in a white Sagum, e're it touched the ground. The Druid that took it, was immediately to get a horseback, and make the best of his way; because the ferpents being enraged at the lofs, purfued him till they were ftopped by fome river. This egg was fet in a circle of gold, with which it would fwim, if it had been rightly taken. It had this virtue, that whoever was mafter of it never loft a cause, and had always free access to Princes. The Emperor Claudius put to death a Roman Knight of Dauphiné, only because he carried one of thefe eggs in his bofom, while he was engaged in a law-fuit. This egg was undoubtedly an impofture of the Druids; and yet to my knowledge fomething like it is to this day believed by the common people in the North. Chorier, in his hiftory of Dauphiné, tells us, that during the heats of fummer, there are prodigious numbers of ferpents affemble together in fome places of that province, but particularly at a hill called La Rochette, in the skirts of Dauphiné towards Savoy. All forts of ferpents, fays he, run thither from the middle of June till the middle of Auguft, during which time there is not one to be feen within three leagues round the place, which they leave covered with a thick vifcid flime. The Author next enquires into the employments, quality, claffes, reputation, and preditions of the Druideffes, and into the time when Druidifm was abolished. Auguftus forbid the Romans to practife the religion of the Druids. Suetonius, Aurelius Victor, and Seneca fay that Claudius utterly abolished it but Pliny attributes this to Tiberius, who alfo made a decree * Hift. Nat. I. 30. c. I. * against * against aftrology. However, Druidifm was even authorised, and in great reputation in the time of Alexander Severus, || Aurelian, and Dioclefian, who all three confulted the Druideffes. Procopius tells us, that about the middle of the fixth century, Theodebert I. having paffed into Italy at the head of a great army, and furprised the Goths at the bridge of Padua, his Soldiers facrificed the women and children whom they had taken captives, and threw their bodies into the Po, as the firft-fruits of the war. For, fays he, though the Francs are Chriftians, they still obferve many of the fuperftitions of their ancestors, and particularly offer buman Sa crifices. And this he relates upon his own knowledge, as having been an eye-witness of it. I fhall here conclude this Extract, taken chiefly from the firft Book, and referve what I have to fay of the rest till another opportunity. ARTICLE II. PETRI WESSELING Obfervationum variarum Libri duo; in quibus multi ve * Xiph. ex Dion. 1. 57. Lamprid. in Alex. Sev. n. 6. || Vopifc. in Aurel. & Numerian. terum terum Auctorum Loci explicantur, atque emendantur. Amftelædami: apud R. & J. Werftenios, & W. Smith. That is, ' MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS upon several Palages of ancient Authors. pagg. 281 in 8vo. m T 1727. HIS Book is dedicated in a Latin Poem to the Prince of Frizeland; and contains the explication of feveral difficult paffages in ancient Authors, corrections of the Text where it is corrupted, with curious obfervations upon them relating to Hiftory, Chronology, the Laws and Customs of Antiquity, &c. I do not doubt but it will be received, the more favourably, as the Author propofes his own opinions modeftly, though not without good proof, and does not cenfure those who differ from him. Veniam petimufque, damufq; viciffim. Though thefe Remarks be divided into Books, and Chapters, yet are they fet down without any method, and juft as they occurred to him in his reading. I fhall take notice of a few of them, as a Specimen of the reft. Ifaeus in his Oratión de Cironis Hæreditate has thefe words : Σωοικῆσαι μ' ἂν τῇ γυναικὶ κύριθ ἦν 7 ἢ χρημάτων ἐκ ἂν ἄλλοι γυόμθμοι παῖδες ἐκ τότε καὶ I insíves, önóte ömer's ibiour. In which, fays Mr. , Mr. Weffeling, there are feveral faults. For the point fhould not stand after iv, but after av; and ἄλλοι fhould be in two words, ἀλλ ̓ ἅι. ἐβίωσα, he fays, is alfo put for Cav. 'Emdieres Coa fignifies to be two years above the age at which young men were called Ephebi, and fuch the Athenian laws reckoned at age, and allowed them to take poffeffion of their father's eftate; but Bier dier's is only to be two years old, and children fo young cannot be fuppofed capable of entering heirs. The paffage thus corrected gives this fenfe Mulierem fumere quidem poterat, non vero pecuniam; fed liberi ex hoc atque illa procreati, poft duos annos quam ex ephebis exceffe rint. In the fame Oration is this paffage: Kari ἀγρὸν φιλεάδα χωρία αλα ἐκείνῳ δέδωκε. Inftead of gensáda zweia, which our Author fays is not Greek, he reads pee weia, and fhows the word to be used by Suidas and Aelian to fignify rough and ftony. So that the fenfe is: Agrum retinet; prædia vero quædam falebrofa illi dedit. Euripid. in Iphigen. v. 130. Πόσα παρθένιον Κληδοχο δέλα πέμπω. Pedem virgineum Sanctum, fanctæ Clavigere ferva mitto. The learned Mr. Barnes not finding this epithet given to Diana by the Antients, corrected it has. But it feems that great Grecian was mistaken; for Mr. Weffeling not only proves from the Antiq. Rom. tom. v. p. 776. that Dia na na was often reprefented with a key in her hand, but alfo quotes the hymns afcribed to Orpheus, in which she is exprefsly called Ταυροπόλον παντὸς κόσμο κλειδῖχον ανασαν. Dianam totius mundi claves gerentem reginam. He goes on and fhows, that as a key was a fymbol of power, it was by the Antients put into the hands of all the Deities that prefided over any particular place or thing. Thus Minerva is called and by Ariftoph. in Thefm. v. 1152. because the prefided over Athens. Æfchylus in his Eumen. alfo gives Pallas the keys of Jove's magazine of thunder. Ariftoph. in Thefm. v. 982. fays Juno κληδας γάμε φύλαξε : becaufe the prefided over marriage and childbirth; on the laft of which accounts fhe is called Patuleia in an antient infcription. Cybele, or Earth, the mother of the Gods, was reprefented with a key, because it opens in the fpring, and fhuts in the winter. Plutarch calls the Parcæ xos, because they have the power of human life. Pindar gives the goddefs Quiet, the keys of counfels and of war. Orpheus gives Proferpine the keys of hell. Ovid and others give Janus a key, because he prefided over gates. Feftus gives Portumnus one too, as prefiding over harbours. Proclus gives the Sun the keys of the fountain of life. And Mithras, who is the fame as the Sun, was reprefented with a key in each hand, as may be seen in Montfaucon's Diar. Ital. c. xiv. Ariftides gives Serapis the keys of earth and sea. Orpheus gives Pluto the keys of earth and hell. From this manner of reprefenting and fpeaking of their deities fo common among the Antients, may be derived that concerning the keys of 4 death |