tain. A lava is caft out from the crater into the valley or plain; after a while the fame crater fends forth upon it a mighty shower of afhes, which are mixed with the earth washed from the fides of the hill, and yield a rich mold. Upon this mold another lava is poured, and a new accumulation of foil fucceeds by the fame means as before. Which process, according to the account of Strabo, and of Mr. Brydone himself, we may well conceive to be completed in three hundred years, and the interftices of thefe feven lavas to have been fupplied with good earth in two thousand years, the time affumed as neceffary for each of them. For why are we to eftimate what is produced on a plain, by what may have happened on an expofed high promontory? With regard to increase of foil, what analogy is there between them? It is poffible, I fay, that these lavas may have been formed in two thousand years; and the poffibility is fufficient for my purpose: for I do not contend, that they were actually formed in fo fhort a time. We may allow the lowest of them to be four, or, if you will, near fix thousand years old: for Etna may have burned from remote ages, fed by thofe fubterraneous fires, which fome fuppose coæval, or nearly coæval with our earth. But, if the Philofopher of Mount Etna will venture on fuch uncertain grounds to carry its antiquity fo far back,

"and incautious tread

On fires with faithless afhes overfpread.".

he may expose his own vanity and rashness, but he will not hurt the credit of Mofes, or affect the chronology built on his writings.

of the little Dependence to be placed on the Defcription of Eclipfes left us in Ancient Hiftory, towards afcertaining their Dates, and those of the cotemporary and contiguous Events, by aftronomical Calculations, independent of the Acceleration of the Moon's mean Motion.

WHEN books are every day

multiplying in fuch numbers, it were to be wifhed, that, at leaft, authors of reputation would be cautious in advancing any thing with confidence, which is not well fupported by folid arguments; as, otherwife, it neceffarily introduces an additional book to refute them, or elfe their errors must be suffered to gain ground and pass current in the world. I cannot but lament an imperfection of this kind in Coftard's Hiftory of Aftronomy, which is now under my perufal; for, when he comes to apply the calculations of eclipfes to the improvement of chronology, he says, with great confidence," that nothing can fix the date of ancient tranfactions with fo much accuracy as eclipses of the fun and moon." He proceeds to give us fome examples of their pretended great ufe; but, unfortunately, it may be contended, that the examples he produces are so far from being fixed accurately by him or any others in this method, that I can venture to fay he is not mistaken in lefs than ten years, and poffibly fifteen, in his very first example, if not in molt of the remaining ones. Nay, I fcarcely know of one inftance in which the calculation of eclipses has been of any fervice in chronology, notwithstanding all its boafted pretences; and, if we attend, the reafon will appear evi

dent

dent. Not only eclipfes of the moon, but even of the fun, visible at the fame place, fometimes happen fo frequently in the courfe of half a dozen years, that one is at a lofs which eclipfe to felect as that mentioned by any ancient author to have been coincident with fome remarkable event. For inftance, M. de la Lande has calculated three folar eclipfes, almoft central, and vifible in the greatest part of Europe, between the years of 236 and 240 inclufively: how can we judge which of thefe was the eclipfe mentioned to have happened at the acceffion of Gordian to the empire, unless ancient authors had been more particular, and recorded the feafon of the year, month, time of day, or other circumstances neceffary to identify the eclipse spoken of? We fee, then, that we must fill have recourfe to hiftoric dates, in order to fix on what year Gordian afcended the throne between 236 and 240, and even the very time of year, before we can know which of the above eclipfes was the first in his reign; and even then we are not certain, that it happened within the limits of his first year. There feems no reason, then, for Mr. Cofard to speak with little reverence of what he calls technical chronology, by comparing Olympiads, Confular Fafti, and Athenian Archons, (p. 236.) On the contrary, if he had attended more to this technical chronology, he would have found he was in an error of 10 years at least in his first example, wherein he fays, "the conclufion

of the war between the Lydians and Medes is fixed, by the folar eclipfe foretold by Thales, to the year before Chrift 603." Calvitius, by calculation of eclipfes, pretended to have fixed the fame event to the year 605, Ufher to 601, Petavius to 597, Bunting to 586. What can prove more plainly the futility of pretending to fettle chronology by eclipfes alone, when with- . in the space of twenty years there were five folar eclipfes, each of which has equal pretenfions to be that foretold by Thales? Nay, still farther, there are ftrong reasons to think, that every one of thefe authors are mistaken, and that the event happened ten or fifteen years more early than the earliest date of thefe calculators. I wish, therefore, that fome of your aftronomic correfpondents would affift me in the talk of proving this, by difcovering, whether, between the years 610 and 620, any confiderable eclipfe of the fun was vifible in Asia Minor. This is a point of great importance towards fettling many dates, not only in prophane chronology, but alfo in that of the Jewith feriptures, and is a new field of enquiry.

Mr. Coftard mentions another event fixed by him by means of an eclipfe, an account of which is inferted in the Philofophical Transactions. As I have not feen this tract, I can only fay at present, that, by the refult of his arguments, I

fufpect that they are not better founded than thofe employed in the foregoing one. He mentions alfo another differtation, written by

infelf.

him, concerning the eclipfe when Xerxes marched against Greece: I hould be glad to be informed of the title of this, and where it can be procured.

I thall referve the proofs of what I have advanced for fome other opportunity; and fhall only add now, that, befide the obftacles to the application of eclipfes to chronology arifing from the caufes above mentioned, viz. the frequency even of folar eclipfes in a few fucceffive years at particular periods, and the want of fufficient circumftances recorded by ancient hiftorians, to identify the eclipfe alluded to, there are other obftacles arifing from the difficulty to afcertain the quantity of the eclipfe in fuch diftant times, or even the year in which it happened, on account of the acceleration of the moon's mean motion: but as Mr. Coftard is himself fenfible of thefe, I fhall leave them to the aftronomers; by fome of whom I should be glad to be informed, whether the degree of this acceleration, and the uniformity of it, be fufficiently determined, fo as not to caufe the error of a year in any diftant time before Chrift in calculating any eclipse. S.

Objections to the Authority of an Apamean Medal, produced by Mr. Bryant, in bis Analyfis of Heathen Mythology, to prove that the Accounts related in the Old Teftament of the ancient Patriarchs gave Rife to a great Part of the Heathen Mythology; with Mr. Bryant's Refutation of thefe Objections, extracted from bis Pamphlet, entitled, *** A Vindication of the Apamean Medal, and of the Infcription NSE. Together with an Illuftration of another Coin, Aruck at the fame

Place, in Honour of the Emperor Severus. By the Author of the Analyfis of Ancient Mythology."

From the Gentleman's Magazine.

OBJECTIONS.

T generally happens, that fra-" mers of whimsical fyftems (who attempt to reduce a thousand anomalies to fome few general principles) do, in the midlt of their zealous purfuits, commit fome extravagancies, which caft a ridicule upon the rest of their honeft labours. I fhall not trouble you with obfolete examples of this truth, but only remark, that, in a modern work, which the fpecimen prefented in your Magazine induced me to read, viz. Bryant's late work on Ancient My. thology, one of that learned writer's chief principles is, that the accounts related in the Old Teftament of the ancient patriarchs, &c. gave rife to a great part of the Heathen mythology. I had thought this notion fo fufficiently exploded, as never to have been maintained again. Let us fee how well Mr. Bryant fupports it. He pretends that, among the cities in Afia, there were various remains and traditions concerning Noah's ark; in particular, that feveral coins are ftill extant, whereon Noah's ark and name are infcribed, of which he prefents us with one, containing, on the reverfe, a fquare cheft with two hu man figures inclofed in it, their heads only appearing above the cheft. This is plainly Noah's ark, he fays; nay, even the very name of Nw, in Greek-letters, is infcribed on it. Alas! I with, with Feftus to St. Paul, that learning has not made him mad; for, behold, this pretended name of Noah is

only

only the remainder of the city's name Αλεξανδρέων, which is infcribed as the legend round the coin; but there not being room for the three laft letters to be continued round the edge of the coin, the artist engraved them on the cheft in the middle of the coin, in a reverfed manner, as exhibited in the margin.

One should have thought, that this would have easily occurred to Mr. Bryant himfelf; fince he prefents us with another coin, exhibiting the like cheft, with the let ters NHTN infcribed on the cheft, which he acknowledges, in the note, to be the continuation of the city's name where the coin was ftruck, the former half of which is infcribed round the edge of the coin, as before, with this only difference, that the reading of the let ters is not reverfed as in the foregoing cafe; and both together form May-To-Of this coin alfo fee the following reprefentation:

ΝΗΤΩΝ

Mr. Bryant's Refutation of the fore

going Objections.

"The gentleman, Mr. Bryant fays, to whom I am obliged for

thefe animadverfions, writes with great fpirit, and I make no doubt is a perfon of learning: as fuch I fhall accordingly addrefs him. The true purport of the infcription appears fo plain, that I cannot fubfcribe either to the ftrictures of my anonymous opponent, or to the judgment of others who may be of the fame opinion.

"We find that the mistake, of which I am fuppofed to be guilty, confifts in this: the letters N. . E.. which I have imagined to compofe the name of the patriarch, are faid to be a plural termination. They: are fuppofed to belong to the imperfect term AAEEANAP, which, when compleated, is thought to be ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΕΩΝ, the name of the people by whom the medal was ftruck. Before I give an anfwer to this affertion, I will refer the reader to a true engraving of this coin, the fame which I have exhibited before. [See it above.] He will here perceive an ark upon the waters, with an open roof, containing two perfons, a man and a woman, of which the latter has upon her

head a veil. Two more, who are probably the fame perfons repeated, feem to be just got on fhore; and, with their hands uplifted, to wit nefs fome extraordinary emotion. Above fits a dove, and over-against it another in the air, which feems to be returning towards the machine, and holds a fmall branch in its bill." A more perfect defcription is alfo quoted from Falconerius. Mr. Bryant then proceeds; "Every circumstance above enumerated relates to the patriarch, who is plainly pointed out by the name ΝΩΕ.” And to our correfpondent's objection of its being a mere termination of a precedding word," he gives this answer:

.." If the term NNE were an appendage to the name AAEANAP in the circular part of the infcription, it would have been brought nearer, and flood almoft within the point of contact; but it is placed upon the farther fquare of the machine, and too near the center of the coin to have any fuch connection. In the next place, the arrangement of the letters would have been different, if they had the reference fuppofed. For, if we were to accede to the notion above, we must fuppofe that the two parts of the fame name were written Bergondo, or in contrary directions. Now I do not remember an inftance of this upon any Grecian coin; and fhould an example be found, it would hardly be fo late as the time of the Roman empire, and the reign of Philip. But what puts the matter out of all doubt, is the pofition of the letters N and E, which prove, to a demonftration, that the elements are not to be read backwards; for had they been the termination of the word spoken of,

they would have stood the contrary way, N. Falconerius was too curious and experienced to be impofed upon; and he had for some time fufpicions about this part of the infcription. He thought that poffibly the letters NOE might be the remains of the word AПAMEON, written NOEMANA. But he foon gave up his furmifes; as the pofition of the letters N and E could not be made to correfpond with this retrograde way of reading: nor was there room for fuch a word to have been engraved in the space allotted for it. Indeed, it would have been unneceffary and redundant, as it is found immediately expreffed below.

Laftly, if any thing more be wanting to detect the falle reading, it is to afcertain the true; which, one would imagine, could not be long a fecret to a perfon acquainted with medals. The imperfect term AAEEAN AP, did not relate to a people, but to a person AAEZANAPOT: and this will paft controverfy appear, if with the smallest degree of attention we examine the courfe of the engraving. The infcription is manifeftly this, as Falconerius rightly obferves, EII. m. AYP. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ. Β. ΑΡΧΙ. AПAMEON. This medal was firuck, when Marcus Aurelius Alexander was a

fecond time chief Pontiff of the Apameans. This may be fatisfactorily proved from another coin described by Falconerius, and ftruck by the Apameans. It has a different figure, but the circular infcription is nearly the fame, only the name AAEZANAPOY is here expreffed with a zeta, and quite at length, without any break; fo that it authenticates the true reading in the coin above, though it varies a

fmall