'VOTES. XXV11 



of the Greek philosophers imagined that they came from the sun. Diogenes 

 Laertius (ii. 9) records such an opinion respecting the origin of the mass 

 which fell near JEgos Potarnos (Note 62). Pliny, who registered every thing, 

 repeats the opinion, and derides it the more, because he, with earlier writers, 

 (Diog. Laert. ii. 3 and 5, p. 99, Hiibner) accuses Anaxagoras of having pre- 

 dicted the fall of aerolites from the sun : " Celebrant Grseci Anaxagoram 

 Clazomeuium Olympiadis septuagesimse octavse secuudo aimo prtedixisse 

 coelestwm litierarnm scientia, qmbus diebus saxum casurum esse e sole, idque 

 factnni iuterdiu in Thraciae parle ad .Egos flumen. Quod si quis prsedictum 

 credat, simnl fiteatur necesse est majoris miraculi divinitatem, Anaxagorse 

 fuisse, solvnque rerum naturae intellectum, et coufundi omnia, si aut ipse sol 

 lapis esse aut unqaam lapidem in eo luisse credat ur ; decidere tamen crebro 

 non crit dubium." The fall of a stone of moderate size preserved in the 

 Gymnasium of Abydos is also said to have been foretold by Anaxagoras. 

 Probably the fall of aerolites during bright sunshine, and when the moon's 

 disk was not visible, led to the idea of " sun stones." According to one of 

 the physical dogmas of Anaxagoras, the sun was regarded as " a molten incan- 

 descent mass (jituSpos Siuirvpos)." Following these views, the sun is called, in 

 the Phaeton of Euripides, a " golden mass ;" meaning a brightly shining mass, 

 not thereby tending to any inference of aerolites being "golden sun stones" 

 (see Note 61). Compare Valckenaer, Diatribe in Eurip. perd. dram. Reli- 

 quias, 1767, p. 30; Diog. Laert. ii. 10. We find, therefore, among the 

 Greek naturalists, four hypotheses respecting the origin of shooting stars, two 

 of which may be termed telluric, and two cosmical : 1. from terrestrial exha- 

 lations ; 2. from masses of stone carried up by violent tempests (Aristoteles 

 Meteor. Lib. i. Cap. iv. 2 13, and Cap. viii. 9) ; 3. from the sun; 4. from 

 the regions of space, as heavenly bodies which had long been invisible on 

 account of their distance. Respecting this latter opinion of Diogenes of 

 Apollonia, which is in entire accordance with our own in the present day, 

 see page 124 in the text, and Note 88. It is a curious circumstance, of 

 which I have been assured by a learned orientalist who instructed me in 

 Persian, M. Andrea de Nerciat, now resident in Smyrna, that in Syria, 

 according to an old popular belief, falls of aerolites are looked for on very 

 clear moonlight nights. The ancients, on the contrary, were particularly on 

 the watch for such falls during lunar eclipses : vide Plin. xxxvii. 10, p. 164 ; 

 Solinus, c. 37 ; Salm. Exerc. p. 531 ; and the passages coUected by Ukert, 

 in his Geogr. der Griechen und Eomer, Th. ii. 1, S. 131, Note 14. On the 

 improbability that aerolites are formed from gases holding in solution 

 VOL. I. 2 D 



