CHAPTER XIV.

HydroBtatics — Miraculous fountain of Andros — ^Tomb of fielus — Statues that shed tears— Perpetual lamps — Chemistry — Liquids changing colour — Condensed blood becoming liquids-Inflam- mable liquid — ^The art of distilling alcoholic liquors was for- merly known, even beyond the temples.
Means yet more simple and more easily exposed than those already noticed here, served to give the phenomena of Occult Science the appearance of miracles. In the island of Andros"**" was a fountain esteemed miraculous, fix)m its discharging wine for seven days, and water only during the rest of the year.f An elementary acquaint- ance with hydrostatics, and the effects of the pressure of fluids, serve to explain this apparent miracle, as well as that connected with another fountain at Rome, which, on the return of Augustus to the city, after the war in Sicily, flowed with oilj during an entire
* Andros was an island in the iEgean sea, in the capital of which, called also Andros, was a temple of Bacchus, and the above celebrated fountain, ^e apparent miracle was performed during the ides of January. — ^Ed.
t Plin. Hist. Nat, lib. ii. cap. cm.
I Paul Orose, who relates this prodigy, believes it to be a pro- phetic emblem of the birth of Christ, under tlie empire of Augustus. We think that this fact was not in its commencement
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day. Another apparent miracle was performed every year at the feast of Bacchus, in a town of Elis :* three empty urns, that were closed in presence of the strangers attracted in crowds to this spectacle^ on being reopened, were found to have filled themselves with wincf A more striking exhibition might have been obtained, by employing the machine to which we give the name of the Fountain of Heron, (although, in all probability, it was not invented, but simply described by that mathe- matician), as the water poured into the reservoir before the eyes of the spectators, would seem to have issued from it in the form of wine.
It is believed, with much probability, that the represen- tation of the infernal regions, as they were conceived by the Greeks, formed a part of the celebration of the mysteries. The curious punishment of the Danaides| must then have
exhibited as a miracle ; credulity allowed itself, subsequently, to be deceived by the figurative expressions made use of by contem- porary writers, to celebrate the return of the conqueror. Foun- tains of wine, in these later days, have flowed in our own market places, on the occasion of public rejoicings.
* The capital of a country in Greece, where the Oljrmpic games were celebrated on the banks of the Alpheus. It was celebrated for a temple of Venus, and a statue of the goddess made of gold and ivory, with the feet resting oh a tortoise, the work of Phidias. — ^Ed.
t Athenee. Deipnasoph, lib. i. cap. xxx. — Pausanias. EUac. lib.