VOL. LXV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 62t> 



reason (though perhaps less fallible) than the sputtering of the oil in the indus- 

 trious maiden's lamp, or the excrescences which gather round the wick. * They 

 will be symptoms destitute of all efficient powers. They will show the present 

 state of the air, as that on which they depend, not as that which they govern, 

 and may funiish probable conjectures for '2 or 3 days to come. To what I have 

 already advanced in support of this opinion, I shall only add the last lines of the 

 Atoa-itfuia of Aratus. They speak, the sentiments of the earliest ages most de- 

 cisively, as they show how little the doctrine of the influence of lunar aspect 

 had gained ground, even in his days, among practical writers. That elegant 

 versifier, there is little room to doubt, delivers the practical maxims of his time, 

 just as he received them. He was too little of a poet to disguise the truth with 

 ornamental fiction, and too little of a philosopher to adulterate it with hypothesis. 



Turn fxniin xaroKvr\<TOf ycxXov S etti iTniJ-a-ri (rrijua 

 2x£TrTf(r9«f, fAxWov it i\)o7v tU txvtov lovrom 



EXttwot) TiXl^oi' TfiTaru Si xi ^xPfriCfiKi. 

 Aifi i a,v irifiiovjo': «fli9ji*oiri? ivtavTS 

 SnjuaTix, (rxj/x^xXXuv ti-ms xoci itt artf i toi») 



H«f avTiXXovri xaxif j^troji, n x«tiovt(, 



OttttoTov xai (rnfix Xiyoi' [akKoc S xokiov ti»i 

 4>|)a^{(j'9ai ^fli'vovTOf, l^tj-ajUfKOio re junvof 

 TiTfaSai aj/.poTtpag. a.\ yxp r a.[*uSii; (rxiinovruii 

 Mrinov irn^a.r i^smti, on (r^xXi^(t,T»ro( «idnp 



OxTU m^i tteAei, j^riTEi ^ocoottoTo (TlXmni. 

 TuV ift'JlJ'K TTXVTUV £«'X£|U.jlA£K)f sif enauTof, 

 Oui^ETroTt (TJ^fJlW? X£V ITT xl^ift T£)Cja»)jialO. 



Which I render thus : " Neglect none of these prognostics [none, he means, of" 

 the great variety he hath enumerated, taken from the heavens, from animals, 

 plants, terrestrial objects, &c.], it is a good thing to combine the observation of 

 one prognostic with another. If 2 agree, there is the greater likelihood of the 

 event, and a 3d makes it certain. Whatever you do, register [afi9|Uoi'iif J the 

 prognostics of the current year, carefully noting what the prognostic says 

 [_0Trire7<iv xosi «■»!/*« xiyof, that is, what the event shows it to be a sign of], if such 



* Ne noctuma quidem carpentes pensa puellae 

 Nescirere hiemen : testa cum ardente viderent 

 Scintillare oleum, et putres concrescere fungos. 



"A^AioTt J" iiFirurit itzo ^Aoyit, iivrt xS^at 



n«(X^oAtiyij &c. Af«T. A(oo-)|/«>,— Orig, 



TOL. XIII. 4 L 



Georgic, lib. i. lin. 390. 



