I 
[ 66 r ] 
taken in its literal fenfe, as being a matter very ca- 
pable of fiich a manufadture. 
Now on the other hand, when that word is in the 
plural, fhere is fome reafon to conjecture, that a cer- 
tain compofition is meant, capable, as 1 have faid be- 
fore, of bearing the fire, or when it is laid upon 
fhips with a brufh ; for we can neither fuppofe, that 
wax was ever capable limply to bear being burnt, as the 
encaujiica pit! ura expreffes and denotes it ; nor that 
the ceris igni refolutis was to be limply laid on their 
flips without paint, rolin, turpentine, or fome other 
matters, both to render it dudtile and fluid enough 
not to clog the brufh as it cooled, which every one 
muff allow wax would infallibly do ; and alfo to give 
it fuch a body, as that, when dry, it might Hand the 
injuries of the weather ; for the heat of the fun would 
melt fimple wax, and make it run down in dreams, 
without an admixtion of fomething elfe to give it the 
neceffary firmnefs. 
The following I believe to be the words, which the 
Count de Caylus and the French painters have en- 
deavoured to follow. Plin. lib. xxxv. chap. xi. 
“ Ceris pingere ac pi&uram inurere quis primus 
excogitaverit, non conftat : quidam Ariftidis in- 
“ ventum putant, poftea confummatum a Pruxitile ; 
u fed ali quanto vetuftiores encauftte pidturae exti- 
tere, &c.” 
Here again is the ceris in the plural, where he 
talks of burning in the pidture, and where in the 
fame fentence he calls it encaufia pitiura. I would, 
therefore, humbly afk, whether wax painting, ftridfcly 
/peaking, would ever bear burning in ; or whether, 
Vol. 49. 4 P according 
