NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
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in ancient authors, concerning the extravagant price ofprecious ftones and pearls among the Romans, as well asthe general ufe of them by perfons of all ranks , arecollected by Meurfius de Luxu Romanorum , cap. ; and
y Staniflaus Robierzyckius, in his treatife on the famefubjed, lib. ii. c. i. The Englifh reader will receivefufficient information from Dr. Arbuthnot, in his valuableTables of ancient coins , weights , and meafures ,p. 172 , &c.
NOTE XXIII. Sect. II. p. 59-
M. Mahudel, in a memoir read in the academy of in-fcriptions and belles lettres in the year 1719, has collededthe various opinions of the ancients concerning the natureand origin of iilk, which tend all to prove their ignorancewith regard to it. Since the publication of M. Mahudel’smemoir , P. du Halde has defcribed a fpecies of filk , ofwhich I believe he communicated the firft notice to themoderns. “ This is produced by fmall infeds nearlyrefembling fnails. They do not form cocoons either r&undor oval like the filk-worm , but fpin very long thteads,which fallen themfelves to trees and bufhes as -they aredriven by the winds. Thefe are gathered, and wroughtinto filk fluffs, coarfer than thofe produced by domefticfilk-worms. The infects who produce this coarfe filk arewild. ” Defcription de l’Empire de la Chine, tom. ii. folio,p. 207. This nearly refembles Virgil ’s defcription,
Velleraque ut foliis depeftant tenuia Seres.
An attentive reader of Virgil will find, that, befides allthe other qualities of a great defcriptive poet, he poffeffedan extenfive knowledge of natural hiflory. The nature andprodudions of the wild filk-worms are illuftrared at greaterlength in the large collection of Memoires concernant
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