G (p. [52]).
The Three Black Crows.
By Dr. John Byrom.
The following is the story referred to in the text. It well illustrates the process by which the first rumour concerning cotton—that “wool as white and soft as that of a lamb grew on trees”—was exaggerated to a statement that “lambs grew on certain trees,” and were, therefore, partly animal and partly vegetable.
Two honest tradesmen, meeting in the Strand,
One took the other briskly by the hand.
“Hark ye,” said he, “’tis an odd story this
About the crows!” “I don’t know what it is,”
Replied his friend. “No? I’m surprised at that,—
Where I come from it is the common chat;
But you shall hear an odd affair indeed!
And that it happened they are all agreed:
Not to detain you from a thing so strange,
A gentleman who lives not far from ‘Change,
This week, in short, as all the Alley knows,
Taking a vomit, threw up three black crows!”
“Impossible!” “Nay, but ‘tis really true;
I had it from good hands, and so may you.”
“From whose, I pray?” So, having named the man,
Straight to inquire his curious comrade ran.
“Sir, did you tell?”—relating the affair—
“Yes, sir, I did; and, if ‘tis worth your care,
‘Twas Mr.—such a one—who told it me;
But, by-the-bye, ‘twas two black crows, not three!”
Resolved to trace so wonderous an event,
Quick to the third the virtuoso went.
“Sir,”—and so forth. “Why, yes; the thing is fact,
Though in regard to number not exact;
It was not two black crows, ‘twas only one!
The truth of which you may depend upon;
The gentleman himself told me the case.”
“Where may I find him?” “Why in—” such a place.
Away he went, and having found him out,
“Sir, be so good as to resolve a doubt;”
Then to his last informant he referred,
And begged to know if true what he had heard.
“Did you, sir, throw up a black crow?” “Not I!”
“Bless me, how people propagate a lie!
Black crows have been thrown up, three, two, and one;
And here, I find, all comes at last to none!
Did you say nothing of a crow at all?”
“Crow?—crow?—perhaps I might; now I recall
The matter over.” “And pray, sir, what was’t?”
“Why, I was horrid sick, and at the last
I did throw up, and told my neighbours so,
Something that was—as black, sir, as a crow.”
H (p. [71]).
The Destruction of the Alexandrine Library.
This magnificent collection, founded by Ptolemy Soter, and added to by his successors, was twice partially dispersed before its total destruction by the Saracens. A great portion of it was burned during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Cæsar, B.C. 48. The lost volumes were in some measure replaced by Antony, who (B.C. 36) presented to Cleopatra, the library of the Kings of Pergamus. At the death of Cleopatra, Alexandria passed into the power of the Romans, and this second collection was partly destroyed by fire when the Emperor Theodosius I. suppressed paganism, A.D. 390. The Alexandrine Library met its memorable fate in 638, when, after a vigorous resistance for fourteen months, the city was taken by Amru, the general of Caliph Omar. Abdallah, the Arabian historian, and favourite of Saladin (1200), gives the following account of this catastrophe. “John Philoponus, surnamed the Grammarian, being at Alexandria when the Saracens entered the city, was admitted to familiar intercourse with Amru, and presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, but contemptible in that of the barbarians,—and that was the royal library. Amru was inclined to gratify his wish, but his rigid integrity scrupled to alienate the least object without the consent of the Caliph. He accordingly wrote to Omar, whose well-known answer is a notable example of ignorant fanaticism. ‘If,’ said he, ‘these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran they are useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree with the book of God they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.’ The sentence of destruction was executed with blind obedience; the volumes of paper or parchment were distributed to the 4,000 baths of the city; and so great was their number that six weeks was barely sufficient time for the consumption of this precious fuel.”