* "AURI SACRA FAMES.

" A wealthy merchant at Tangier, whose auri sacra fames had led him to resist for a long time the cruel tortures that had been, employed against him, yielded at length to the following trial.

They are prefaced by some general reflexions on the mischiefs occasioned by the sacra fames auri.

Quia circa medium illius in summo apice turris maioris, duo sunt nodi seu pomella de decoctissimi auri metallo miræ magnitudinis, et serenæ resplendentiæ, et in ipsis formati duo carbunculi grandes, et lati, sua virtute tenebras effugantes, et velut splendorem plenilunij nocturno tempore mentientes.

velut omni genere pretiosorum vasorum auri

In quarum prima sunt multæ mineriæ auri, in secunda argenti, et propter quandam crassitudinem aeris continuam, perpauca apparent sydera, praeter vnum quod dicunt Canopum, quod æstimo planetam Veneris.

Ad littus huius reperiuntur multi lapides praeciositatis immensæ et metalli grani carissimi, nec non et auri mineriæ, multumque descendit in eo

Scilicet omnibus artibus antistat spes lucri, et formosior est cumulus auri, quam quicquid Graeci Latinique delirantes scripserunt.

" "Non domus et fundus, non aeris acervus et auri Aegroto possunt domino deducere febres.

Formosior auri massa, as he well observed, the mass of gold is fairer than all your Grecian pictures, that Apelles, Phidias, or any doting painter could ever make: we are enamoured with it, "Prima fere vota, et cunctis notissima templis, Divitiae ut crescant.

Tu vero licet Orpheus sis, saxa sono testudinis emolliens, nisi plumbea eorum corda, auri vel argenti malleo emollias, &c. Salisburiensis Policrat.

Auri puri mille talenta, me hodie tibi daturum promitto, &c. 2360.

Quicquid auri apud nos est, libenter persolvemus, etiamsi tota urbs nostra aurum esset.

Plus auri quam terrae foditur in aurifodinis.

3. de contemptu mundi; nihil facilius recrudescit quam amor; ut pompa visa renovat ambitionem, auri species avaritiam, spectata corporis forma incendit luxuriam.

omnes pulchritudines terrenas auri, argenti, nemorum et camporum pulchritudinem Solis et

[a]Quisquis iter tendis, vitreas qua lucidus undas Speluncae late Thamesis praetendit opacae; Marmorea trepidant qua lentae in fornice guttae, Crystallisque latex fractus scintillat acutis; Gemmaque, luxuriae nondum famulata nitenti Splendit, et incoquitur tectum sine fraude metallum; Ingredere O! rerum pura cole mente parentem; Auriferasque auri metuens scrutare cavernas.

Nunquam jugera messibus onusta, aut Quos Gyges cumulos habebat auri; Quod vitae satis est, peto, Macrine, Mi, nequid nimis, est nimis probatum.

It was, therefore, under the name of eau d'or (aqua auri) that brandy first became known to the world; a name improperly given to it, implying as it did that it was of mineral origin, whereas its beautiful golden colour was caused by the addition of spices.

Auri Sacra Fames Sonnet.

AURI SACRA FAMES.

possessed "unum capellum de Bevre cum apparatu auri et lapidibus preciosis;" as appears from the "Wardrobe Account," of the 55th year of his reign.

'Quid non mortalia Pectora cogis Auri sacra fames' Virg.

The Indians who occupied them remained in a state of insurrection for years, and when the mountain districts could be safely visited at last, the auri sacra fames had subsided.

To Count Giovanni Borromeo he wrote concerning the return of Columbus from his first voyage: ...rediit ab Antipodibus occiduis Christophorus quidam Colonus, vir ligur, qui a meis regibus ad hanc provinciam tria vix impetraverat navigia, quia fabulosa, que dicebat, arbitrabantur; rediit preciosum multarum rerum sed auri precipue, qua suapte natura regiones generant tulit.