s the
origin of his adoption of this fragment of a chimney-slab, which I have
seen, and with a better judge wondered at the injudicious antiquary, who
could have been duped by the slight and ill-formed scratches, and even
with a false spelling of the name, which, however, succeeded in being
passed off as a genuine Saxon inscription: but he had counted on his
man.[213] The trick is not so original as it seems. One De Grassis had
engraved on marble the epitaph of a mule, which he buried in his
vineyard: some time after, having ordered a new plantation on the spot,
the diggers could not fail of disinterring what lay ready for them. The
inscription imported that one Publius Grassus had raised this monument
to his mule! De Grassis gave it out as an odd coincidence of names, and
a prophecy about his own mule! It was a simple joke! The marble was
thrown by, and no more thought of. Several years after it rose into
celebrity, for with the erudite it then passed for an ancient
inscription, and the antiquary Poracchi inserted the epitaph in his work
on "Burials." Thus De Grassis and his mule, equally respectable, would
have come down to posterity, had not the story by some means got wind!
An incident of this nature is recorded in Portuguese history, contrived
with the intention to keep up the national spirit, and diffuse hopes of
the new enterprise of Vasco de Gama, who had just sailed on a voyage of
discovery to the Indies. Three stones were discovered near Cintra,
bearing in ancient characters a Latin inscription; a sibylline oracle
addressed prophetically "To the Inhabitants of the West!" stating that
when these three stones shall be found, the Ganges, the Indus, and the
Tagus should exchange their commodities! This was the pious fraud of a
Portuguese poet, sanctioned by the approbation of the king. When the
stones had lain a sufficient time in the damp earth, so as to become
apparently antique, our poet invited a numerous party to a dinner at his
country-house; in the midst of the entertainment a peasant rushed in,
announcing the sudden discovery of this treasure! The inscription was
placed among the royal collections as a sacred curiosity! The prophecy
was accomplished, and the oracle was long considered genuine!

In such cases no mischief resulted; the annals of mankind were not
confused by spurious dynasties and fabulous chronologies; but when
literary forgeries are published by those whose character hardly admits
of a susp