Page:Tixall Poetry.djvu/404

 Among the poems of the "Amalthei," three poetical brothers, in the 16th century, and perhaps the best Latin poets, and most elegant scholars of their age, there is a very pretty epigram, on the ashes of a lover made into sand for an hour-glass; it is thus entitled:

P. 60. The most famous manufacture for looking-glasses in Europe was formerly at Venice. They are still made in an island near that city; but are now surpassed by those of France and Spain. This prophecy of the poet has been sadly verified in our days.

A striking antithesis.

Archimedes, the greatest mathematician, it would seem, that ever lived, constructed a glass sphere, in which were shown the positions of all the planets and fixed stars, together with the motions of the heavenly bodies. This sphere was justly esteemed such a master-piece of ingenuity, that a representation of it was carved on his tomb. In the progress of time, however, the situation of this tomb bad become unknown even to the inhabitants of Syracuse, Archimedes's native place. It was discovered by Cicero, who was very proud of the circumstance. For, having related this adventure in his "Tusculan Q." l. 5. he thus concludes: "Ita nobilissima Græciæ civitas quondam, imo etiam doctissima, sui civis unius acutissimi monumentum ignorâsset, nisi ab homine Arpinate didicisset."