OF CURIOSITY. 167 
perfon, think his time thrown away ? Would 
fuch a fpe&ator deferve to be let into fuch a 
place ? 
I cannot help on this occafion calling to 
mind the manner, in which our prelident ufed 
fometimes to excite attention in his audience 
by an apt fimilitude, when he was reading up- 
on infers to his pupils. The fimilitude or ra- 
ther fable was as follows. 4 Once upon a time 
4 the feven wife men of Greece were met toge- 
4 ther at Athens, and it was propofed that every 
4 one of them fhould mention what he thought 
* the greateft wonder in the creation. One of 
4 them, of higher conceptions than the reft, 
4 propofed the opinion of fome of the aftrono- 
4 mers about the fixed ftars, which they believed 
4 to be fo many funs, that had each their pla- 
4 nets rolling about them, and v/ere ftored with 
4 plants and animals like this earth. Fired with 
4 this thought they agreed to fupplicate Jupiter, 
4 that he would at leaft permit them to take a 
4 journey to the moon, and flay there three days 
4 in order to fee the wonders of that place, and 
4 give an account of them at their return. Ju- 
4 piter confented, and ordered them to a'ftemble 
4 on a high mountain, where there fhould be a 
4 cloud ready to convey them to the place they 
M 4 4 dented 
