a hydraulic machine much used in Spain. It consists of a vertical wheel of 20 feet diameter, on the circumference of which are fixed a number of little boxes or square buckets, for the purpose of raising the water out of the well, communicating with the canal below, and to empty it into a reservoir above, placed by the side of the wheel. The buckets have a lateral orifice to receive and to discharge the water. The axis of this wheel is embraced by four small beams, crossing each other at right angles tapering at the extremities, and forming eight little arms. This wheel is near the centre of the horse walk contiguous to the vertical axis, into the top of which the horse beam is fixed; but near the bottom it is embraced by four little beams, forming eight arms similar to those above described, on the axis of the water wheel. As the mule which they use goes round, round, these horizontal arms, supplying the place of cogs, take hold, each in succession, of those arms which are fixed on the axis of the water wheel, and keep it in rotation.

This machine, than which nothing can be cheaper, throws up a great quantity of water; yet undoubtedly it has two defects: the first is, that part of the water runs out of the buckets and falls back into the well after it has been raised nearly to the level of the reservoir: the second is, that a considerable proportion of the water to be discharged is raised higher than the reservoir, and falls into it only at the moment when the bucket is at the highest point of the circle, and ready to descend.

Both these defects might be remedied with ease, by leaving these square buckets open at one end, making them swing on a pivot fixed a little above their centre of gravity, and placing the trough of the reservoir in such a position as to stop their progress whilst perpendicular; make them turn upon their pivot, and so discharge their contents.

From the reservoir the water is conveyed by channels to every part of the garden; these have divisions and subdivisions on beds, some large, others very small, separated from each other by little channels, into which a boy with his shovel or his hoe directs the water, first into the most distant trenches, and successively to all the rest, till all the beds and trenches have been either covered or filled with water.

Mr Townsend, from whom we have taken the above account, thinks, that on account of the extreme simplicity of this machine, it is an invention of the most remote antiquity. By means of it the inhabitants every morning draw as much water from the well as will serve through the day, and in the evening distribute it to every quarter according to the nature of their crops. The reservoirs into which they raise the water are about 20, 30, or even 40 feet square, and three feet high above the surface of the ground, with a stone coping on the wall, declining to the water, for the women to wash and beat their clothes upon.

Our limits preclude us from following Mr Townsend farther in the description of a particular noria used at Barcelona; which he conceives to be the original chain pump, or at least its parent. He compares it with similar instruments, and shows its advantages and disadvantages.

**Noricum** (Ptolemy, Tacitus); a Roman province, situated between the Danube on the north, and thus separated from ancient Germany; the Alpes Noricae on the south; the river Aenus on the west, which separates it from Vindelicia; and Mons Cetius on the east, which divides it from Pannonia. Now containing a great part of Austria, all Salzburg, Stiria, and Carinthia. It was anciently a kingdom under its own kings (Cæsar, Velleius, Suetonius). Norici the people, subdued by Tiberius under Augustus, as allies of the Pannonii (Dio, Velleius). Tacitus reckons Noricum among those provinces which were governed by procurators, officers sent by the emperors to receive and dispose of the public revenue according to order. It was divided into two provinces, but at what time uncertain; supposed as low down as Dioclesian and Constantine: viz., the Noricum Ripense, running along the south side of the Danube; and the Noricum Mediterraneum, extending towards the Alps. How far each of these extended in breadth does not appear: all the account we have of the matter being from Sextus Rufus, and the Notitia Imperii Occidentalis. Anciently a country famous for its iron and steel (Horace); as is Stiria at this day, a part of Noricum. A climate cold and more sparingly fruitful (Solinus).

**Norin**, a river which rises in a corner of the Venetian confines, that runs between the rugged marble hills, and is left entirely to itself from its very source; hence a vast tract of land is overflowed by it, and encumbered with reeds, willows, and wild alders. A small space of ground only remains dry between the roots of the hills and the marsh at a place called Prud, and that is all covered with pieces of ancient hewn stones, fragments of inscriptions, columns, and capitals, and bass reliefs of the best age, worn and deformed by time, and the barbarism of the northern people, who begun on that side to destroy Narona. The inhabitants, who go often to cut reeds in the marsh, assert, that the vestiges of that large city may still be seen under water. It appears to have been extended over the plain a great way, and undoubtedly it was three miles in length at the foot of the hills. The ancient road is now under water; and it is necessary to ascend a very steep road, in order to pass the point of a craggy hill, on which, probably before the Roman times, those fortifications were erected that coast Vetinies so much labour.

**Noris, Henry**, cardinal, a great ornament of the order of the monks of St Augustine, was descended from the president Jason, or James de Noris, and was born at Verona 1631. He was carefully educated by his father Alexander Noris, originally of Ireland, and well known by his history of Germany. He discovered from his infancy an excellent understanding, great vivacity, and a quick apprehension. His father instructed him in the rudiments of grammar, and procured an able professor of Verona, called Massoleim, to be his preceptor. At 15 he was admitted a pensioner in the Jesuits college at Rimini, where he studied philosophy; after which he applied himself to the writings of the fathers of the church, particularly those of St Augustine: and taking the habit in the convent of the Augustine monks of Rimini, he distinguished himself among that fraternity in a short time by his erudition: insomuch, that as soon as he was out of his noviciate or time of probation, the general of the order sent for him to Rome, in order to give him an opportunity of improving himself in the more solid branches of learning. He did not disappoint his superior's expectations. He gave himself up entirely to his study, and spent whole days, and even nights, in the library of the Angeliques of St Augustine. His constant course was to stick to his books 14 hours a day; and this course he continued till he became a cardinal. By this means he became qualified to instruct others; and on this errand he was first sent to Pezaro, and thence to Perusa, where he took his degree of doctor of divinity; after which, proceeding to Padua, he applied himself to finish his History of Pelagianism. He had begun it at Rome at the age of 26; and, having completed his design, the book was printed at Florence, and published in 1673. The great duke of Tuscany invited him the following year to that city, made him his chaplain, and professor of ecclesiastical history in the university of Pisa, which his highness had founded with that view.

In his history he set forth and defended the condemnation pronounced, in the eighth general council, against Origen and Mopsuestia, the first authors of the Pelagian errors; he also added an account of the Schism of Aquileia, and a Vindication of the Books written by St Augustine against the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians. The work had procured him a great reputation, but met with several antagonists, to whom he published proper answers; the dispute grew warm, and was carried before the sovereign tribunal of the inquisition. There the history was examined with the utmost rigour, and the author dismissed without the least censure. It was reprinted twice afterwards, and Mr Noris honoured by Pope Clement X. with the title of Qualificator of the Holy Office. Notwithstanding this, the charge was renewed against the Pelagian History, and it was dilated afresh before the inquisition in 1676; but it came out again with the same success as at first. Mr Noris was now suffered to remain in peace for sixteen years, and taught ecclesiastical history at Pisa, without any molestation, till he was called to Rome by Innocent XII. who made him under-librarian of the Vatican in 1692. This post was the way to a cardinal's hat; his accusers, therefore, took fresh fire, and published several new pieces against him. Hence the Pope appointed several learned divines, who had the character of having taken neither side, to re-examine Father Noris's books, and make their report of them. Their testimony was so advantageous to the author, that his holiness made him counsellor of the inquisition. Yet neither did this hinder one of his adversaries, the most formidable on account of his erudition, to rise up against him, and attack him warmly, under the assumed title of a Scrupulous Doctor of the Sorbonne. Noris tried to remove these scruples in a work which appeared in 1695, under the title of An Historical Dissertation concerning one of the Trinity that suffered in the Flesh; wherein, having justified the monks of Scythia, who made use of that expression, he vindicated himself also from the imputation of having attained the Pope's infallibility, of having abused Vincentius Lirinensis, and other bishops of Gaul, as favourers of Semi-Pelagianism, and of having himself gone into the errors of the bishop of Ypres.

His answers to all these accusations were so much to the satisfaction of the pope, that at length his holiness honoured him with the purple in 1695. After this, he was in all the congregations, and employed in the most important affairs; so that he had little time to spend in his study, a thing of which he frequently complained to his friends. Upon the death of Cardinal Casanati, he was made chief library keeper of the Vatican in 1700; and two years afterwards nominated, among others, to reform the calendar; but he died at Rome in 1704 of a dropsy. He was one of the most learned men in the last century; his writings abound with erudition, and are elegantly finished. He was a member of the Academy; whence he assumed the name of Eucrates Agorético. His works are numerous, and were published at Verona, in 1729 and 1730, in five volumes folio.