LITERATURE AND SCIENCE OF ENGLAND. 31 



Cambrorum^ in which we have the first rude attempt 

 to explain that still unexplained phenomenon, our 

 heated springs; and to bring into view that great 

 public benefactor who first taught to apply them to 

 salutary purposes, and who first collected in reser- 

 voirs the water which before his time must have 

 been spread over the valley, forming a useless and 

 perhaps pestilent morass. We are not prepared to 

 judge accurately of the degree of skill requisite for 

 this. But it was a bold undertaking, perhaps one of 

 most difficult execution ; and it is not to be wondered 

 at that, like other heroes in the infancy of society, 

 much of fable should have gathered about his name, 

 and that he should have come to be regarded as the 

 Daedalus of the western world. 



Soon as the Romans became possessed of the 

 southern parts of Britain, there arose around these 

 springs what may, without exaggeration, be called a 

 splendid and beautiful city. We know it, because its 

 remains are wdth us. When some one walking with an 

 Italian in the streets of modern Rome inquired for its 

 antiquities, the Roman stooped dowm and presented 

 him with a handful of dust. And we, whenever we 

 descend a few feet below the surface, — I speak of what 

 constitutes the city of Bath, not of that new and 

 beautiful suburb in which within the memory of 

 man she hath renewed her youth, — we never fail to 



