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the other Earths, he ſays, Melinum candidum et ipſum, eſt optimum in Melo inſula. And lib. 35. c. 7. ſpeaking of the Painters of Antiquity, he ſays, Quatuor coloribus ſolis, immortalia illa opera fecere, ex albis Melino, ex Silaciis Attico, ex rubris Sinopide Pontica, ex nigris Atramento. I mention theſe two Paſſages, as the beſt Way of judging certainly from Pliny; for he often errs, and, where he has Occaſion to mention the ſame Subſtance a ſecond Time, frequently contradicts what he had before ſaid of it. This is to be obſerved in too many Places in that Author, and has ariſen from this; that he was a general Collector, and often careleſly put down what different Authors had ſaid of the ſame Subſtance, either under the ſame, or under different Names, in different Places of his Work: Where two ſuch Authors had been both uncertain as to the Truth, and probably the World in general alſo, they frequently made different Conjectures; and where one had erred, the other frequently corrected him. The Accounts of both, therefore, given by a third Perſon in their own Words, in different Parts of that Author's Hiſtory, and that without mentioning them as the Opinions of different Perſons, has been the Occaſion of great Part of the Contradictions in that Writer. But where he has mentioned the ſame Thing in different Places, and that with the ſame Deſcription, I always judge he may be depended on; and that the general Opinion of the World was on his Side.
With this Account of the Melian Earth, as white, it is very ſurpriſing that the generality of Authors, and even thoſe of the firſt Claſs, have conſtantly imagined it to be yellow. The Occaſion of the Miſtake has been, that the Melinus Color of the Latins, Μήλινον χρῶμα of the Greeks, is yellow. This, they took it for granted, had its Origin from the Colour of the Melian Earth, a Subſtance antiently uſed in Painting, and which therefore they concluded muſt be yellow, and deſcribed it accordingly. In this manner have numberleſs other Errors crept into Natural Hiſtory by Accident, and by Miſtakes, and been afterwards ſacredly propagated by a ſervile Set of Writers, who have never dared to think for themſelves, but have taken upon truſt whatever they have found in their Anceſtors Works, however contrary to Reaſon, and, in many Caſes, even to the Teſtimony of their Senſes. The Occaſion of this ſo general Error, in the preſent Caſe, is no more than the miſtaking the Etymology of the Word Μήλινος, Melinus, which is not derived from Μηλιὰς, or Μηλία γῆ, the Melian Earth here deſcribed, but from μήλις, pomum, an Apple; and exactly meant that kind of Yellow common on ripe Apples of many Sorts; and the ſtrict Senſe of the Verb μηλίζειν, is, according to the moſt correct Lexicographers, Colore luteo eſſe, ſive pomum referente: Theſe are their very Words. And hence, from an Error in a Subject foreign to the Matter, has happened, we ſee, an egregious Error in that Study, and which has been
