334 Mount Vefaclm. [Book VI* 



greatly from earthquakes, that a very fmall'part of the 

 original ftru&ure remains. The other religious, edifices 

 are profufcly ornamented, but in a bad tafte. 



But if the united effects of attachment to their 

 native foil, of contempt for dangers to which they are 

 habituated,, and of confidence in the miraculous veil, 

 have occasioned the wonderful adherence of the Cata- 

 nians to this xhngerous fituation from which they have 

 fo fevcrely fiifferecl, it muft, however, be .confefied, 

 that they have fometimes derived advantages from 

 the very, evils which they have fo much reafon to 

 dread. They were always in great want of a port, 

 with which they were furnifned by one of thofe ca- 

 pricious changes which nature fo frequently makes 

 in this ever varying fpot. A-ftream of lava running 

 into the fea, formed a mole, which no expence could 

 have furnifned them with. This advantage, however, 

 proved but temporary ; there remained for forr.e time 

 a fafe and commodious harbour, but by a fubfequent 

 eruption it was entirely filled up and demolifhed. 



The celebrated Bi-lhop Berkeley has defcribed an 

 eruption of Mount Vefuvius, of which he was a 

 witnefs in the year 1717, and the reader will find 

 his narrative in die firft volume of Dr. Goldfmith's 

 Hiitory of the Earth and Animated Nature, p. 94. 

 But the mod complete and philofophical account of 

 this mod formidable phenomenon, a volcanic ex- 

 plofion, is that with which Sir William Hamilton has 

 favoured the public, in defcribing the late dreadful 

 eruption of that mountain in 1794; and this I {hall 

 endeavour to give, as nearly as poflibie, in his own 

 words. 



+ Sir William begins his narrative with remarking, 

 that the frequent flight eruptions .of lava for forne 



years 



