108 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



made the circuit of the globe in search of knowledge, and to gratify 

 his own adventurous curiosity, he chose to walk from Dieppe to 

 Naples via Paris, with an old soldier's knapsack strung to his shoul- 

 der, and a stick in his hand while he trudged along, and, while he 

 rested, a pen to scribble short notes at every cabaret on the road ; as- 

 tonishingly humble to strangers, who may have been more ignorant 

 than himself, but could hardly have shown less common sense ; and 

 stringing together original observations upon the guide-book for the 

 information of us dull stay-at-homes in England. It would become us 

 to call him philosophical out of consideration for comparisons so pro- 

 found and accurate as that at page 372, where he talks of the " plea- 

 sures of his acquaintances in a more honourable position pleasures 

 that, like the crab-apple, are red at the cheek, but sour at the core ;" 

 or where, at page 72, he observes that Frejus, " formerly a sea-port, 

 though several miles from the sea, offers the singular spectacle of a 

 town deserted by the ocean, like like what, think good reader ? 

 only marine shells found on a mountain ! A town by the sea-side 

 like a marine shell on a mountain ! that is a discovery to prove a 

 man a philosopher ! But hold, here is a letter and there is a motto 

 to the seal. Vlam aut inveniam aut faciam, (5r 53 @ &2J. Is that the 

 determined spirit of a knapsack traveller, or the cant of a traveller ? 

 Let us judge by the contents : 



To THE EDITOR OF THE "MONTHLY MAGAZINE." 



THE author of the " PHILOSOPHICAL RAMBLER/' begs leave to present a 

 copy of his work to the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, and to indicate the 

 following subjects treated of relative to sciences : 



Source of the Malaria of Rome, pag. 196 pag. 282. 



Discovery of an extensive Fossil Forest, pag. 197- 



Source and Cause of the Sirocco, pag. 234. 



New Theory of Volcanoes, pag. 257 pag. 265. 



The Fuoco at Pietra Mala, pag. 301. 



Origin of Basalt, pag. 345. 



Nay, Mr. Traveller, but this is something more than being philo- 

 sophical this is good Christian charity. Thus in our ignorance 

 instructed, we shall at last detect hidden merit and be grateful. We 

 acknowledge a condescension so rare, saying to you in choice Catho- 

 lic Italian beneditto tu et la terra quc tu fara ! What then does page 

 196 thus courteously " indicated" communicate ? 



" Walking on the Monte Pincio one day, I perceived thin and variously 

 composed strata of volcanic dust, developed by the partial cutting away of 

 the hill for the path which ranges on its height ; and on examining it in dif- 

 ferent places, I found it to be entirely formed of a mound of the same vol- 

 canic material. It is of a bluish colour, speckled with white spots perfectly 

 calcined, and possesses a strong attraction of humidity. Some that I got 

 several months ago is even now more damp than when taken from the hill, 

 thought repeatedly dried by the sun as carried about in my knapsack. This 

 property of the soil of Rome is, in my opinion, the chief source of the mala- 

 ria, so fatal in its effects here at certain seasons of the year. Its line of dis- 

 tribution marks the limit of its operation, and this circumstance will explain 

 how one side of a street should be notoriously unhealthy, and the other free 

 of any noxious influence. The most heedless observer must frequently have 

 witnessed how speedily the roads in the neighbourhood of Rome dry after 



