That a spring was a necessary adjunct to the oracular seats of Apollo1, is evident from many circumstances connected with the history of those religious establishments. Poets and other writers have generally the most agreeable associations in respect to fountains. Homer compares Agamemnon shedding tears to a fountain trickling from the womb of a rock. Love has been called a spring perennially flowing with delight: a king is styled the "fountain of honour:" Marcus Aurelius desires us to look within, as within is the fountain of good: and Akenside, alluding to the capacities of the mind, exclaims 66 Mind, mind alone-bear witness earth and heaven! The living fountains in itself contains Of beauteous and sublime." Lucretius associates fountains with his splendid exordium3: and Aristotle calls those of the Greek Archipelago "cements of society;" for at those places the young women were accustomed to meet every evening. While one drew water, another sung, a third accompanied, then all the maids of the village followed in chorus; and the evening frequently closed with a dance. De Pagés assures us, that the most beautiful subject for a painter, in the East, is that of a young female, on her way from a fountain: and one of the best pictures of Raphael is that, which personifies the servant of Abraham meeting Rebecca at the well. Berghem has a picture represent ing peasants driving their cattle to a fountain at the first glow of evening; and Gaspar de Witt has a beautiful landscape, animated by hunters halting at a well. But the most celebrated painter of fountains was Dubois, of Bois-le-Duc. And here we may observe, that the discovery of Portici is connected with the subject of fountains. A peasant, in the environs of that city, wanting water for his garden, resolved to sink a well. After he had laboured two or three days, he discovered several fragments of marble. This circumstance being related to the Prince D'Elbeuf, he immediately purchased the garden; when, setting several men to excavate, they soon discovered fragments of pillars; and, at length, an entire temple, formed of the best and finest marble; peopled as it were with statues, which had been buried under lava, issuing from Vesuvius in the time of Pliny the naturalist. II. One of the most remarkable fountains, in ancient times, was that of which Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus have transmitted an account. It was called "the Fountain of the Sun;" and was situated near the temple of Jupiter Ammon1. At the dawn of day this fountain was warm ; as the day advanced, it became progressively cool; at noon it was at the extremity of cold; at which time the Ammonians made use of it, to water their gardens and shrubberies. At the setting of the sun, it again became warm; and continued to increase, as the evening proceeded, till midnight; when it reached the extremity of heat as the morning advanced it grew progressively cold. This fountain is described by Quintus Curtius, : 1 Quint. Curtius, lib. iv. c. 7. Diodorus Siculus, Arrian, and Solinus: Silius Italicus also alludes to it1. There was a fountain, equally curious, in the forest of Dodona. It is said to have had the power of lighting a torch :-at noon it was dry; at midnight full; from which time it decreased till the succeeding noon 2. A similar one is mentioned, as being near Grenoble3. The celebrated Castalian fountain rushes from two precipitate rocks, and forms several romantic cascades*; and Cashmire is said to abound in fountains, which the natives call miraculous 5. Pliny the younger describes one, near the Larian Lake, which increased and decreased three times every day. It still exists". The ancients were never weary of attaching peculiar properties to fountains. That of Arethusa was supposed to have the power of forming youth to beauty; and that of Colophon of enabling the priest of the Clavian Apollo to foretel future events. This oracle was visited by Germanicus, in his progress through Ionia. The priest inquired his name; then descending into a cavern, in which the secret spring was, he drank of it; and, returning to Germanicus, recited two or three verses, which foretold 1 Stet fano vicina, novum et memorabile lympha, Atque eadem rursus nocturnis fervet in umbris. 2 Mela. lib. ii. c. 3. 3 Mem. de l'Academ: des Sciences, Annee, 1699. p. 23. 4 Vide Wheeler's Journey, B. iv. 314. 5 Asiatic Miscell. vol. 2. 7 Eustace, vol. 4. 45. 6 Lib. iv. Ep. 30. 1 the premature death of that illustrious prince1. Pliny mentions this spring, and asserts, that whoever drank of it died soon after 2. Of medicinal and detrimental fountains we have many instances, vouched for by writers modern as well as ancient. Some were said to produce barrenness; others fruitfulness. These are described by Theophrastus, Aristotle, Plutarch, and Solinus. Philostratus3 mentions one that occasioned the leprosy. Vitruvius speaks of another near Zama in Numidia, that gave unwonted loudness to the voice; while the Macrobian Ethiopians, living to the age of 120, their longevity was ascribed to their bathing in a fountain, which perfumed them with an oil, like the odour of violets. We read of some, that caused immediate death some the loss of memory; and others that restored it. Plutarch5 relates, that there was one called Ciffusa, which being of a bright colour, and of an exceedingly pleasant taste, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood believed, that Bacchus had been washed in it immediately after his birth. It had something of the flavour of wine. Many of these have, doubtless, a fabulous origin; yet it would be too presuming to doubt the absolute possibility of their existence. Marcellinus, however, takes no little latitude, when he describes a fountain, called the water of oaths. Its source, says he, is cold; and yet it bubbles like boiling water, and possesses a faculty of ordeal in respect to truth and falsehood. Philostratus also alludes to it 7. This flame Pliny2 also In Epirus1 was a fountain, which at the last quarter of the moon was so much impregnated with sulphur, that it kindled any wood that was put into it. And in the palatinate of Cracow there is a spring, which, upon applying a torch, flames like spirits of wine. dances on the water, but it does not heat it. speaks of two fountains, one in Judea, the other in Ethiopia, which being impregnated with sulphur, had the property of oil in respect to burning. The same quality is given to a river in Cilicia, and to a fountain near Carthage, by Vitruvius. Herodotus3 relates, that in the country of the Atarantes, in Africa, was a hill of salt, on the summit of which bubbled a spring of fresh water. At Guildford, in Connecticut, is a fountain, the water of which will evaporate, if corked in a bottle ever so strictly. Some writers mention one rising in Mount Soractes, the waters of which boiled at the rising of the sun. In Greenland, most of the springs and fountains rise and fall with the tide. Many in Spain, in England, and in Wales, have similar periodical returns; and under the rocks of Giggleswick, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, there is a well, that ebbs and flows several times in the course of an hour. When the weather is very wet or very dry, it ceases to flow. Among the Romans, no person was allowed to swim near the head of a stream; as the body was supposed to pollute consecrated waters. In the early ages of popery, the common people, where fountains and wells were situated in retired places, were 1 Pomp. Mela. ii. c. 3. 3 Nat. Hist. v. c. 7. 2 Lib. iv. c. 184. * Americ. Acad. Arts, vol. L |