CLAUDIAN'S IDYL. 93 



Dioscorides, after announcing that the best magnet at- 

 tracts iron most readily, is blue, dense and not too heavy, 

 suddenly exhausts his knowledge with the rather inconse- 

 quent remark that three drachms of pulverized magnet, 

 taken in sweetened water, will prevent fat. There was 

 also Alexander of Aphrodiseus, who lived in Caracalla's 

 time, and who, though far less known than the preceding 

 philosopher, nevertheless invented the distillation of sea- 

 water, and suggested that the same process might be ap- 

 plied to wine. 1 He said that the attraction of magnet and 

 of amber is inexplicable, in which he agreed with the 

 Chinese philosopher Kouopho ; but to him is appar- 

 ently due the credit of having evolved the theory that the 

 magnet actually eats and feeds on iron, a notion which 

 lasted some twelve hundred years, and was very prevalent 

 in the i6th century. Marcellus Empiricus, 2 physician to 

 Theodosius the Great, wrote that the magnet both at- 

 tracted and repelled iron, the last property being termed 

 by him antiphyson. This, however, was in the 4th 

 century A. D., and hence long after Lucretius and Plu- 

 tarch had referred to the same phenomenon. 



From the grave homilies of Jerome or the sombre lines 

 of Lucretius to the gay and voluptuous idyl of Claudian 3 

 is a far cry; but the subject which could inspire the saint 

 and the philosopher was equally potent to influence the 

 volatile brain of the singer. He speaks of the magnet as a 

 stone, discolored, dull and vile, unfit to adorn beauty, to 

 shine amid the purple of Caesar or to deck the bridle of the 

 fiery steed. And yet no gem of Orient is so prized by those 

 who know its power. It lives by iron; without iron it 

 thirsts and dies. Yet in the statue of the god of war is 

 iron, and in that of the goddess of love, the magnet. 

 Wherefore the priest consecrates the union of these two 

 divinities, the sacred torch guides the chorus, the doors 



1 Meteorol. Comment. Venet, 1527. Humboldt : Cosmos, 562, 589. 

 2 Klaproth : Inv. de la Boussole, 12. 

 3 Claudian: Idyl V. Magnes. 



