Queer Evidence of Divinity
Among the ancients the voluntary motion of inanimate objects was considered an evidence of their divinity. When Juno paid her celebrated visit to Vulcan, she found him engaged in the manufacture of tripods, which moved about and performed their office with a bustling air of zealous activity—
“Full twenty tripods for his hall be framed,
That, placed on living wheels of massive gold,
Wondrous to tell, instinct with spirit, roll’d
From place to place around the blest abodes,
Self-moved, obedient to the beck of gods.”