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gant Appearance, and much admired by many: This carries a fine Reſemblance of Silver, though it is in Reality a Stone of an entirely different Kind.
LXXIV. Many alſo there are, which admit all Kinds of working; as in [1] Siphnus there is a foſſile Subſance of this Kind, which is dug in Lumps, and roundiſh Maſſes, at about three Furlongs Diſtance from the Sea: This may at firſt be either engraved on, or worked by the Turner into any Form, by reaſon of
- ↑ This Stone was afterwards called Lapis Siphnius, from the Place where our Author obſerves it was found, which was an Iſland in the Ægean Sea, called by ſome Merope. What the Antients in general have left us about it beſide, is, that it was of Strength to bear the Fire. And Veſſels made of it, ſerved, as thoſe of Earthen-ware, for the common Offices of Boiling, &c. Pliny ſums up their Accounts of it in theſe Words: In Siphno Lapis eſt qui cavatur, tornaturque in vaſa coquendis cibis utilia, vel ad eſculentorum uſus: and a little afterwards, Sed in Siphnio ſingulare quod, excalfactus, oleo nigreſcit dureſcitque, natura molliſſ-
Subſtance, ſo nearly reſembling Silver in Appearance, that it was ſcarce, at firſt Sight, to be diſtinguiſhed from it: It was found in large Maſſes, and was of a Texture eaſily to be wrought into any Shape or Figure. This made it in great Eſteem among the Antients, and in conſtant Uſe, turned into Veſſels of different Kinds. What Stone it was, is at preſent not to be certainly determined, farther than that it was of the Ollaris Kind; probably it may be now loſt; at leaſt among the Nations we have Commerce with.
What I have before obſerved of the Antients calling this ſilvery Stone the Magnet, and our Loadſtone the Heraclius Lapis, is confirmed, in very plain Words, by Heſychius, Μαγνῆτις λίθος, αὕτη πλανῷ τὴν ὂψιν ἀργύρῳ ἐμφερὴς οὖσα, ἡ δὲ Ἡρακλεῶτις τὸν σίδηρον ἐπισπᾶται.
