Chap. 60.] THI BAINBOW. 69 



time, a stone would fall from the 8un\ And the thing ac- 

 cordingly happened, in the daytime, in a part of Thrace, at 

 the river Mgoa. The stone is now to be seen, a waggon- 

 load in size and of a burnt appearance ; there was also a 

 comet shining in the night at that time^. But to believe 

 that this had been predicted would be to admit that the di- 

 vining powers of Anaxagoraa were still more wonderful, and 

 that our knowledge of the nature of things, and indeed every- 

 thing else, would be thrown into confusion, were we to sup- 

 pose either that the sun is itself composed of stone, or that 

 there was even a stone in it ; yet there can be no doubt that 

 stones have firequently fallen fi^m the atmosphere. There 

 is a stone, a small one indeed, at this time, in the Gymna- 

 sium of Abydos, which on this account is held in veneration, 

 and which the same Anaia^oras predicted would Ml in the 

 middle of the earth. There is another at Cassandria, formerly 

 called Potidffia', which from this circumstance was built in 

 that place. I have myself seen one in the country of the 

 Vocontii^, which had been brought fit)m the fields only a 

 short time before. 



CHAP. 60. (59.) — THE RAIKBOW. 



What we name Eainbows frequently occur, and are not 

 considered either wonderful or ominous; for they do not 

 predict, with certainty, either rain or fair weather. It is 

 obvious, that the rays of the sun, being projected uj)on a 

 hollow cloud, the light is thrown back to tne sun and is re- 



* There is some vanatioa in the exact date assigned by different authors 

 to this event ; in the Chronological table in Brewster's Encyc. vi 420, it 

 is said to have occurred 467 B.C. 



* Aristotle gives us a similar account of this stone ; that it fell in the 

 daytime, and that a comet was then visible at night ; Meteor, i. 7. It is 

 scarcely necessary to remark, that the authority for this fact must be re- 

 ferred entirely to Aristotle, without receiving any additional weight from 

 our author. The occurrence of the comet at the same time with the 

 aeroUte must have been entirely incidental 



* "Deductis eo sacri lapidis causa colonis, extructoque oppido, cui 

 nomen a colore adusto lapidis, est inditum, Potidcea. Est enim ttotI 

 Dorioe wpos, ad, apud ; Saiofiai, uror," Hardouin, in Lemaire, L 361. 

 It was situated in the peninsula of Pallene, in Macedonia. 



* The Vooontii were a people of Grallia Narbonensis, occupying a por- 

 tion of the modem Dauphine. 



