The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

FROM THE NEW-YORK NATIONAL ADVOCATE

Extract from the Port Folio of a Man

of

Letters.

In the 10th age, Pope Sylvester II. was

considered a Magician because he understood

Geometry and Natural Philosophy; and the

celebrated Apuleius, long before him, laboured

under the same suspicion. It is not much

above a century since a learned Judge, Sir

Matthew Hale, then at the head of the profession

in England, actually condemned several

old women to be burnt alive on an accusation

of witchcraft, and what renders this case

the more remarkable is, that the learned Sir

Thomas Brown, author of a work written purposely

to expose "Vulgar Errours," being

present in Court, and asked his opinion by the

Judge, declared his belief in witches.

Empedocles and Plato asserted that trees

and plants possess not only a vegetative soul,

but affirmed that they were animals. The

Manchees went farther, and attributed so

much of their rational soul to them, that they

considered it homicide to gather either their

flowers or fruits. This reminds us of the Irish

Jury, who brought in a verdict of manslaughter

against a person who had the misfortune to

kill a corn.

Strabo was of opinion that the combustion

of Sodom, and the formation of the lake, was

occasioned by hot bituminous waters, which

burnt out flaming from the earth at the time of

an earthquake. Tacitus entertained a more

orthodox opinion.

The ancients believed the world first began

with Spring, but the Doctors of the Church

have since greatly differed on this subject.--

Ancient historians record accounts of particular

and extensive deluges happening, and that

of Deucalion is spoken of by several of them

to have been universal. Lucian expressly

says that Deucalion, for his piety, was preserved

in an ark, with his wife and children, and

that all mankind sprung from him. Plutarch

makes particular mention of the dove sent out

of the ark by Deucalion. These are all evidently

traditions from Noah's flood.

The famous Library of Alexandria, containing

700,000 volumes, and afterwards burnt by

Julius Caesar, was founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus,

and by the assistance of Demetrius

Phalerius, the rhetorician, it was furnished

with all the valuable books that could be collected.

Having heard of the fame of the laws

of the Jews (who had been made captives by

his predecessor) he procured a copy from Eleazar

the High Priest, which he appointed seventy-two

interpreters to translate into Greek.-

This was the origin of the Septuagint version

of the Bible.

Zoroaster was an Indian philosopher, and

reputed of great antiquity; he is said to have

lived 5000 years before the Trojan war.--The

Chaldean and Egyptian books are held to be

very ancient, and to have carried up their history

and astronomical calculations into an incredible

length of time; some of them are

held to have been considerably older than

Moses. The pretensions of the Chinese in

this respect go still farther back,

Enoch's Pillars.-The tradition respecting

these monuments mentioned by Josephus, was

that Enoch or his father Seth, having been informed

by Adam that the world was to perish

once by water and a second time by fire,

caused two pillars to be erected, the one of

stone and the other of brick, and that upon

these pillars was engraven an account of all

the learning and inventions of mankind.-

Hence this was not lost to the world: for although

the flood overthrew one of them, the

other remained entire, and was seen by Josephus

even so late as his days.

The art of printing, the manufacturing of

gunpowder, and the invention of clocks, are

all ascribed to Germans. The first is said to

have been the discovery of a soldier, and the

second that of a monk--professions very opposite

to their inventions, but which would

have been exactly suitable had they been reverse.

Printing and making gunpowder were practised by the Chinese 1500 years before they were known in Europe.

In the 7th century, Virgil, Bishop of Saltzburg, was involved in great difficulties, because he avowed his belief in the antipodes. He was treated as impious, by Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz, who censured him from the pulpit. Virgil complained to the Pope, on which Boniface represented him in such a light, that Virgil's faith was suspected, and he was ordered to be degraded from the priesthood, and sent to Rome to answer for his conduct. Notwithstanding the infallibility of the Pope, no one runs any risk in these days for believing that there are other men below us, or that there is another world, or another planetary system.