eye, and something fiery and irregular in all his motions. His name was Genius. He darted like an eagle up the mountain, and left his companions gazing after him with envy and ́admiration but his progress was unequal, and interrupted by a thousand caprices. When Pleasure warbled in the valley he mingled in her train. When Pride beckoned towards the precipice he ventured to the tottering edge. He delighted in devious and untried paths; and made so many excursions from the road, that his feebler companions often outstripped him. I observed that the Muses beheld him with partiality; but Truth often frowned, and turned aside her face. While Genius was thus wasting his strength in eccentric flights, I saw a person of a very different appearance, named Application. He crept along with a slow and unremitting pace, his eyes fixed on the top of the mountain, patiently removing every stone that obstructed his way, till he saw most of these below him who had at first derided his slow and toilsome progress. Indeed there were few who ascended the hill with equal and uninterrupted steadiness; for, beside the difficulties of the way, they were continually solicited to turn aside by a numerous crowd of Appetites, Passions, and Pleasures, whose importunity, when they had once complied with, they became less and less able to resist; and though they often returned to the path, the asperities of the road were more severely felt, the hill appeared more steep and rugged, the fruits which were wholesome and refreshing seemed harsh and ill-tasted, their sight grew dim, and their feet tript at every little obstruction.

I saw, with some surprize, that the Muses, whose business it was to cheer and encourage those who were toiling up the ascend, would often sing in the towers of Pleasure, and accompany those who were enticed away at the call of the Passions; they accompanied them, however, but a little way, and always forsook them when they lost sight of the hill. Their tyrants then doubled their chains upon the unhappy captives, and led them away, without resistance, to the cells of Ignorance, or the mansions of Misery. Amongst the innumerable seducers, who were endeavouring to draw away the votaries of Truth from the path of Science, there was one so little formidable in her appearance, and so gentle and languid in her attempts, that I should scarcely have taken notice of her, but for the numbers the had imperceptibly

loaded with her chains. Indolence (for so she was called) far from proceeding to open hostilities, did not attempt to turn their feet out of the path, but contented herself with retarding their progress; and the purpose she could not force them to abandon, she persuaded them to delay. Her touch had a power like that of the torpedo *), which withered the strength of those who came within its influence. Her unhappy captives still turned their faces towards the temple, and always hoped to arrive there, but the ground seemed to slide from beneath their feet, and they found themselves at the bottom, before they suspected that they had changed their place. The placid serenity, which at first appeared in their countenance, changed by degrees into a melancholy languor, which was tinged with deeper and deeper gloom, as they glided down the stream of insignificance; a dark and sluggish water, which is curled by no breeze, and enlivened by no murmur, till it falls into a dead sea, where the startled passengers are awakened by the shock, and the next moment buried in the gulph of oblivion.

Of all the unhappy deserters from the paths of Science, none seemed less able to return than the followers of Indolence. The captives of Appetite and Passion could often seize the moment when their tyrants were languid or asleep, to escape from their enchantment; but the dominion of Indolence was constant and unremitted, and seldom resisted, till resistance was in vain.

After contemplating these things, I turned my eyes towards the top of the mountain, where the air was always pure and exhilarating, the path shaded with laurels and other evergreens, and the effulgence which beamed from the face of the Goddess seemed to shed a glory round her votaries. Happy, said I, are they who are permitted to ascend the mountain! but while I was pronouncing this exclamation with uncommon ardour, I saw standing beside me a form of diviner features and a more benign radiance. Happier, said she, are those whom Virtue conducts to the mansions of Content! What, said I, does Virtue then reside in the vale? I am found, said she, in the vale and I illuminate the mountain; I cheer the cottager at his toil, and inspire the sage at

*) The name of a fish, which is said to benumb the hand that touches it.

his meditation. I mingle in the crowd of cities, and bless the hermit in his cell; I have a temple in every heart that owns my influence; and to him that wishes for me I am already present. Science may raise you to eminence, but I alone can guide you to felicity!

While the Goddess was thus speaking, I stretched out my arms towards her with a vehemence which broke my slumbers. The chill dews were falling around me, and the shades of evening stretched over the landscape. I hastened homeward, and resigned the night to silence and meditation.

BRYDONE.

PATRICK BRYDONE, dessen nähere Lebensumstände uns

unbekannt sind und von dem auch das Werk a biographical Dictionary of the living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1816, nur einige dürftige Notizen enthält, ist Verfasser der Reise durch Sicilien und Malta, welche den Titel führt: A Tour through Sicily and Malta in a series of letters to William Beckford, Esq. of Somerly in Suffolk, from P. Brydone, in two Volumes, a new edition, London zuerst 1773 und dann 1776, und auch dem Deutschen Leser aus der, Leipzig 1783, 2 Bände, 8. erschienenen Deutschen Übersetzung bekannt ist. Sie ist in Briefform verfafst und die Briefe sind an einen Herrn William Beckford von Somerly gerichtet, den er auf dieser Reise als Führer begleitet hatte. Früher war er in der Armee und nachher als Comptroller of the Stamp-Office angestellt. Wiewohl in neuern Zeiten die Glaubwürdigkeit des Verfassers in Zweifel gezogen worden, so hat man dennoch immer der vorzüglichen Darstellungsgabe desselben Gerechtigkeit widerfahren lassen, und die Reihe von Briefen, in welche er seine auf dieser Reise gesammelten Beobachtungen einkleidets und deren erster aus Neapel den 14ten Mai 1770, der letzte Palermo den 29sten Julius datirt ist, mit Vergnügen gelesen. Brydone ist nach Reufs gelehrtem England auch Verfasser mehrerer physikalischen Schriften, als: Instance for a palsy cured by electricity, (Philos. Transact. 1760. p. 392); Effects of electricity in the cure of some diseases (Ibid. 1760. p.695); Account of a fiery meteor, seen on the 10th. of Februar 1772,

and also of some new electrical experiments, (Phil. Transact. '1773. p. 163); Account of a thunder-storm in Scotland; with some meteorological observations (Ibid. 1787. p. 61.).

JOURNEY UP MOUNT ETNA. *)

Dear Beckford,

Catania, May 29th. 1770.

On the 27th., by day-break, we set off to visit mount Ætna,

His

that venerable and respectable father of mountains. base and his immense declivities are covered over with a numerous progeny of his own; for every great eruption produces a new mountain; and perhaps, by the number of these, better than by any other method, the number of eruptions, and the age of Ætna itself, might be ascertained.

The whole mountain is divided into three distinct regions, called la regione culta, or Piedmontese, the fertile region; la regione silvosa, or nemorosa, the woody region; and la regione deserta, or scoperta, the barren region.

These three are as different, both in climate and pròductions, as the three zones of the earth; and perhaps, with equal propriety, might have been stiled the torrid, the temperate, and the frigid zone. The first region surrounds the foot of the mountain, and constitutes the most fertile country in the world on all sides of it, to the extent of about fourteen or fifteen miles, where the woody region begins. It is composed almost entirely of lava, which, after a number of ages, is at last converted into the most fertile of all soils.

At Nicolosi, which is twelve miles up the mountain, we found the barometer at 27: 1; at Catania it stood at 29: 81; although the former elevation is not very great, probably not exceeding 3000 feet, yet the climate was totally changed. At Catania the harvest was entirely over, and the heats were insupportable; here they were moderate, and in many places the corn is as yet green. The road for these twelve miles is the worst I ever travelled; entirely over old lavas and the mouths of extinguished volcanos, now converted into corn fields, vineyards, and orchards.

The fruit of this region is reckoned the finest in Sicily, particularly the figs, of which they have a great variety. One of these of a very large size, esteemed superior in flavour to all the rest, they pretend is peculiar to Etna.

*) Letter IX. and X.

The lavas, which as I have already said, form this region of the mountain, take their rise from an infinite number of the most beautiful little mountains on earth, which are every where scattered on the immense declivity of Ætna. These are all of a regular figure; either that of a cone, or a hemisphere; and all, but a very few, are covered with beautiful trees, and the richest verdure. Every eruption generally forms one of these mountains. As the great crater of Æ1na itself is raised to such an enormous height above the lower regions of the mountain, it is not possible, that the internal fire raging for a vent, even round the base, and no doubt vastly below it, should be carried to the height of twelve or thirteen thousand feet, for probably so high is the summit of Etna. It has therefore generally happened, that after shaking the mountain and its neighbourhood for some time, it at last bursts open its side, and this is called an eruption. At first it only sends forth a thick smoke and showers of ashes that lay waste the adjacent country: these are soon followed by red hot stones, and rocks of a great size, thrown to immense height to the air. The fall of these stones, together with the quantities of ashes discharged at the same time, at last form the spherical and conical mountains I have mentioned. Sometimes this progress is finished in the course of a few days, sometimes it lasts for months, which was the case in the great eruption 1669. In that case, the mountain formed is of a great size; some of them are not less than seven or eight miles round, and upwards of 1000 feet in perpendicular height; others are not more than two or three miles, round, and 3 or 400 feet high.

After the new mountain is formed, the lava generally bursts out from its lower side; and bearing every thing before it, is for the most part terminated by the sea. This is the common progress of an eruption; however, it sometimes happens, though rarely, that the lava bursts at once from the side of the mountain, without all these attending circumstances; and this is commonly the case with the eruptions of Vesuvius, where the elevation being so much smaller, the melted matter is generally carried up into the crater of the mountain, discharging showers of stones and ashes from the mouth of the volcano, without forming any new mountain, but only adding considerably to the height of the old one; till at last the lava, rising near the summit, bursts the side