Note 2833 — BOOK XXXVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF STONES. (continued 2)

“Excogitaverat.” Beckmann would seem to give this word the force only of “thought of,” for he gives it as his opinion that attempts were made at Sidon to form glass mirrors, but that the experiments had not completely succeeded. “Had this invention formed an epoch in the art of making mirrors, Pliny, in another place (B. xxxiii. c. 45), where he describes the various improvements of it so fully, would not have omitted it: but of those experiments he makes no further mention.” He also expresses an opinion that the Sidonian mirrors consisted of dark-coloured glass, resembling obsidian stone.”—Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 69, 70. Bohn’s Edition.