THE FOUNTAIN. 



207 



human capacity, are too apt to withhold their admiration 

 from an enterprize, which, to be brought to perfe6tion, re- 

 quired much meditation, many trials, and a considerable por- 

 tion of time. If, however, we recur to past ages, and be- 

 stow an attentive consideration on the annals they have trans- 

 mitted to us, in proportion as we perceive the slowness of their 

 progressive advances, we become sensible of all the excellence 

 it has to boast. 



The earliest men, content with the waters with which they 

 were supplied by the rivers and springs, applied their industry 

 solely to the intention of conducting them by certain channels 

 formed without order or method. The necessity of raising them 

 to irrigate arid and lofty grounds, or of clearing them away 

 from inundated spots, induced them to have recourse to certain 

 means, which, however imperfe6t, were not without their 

 efFedt. By the aid of machines moved by a great number of 

 men stationed at different points, the waters of the Euphrates 

 were elevated to the gardens of the opulent Babylon. The 

 Egyptians, embarrassed by the frequent inundations of the 

 Nile, thought of various means by which they might drain 

 their grounds ; but were ignorant of the contrivance which 

 was requisite for that purpose. They fancied it to be a cylin- 

 der, round which a tube should revolve, both withoutside 

 and within, in the form of a screw, and, by agitating the 

 water, should raise it so long as the cylinder should be 

 kept in motion. This was in reality the screw of Archi- 

 medes. 



In his History of the Progress of the Human Understanding, 

 Savarien asserts, that Ancus Martins, the fourth king of Rome, 

 conducted to that city the water of the fountain Picenia, by 



the 



