ALEXANDRIAN OR HELLENISTIC PERIOD 



write of him: that he was so ravished and drunk with 

 the sweet enticements of this siren, which as it were 

 lay continually with him, as he forgot his meat and 

 drink, and was careless otherwise of himself, that often- 

 times his servants got him against his will to the baths 

 to wash and anoint him: and yet being there, he would 

 ever be drawing out of the geometrical figures, even in 

 the very imbers of the chimney. And while they were 

 anointing of him with oils and sweet savours, with his 

 finger he did draw lines upon his naked body: so far 

 was he taken from himself, and brought into an ec- 

 stasy or trance, with the delight he had in the study of 

 geometry, and truly ravished with the love of the 

 Muses. But amongst many notable things he devised, 

 it appeareth, that he most esteemed the demonstration 

 of the proportion between the cylinder (to wit, the 

 round column) and the sphere or globe contained in 

 the same : for he prayed his kinsmen and friends, that 

 after his death they would put a cylinder upon his 

 tomb, containing a massy sphere, with an inscription of 

 the proportion, whereof the continent exceedeth the 

 thing contained." 2 



It should be observed that neither Polybius nor 

 Plutarch mentions the use of burning-glasses in con- 

 nection with the siege of Syracuse, nor indeed are these 

 referred to by any other ancient writer of authority. 

 Nevertheless, a story gained credence down to a late 

 day to the effect that Archimedes had set fire to the 

 fleet of the enemy with the aid of concave mirrors. 

 An experiment was made by Sir Isaac Newton to show 

 the possibility of a phenomenon so well in accord 

 with the genius of Archimedes, but the silence of all 



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