"Socr.--Well! what wouldst thou do with it?
"Streps.--When the registrar shall have made out his summons against me, I will take the glass, and, placing myself thus in the sun, will cause his writing to melt."
As well known, writing was then traced on waxen tablets. Servius (in Æn., xii., 200) affirms that men of ancient times, instead of lighting fire upon the altar themselves, in their sacrifices, caused it to descend from heaven. He adds, according to Pliny, Titus Livius, and several old Latin historians, that Numa, who was initiated into all the wisdom of Etruria, practiced this art with success, but that Tullius Hostilius, having desired to repeat the evocation, guided only by the books of Numa, did not accomplish all the formalities prescribed by the rite and was struck dead by lightning.
Is it not curious that twenty-four centuries afterward, in 1753, the physicist Reichman was killed by lightning in trying to repeat Franklin's experiment? This coincidence, however, is not the only one. Pliny (ii., 53) recounts that lightning was evoked by King Porsenna at the time when a monster named Volta, who was ravaging the country, was directing himself toward the capital, Volsinies.
If we return to the Vedas, who had the habit of personifying all phenomena, we shall find that the fire Agni was the son of the carpenter who had manufactured the instrument by which it was produced, and of Maya (magic). He took the name of Akta (anointed, [Greek: christos]) when, nourished by libations of butter, he had acquired his full development. The Persians attributed likewise to Zoroaster the power of causing fire to descend from heaven through magic. Saint Clement of Alexandria (Recog., lib. iv.) and Gregory of Tours (Hist. de Fr., i., 5) speak of this. However this may be, the marvelous art was lost at an early date, for it was at such a date that priests began to have recourse to tricks that were more or less ingenious for lighting their sacred fireplaces in an apparently supernatural manner.--A. De Rochas, in La Nature.
ST. BLAISE, THE WINNER OF THE DERBY.
St. Blaise, the property of Sir Frederick Johnstone, was bred by Lord Alington, and is by Hermit from Fusee. This is an unexceptionable pedigree, for Hermit is now as successful and fashionable a sire as was even Stockwell in his palmiest days, while Fusee was far more than an average performer on the turf, and won several Queen's Plates and other races over a distance of ground. St. Blaise is by no means a big colt, standing considerably under sixteen hands. His color is about his worst point, as he is a light, washy chestnut, with a bald face and three white heels. He has a good head and neck, and very powerful back and muscular quarters, added to which his legs and feet are well shaped and thoroughly sound. His first appearance was made in the Twenty-fourth Stockbridge Biennial at the Bibury Club Meeting, when he won easily enough; but there were only four moderate animals behind him. A walk-over for the Troy Stakes followed, and then Macheath beat him easily enough for the Hurstbourne Stakes, though he finished in front of Adriana and Tyndrum. For the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood, he ran a dead-heat with Elzevir, to whom he was giving 7 lb.; and Bonny Jean, in receipt of 10 lb., was unplaced. A 7 lb. penalty seemed to put him completely out of the Dewhurst Plate; but he must then have been out of form, as, on the following day, it took him all his time to defeat Pebble by a neck in the Troy Stakes. This season he has only run twice. His fourth in the Two Thousand was by no means a bad performance, considering that he was palpably backward; and his victory of last week is too recent to need further allusion. Porter, his trainer, can boast of several other successes in the great race at Epsom; but Charles Wood had never previously ridden a Derby winner. St. Blaise was unfortunately omitted from the entries for the St. Leger, but has several valuable engagements at Ascot next week, and appears to have the Grand Prize of Paris, on Sunday, at his mercy.--Illustrated London News.
