36 



rius, there was an artificer who made vessels 

 *which were in their composition and fabric as strong 

 and durable as silver or gold, and that being intro- 

 duced into the presence of the emperor, he pre- 

 sented him with a vase of this kind, such as he 

 thought worthy of his acceptance, and that meeting 

 with the praise his invention deserved., and finding 

 his present so favourably received ; he, to increase 

 the admiration of the spectators, and further to ingra. 

 tiate himself with the emperor, laid hold on the vase 

 throwing it with such violence on the floor, that had 

 it been of brass it must have been injured by the 

 blow, that he took it up again whole, but dimpled a 

 little, which he immediately repaired with a, hammer 

 he took from his breast, and that while he was in 

 expectation of some very ample reward in recompense 

 of. his ingenuity, the emperor asked him whether 

 any body else was acquainted with this method of 

 preparing glass, and being assured that no other was, 

 immediately ordered his head to be cut oft, lest gold 

 and silver, added he a should become as base as the 

 dirt we tread upon. In these two testimonies, we see 

 &ow this discovery came so soon to be lost, if what 

 ver is new, be with so much difficulty established, 

 notwithstanding every encouragement, how was it 

 possible for this to endure, when so suddenly sur- 

 prised by inevitable fate 4 ? Dion Cassius, on this 

 head, confirms the attestations of Pliny and Petioni. 

 us. John of Salisbury and Isidorus relate this same 

 fact in the same way. 



As to the Arabian Ibn Abd Alhokin, he speaks 

 of malleable glass as a thing known in the flourishing 

 times of Egypt, but he himself is so unknown, that 

 I know not how to rest on his authority. Greaves, 

 who makes mention of him as a celebrated chrono. 

 legist among the Arabians, cites from him the pas- 

 sage, wherein it is said, that Saurid king of Egypt, 

 who built three pyramids, deposited in them, among 

 otl <f precious things, jr.alleable glass, &c, I ought 



