A decorative woodcut headpiece features symmetrical floral and foliate scrolls, centered around a small pedestal. Below this, a large ornamental initial 'C' contains a circular crest, surrounded by detailed scrollwork.

ON THE MOUNTAINS

OF THE PLANETS

THE SEVEN.

Cornelius Tacitus Roman historian, in Book 16 of his Annals, tells a memorable and most worthy story about Cecellius Bassus. Deceived by night dreams about gold he believed was buried in his fields in ancient times, he promised immense treasures to Prince Nero, in this manner: Fortune then mocked Nero through the vanity of Cecellius Bassus himself, who, being a Phoenician by origin, with a clouded mind, transformed an image of nightly rest into a hope that seemed certain. Having traveled to Rome, and having bought access to the prince, he revealed that he had found in his field a cavern of immense depth, where a great quantity of gold was contained, not in the form of coin, but in raw and ancient weight. Indeed, heavy bricks lay there, and on the other side columns, which had been hidden for such an age to increase the current goods. But, as conjecture demonstrates, Dido the Phoenissa Phoenician woman, a fugitive from Tyre, had hidden those riches when she founded Carthage, so that her new people would not become wanton with too much money, or so that the Kings of the Numidarum Numidians and others, hostile to her, would not be inflamed to war by the desire for gold.