1627 ] OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. 15 



artificial motion, either by air, water, wind, sinews or 

 cords, as all manner of musical instruments, water 

 works and the like. 



u Yea, moreover, such is the infinite sub til ty, and 

 immense depth of this admirable art, that it dares con 

 tend even with nature s self, in infusing life, as it were, 

 into the senseless bodies of wood, stone, or metal. 

 Witness the wooden dove of Archytas, so famous not 

 only by Agellius, but many other authors beyond ex 

 ception; which by reason of weights equally poised 

 within the body, and a certain proportion of air (as the 

 spirit of life enclosed), flew cheerfully forth, as if it had 

 been a living dove.&quot; 



This Cambridge Master of Arts appears much de 

 lighted with these and certain minute automata, occu 

 pying two pages in describing Scaliger s ship, to swim 

 and steer itself by means of the pith of rushes, bladder, 

 and little strings of sinews ; a wooden eagle &quot; which 

 mounted up into the air, and flew before the Emperor 

 to the gates of Nuremberg ;&quot; an iron fly that flew about 

 a table ; ants and other insects made of ivory, so small 

 that the &quot;joints of their legs could not be discerned ;&quot; 

 a four wheeled coach, which a fly could &quot; cover with 

 her wings ;&quot; a ship with all its sails, u which a little bee 

 could overspread;&quot; and, &quot; of later times, Hadrian Ju- 

 nius, tells us that he saw with great delight and admi 

 ration, at Mechlin, in Brabant, a cherry-stone cut in 

 the form of a basket, wherein were fifteen pair of dice 

 distinct, each with their spots and number, very easily 

 of a good eye to be discerned ;&quot; how &quot; the Ilias of Ho 

 mer written, was enclosed within a nut ;&quot; while, to 

 conclude, Scaliger, relates &quot; of a flea he saw with a 

 long chain of gold about its neck.&quot; The account of 

 these wonders of art, winds up with descriptions of 

 brazen, glass, and silver models, or planetariums illus- 



