Page:Tixall Poetry.djvu/405

The following epigram, by Claudian, on the glass sphere of Archimedes, has always been deservedly admired.

 

In sphæram Archimedis.

 

Jupiter in parvo cum cerneret æthera vitro,
 Risit, et ad superos talia dicta dedit;
Huccine mortalis progressa potentia curæ?
 Jam meus in fragili luditur orbe labor.
Jura poli, rerumque fidem, legesque Deorum,
 Ecce Syracosius transtulit arte senex.
Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus astris,
 Et vivum certis motibus urget opus.
Percurrit proprium mentitus signifer annum,
 Et simulata novo Cynthia mense redit;
Jamque suum volvens audax industria mundum,
 Gaudet, et humanâ sidera mente regit.
Quid falso insontem tonitru Salmonea miror?
 Æmula Naturæ parva reperta manus.

 

Galileo invented the telescope about the year 1609; and also the pendulum, which was first applied to clock-work by his son.

 

P. 63. l. 7.This glass was pure, &c.

A pretty description of a still.

 

P. 64. l. 3.Vaunt me no more your captive there
Enchayned in a single haire.

So Pope,

And beauty draws us with a single hair.

 

We have had so much about glass in these little poems, that I cannot refrain from adding the following admirable passage from the Rambler, on the manufacture of that useful article:

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