[144] P. Martini (Hist. p. 106), P. Amiot (Abrégé chronologique de l’histoire de la Chine, contained in the collection of the Mémoires sur les Chinois, tom. xiii.), Mailla (Hist. Gener. de la Chine, Paris, 1777, tom. i. p. 317), P. Gaubil (Astronomie Chinoise), Sir G. Staunton (Embassy to China), M. Roding (Dict. Polyglotte de Marine), W. Josh. Hager (Dissert. sur la Boussole), contend that from time immemorial the Chinese were in possession of the magnet. That the compass came from the Chinese to the Europeans, through the Arabs, is maintained by Bergeron (Hist. des Sarrazins, p. 119). Riccioli (Geogr. et Hydrogr. Ven. 1672.) Mention is made of the compass _afloat_ in the third and in the fifth centuries of our era. “There were then (Tsin dynasty) ships directed to the south by the needle.”--_Poi-wen-jeu-fou_, or Great Encyclopedia. [145] Arago, in the Annales de Chimie, t. xxxii. p. 214; Brewster, Treatise on Magnetism, 1837, p. 111; Baumgarten, in the Zeitschrift für Phys. und Mathem. bd. ii. s. 419. [146] Humboldt, Examen critique de l’Histoire de la Géographie, t. iii. p. 36. [147] Cosmos, vol. i. p. 169. [148] Klaproth speaks of the “cardinal” points, not apprehending the value of the term. In Meredith the “four points” are given in Chinese, so also _Cut-Leet_ (Cutlet). [149] “Those who have not been in India cannot know how all-important the division of everything into sixteen parts is, or some multiple or sub-multiple of that number: not only is the money of the country so divided, and all the weights and measures, but all property is divided into annas (sixteenths): in conversation it is the usual expletive of quantity.”--FERGUSON’S _Hindostan_, Intro., p. 12. [150] The passage of Brunetto Latini (_Lib. du Tresor_, MSS. du Roi, No. 7609), is too well known to quote; but I subjoin a curious fragment of a letter, attributed to him, which was published in the “Monthly Review” of June, 1802. It appears to me to be of indubitable authenticity. He is describing the wonders shown him by Roger Bacon, who was a disciple of the Arabs, and had studied at Cordova, like Gerbert, Abelard, and all the distinguished men of the period:--“La magnete pierre laide et noire, ob el fer volontiers se joint, lon touche ob une aiguillet et en festue lon fischie (fix it on a piece of reed); puis lon mette en laigue (float it on the water) et se tient dessus, et la pointe se torne contre l’estoille: quand la nuit fut tenebrous, et lon ne voie estoille ni lune, poet li mariner tenir droite voie.” “Acus ferrea, postquam adamantem contigerit, ad stellam septentrionalem, quæ, velut axis firmamenti, aliis vergentibus, non movetur, semper convertitur, unde valde necessarius est navigantibus in mari.”--JAC. DE VIT. _Histor. Hyerosolymit._ c. 89, A.D. 1215. [151] Univ. Hist. vol. xviii. p. 213. Müller’s Etrüsker, “On the Temple,” vol. iii. Niebuhr’s Rome, app. to vol. ii. p. 624.