Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/142

 Sir William Temple's Method leads me now to consider, what Estimate ought to be made of the Learning of those Nations, from which he derives all the Knowledge of these Ancient Greeks: I shall only therefore give a short Specimen of those Discoveries, with which these Ancient Sages enriched the Ages in which they lived, as I have already done of the Pythagoreans, and then proceed.

Diogenes Laërtius informs us of Empedocles's (b) Skill in Magick, by the Instance of his stopping those pestilential Vapours that annoy'd his Town of Agrigentum. He took some Asses, and flea'd them, and hung their Hides over those Rocks that lay open to the Etesian Winds, which hindred their Passage, and so freed the Town. He tells another Story of Democritus (c), That he was so nice in his Observations, that he could tell whether a Young Woman were a Virgin, by her Looks, and could find it out, though she had been corrupted but the Day before; and he knew by looking upon it, that some Goats Milk that was brought him, was of a Black Goat that had had but one Kid.

These are Instances very seriously recorded by grave Authors of the Magical Wisdom of the Ancients; that is, as