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1815.1

Chateaubriand's Visit to Mount Vesuvius.

other side. The heavens lowered; the clouds descended and flew along the surface of the earth like grey smoke, or ashes driven before the wind. I began to hear a murmuring sound among the elms of the hermitage.

The hermit came forth to receive me, and held the bridle of my mule while Í alighted. He was a tall man with an open countenance and good address. He invited me into his cell, and placed upon the table a repast of bread, apples and eggs. He sat down opposite to me, rested both his elbows on the table, and calmly began to converse while I ate my breakfast. The clouds were collected all round us, and no object could be distinguished through the windows of the hermitage. Nothing was heard in this dreary abyss of vapours but the whistling of the wind, and the distant noise of the waves as they broke upon the shores of Herculaneum. There was something singular in the situation of this tranquil abode of Christian hospitality-a small cell at the foot of a volcano, and in the midst of a tempest.

The hermit presented to me the book, in which strangers who visit Vesuvius are accustomed to make some memorandum. In this volume I did not find one remark worthy of recollection. The French indeed, with the good taste natural to our nation, had contented themselves with mentioning the date of their journey, or paying a compliment to the hermit for his hospitality. It would seem that this volcano had no very remarkable effect upon the visitors, which confirms me in the idea I some time since formed, namely, that grand objects and grand subjects are less capable of giving birth to great ideas than is generally supposed; for their grandeur being evident, all that is added beyond this fact becomes mere repetition. The "nascitur ridiculus mus" is true of all mountains.

I left the hermitage at half-past two o'clock, and continued to ascend the hill of lava, on which I had before proceed ed. On my left was the valley, which separated me from the Somma; on my right the plain of the cone. Not a living creature did I see in this horrible region but a poor, lean, sallow, halfnaked girl, who was bending under a load of faggots, which she had cut on the

mountain.

The clouds now entirely shut out the view; for the wind blew them upwards from the black plain, of which, if clear, I should have commanded the prospect,

and caused them to pass over the lava
road, upon which I was pursuing my
way. I heard nothing but the sound of
my mule's footsteps.

At length I quitted the hill, bending to
the right, and re-descending into the
plain of lava, which adjoins the cone of
the volcano, and which I crossed lower
down on my road to the hermitage;
but even when in the midst of those
calcined fragments, the mind can hardly
form to itself an idea of the appearance
which the district must assume when
covered with fire and molten metals by
an eruption of Vesuvius. Dante had,
perhaps, seen them, when he describes in
his Hell those showers of ever-burning
fire, which descend slowly and in silence
-" come di neve in Alpe senza vento.
"Arivammo ad una landa
Che dal suoletto ogni pianta rimove

Lo spazzo er' un' arena arida e spessa

Sovra tutto'l iabbion d'un cader lento
Pioven di fuoco dilatata e falde,
Como di neve in Alpe senza vento.

Snow was here visible in several places, and I suddenly discovered at intervals, Portici, Capri, Ischia, Pozzuoli, the sea studded with the white sails of fishingboats, and the coast of the Gulph of Naples, bordered with orange trees. It was a view of Paradise from the Infernal Regions.

On reaching the foot of the cone we alighted from our mules. My guide gave me a long staff, and we began to climb the huge mass of cinders. The clouds closed in, the fog became more dense, and increasing darkness surrounded us.

The sun

Behold me now at the top of Vesuvius, where I seated myself at the mouth of the volcano, wrote down what had hitherto occurred, and prepared myself for, a descent into the crater. appeared from time to time through the mass of vapour which enveloped the whole mountain, and concealed from me one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, while it doubled the horrors of the place where I was. Vesuvius, thus separated by clouds from the enchanting country at its base, has the appearance of being placed in the completest desert; and the sort of terror which it inspires is in no degree diminished by the spectacle of a flourishing city at its foot.

I proposed to my guide that we should descend into the crater. He made several objections; but this was only to obtain a little more money; and we agreed

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Chateaubriand's Visit to Mount Vesuvius.

upon a sum, which he received on the spot. He then took off his clothes, and we walked some time on the edge of the abyss, in order to find a part which was less perpendicular, and more commodious for our descent. The guide discovered one, and gave the signal for ine to accompany him. We plunged down. Fancy us at the bottom of the gulph:* I despair of describing the chaos which surrounded me. Let the reader figure to himself a basin, a thousand feet in circumference and three hundred high, which forms itself into the shape of a funnel. Its borders, or interior walls, are furrowed by the liquid fire which this basin has contained, and vomited forth. The projecting parts of these walls resemble those brick pillars with which the Romans supported their enormous masonry. Large rocks are hanging down in different parts, and their fragments, mixed with cinders into a sort of paste, cover the bottom of the abyss.

This bottom of the basin is ploughed and indented in various manners. Near the middle are three vents, or small mouths, recently opened, which discharged flames during the occupation of Naples by the French in 1793.

Smoke proceeds from different points of the crater, especially on the side towards the Torre del Greco. On the opposite side, towards Caseste, I perceived flames. When you plunge your hand into the cinders, you find them of a burning heat several inches under the surf.ce. The general colour of the gulph is black as coal; but Providence, as I have often observed, can impart grace at pleasure even to objects the most horrible. The lava in some places is tinged with azure, ultramarine, yellow, and orange. Blocks of granite are warped and twisted by the action of fire, and bent to their very extremities; so that they exhibit the semblances of the leaves of palms and acanthus. The volcanic matter having cooled on the rocks over which it flowed, many figures are thus formed, such as roses, girandoles, and ribbons. The rocks likewise assume the forms of plants and animals, and imitate the various figures which are to be seen in agates. I particularly observed on a bluish rock, a white swan, modelled in so perfect a manner that I could have almost sworn I beheld this beautiful bird sleeping on a placid lake,

There is fatigue, but very little danger, attendant on a descent into the crater of Vesuvius, unless the investigator should be surprised by a sudden eruption.

[May 1,

with its head bent under its wing, and its long neck stretched over its back like a roll of silk.

"Ad vada Meandri concinit albus olor." I found here that perfect silence which I have, ou other occasions, experienced at noon in the forests of America, where I have held my breath, and heard nothing except the beating of my heart and temporal artery. It was only at intervals that gusts of wind, descending from the top of the cone to the bottom of the crater, rustled through my clothes, or whistled round my staff. I also heard some stones, which my guide kicked on one side as he climbed through the cinders. A confused echo, similar to the jarring of metal or glass, prolonged the noise of the fall, and afterwards all was silent as death, Compare this gloomy silence with the dreadful thundering din, which shakes these very places when the volcano vomits fire from its entrails,

and covers the earth with darkness.

A philosophical reflexion may here be made, which excites our pity for the sad state of human affairs. What is it, in fact, but the famous revolutions of em pires, combined with the convulsions of nature, that changes the face of the earth and the ocean? Happy circumstance would it, at least, be, if men would not employ themselves in render ing each other miserable during the short time that they are allowed to dwell toge ther! Vesuvius has not once opened its abyss to swallow up cities without its fury surprising mankind in the midst of blood and tears. What are the first signs of civilization and improved huma nity which have been found, during our days, under the lava of the volcano? Instruments of punishment, and skeletons in chains!**

Times alter, and human destinies are liable to the same inconstancy. "Life," says a Greek song, "is like the wheel of

a chariot.

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1815.]

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On the Holidays allowed in Public Offices.

American ocean cast me on the plains of Lavinia? Lavinaque venit littora." I cannot refrain from returning to the agitations of this life, in which St. Augustin says, that things are full of misery, and hope devoid of happiness-“ rem plenam miseria, spem beatitudinis inanem." Born on the rocks of Armorica, the first sound which struck my ear on entering the world was that of the sea; and on how many shores have I seen the same waves break that I now find here again! Who would have told me a few years ago that I should hear these

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may be much shorter than the ordinary standard, ought to awaken in every one a desire of possessing a good name, by morality and a strict observance of duty, without which no one can acquire respect from his fellow creatures, or protection and support from the Disposer of all Events. S. T.

March 25.

For the New Monthly Magazine. RECOLLECTIONS OF THE UNPUBLISHED LECTURES OF AN EMINENT PROFESSOR.

Money.

wanderers moaning at the tombs of Of the Freedom of Trade as applied to Scipio and Virgil, after they had rolled at my feet on the coast of England, or the strand of Canada? My name is in the hut of the savage of Florida, and in the hermit's book at Vesuvius. When shall I lay down, at the gate of my fathers, the pilgrim's staff and mantle?

"O patria! O Divum domus Ilium!” How do I envy the lot of those who have never quitted their native land, and have no adventures to record!

MR. EDITOR,

THE remarks of one of your correspondents on the number of annual fairs held in the metropolis and its vicinity, have produced a few reflexions upon the days allotted by public offices to amusement: they will appear on calculation to amount to no less than forty-five, not including those at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas. An act has lately been passed to abolish them in the Excise Office and Custom House, it being found that the numerous holidays at those offices were a great obstruction to public business. Could the persons more immediately concerned reflect but for a moment on the bad consequences of habitual indolence, they would soon discover that its baneful effects contam nate the mind, by preventing the acquisition of useful knowledge, which is sacrificed to the frivolous amusements of pleasure; that, in a short time, a procrastination of their daily duties will be added to indolence, and either fear, which mostly accompanies sloth, will prohibit endeavours, by producing despair of success, or the frequent failure of irresolute struggles, and the constant desire of avoiding labour, will impress by degrees false terrors on the mind, and the individual will, as his last resource, be compelled to abandon a permanent and advantageous situation.

The reflexion that the days of this life are short, and the probability that they

HAVING considered the general principles of trade, it will be necessary to proceed to some applications and limitations of thein as proposed even by Mr. Smith himself. The principal of these are the expediency of restraints on the commerce of money in pecuniary loans-on the commerce of those articles which form the necessaries of life-and thirdly, restrictions on the commerce of land.

The ancients in general reprehended the practice of usury in all forms and under all limitations, as may be seen in the 10th Ch. Book I. of the "Politics of Aristotle," and in Books I. and II. of Cicero de Officiis. The Jewish lawgivers entertained similar notions, and hence it came to be considered odious by Christians; and the Christian fathers, as Gibbon remarks, declared unanimously against it, making it by the canon law, excommunication. The influence of these opinions maintained its ground among the English divines of the 16th and 17th centuries, who considered the transactions of loans contrary to morality, and even so late as the 18th century such opinions were held by some British lawyers in the house of commons. A late law treatise on usury, employs a long argument of 50 pages to prove that it is neither sinful nor unlawful for a man to receive interest for his money; and Neckar in his Eloge on Colbert, only SO years ago, thought it necessary to state that he wished his opinions concerning interest to be considered as mere political speculations, and not trenching on the established maxims of the religious orders. Hence we see that ideas of the crime of usury are not confined to particular nations or religions, but have their foundation in moral and political causes.

The commerce of the ancients was so totally different from that of the moderns, that from the little demand for capital in

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Of the Freedom of Trade as applied to Money.

trade, money loans became extremely discreditable; and this low state of their commerce, added to the mosaical notions concerning usury, account for the odium in which it was generally held in Europe, almost the whole of whose commerce was at one time confined to the Hanse Towns, and the persons who followed it exposed to the prejudices arising from an unpopular religion. But since commerce became more general, the sentiments of men have altered. Calvin, the reformer, appears to be one of the first who objected to Aristotle's dogma, "Pecunia non pecuniam parit." The scholastic prejudices against usury still prevail, however, in many nations. In England, a rate higher than the legal, subjects the lender to very severe and disgraceful punishments; and the interests of commercial men have given a sanction to these laws originally founded in prejudice. Some writers, however, particularly Mr. Bentham, have contended for money transactions being left free like other articles of trade. Mr. Turgot and the economists support this idea, and say that money has a current price like other articles which should not be fixed by law any more than they. Mr. Law too (in a memorial to the Regent Duke of Orleans) contends for the same opinion, and in Hamburg and Amsterdam the experiment has been fully tried. Our writers in general support the necessity of fixing a legal interest, and so does Mr. Smith; but Sir F. Baring assigns as a reason for the arguments of Mr. Bentham remaining unanswered, that they are really unanswerable.

The rate of interest in different times and places has been exceedingly various. By the code of Justinian it was fixed at 121.; in England, in the time of Hen. VIII. at 81.; in Ireland it is now 61.; in the West Indies 87.; in the East 121.; in England 5. and in Turkey 30l. per cent. Now which of these rates shall we say is more proper than another, or what regulates their amount but the convenience of the parties? why then should law interfere to regulate the prices here,

more than in other cases?

The expediency of maintaining economy among the numerous extravagant members of the state is held by Mr. Locke and Sir J. Stewart, as the chief ground in favour of anti-usurious laws. But should laws interfere to impose restraints on such persons, and if so, are they adequate to the end proposed? As long as the prodigal has any thing to dispose of, no laws will check his bor

[May 1,

rowing, nor will he be apt to give more than the average rate while he can get it on those terms that is, as long as lie is able to give proper security. As to those prodigals who have no security to give, they borrow generally out of friendship or humanity in small sums, which they either never return, or the creditor dislikes to ask for. Also, when unable to get cash, these prodigals are trusted by tradesmen, who in the course of trade can afford to give three times the credit of those who lend in money; and thus virtually evade the law.

These laws are further supposed to provide for the security of the indigent and simple, and against the rashness of projectors. With respect to the indigent class, what may appear at first view disadvantageous in their borrowing, may in reality be the contrary, and as the laws have a tendency to check the facility of such persons obtaining money to carry on their little trade, as far as concerns them the interference of the legislator may be considered as officious and injurious.

Their operation in checking the rashness of projectors is very acutely argued by Mr. Bentham in opposition to Mr. Smith. The argument of the latter ap plies against the encouragement of all enterprise without discrimination, and if acted on would check the progress of all improvement.

All the present routine of trade had once a beginning, and what is establishment now, was once innovation. These ar guments militate against the general prin ciples of trade supported by Mr.Smith, who every where desires governments not to control the private exertions of indivi duals, but leave them unfettered and free; and contends that if a government does not ruin a nation by its prodigality, the subjects of it never will. Prodigality too is more common than projecting and to control it reason only can be ef fectually used, while projecting is often restrained by timidity and ignorance. To limit the rates of interest therefore gives a monopoly to established trades over the formation of new ones; and thus at once checks enterprise and obstructs improvement.

As to the protection afforded to the simple and inexperienced by fixing a rate of interest: does it not operate alike on the wise and enterprising, and are not they the more numerous and valuable class? and what better reason is there for fixing a maximum than a minimum of interest? The law seems to have possessed formerly some protecting power,

1815.]

Classical Sentences-Arithmetical Question,

but is this applicable to the present state of commerce, where the lender is often poorer than the borrower, as in annuitants, &c. Besides, the simple would find out the market rate of interest as well as of other commodities.

MR. EDITOR,

YOUR correspondent E. (p. 126) is desirous of knowing the author's name, who wrote the following verse:

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plan of your magazine. If admissible, the insertion of this will oblige a very bumble individual; inasmuch as it may prevent many of your young readers from being subjected to the sneer of the artful, and the laugh of the ignorant; and in order to shew them my drift, I shall relate the circumstance from which this emanated.

Perhaps some restraint might be imposed on a system of usury mentioned by Colquhoun in hisTreatise on Police, where persons lend out to poor women 5s. to Having occasion, during the Easter receive 6d. interest per diem, or get for week, to send to a mathematician, (the 5s. at the rate of 7l. 10s. per annum. A initial of whose name I shall barely person possessed of only 70s. and thus mention,) upon business wholly unlending it would return nearly 100 gs. connected with his profession, I disper annum. patched my son to transact it for me, a youth fourteen years of age, who was tion. On his return from Mr. C***** I from school for a few days' recreaaway observed him to be more than usually dejected, and insisted upon knowing the vexed him exceedingly by some of his cause. He told me Mr. C***** had ironical remarks: first he questioned him boy replied he had gone through vulgar as to his advancement in arithmetic; my and decimal fractions. "Well," said Mr. C*****, "since you are so far advanced, I have not a doubt of your being able you; pray, Sir, what is the product of to answer any question I may put to half-a-crown multiplied by half-a-crown?" My son hesitated for some time, and

"Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris."

I refer him to his old friend Virgil, where be will find the passage; but at this very moment cannot precisely mention the page. But as he seems partial to such literary pursuits, I should be obliged in return if he would tell me the authors of the following frequently-quoted sentences, or sayings; not having discovered, or perhaps forgot, them in my classical readings:

1. Εν ελπίσιν χρη της σοφές βιον.

2. Vera redit facies, dissimulata perit..

3. Nimium risus pretium est si probitatis then requested the indulgence of pen

impendio constat.

4. Prodesse quàm conspici.

5. Magno conatu magnas nugas. 6. Per ardua liberi.

This is the motto of the late Lord Camelford, but I cannot remember whence it was taken.

7. Aut amat aut odit mulier, nil est tertium. 8. Timidus se vocat cautum, parcum sordidus. T. P.

MR. EDITOR,

AS you are in the habit of interspersing algebraical articles in the pages of your interesting miscellany, I suppose that arithmetic, being a branch of that noble science of which algebra is a part, cannot be wholly incompatible with the

1.

and paper; saying he felt confident he
could solve so simple a question. The
pen and paper being brought he began
his solution; Mr. C***** took a seat
opposite to him; and then dealt out his
lampoons to my poor boy with all that
irony and want of feeling which you can
suppose an illiterate, illiberal, self-taught
mathematician capable of.
The boy
became confused, and declared his ina-
bility to proceed.

I am sorry to say there are many
persons who, fond of displaying their
own knowledge of numbers, when they
find a child has learned fractional arith-
metic, will put this sapient question,
without once considering the various
answers which may be given to it:-
1. s. d. d. d.

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First, half-a-crown is of 1, and ×!=4=4=34=43 Answer.

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Second, half-a crown is of 5, and 4×2=3=616 3 Answer.

d.

Third, half-a-crown is of 6030, and 30 X 30=900=753 15 Answer.

d. S. 1. s.

grs.

grs. d. Fourth, half-a-crown is of 240-240-120, and 120X120 14400 3600

April 5, 1815.

3. l. 300 15 Ans.

HENRICUS.

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