s
subjects; he is pleased to bend their bodies with their genius; his
presence must lay those who behold him prostrate on the earth; he
desires no eagerness, no attention; he would only inspire terror.

FIRE, AND THE ORIGIN OF FIREWORKS.

In the Memoirs of the French Academy, a little essay on this subject is
sufficiently curious; the following contains the facts:--

FIREWORKS were not known to antiquity.--It is certainly a modern
invention. If ever the ancients employed fires at their festivals, it
was only for religious purposes.

Fire, in primaeval ages, was a symbol of respect, or an instrument of
terror. In both these ways God manifested himself to man. In the holy
writings he compares himself sometimes to an ardent fire, to display his
holiness and his purity; sometimes he renders himself visible under the
form of a burning bush, to express himself to be as formidable as a
devouring fire: again, he rains sulphur; and often, before he speaks, he
attracts the attention of the multitude by flashes of lightning.

Fire was worshipped as a divinity by several idolaters: the Platonists
confounded it with the heavens, and considered it as the divine
intelligence. Sometimes it is a symbol of majesty.--God walked (if we
may so express ourselves) with his people, preceded by a pillar of fire;
and the monarchs of Asia, according to Herodotus, commanded that such
ensigns of their majesty should be carried before them. These fires,
according to Quintus Curtius, were considered as holy and eternal, and
were carried at the head of their armies on little altars of silver, in
the midst of the magi who accompanied them and sang their hymns.

Fire was also a symbol of majesty amongst the Romans; and if it was used
by them in their festivals, it was rather employed for the ceremonies of
religion than for a peculiar mark of their rejoicings. Fare was always
held to be most proper and holy for sacrifices; in this the Pagans
imitated the Hebrews. The fire so carefully preserved by the Vestals was
probably an imitation of that which fell from heaven on the victim
offered by Aaron, and long afterwards religiously kept up by the
priests. Servius, one of the seven kings of Rome, commanded a great fire
of straw to be kindled in the public place of every town in Italy to
consecrate for repose a certain day in seed-time, or sowing.

The Greeks lighted lamps at a certain feast held in honour of Minerva,
who gave them oil; of Vulca