[60] See Proclus on Plato’s Politics, p. 399. Instit. Theolog. num. 196; and the extracts of Ficinus from Proclus’s commentary on the first Alcibiades, p. 246. &c.
[61] Alluding to the beautiful description given of Ulysses, in the 3d book of the Iliad, v. 222.
Καί ἔπεα νιφάδεσιν ἐοικότα χειμερίησιν.
Which is thus elegantly paraphrased by Mr. Pope.
But when he speaks, what elocution flows!
Soft as the fleeces of descending snows
The copious accents fall, with easy art;
Melting they fall, and sink into the heart! &c.
[62] Concerning Domninus, see Photius and Suidas from Damascius in his Life of Isidorus.
[63] Nicephorus, in his commentary on Synesius de Insomniis, p. 562. informs us, that the hecatic orb, is a golden sphere, which has a sapphire stone included in its middle part, and through its whole extremity, characters and various figures. He adds, that turning this sphere round, they perform invocations, which they call Jyngæ. Thus too, according to Suidas, the magician Julian of Chaldea, and Arnuphis the Egyptian, brought down showers of rain, by a magical power. And by an artifice of this kind, Empedocles was accustomed to restrain the fury of the winds; on which account he was called ἀλεξάνεμος, or a chaser of winds.