arkable. He says, that mariners, whose course lay through the Libyan
sea, have often met with swans, and heard them singing in a melancholy
strain: and upon a nearer approach, they could perceive that some of them
were dying, from whom the harmony proceeded. Who would have expected to
have found swans swimming in the salt sea, in the midst of the
Mediterranean? There is nothing that a Grecian would not devise in support
of a favourite error. The legend from beginning to end is groundless: and
though most speak of the music of swans as exquisite; yet some absolutely
deny [195]the whole of it; and others are more moderate in their
commendations. The watermen in Lucian give the preference to a jackdaw: but
Antipater in some degree dissents, and thinks that the swan has the
advantage.

[196][Greek: Loiteros kuknon mikros throos, ee koloion]
[Greek: Krogmos.]

And Lucretius confesses, that the screaming of a crane is not quite so
pleasing:

[197]Parvus ut est, Cygni melior canor, ille gruum quam
Clamor:

Which however is paying them no great compliment. To these respectable
personages I must add the evidence of a modern; one too of no small repute,
even the great Scaliger. He says, that he made a strict scrutiny about this
affair, when in Italy; and the result of his observations was this:
[198]Ferrariae multos (cygnos) vidimus, sed cantores sane malos, neque
melius ansere canere.

* * * * *

OF

TEMPLE SCIENCE.

The Egyptians were very famous for geometrical knowledge: and as all the
flat part of their country was annually overflowed, it is reasonable to
suppose that they made use of this science to determine their lands, and to
make out their several claims, at the retreat of the waters. Many indeed
have thought, that the confusion of property, which must for a while have
prevailed, gave birth to practical [199]geometry, in order to remedy the
evil: and in consequence of it, that charts and maps were first delineated
in this country. These, we may imagine, did not relate only to private
demesnes: but included also the course of the Nile in its various branches;
and all the sea coast, and its inlets, with which lower Egypt was bounded.

It is very certain, that the people of Colchis, who were a colony from
Egypt, had charts of this sort, with written descriptions of the seas and
shores, whithersoever they traded: and they at one time carried on a most
extensive commerce.