39 



prince, slew him with lightning as he was employing; 

 himself in launching his thunder. But it is much 

 more natural to suppose, that this unfortunate prince 

 the inventor of gunpowder, gave rise to these 

 fables, by having accidentally fallen a victim to his 

 own experiments. Dion and Joa:mes Antiochenus re- 

 pon of Caligula, that this emperor imitated thunder 

 and lightning by means of certain machines, which 

 at the same time emitted stones. Themistius informs 

 us, that the Brachmans encountered one another with 

 thunder and lightning which they had the art of 

 launching from on high at a considerable distance. 

 Agathias the historian, reports of Anthemius Tra- 

 liensis, that having falling out with his neighbour 

 Zeno, the rhetorician, he set fire to his house with 

 thunder and lightning. Philostratus, speaking of the 

 Indian sages, says, that when they were attacked by 

 their enemies, they did not leave their walls to fight 

 them, but put them to flight by thunder and light, 

 inng. And in another place he relates, that Her- 

 cules and Bacchus attempting to assail them in a fort 

 where they were entrenched, were so roughly re- 

 ceived by reiterated strokes of thunder and light, 

 ning, launched upon them from on high by the besieged, 

 that they were obliged to retire, leaving behind them 

 an everlasting monument of the rashness of their 

 enterprize. It appears from all these passages, that 

 the clfects ascribed to these engines of Avar, especi- 

 ally those of Caligula, Anthemius, and the Indians, 

 could be only brought about by gunpowder. And 

 fc what is still more, we find in Julius Africanus a 

 receipt for a composition to be thrown upon an 

 enemy, which very nearly resembles that powder. 

 But what places this beyond all doubt, is a clear and 

 positive passage of an author called Marcus Grsecus, 

 whose work in manuscript is in the royal library ac 

 Paris, entitled Liber Ignium. Doctor Mead had the 

 same also iu manuscript The author describes sevc. 



