STUDY X. 277 



die rocks, in order to announce to the mariners 

 from afar the danger of fliallows. She frequently 

 prefents to them forms analagous to deftrudion, 

 fuch as thofe of ferocious animals, of edifices in 

 ruins, or of the keels of (hips turned upward. She 

 even extradbs from thefe awful forms hollow noifes 

 refembling groans, and broken off by long inter- 

 vals of filence. The Ancients believed that they 

 faw in the rock of Scylla, a female of a hideous 

 form, whofe girdle was furrounded by a pack of 

 dogs, which barked inceflantly. Mariners have 

 given to the rocks of the Bahama channel, fo noted 

 for fhipvvrecks, the name of the Martyrs, becaufe 

 they prefent, through the fpray of the billows 

 which break on them, the horrid fpeftacle of men 

 impaled, and expofed on wheels. You would even 

 imagine, that you heard fighsand fobbings ifluing 

 from thefe difmal fhallows. 



Nature employs, in like manner, thofe clafliing 

 oppofitions, and thofe ominous figns, to exprefs 

 the characters of favage and dangerous animals of 

 all kinds. The lion ftroUing, by night, through' 

 the folitudes of Africa, announces his approach 

 from a great diftance, by roarings, which have a 

 ftriking refemblance to the rolling of thunder. 

 The vivid and inftantaneous flaflies of fire which 

 dart from his eyes in the dark, exhibit, befides, the 

 appearance of that formidable meteor, lightning. 



T 3 During 



