this terrible phenomenon was read by Recupero to the Academy of the Etneans at Catana, and afterwards published; and it is from this paper that Mr. Houel takes the account, or rather the picture before us, which it is impoffible to contemplate without a fympathetic feeling of the astonishment and difmay that must have seized upon the spectators of this tremendous scene. We read of nothing fo terrible and aftouishing in the hiftory of this awful mountain, on which nature feems to have lavished promiscuously all her terrors, and all her beauties.

A very remarkable rock of bafaltes, rifing out of the fea, near the harbour of Trizza, and a general view of the rocks of the Cyclops, called Faraglione, are exhibited in the 106th and 107th Plates. The 108th, which concludes this number, contains a particular view of one of thefe rocks, as alfo of the promontory of Caftel d'Iaci and of the lower part of Ætna which leads to Catana. The bafaltes of thefe rocks resembles, at firft fight, that which is known in Italy, France, and the British ifles, by the apparent regularity of its prifmatic coJumins; but, on a clofer examination, it exhibits effential differences.

No XIX. The lovers of natural hiftory will find in this number, in which the account of the rocks of the Cyclops is continued, a rich fund of inftruction and curious details, relative to the different kinds of bafaltes, and the original formation of that fubftance. The 109th and 110th Plates exhibit curious bafaltic rocks, with the bafaltes in needles *, and in columns; fome of these columns tending towards decomposition, others already reduced to that ftate. The following beautiful Plate exhibits a view of the promontory, and of a part of the town, of Caftel d'Iaci. This promontory is almoft entirely basaltes, but of a different kind from any that had hitherto come under our Author's obfervation. It exhibits cylinders from fix inches to twenty feet in diameter: fome maflive, others hollow like cannons; thefe latter extended in ftrata, the others compofed of feveral tops or points, which are compreffed and concentrated together. Beautiful, curious, and fomewhat different from the preceding, are the bafaltes that are obfervable at the foot of this promontory towards the fouth, and which are reprefented in the 112th Plate; their forms and details are regularly finished, and are fingularly pleafing to the eye.-The Author's obfervations on the formation of the bafaltes are acute and inftructive. He difcuffes this fubject at great length, and confutes the opinion

The Author employs the term needles, to denote a long piece of bafaltes, which is thicker at one of its extremities than at the other, and the word column to denote thofe that are nearly equal in thickness throughout.

of

of those who attribute the configuration of the bafaltes to the fudden refrigeration with which the lava is feized, when, having escaped from the focus of the volcano which produced it, it arrives in fufion at the cold fea-water. He attributes the regular configuration of the bafaltes to the action of fire alone, and offers many plaufible and ingenious arguments in fupport of this hypothefis. Befides the philofophical reafoning employed to fupport it, he alleges a fact, which evidently proves that the fea-water does not form the bafaltes, namely, that the fluid lava which ran from Mount Etna into the fea at the famous eruption in 1669, and filled up the harbour of Catana, was not metamorphofed into bafaltes.-Several grottos of bafaltes are exhibited in Plate 113th, and a pleafant defcription of the fuperftitious amusements of the inhabitants of the town of D'Aci, during Paffion-week, terminates this number.

No XX. The plate 115th exhibits a very picturesque view of the snow caverns or grottos of Etna, which, as Mr. Brydone obferves, furnish fnow and ice not only to the whole ifland of Sicily, but likewife to Malta, and a great part of Italy, and makes a very confiderable branch of commerce. Mr. HOUEL'S defcription of thefe grottos, and his account of this commerce, is much more circumftantial and interefting than those that have been given by any preceding traveller. There are very curious particulars for the naturalift in his description of the lavas of Calanna, and of the mouth of the volcano of Monte Reffo, or the Red Mountain, which are moft beautifully reprefented in the 116th, and the two following plates. It was from this volcano that the great eruption of 1669 iffued forth; which continued, during three or four months, to lay wafte the country between Ætna and Catana, rufhed in a flaming torrent of lava against the walls of that city, which it furmounted, filled up the harbour, and made the waves of the Mediterranean retire.

From this formidable eruption, the greateft, both in its extent and duration, that is known in the annals of Etna, the Author takes occafion to treat of the formation of volcanos, and by feveral fections, which he gives us of this famous mountain in the 119th Plate, he demonftrates its formation and growth, from the time of its firft eruption under the waves of the ocean. He proves that there is an immenfe void fpace in the interior of Etna, which is no more than a cruft exalted in the air.The details here are ample, learned, ingenious, and inftructive, in the highest degree. The view of Etna, feen from the crater of Monte Raffo, is reprefented in the 120th plate.

N° XXI. This most interesting number contains an account of Mr. HOUEL's alcent to the fummit of Ætna, in which a variety

variety of grand and beautiful objects were prefented to his view. Thefe he defcribes in fuch an affecting and inftructive manner, as really to answer every purpose of publications of this kind. His details are much more ample and comprehenfive than those of Mr. Brydone, and his defcriptions are not lefs agreeable and lively than thofe of the elegant and ingenious British traveller. We think, indeed, that Mr. Brydone's picture of the profpect from Etna, and of the gradual illumination of the majestic fcene by the rifing fun, is ftill more animated than that of Mr. Houel, and yet we have not pronounced this judgment without hefitation;-like Palemon, in Virgil, we would give them both the heifer.

The 121ft Plate prefents a picturefque view of the Spelonca del Capriole, or the Goat's Cavern, which furnishes a romantic manfion for travellers, and is furrounded on all fides with wild and majestic beauties.

Proceeding in his progress toward the fummit of the mountain, our Author arrived at the Torre del Philofopho, or the fuppofed Tower of Empedocles; this, with a view of the Pyramidical Mountain, where the crater of Ætna is placed, occupies the 122d Plate, and the following exhibits a beautiful but terrific view of the mouth of that awful mountain, taken from the borders of the crater. The founds that are formed by percuffion of the ftones, which rife from the abyss, against the internal fides of the mountain, and their repercuffions repeated fucceffively in thefe fubterraneous caverns, by their echoes, are defcribed by Mr. Houel in fuch a lively manner, that we cannot read his account of them without emotion and awe.

Plate 124th exhibits a view of the famous aqueduct of Aragona, on the river Simetus, which feparates the bafe of Etna, on the right, from the plain of Aragona, on the left, and alfo of the mountains that are feen at a diftance beyond the aqueduct. It appears evident, from this view, and from our Author's obfervations, that the bafe of tna is formed by alternate ftrata of lava and marine bodies, which have been fucceffively placed, one upon another; and hence Mr. H. draws a demonftrative proof of the theory of volcanos, contained in the preceding number, which, though not new, is ingeniously laid down.

The two concluding Plates of this number contain views of the falt fprings of Salinello, and of the accumulations of bafaltes at the foot of Mount Etna, at a place called Herba Bianca. These accumulations, which contain different kinds of bafaltes, are a new proof, that no volcano exhibits this fubftance with fo many variations as Ætna.

For our former account of thefe very curious Travels, fee Rev. vols. lxviii. lxx, and lxxii.

ART.

WE

ART. XVII.

Efai d'un Traité Elementaire de Morale; i. e. An Attempt toward an Elementary Treatife on Morals. Amfterdam (Paris). 1787. E have tranflated literally the unaffuming title of this little work. By the modefty of it we are led to think that the Author did not look upon the compofition of an elementary treatife as an eafy matter, and this gave us immediately a prepoffeffion in favour of his judgment, which was afterwards verified and confirmed by the order, precifion, fimplicity, and good fenfe contained in his performance. The Author lays down four principles, which form the bafis of his elementary doctrine; these are, the effential characters of man, confidered as a fenfitive animal, a rational animal, a fociable being, and the creature of God. By the first of these characters, man is capable of perceiving and feeling good;-by the fecond, he is inftructed in the means of purfuing it;-in the third, he finds objects and relations, that furnish materials for its enjoyment;-and in the fourth, he discovers its fupreme fource, and the powerful and directing principle that regulates or reinforces all the others. The Author applies the moral conclufions that flow from these principles to the different ftages of human life, to infancy, youth, mature years, and old age, which occupy the four fections into which his work is divided. His leffons are entirely practical, and they are truly judicious and interesting.

ART. XVIII.

Reflexions fur le Regne de Trajan; i. e. Reflections on the Reign of Trajan. By M. BAYEUX, Advocate in the Parliament of Normandy, Correfponding Member of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres at Paris, and of other learned Societies. 8vo. Paris. 1786.

TH

HIS French Pliny feems, in the work before us, to have a French Trajan in view, whom he obliquely panegyrizes, while he offers incenfe at the altar of the Roman Emperor. This is a more delicate, or at least a lefs fulfome manner of praifing, than if our M. BAYEUX fent the odour of his oblation, in a direct line, into the noftrils of his fovereign. But there is another thing to be observed in thefe Reflexions, which does ftill more honour to their ingenious Author, viz. that Trajan is here exhibited with elegance, and dexterity, as a model to follow. Salutary hints and wife counfels are happily conveyed under the lines of the imperial portrait, and a fuccinct and judicious view of what that prince did, by reforming abufes, and other wife measures for the felicity of his fubjects, is held up to fhew what other princes, and one more efpecially, ought to do. M. BAYEUX juftifies the encomiums that Pliny and Martial

have given fo liberally to the virtues and the reign of Trajan, by pointing out the particular and active attention which that prince beftowed on the adminiflration of juftice, on the regulation of the finan es, on the improvement of the marine, and the advancement of commerce. On all these objects, but more especially on the first and fecond, the praifes of Trajan can only be counfels in their application to the prince whom M. BAYEUX has in view; for they would be a cruel irony were they intended as reflected panegyric on any thing in the lines of French jurisprudence and finances but what is yet to be done.

What is not yet done, however, seems to be seriously in contemplation; and various laudable attempts are at present in exertion, which lay fome faint foundation for our Author's parallel. He has had the fagacity to find, in the reign of Trajan, types and parallels of many things, which mark peculiarly the government of the monarch under whom he lives. Thus the affembly of the Notables,-the fortifications of Cherburg,-the American war,and even the Marquis de la Fayette, are adumbrated in the hiftory of the Roman Emperor. But in thefe adulatory and very ingenious analogies, very improper facrifices of truth and confcience are fometimes made to wit and imagination. This is the only circumftance which prevented our reading this elegant production with unmixed pleasure.

ART. XIX.

Travels through Germany, in a Series of Letters; written in German by the Baron Riefbeck, and tranflated by the late Rev. Mr. Maty. 8vo. 3 Vols. 15s. Boards. Cadell. 1787.

VERY before us.

TERY few Travels have equal merit with the performance The writer feems to be a man of much obfervation, and to have acquired a confiderable knowledge of the hiftory of Europe. His judicious remarks on the ancient and modern political hiftory of the kingdoms and ftates through which he paffed, is a full proof of his great application to, and the proficiency he has made in, hiftorical purfuits. The letters, nevertheiefs, are not wholly confined to thefe abftrufe difquifitions; they are interfperfed with accurate defcriptions of the principal cities, and the country, which the Author had visited; the manners of the people, the ftate of learning-of arts and fciences-of agriculture and commerce,-are frequently introduced, and largely treated; nor have the amufements of the country, fuch as theatrical reprefentations and private recreations, been lefs attended to; in fhort, every circumstance which an intelligent reader would wish to know, or of which the information can be either uleful or entertaining, may be here found.

In fupport of the encomium which we have juftly bestowed on this work, we fhall prefent our Readers with the following con. 4 clufion