30 N A T U R A L ' H I S T O R Y
flowly communicated, and diftributed by greater quantities into
fome ftrata than into othfers,
sect. vii.? Here I caamrit feat pb&rwe a; gflèat miftake in fome ihggnidus
writers of Natural Hiftory, who very undefervedly look upon rain,
ceflaiy. as a puni.fhmenit inflidfced upon mankind for the fins of the antediluvian
world, imagining that there was no fuch thing before the
flood, even nothing but ferene dries, and plentiful dews. But it
may be alked, Was there any fun, any ocean, rivers, herb, plant,
or tree ? I f there were, .there muft have been rain, nay violent
rain. Could dews fupply that moifture which the fun exhaled?
What would become of Egypt where' there is little or -rib rain,
i f it were notrfor fomething more than dew ; if it were not for the
river Nile? and whence comes the increafe of their Nile, to which
they owe the plenty of their grounds, but from the periodical Rains
of Ethiopia ? and what is I the mifery of that otherwife .fertile and
delightful country,- but their want of Rain ? Is not alf vegetation at
a ftand, even in an Englifh climate, after-a long drought, notwith-
ftanding the fummer dews are then moft frequent ?. How much
greater Hill is the heat and drought betwixt the tropics ? and how
much more neceflary the Rain in inch hot countries ? Dews are
vapours exhaled by the Sun in its decline, and therefore rife but ; d
lilde way into the Atmofphere, before the cold of the nightarrefts,
eondenfes, and - precipitates them : and what are thefè dews to all
the vapours which the Sun in its ftrength muft raife ? What, became
of the day-vapours exhaled by the Sun; what hindred them from
coalefcing into drops, and thóïè drops from falling, when they were
become too heavy for the medium. they fwam in ? and. what' hindred
the Antediluvian feas and rivers from becoming dry but the
returns of Rain ? In fhort, if the Antediluvian world was without
Rain, it was without the chief balance for the heat of the Surij
and that kindly moiflure which the winds were chiefly deflgned to
' waft from place to place, and diftribute by drops in fuch gentle
parcels as might relieve and refrefh both plants and animals; nay,
not only gentle but violent Rains are as neceflary tp the - orderly
courfe of natural things as violent winds; they- both tend to prevent
ftagnations in the Atmofphere and the Ocean, to difperfe poifonous
exhalations, and to diftribute moifture and air where there was none
before, or at leaft where there was much want.
Another error which thefe refined Naturalifts were obliged to hold-
in confequence of the former, is, that the Antediluvian Ikies were
without clouds, by which equally groundlefs fancy they dripped the
poor Atmofphere and reduced it to a naked blank, forgetting nature
in her gayeft drefs, nor confidering that the richeft ftreams of light,
and
$ F ‘ \ ?C Ö R N W A X L . • I M
and the fineft tints, which the eye ban fee, or . the pencil imitate,
.are borrowed from , clouds.
, By pure Water, Imean that,which is moft Ample, taftelefs, clear, sect.viii.
and inodorous. O f this kind we have great quantities in all parts ° fWells of
of Cornwall, but fome Springs are .more, noted than others. - ■ v ’UfC ater‘
The foil round Madern Well, in the parifli of Madern, is black' Maddem
boggy, .and light, but the ftratum through which the Spring rifes,wdL
is a grey moorftone gravel, called, .by the Cornifh, Grouan.:-Here
people who labour under pains, aches, and ftiffnefs of limbs, .come
and wafh, and many-.cures are. faid to have been performed',
.although the Water can only aft- by its cold and limpid nature-
forafmuch as if has no perceivable mineral impregnation. Hither
alfo upon much lefs juftifiable errands come the unealy,.' impatient,
and fuperftitious, and by.: dropping, .pins or pebbles into the Water,
and by.(baking the ground round the Spring, fo as,to raife bubbles
from the bottom, at a certain time of the year, Moon, and day,
endeavour to fettle fuch doubts and enquiries as; will not let
the idle and anxious reft. Here therefore . they come,' and,
inftead of allaying, defervcdly feed their uneafinefs ; .the fuppöfed
refponfes ferving equally to increafe the gloom of : the melancholy,
the fufpicions ' ô f the - Jealous, .and. the pafiion of the' enamoured.
As great ri piece ©f felly i l l this * is, ’tis à wery antiefit
one. The Caftalian Fountain, and many others among the Grecians,
was fuppofed to be of a prophetic nature \ By dipping: a fair mirror
into a Well, the Patræans of Greece received, as they fuppofrd,
fome notice, of enfuing fieknefs or health,, from the various figures
pourtrayed ■ upon the furface.. In Laconia they, caft into a pool,
facred to Juno, cakes of bread-corn ; if. they funk, good was portended
; ii they.fwam,;. fomething dreadful was to enfue t Sometimes
they, threw three ftones into the Water, and formed their con-
clufions from the lèverai turns they made in finking 4
In the parifh of .Sanered there, is a Well whofe Water rifes in the Euny Well,
feme kind of foil as Madern Well ; and iasta witnefs of its having
done remarkable cures, it has a chapel adjoining to it, dedicated to
St. Euinus ‘5* the ruins of which,, oonfifting of much carved ftone,
befpeak it to have been formerly,of no little note. The Water has
the reputation, of .drying humours, as.well as healing wounds and
fores. It gives no perceivable evidence of any mineral impregnation ;
neither, need., it ; to produce the effects attributed . to it, for certain
it is, that the mere col duels, of Water will work . furpnzmg cures 5
wounds,, fores, aches, dilbrdered ;eyes, and the like, are often- cured
T See Gamâen’s Britannia, page 13. ’ t lb. 296'.
1 •* Clem. Protrept. Pott.Gr. Antigu. p a g é f à S f i ; : Ib. 350. ;
S , . ' ' Commonly called Chapel-puny.
by