20 On the Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 



It will not be misplaced to bestow a few words more in 

 bringing down the use of this engine of war to a later period. 

 We already hinted that, about the end of the eleventh century, 

 the eastern Romans used it against the Pisans, at which period 

 the secret of its composition was unknown, not only to the 

 sufferers themselves, but to western Europe. But we are in- 

 formed by Pere Daniel, that Philip Augustus brought some 

 from Acre, and used it against the English vessels at the siege 

 of Dieppe. Lastly, when Ypres was besieged by the Bishop of 

 Norwich in 1383, the garrison defended itself with Greek fire. 

 At this time gunpowder and ordnance had become common, 

 and from that period the very term Greek fire fell into disuse. 



Since that, however, there have not been wanting inventors 

 who have laboured to discover what required no discovery; 

 dazzled by the visionary character of this exaggerated and 

 mysterious substance. Neither have there been wanting quacks 

 and impostors, who have pretended to a knowledge of the 

 imaginary secret from interested views.- Grose informs us that 

 a chemist in this country, whose name, however, appears to 

 have been forgotten, pretended to this piece of knowledge, and 

 enjoyed an annual pension on condition of keeping it secret, 

 because our government was unwilling to increase the destruc- 

 tion and cruelty of war. The same attempts were frequently 

 made by this fruitful race during the late war, but not with the 

 same success. In France also, many years ago, a certain 

 Dupre received a pension on the same grounds. But the world 

 has grown wiser of late ; and we are in little danger now of 

 being misled by any modern empiric, however we may still 

 choose to dream over the tales of the careless and credulous 

 Byzantine writers. 



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