lieve this was an ancient manufacture among them; and from this paffage of Propertius, we may believe it was as old, at leaft, as the time of Auguftus. The account this eminent traveller has given us of the Perfian porcelain, is in the 2d tome of his Travels in French, p. 80 and 81, and is to this purpose. Enamelled veffels, or porcelain, is one of their most beautiful manufactures. It is not confined to one particular part of Perfia. The most beautiful of their porcelain is made at Chiras, the capital of that province, which is diftinguished from the other provinces of that country by the name of Perfia, properly fo called; at Metched, the capital of Bactriana; at Yefd, and at Kirman, in Caramania; and in particular in a town of Caramania called Zorende. The earth of which thefe veffels are made is a pure enamel, within as well as without, like the Chinese porcelain. It's grain is as fine, and it is as transparent, fo that that of Perfia, oftentimes, cannot be dif tinguished from that of China. That of Perfia even fometimes excels the Chinese porcelain, it's varnish is fo exquifite. This, however, is to be understood not of the Old China, but-the New. In the year 1666, an ambassador of the Dutch Eaft-India company, having brought many things of value, to present to the Perfian court, and among the reft fifty-fix pieces of old Chinese porcelain, when the king faw them he fell a laughing, afking with an air of contempt what they were. It is faid that the Dutch frequently mix this Perfian porcelain with that of china in what they fend to Holland. . . Able workmen, in this manufactory, attribute the beauty of the colours, in this kind of ware, to the water that is made use of, fome kinds of water making the paint run, while others do not produce fuch an effect. The Perfian porcelain refifts fire, Jo as not only to admit the making water to boil in it, but veffels for boiling are made of it. It is fo hard, that mortars are made of it for grinding colours, and pounding other things, and moulds for making bullets. The materials of which this beautiful porcelain is made, are glafs and fmall pebbles found in rivers, ground very fmall, with a little mixture of earth. Porcelain is not made in the Indies. What is confumed there is all imported, either from Perfia, or Japan, or China, and the other kingdoms between China and Pegu, He adds to the account a story that is current in Perfia, and which, if true, is a ftrong proof of the abilities of the potters of that country. It seems it was said there, that the potters of the city of Yezd, in Caramania, fent one day to the potters of Ifpahan, as it were in defiance, a porcelain vessel which would hold a dozen pounds (or pints) of water, and weighed only the eighth part of an ounce. Parthia and Perfia mean the fame, or nearly the fame empire; they then that read this account of Chardin, will not wonder, that precious veffels of this kind should be brought to Ægypt, and known among the Romans; c 3 and and will see that Pliny was not misinformed, when he defcribes thefe veffels as brought from Caramania, for though this ware is made now in other parts of that empire, yet most of the towns he diftinctly mentions are in Caramania, and the most curious workmen in that manufactory, it seems, refide there ftill. How Pliny came to be lefs acquainted with the nature of that fubftance, of which thefe precious veffels were formed, than an elder writer, at the fame time a poet, who only mentions them occafionally, while Pliny was a profeffed naturalift, whofe business it was to enquire curiously into matters of this fort, is extremely aftonishing; and does no honour to his care, in making enquiries concerning thofe matters about which he wrote. The Dauphin editor of Suetonius seems to have been as unacquainted with any manufactory of this kind in the Eaft now, excepting in China, as Pliny himself. We may however juftly fuppofe, I apprehend, that these pieces of ancient Parthian porcelain were not beautified, as now, with curious paintings, reprefenting flowers, human figures, landfcapes, &c, for then Pliny could hardly have fuppofed these cups were made of natural stone; no, though he might have feen thofe Mocha ftones, in which fuch curious ramifications, and odd figures appear, as fometimes feem to refemble landscapes, porcelain like that of our times must have appeared, to him, to have been artificial, It should seem then, that their beauty confifted in the liveliness of the respective colours that appeared in each cup, like those of our coloured veffels of glafs; or, at most, in the curious ftreaks of two different colours in one and the fame cup, as there appear ftrata, or veins, of different colours in the onyx, black, or brown and white. On account of which likeness perhaps it is, that Propertius elsewhere calls the onyx murrine, "Et crocino nares murrheus ungat onyx '." N° VII. Horace fuppofes the flesh of goats, fed upon vines, was the most delicious of any of that kind of food: "Vinea fubmittit capreas non femper edules." Sat. lib. ii. fat. 4, v. 43. "The vine-fed goats not always luscious fare.” FRANCIS. The Dauphin commentator only cites a paffage here from Virgil, in which he speaks of the fondnefs of goats, fheep, neat-cattle, &c, for the leaves and young fhoots of vines, which were therefore to be carefully fenced about. But fuch short ftolen repafts could • Lib. 3, El. 10, v. 22. not not be supposed to make any great alteration in the flavour of their flesh, or to occafion their being chofen for flaughter on that ac count. A paffage from Dr. Richard Chandler's Travels, in the Leffer Afia, would furnish a much better note on this line of Horace, in which he speaks, with fome furprise, of his finding fome vineyards ftill green, in the beginning of October, belonging to a town fituate on an hill between Aiafaluck and Scala Nova; whereas, he informs us, about Smyrna, the leaves were decayed, or firipped by the camels and herds of goats, which are admitted to browfe upon them after the vintage'. The vineyards then, it seems, are the intended paftures for goats in autumn, and might be supposed to afford a fort of food, that made their flesh more delicious than the common herbage of the fields. But this method of fattening them does not, it seems, always answer. N° VIII. The greafy water, mentioned by Horace in the fecond fatire of his fecond book, as given to his guests by Nævius, a man of the most ■ P. 142. 2 V. 68, 69, -Nec fic ut fimplex Nævius, untam Convivis præbebit aquam. Vitium hoc quoque magnum. parfimonious |