301 
On Signals made hj Fire * 
ed on these occasions observe the rules here laid down., 
they will give exact notice : but it must be practised a 
long time before they will be able to be very quick and 
exact in the operation. 
This is what is proposed by Polybius, who, it is well 
known, was a great soldier and politician, and for this 
reason his hints ought to be valued. They might be im- 
proved and put in practice on a great many occasions. 
These signals were employed in a mountainous country. 
A pamphlet was lent me, printed in 170&, and entitled, 
The art of making signals both by sea and land.^ The 
pamphlet was dedicated to the king, by the Sieur Mar- 
cel, commissioner of the navy at Arles. This author af- 
firms, that he had communicated several times, at the 
distance of two leagues (in as short a space of time as a 
man could write down and form exactly the letters con- 
tained in the advice he would communicate,) an unex- 
pected piece of news that took up a page in writing. 
I cannot say what this new invention was, or what 
success it met with ; but in my opinion such discoveries 
as these ought not to be neglected. In all ages and na- 
tions, men have been very desirous of finding out and 
employing methods for receiving or communicating spee- 
dy advices ; and of these, signals by fire are one of the 
principal. 
* In the fabulous times, when the fifty daughters of 
Danaus murdered all their husbands in one night, Hy- 
permnestra excepted, who spared Lynceus, it is related, 
that both flying, and each being arrived at a place of safe- 
ty, they informed one another of it by signals made by 
| fire ; and that this circumstance gave rise to the festival 
! of torches established in Argos. 
Agamemnon, at his setting out for the Trojan expedi 
] tion, had promised Clytemnestra, that the very day the 
* Pausan. 1. ii. p. 130. 
