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Article THE SCAMANDRIAN SPRINGS. ← Page 2 of 2 Article EARLY TALENT AND PIETY. Page 1 of 2 →
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The Scamandrian Springs.
much better classic than Pope , and a more correct critic than Broome or Fenton , never thought of terming these founts or springs the sources of Scamander ' s stream ; on the contrary , he treats them as subsidiaries , or derivatives" And now they reached the running rivulets clear . Where from Scamander ' s dizzy flood arise Two fountains . " In a note to the small edition of Cowperwhence this quotation is
, taken , it is stated that " the Scamander ran down the eastern side of Ida ; and at the distance of three stadia from Troy , making a dip , it passed under the walls , and rose again under the form of the two fountains , here described , within them ; from which fountains these rivulets are said to have proceeded . " AVe know not upon what authority this is given ; but were it the case , it might have justified the poet in assigning them as a source of the river , that is , its origin in the plain .
Again , Wood informs us , in his Essay on Homer , that " he saw the Scamander in its lowest state , when it had not water sufficient to support one continued current from its source to the sea . It consisted of a succession of several small streams produced from different sprinqs , all
which were absorbed in the gravelly channel after a short and languid course . " Here , then , we have springs or fountains feeding , or rather forming it in the dry season , when its sources in mount Ida had failed ; hence it might be described as having different sources during the wet and during the dry season ; and thus also Homer ' s seeming inconsistency ( if he did attribute to it different sources ) might be reconciled . But we prefer taking the meaning as before stated , without
equivocation , namely , that the poet alludes to the two springs or fountains simply as being beside the river , and receiving their name from their locality , without any reference to them either as primary or secondary sources of the ' vortiginous Scamander , " as he emphatically terms it , and which peculiar characteristic it could only assume when swoln by the mountain torrents poured down from Ida ' s side , high above the plain and far from Troy . The explanation above given is as ancient as Strabo . TOIOTES .
Early Talent And Piety.
EARLY TALENT AND PIETY .
In the previous part of the seventeenth century there lived , m an obscure village near Liverpool , a young gentleman named Horrox . The astronomical tables of Kepler had indicated a transit of Venus in 1631 , but none was observed . Horrox , who had a fondness for the science , set himself to correct the error of the tables ; and , without much assistance from books or instruments , found that such a phenomenon might be expected to occur in 1639 . He repeated his calculations with all the
ardour and zeal of a youthful enquirer , and , confident of the result , imparted his expected triumph to a friend in Manchester , desiring him to Watch for the event and take observations . So eager and anxious was he to see his predictions fulfilled , and be the first to observe the passage of the planet , that he commenced his observations the day before the calculated time , in case of the possibility of error , and he resumed them at the rising of tlie sun the next day . That day was Sunday , the 4 th December , 1639 ; and the very hour of the expected visible appearance
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Scamandrian Springs.
much better classic than Pope , and a more correct critic than Broome or Fenton , never thought of terming these founts or springs the sources of Scamander ' s stream ; on the contrary , he treats them as subsidiaries , or derivatives" And now they reached the running rivulets clear . Where from Scamander ' s dizzy flood arise Two fountains . " In a note to the small edition of Cowperwhence this quotation is
, taken , it is stated that " the Scamander ran down the eastern side of Ida ; and at the distance of three stadia from Troy , making a dip , it passed under the walls , and rose again under the form of the two fountains , here described , within them ; from which fountains these rivulets are said to have proceeded . " AVe know not upon what authority this is given ; but were it the case , it might have justified the poet in assigning them as a source of the river , that is , its origin in the plain .
Again , Wood informs us , in his Essay on Homer , that " he saw the Scamander in its lowest state , when it had not water sufficient to support one continued current from its source to the sea . It consisted of a succession of several small streams produced from different sprinqs , all
which were absorbed in the gravelly channel after a short and languid course . " Here , then , we have springs or fountains feeding , or rather forming it in the dry season , when its sources in mount Ida had failed ; hence it might be described as having different sources during the wet and during the dry season ; and thus also Homer ' s seeming inconsistency ( if he did attribute to it different sources ) might be reconciled . But we prefer taking the meaning as before stated , without
equivocation , namely , that the poet alludes to the two springs or fountains simply as being beside the river , and receiving their name from their locality , without any reference to them either as primary or secondary sources of the ' vortiginous Scamander , " as he emphatically terms it , and which peculiar characteristic it could only assume when swoln by the mountain torrents poured down from Ida ' s side , high above the plain and far from Troy . The explanation above given is as ancient as Strabo . TOIOTES .
Early Talent And Piety.
EARLY TALENT AND PIETY .
In the previous part of the seventeenth century there lived , m an obscure village near Liverpool , a young gentleman named Horrox . The astronomical tables of Kepler had indicated a transit of Venus in 1631 , but none was observed . Horrox , who had a fondness for the science , set himself to correct the error of the tables ; and , without much assistance from books or instruments , found that such a phenomenon might be expected to occur in 1639 . He repeated his calculations with all the
ardour and zeal of a youthful enquirer , and , confident of the result , imparted his expected triumph to a friend in Manchester , desiring him to Watch for the event and take observations . So eager and anxious was he to see his predictions fulfilled , and be the first to observe the passage of the planet , that he commenced his observations the day before the calculated time , in case of the possibility of error , and he resumed them at the rising of tlie sun the next day . That day was Sunday , the 4 th December , 1639 ; and the very hour of the expected visible appearance