[ 311 ] 



mind, and relaxations from feverer fludies, than as purfuits of 

 mvich incrinfic importance; and that, at beft, they are to be 

 confidered as contributing but remotely to the naore ufeful and 

 ferious objedts of life : But when applied, as we know they have 

 been too often, to excite and diffufe doubts of the mod efTcn- 

 tial truths, and ultimately to fap the foundations of religion, 

 and, with it, of both private and public virtue, order and hap- 

 pinefs, and indeed of the very exiftence of civil fociety, as 

 too fatal modern experience has fhewn, it is not eafy to fay 

 whether we fliall be moft ftruck with the vanity and prefump- 

 tion, the folly, or the wickednefs of the attempt, to raife fa 

 danng a fuperfl:ru(5lure on fo (lender a bafe *, 



* Since tin's paper was read, Mr. Rafpe has pointed out to me a paflage in his 

 Preface to Ferber's Letters, tranflated and publiflicd by liim in 1776, which had 

 before efcaped my notice : Speaking of fubmarine volcanoes, he fays " The petrified 

 " fithes are monuments of their heat;" and adds, " fome unnatural revolution in 

 " their own element muft have killed and involved them at once in the fediments of 

 " the troubled ocean ; on this account, many argillaceous Jlate rocks, filled with petri- 

 " fied fiflies, are to be confidered as fubmarine or fubjqueous volcanic produftions ; 

 " nay, matiy calcareous Jlates, fuch as thofe at Bolca, Papbenheim, Eichjlaed, Altheim 

 " and Mont Libanon, are, for the fame reafon, to be ranked amongft them." 



I tranfcribe this paflage, as it feems to bear fome refemblance, though very gene- 

 rally exprefled, to the account above given. 



The defcription of Monte Boica, which we meet with in pages 49 and 50 of the 

 fame work, is erroneous in almoft every particular. It is as follows : " Bolca is a 

 " fteep barren hill at twenty miles diftance from Verona, yjr the moj} part oi flrati- 

 " fied limefione, but now and thett interrupted by ancient •volcanic craters. The lime- 

 " ftone contains var'u gated flints, of a red, black, green and white colour. In this hill , 

 " are found the famous impreffions of plants and fiflies." 



Catalogo 



