CHAP. 10. 2. SUPERSTITIONS, &c. 313 



f " 



or the elementary power, being figuratively 

 said to produce those two luminous bodies, 

 which were in reality the product of electricity; 

 for I take them to signify the Fires of St. 

 Helmo, as they were afterwards called. The 

 alighting on a ship of either one or of two of 

 them, being considered as affording a favour- 

 able or an unlucky prognostick. These curious 

 electrical globes of light are frequently seen 

 about the masts and rigging of vessels at sea, 

 before storms, of which sailors reckon them 

 very certain prognosticks. Hence the many 

 nautical fables relating to these aforesaid Tyn- 

 daridae of the Romans, of which Horace was 

 mindful in his Ode to the Bark, which bore 

 away his friend Virgil to Athens. 



" Sic te diva potens Cypri, 



Sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera, 

 Ventorumque regat pater, 



Obstrictis aliis, praeter lapyga : 

 Navis, quae tibi creditum 



Debes Virgiliuin, finibus Atticis 

 Reddas incolumem, precor, 



Et serves animae dimidium meae. 

 I Hi robur et aes triplex 



Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci 

 Commisit pelago ratem 



Primus, nee timuit praccipitem Africum 



