140 COSMOS. 



between flashes of lightning from the higher regions of the 

 clouds, and those which Saturn, an earth god,* caused to 

 ascend from below, and which were called Saturnine-terres- 

 trial lightning, a distinction which modern physicists have 

 thought worthy of especial attention. Thus were established 

 regular official notices of the occurrence of storms. t The 

 Aqucelicium, the art of discovering springs of waters, which 

 was much practiced by the Etruscans, and the drawing forth 

 of water by their Aquileges, indicate a careful investigation 

 of the natural stratification of rocks and of the inequalities of 

 the ground. Diodorus, on this account, extols the Etruscans 

 as industrious inquirers of nature. We may add to this com- 

 mendation that the patrician and powerful hierarchical caste 

 of the Tarquinii offered the rare example of favoring physical 

 science. 



We have spoken of the ancient seats of human civilization 

 in Egypt, Phoenicia, and Etruria, before proceeding to the 

 highly-gifted Hellenic races, with whose culture our own civ- 



tions between lightning and conducting metals (which it was not diffi- 

 cult to discover) appears to me to be that of Ctesias (Indica, cap. 4, p. 

 169, ed. Lion; p. 248, ed. Baehr). " He had possessed, it is said, two 

 iron swords, presents from the King Artaxerxes Mnemon, and from 

 Parysatis, the mother of the latter, which, when planted in the earth, 

 averted clouds, hail, and strokes of lightning. He had himself seen the 

 results of this operation, for the king had twice made the experiment 

 before his eyes." The great attention paid by the Etruscans to the 

 meteorological processes of the atmosphere in all that differed from the 

 ordinary course of natural phenomena, makes it certainly a cause for 

 regret that nothing has come down to us from the books of the Fulgn- 

 ratores. The epochs of the appearance of great comets, of the tall of 

 meteoric stones, and of showers of falling stars, were no doubt recorded 

 in them, as in the more ancient Chinese annals made use of by Edounrd 

 Biot. Creuzer (Symbolik und Mythologie der alien Vdlker, th. iii., 1842, 

 s. 659) has endeavored to prove that the natural features of Etruria acted 

 on the peculiar direction of mind of its inhabitants. A " calling forth" 

 of the lightning, which is ascribed to Prometheus, calls to mind the 

 strange pretended "drawing down" of lightning by the Fulguratores. 

 This operation consisted, however, in a mere conjuration, which was 

 probably not more efficacious than the skinned ass's head, supposed, in 

 accordance with Etruscan religious usages, to have the faculty of pre- 

 serving against the danger of thunder-storms. 



* Otfr. MUller, Etrnsker, abth. ii., s. 162-178. It would appear that, 

 in accordance with the very complicated Etruscan augur-theory, a dis- 

 tinction was made between the "soft reminding lightnings propelled 

 by Jupiter by his own independent power, and the violent electrical 

 means of chastisement -which he could only send forth in obedience to 

 established constitutional prescriptions, after consulting with the other 

 twelve gods" (Seneca, Nat. Q,ueett.,ii., p. 41). 



t Job. Lydus, De Oslentis, ed. Hase, p. 18, in prsefat. 



