( 1271 ) 
which afcrihes all the merit he had wholly to the gift of his 
Muft, who might, fays he, if flie fo pleafed, have made 
even a mute Fi.h fpeak^. which innmates, 'twas a thing he 
kmgmd (be had never done 3 tho according to my feiiti-- 
ments, the Harmony of every fpeaking Lyre, was then no 
lefs than the voice of a dumb Fifn, raifed by rhe power of 
the Mufe in the Allegorick manner of {j,:ieaking:they afFecied 
in thofe daySj which noiv we ftiould fay was done by the 
skill of the Mufician. 
Tho this expofitfon is fo very eafy and natural, that if 
feenls to me at the firfl propolal to carry along v/ith it its 
own evidence, yet being my fence alone, and backt with 
no other Authority, I could no!- throughly acqoiefce in it, 
or be fatisfied I had truly lit upon the fame Ideas that were 
in Horaces thoughts when he wTote thofe wwds, unlefs I 
plainly found, that the Tefiudo or Lyre of the Ancients, was 
made of tlie back or hollow ftiell of ih^Tortoifey as the name 
feem'd fully to import. 
This put me upon the fearch, whether I might not find 
palTages in fome of the older Authors, that fpeak of this as 
matter of Fad 3 which, if I difcover*d I thonght it would 
evince the true meaning of thefe Lines of Horace beyond al! 
contradiction. 
And upon inquiry, it appears irom feveral Hands, 'twas a 
current, piece of Hiftory generally received among the Anci» - 
ents, that Mem/r; was the firft inventor of th^ Lj re (whence 
Hdrace in his loth Ode of the ift Book ftiles him Curv£ Lyr£ 
Parmtem) and that he made it of the Qiell of a dead Tortoije, 
he accidentally found on the Banks of the River Nile. I 
might produce feveral Teftimonies to this Point, but I think 
two will be fiifficient, and fhall trouble your Lordftiip with 
no more. 
The firft I fhall take from an oldPhyfician, a Greek Poet, 
that writ above a hundred years before Horace^ I mean Ni^ 
cander in his Poem he calls Alexifharmaca., where fpeaking 
of the Antidotes proper againft the Poifon of t\\Q SaU- 
