Ingenuity of Ancient Priests.

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Chap. 2.]

no provision for a fresh supply. Besides, as the liquid was expelled, thehigher would the remainder ha.ve to be raised, and consequently unless theair received a corresponding increase of temperature the discharge fromthe vase might cease.

Had it not been for the Spiritalia, we should never have suspected thatair was made to perform so important a part in ancient frands, nor thatits expansion and contraction had been employed to raise liquids. Not-withstanding the high opinion which history gives us of the philosophicalknowledge of old priests, we should hardly have surmised that they hadthe art of applying this subtil fluid so ingeniously. They seem, however,to have ransacked all nature for devices; and to have become familiärwith the principles upon which the most valuable of our arts and ma-chinery are based. Astronomy, acoustics, chemistry, optics, hydrostatics,pneumatics, and hydraulics, were all pressed into their Service. Eventhe application of steam, as a source of motive force, did not escape them ;so that had their energies been devoted to the development of useful me-chanism, the world would probably have been indebted to them for thesteam engine itself.

What wonders would an insight into the old temples have revealed !To have had an opportunity of inspecting the machinery, new and old—to have been present at the consultations of the priests—witnessed theirprivate experiments—heard them expatiat.e on the defects of this deviceand the perfect working of that—süggesting a wheel here and a springthere—to have been present at their consultations respecting the Suspen-sion of water in Tutia’s sieve,- and witnessed the congratulations exchang-ed at the eclat with which that and many other trials came off, &c. &c.—would have made us acquainted with discoveries both in Science andmechanical combinations that would throw some modern inventions intoshade :—But the tremendous evils which their impostures induced ren-dered concealment on the part of the priests indispensable. Exposurewould not only have endangered their wealth and influence, but mighthave led to their exlermination by an outraged and plundered people—hence the veil of religion was interposed to screen the operators and theirapparatus, and inevitable death was the consequence of undue curiosity :witness that of Alcithos, a female of Thebes , who ridiculed the orgies ofBacchus, and was represented by the priests as having been changed into abat ; a fiction of theirs, most likely, to conceal their having taken her off.Mpytus might be addueed as another example-—he forcibly entered thetemple of Neptune and was struck blind, by a südden eruption of salt-waterfrom the altar ; probably sulphuric or other acid secretly ejected by thepriests. In this chapter we have seen they had the means of doing thisby the dilatation of air within the cavities of altars.

We shall conclude this chapter with some remarks on the Spiritalia ,a work that had more influence in reviving the study of hydrodynamicsin modern times, than any other. This little book, like a rivulet, sent itsstreäms of knowledge over all Europe in the sixteenth Century. Itstimulated, if it did not create that spirit of investigation and experimen-tal research which then commenced and has continued unimpaired to thepresent time. It seems to have caused an unusual degree of excitement.Philosophörs, chemists, and physicians, as well as engineers, illustratedtheir writings by its problems and figures. Porta, Decaus, Fludd, andothers, avowedly transferred its pages to their Works, while many writerswith less candor and less ingenuity made use of it without acknowledg-ment. Of all the old mechanicians, Besson seems to have been less in-debted to it than any other.

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