 fea ; by the fame order of men in the Tagus, near 

 Ji^i/l>of} i ' and by the inhabitants q^ xht Hebrides, 



even 



