MAGNETIC SUSPENSION. 45 



the Temple of Arsinoe (wife and sister of Ptolemy Phila- 

 delplms) at Alexandria, in order that the iron statue of the 

 queen might have the appearance of hanging suspended 

 in the air. But this work was never accomplished, says 

 the historian, because both the king and the architect 

 died. 



This is the same story which, as we have seen in the pre- 

 ceding chapter, the Jewish writers tell of the suspended 

 golden calves of Jeroboam, and the world has never been 

 able to get rid of it. Again and again has it been pointed 

 out, for a thousand years and more, that no piece of iron 

 can be balanced in the air by magnetic attractions oppo- 

 sitely exerted; but the vitality of the falsehood seems even 

 greater than that of the refutations. At the same time 

 there can be little doubt that in some temple, and prob- 

 ably one in Egypt, and at about the time of the Univer- 

 sity of Alexandria, there was an object held up apparently 

 by no other support than magnetic attraction; and very 

 probably held down by a wire or cord invisible to the 

 spectators. Ausonius 1 directly disputes the statement of 

 Pliny that the construction of a magnetic vault was aban- 

 doned. St. Augustine, 2 St. Isidore, 8 and Cedrinus 4 all 

 affirm the existence of the iron statue suspended between 

 ceiling and pavement. Clement 5 of Alexandria causes the 

 Sibyl to sing of " thou, Serapis lying amid rude stones, 

 thou fallest most miserable in the ruins of Egypt," and 

 his scholiast, Clycas, interprets the "lapides rudos multos" 

 as magnets, of which, he says, "many were used in the 

 temple of Serapis on all sides of an iron sun. n So that 

 the statue of Arsinoe, in her own temple never completed, 

 may have become confused with an iron sun which did 



1 Eidyllum x, Mosella, vers. 314, 320 ; time, circa 390 A. D. 



2 De Civ. Dei, lib., 21, 6; time, circa 415 A. D. 

 "Originum, lib. xvi., cap. 4; time, circa 595 A. D. 



*Geo. Cedrinus : Compend. Hist., c. 267 ; time, circa 1057 A. D. Also 

 Suidas : Lex. cit. sup. Art. Magnet ; time, circa 1081 A. D. 

 5 In Protreptico, 15 ; time, circa 192 A, D. 



