Topic: Glass translation Latin?

[Frank]

Don't you love it when after rambling on for pages, about a fragment of Herculaneum glass the author, in 1758, uses a quotation to define his conclusion. 

Quote (Rev John Nixon letter to Royal Society): Manifestius est, mentem esse, quae per oculos ea, quae sunt opposita, transpiciat, quasi per fenestras lucente vitro aut speculari lapide obductas. ae De opificio Dei, cap. v.

Babelled to:
Is clear is , mind to be , which very eye this , which are to set against transpiciat , as if very window lamp stepfather either observation lapide covering. ae About opificio Dei cap. v.
 :huh:

Any improvements on Babel please.

[Ivo]

that seems to be a quote from 4th century Christian writer Lactantius, chapter 5 of De Opificio Dei, in which he exhorts a former pupil, Demetrianus, not to be led astray by wealth from virtue; and he demonstrates the providence of God from the adaptability and beauty of the human body.

Now what it says verbatim, I have no idea....

[Frank]

Indeed it is Ivo - our man of letters. So, it would seem that the summation of this 'letter' is: This fragment of glass appears to be a piece of window glass but there are no records of window glass being used that early, thus I have not got a clue!

Obviously the Royal Society were the 18th century version of the GMB.