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. Pliny says, that this becomes hard, and turns into gems, like the carbuncle, being of a fiery tint, and that the stone has the name of 'lyncurium.' Beckmann (Hist. Inventions) thinks that this was probably the jacinth, or hyacinth, while others suppose it to have been the tourmaline, or transparent amber.] [Footnote 48: _A soft plant._--Ver. 417. Modern improvement in knowledge has shown that coral is not a plant, but an animal substance.] [Footnote 49: _Sparta was famed._--Ver. 426-30. These lines are looked upon by many Commentators as spurious, as they are omitted in most MSS. Besides, all these cities were flourishing in the time of Pythagoras. If they are genuine, Ovid is here guilty of a series of anachronisms.] [Footnote 50: _But one born._--Ver. 447. This was Octavius, the adopted son of Julius Caesar. According to Suetonius, he traced his descent, through his mother, from Ascanius or Iuelus.] [Footnote 51: _Ought not to fill._--Ver. 462. Clarke's quaint translation is, 'And let us not cram our g--ts with Thyestian victuals.'] [Footnote 52: _Feather foils._--Ver. 475. He alludes to the 'formido;' which was made of coloured feathers, and was used to scare the deer into the toils.] EXPLANATION. The Poet having now exhausted nearly all the transformations which ancient history afforded him, proceeds to enlist in the number some of the real phenomena of nature, together with some imaginary ones. As Pythagoras was considered to have pursued metaphysical studies more deeply, perhaps, than any other of the ancient philosophers, Ovid could not have introduced a personage more fitted to discuss these subjects. Having travelled through Asia, it is supposed that Pythagoras passed into Italy, and settled at Crotona, to promulgate there the philosophical principles which he had acquired in his travels through Egypt and Asia Minor. The Pythagorean philosophy was well-suited for the purpose of mingling its doctrines with the fabulous narratives of the Poet, as it consisted, in great part, of the doctrine of an endless series of transformations. Its main features may be reduced to two general heads; the first of which was the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, or continual transmigration of souls from one body into another. Pythagoras is supposed not to have originated this doctrine, but
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