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was of the Compass of a Mans hat about the brims. I then caused a Bucket-full of Water to be poured on the fire, by which it was presently quenched, as well as my companions laughter was stopped, who then began to think, the Water did not burn.
I did not perceive the Flame to be discolour'd, like that of sulphureous Bodies, nor to have any manifest scent with it. The Fumes, when they broke out of the Earth, and prest against my hand, were not, to my best remembrance, at all hot.
Account of Athanasii Kircheri CHINA ILLUSTRATA.
The Author by publishing this Volume, discharges the Promise, he had made some years ago, that he would do so. He acknowledges himself much obliged to Martinius, and his Atlas Sinicus; as also to Michæl Boim, a Polonian; Philippo Marino, a Jesuit of Genoa; and two other of the same Society, viz. Henry Roth of Ansburg, and John Gruber, an Austrian; whereof the latter went A. 1656; over Land from Rome, through Anatolia, Armenia, Persia, Ormus, Cambaja, and India, to Macao, the famous Port of China, and thence to Pekin, the Court of that Empire; whence two years after, he came back to Rome, accompanied for a part of the way, by the Jesuit Albert Dorville; traversing by Land in a manner the whole breadth of China, and a great part of the confining Tartary, and so further, through the Mogols Dominions, to Agra, where the said Dorville dying, the above-mentioned Henry Roth supplyed his place in accomplishing this Voyage.
The Book it self, a large Folio, is divided into 6. Parts.
The three first, and the last, being besides the design of these Tracts, we shall but glance at, taking only notice; First, That they pretend to perswade the Reader, that Christianity was spread over all Asia by St. Thomas the Apostle, and his Successors; and hath been there continued, though not without great Eclipses, to these very times. And here the Chino-Chaldæan Monument, said to have been erected several hundred years since in China, and found out A. 1625. is with great labour asserted and interpreted. Next, That the Rise of the Idolatry, in those remote parts, and their different Ceremonies in Worship, is confronted with those Ancient ones of Egypt. Lastly, that a large Account is given of the Chinese Letters, their Figure, Power, &c.
But we hasten to the Fourth Book, as belonging to our Sphere,
That
