90 CULTIVATION OF THE 



discriminately condemned, may argue but little 

 acquaintance with their true character. I have 

 met amongst the Catholic clergy of that country, 

 those whose erudition and attainment make 

 them conspicuous among the votaries of learning. 

 Many of their order furnish an example of prac- 

 tical charity, calculated to cool our sectarian 

 pride, and leave but little room for an indulgence 

 of that gratitude which thanks heaven that we 

 are not as others. 



In visiting the vineyards producing the La- 

 chrymae Christi, we are again forcibly reminded 

 of the changeful influence of soil, exposure, and 

 position, on the productions of the vine. In 

 reasoning from analogy it would be supposed, 

 that a hint favourable to thie branch of agricul- 

 ture might be availed by the intelligent cultiva- 

 tor, to arrive at the same results, and that by the 

 adaptation of a similar soil, a like exposure, with 

 due attention to other attendant circumstances, 

 he might produce a wine, resembling in some 

 degree at least, that which he designed to per- 

 petuate. It does not appear, however, that such is 

 the case. The Lachrymas is produced in the ashes 

 deposited by the famous eruption of Vesuvius, 

 which in the seventy-ninth year of the Christian 

 era, entombed the cities of Herculaneam and 

 Pompeii, whose site was lost to the world for 

 seventeen centuries, and around whose history, 

 the mist of fable had gathered in dusky shadow, 

 resembling the feeble light of antediluvian story. 

 The soil by which Pompeii is covered is loose 

 and porous, and so light as to be blown into 

 heaps in the direction of every strong wind. 



