MUSEUM

Chap. I. and supported by pedestals. Astrolabes, Planispheres, Quadrants, a collection most rich in mathematical instruments.

Lamps. Ancient lamps and lanterns, various monuments of the architecture of the ancients, aquatic and marine animals.

Petrified things. A gathered collection of petrified things, both bones and woods, and various insects.

Monuments and icons of the Congii ancient Roman liquid measures, ancient vessels, urns, weights, and measures.

Delphic Oracle. The Delphic Oracle, or a speaking statue.

Machine for divination. A Divinatory machine that shows the influence of the planets to anyone on the circumference of two glass spheres, through genii moving uniformly within by a sympathetic motion, and twisting at a great distance in equal proportion; each stops in its own sphere at the limit of the same sign. Part I.

Various movements of solid globes, Examples of perpetual motion. expressing the likeness of perpetual motion.

Perpetual hydraulic motion through rarefaction and condensation, Archimedes' screw carrying globes upward in continuous motion through helical glass channels.

The Aeolian Magnet, and a flying fish, which they call the marine swallow, indicating the blowing wind within the ceilings of the room. Aeolian spheres, a versatile sieve, Chinese idols, and statues that indicate the conditions of the common people and men, their dress, customs, and character, and various monuments of the new world.

Several cabinets, among others one, opening its door to every side, and stuffed inside with an abundance of stones and coins.

C H A P T E R II.

The formal description of the ceiling is mystical.

Chap. II. Ovatum 1. Symbolic polyglot inscriptions of the vault. THE hollow extension of the ceiling is seen divided by architectural art into five oval spaces, corresponding to as many vaults. The first of these represents a Salamander thriving in the midst of flames; I do not know if it is more a symbol of the fiery element, or a sign of the Author’s untiring spirit in the lyceum of the sciences, luring the souls of guests to the arduous studies of the virtues; I would certainly doubt it to be a sign of fire, and I could interpret it under a physical sense, if I had not seen his mind explained by four epigraphs of the sages of ancient and foreign nations; Chaldaic. the first of which in the Chaldaic language is translated by Beniochai into this sense: There is no Kingdom, nor any thing, nor any place, or province, in which the name of the God Tetragrammaton is not found written, even to the last fibers of the soul and the members of the human body. On the other side, in the Arabic language, Aben Ragel original: "Aben Ragel" breaks out into this sense: Arabic. Whoever knows the chain by which the lower world is joined to the upper will know the mysteries of nature and will act as a creator of miracles.

The second oval, among eight genii swelling with wind and fixed to the vault, displays a bird or marine swallow hanging in the middle, breathing in with these inscriptions, the former of which taken from Mar Ephrem original: "Mar Ephrem" holds thus: Wisdom is an inexhaustible treasure; whoever finds it, blessed is he, for he will carry divine hope under a human habit, having become a friend of God and men. The other Egyptian utterance is taken from Adris, or Hermes Trismegistus, Egyptian. whose words are: There is a heaven above, there is a heaven below, all things above and all things below, understand these and prosper. Furthermore, the marine swallow...