21 a on Voltaire. -^vg. 15.' 



These ruins are indeed the firmest mtifses of the 

 kind I have met with. Here, however, as- was -to be 

 expected, we in vain look for the large backing of 

 loose stones, to be found in all the other buildings of 

 this kind thac I have seen : they have been carried 

 away to the stone and lime tower, and nothing re- 

 mains but pieces of the vitrified rock, if I may ven- 

 ture that exprefsion, stripped entirely naked, rising 

 up in irregular mafses round the hill : yet even here 

 some stones are found with one end firmly immersed 

 in the vitrified matter, while the other end projects 

 considerably beyond it, and is only browned by the 

 heat. This circumstance sufficiently marks that 

 these walls must have been built after the same ge- 

 neral plan with others of this clafs. 

 To he continued. 



ON VOLTAIRE. 



They say that if Voltaire were alive he would be 

 •of the aristocratic party, because that he loved to 

 sign himself count of Ferney ; and though incef- 

 santly reviling courts, he was still a courtier. His 

 writings are, however, an appeal to the revolution 

 which has been brought about, and which he had 

 foretold. A good pamphlet might be made 6f all his 

 ^jueries and advices on the reformation of abuses in 

 the laws, in the government, in the administration of 

 justice, in the magistracy, in the finance, in the clergy 

 and church. It is he who has exalted the noblenefs 

 of agriculture, and of consequence debased the truly 

 low nobility of knight-errantry, since it was sloth 

 oruihed it from the height of its ruined toAvers. 



