Notice of Active and Extinct Volcanos. 87 



ed, the experience of what has happened before justifies a belief, 

 that the inflammable materials which supply the fires of Vesuvi- 

 us will ultimately be expended, and that the mountain may at 

 some future period return to the fertile condition, which Martial 

 describes as belonging to it, when its heights were covered with 

 vineyards, and the very spots surrounding the actual crater were 

 considered the favorite resort of the Gods. 



" His est pampineis viridis Vesuvius umbris, 



Sparserat hie madidos nobilis uva lacus. 

 Haec loca, quam Nysae colles, plus Bacchus amavit, 



Hoc nuper Satyri monte dedere choros, 

 Haec Veneris sedes. Lacedaemone gratior illi, 



Hie locus Herculeo nomine clarus erat." 



Conclusion. — Theory of Volcanos. 



In concluding this long account of volcanic phenomena, 

 and of their possible and probable causes, we may be permit- 

 ted to observe — 



That having been for the last ten or twelve years, in the 

 habit of applying the remarkable discovery of the metallic 

 bases of the fixed alkalis and earths, to the explanation of 

 volcanic phenomena, we have been led to embrace nearly all 

 the opinions of our author on this head, with some addition- 

 al views, which may perhaps be admitted, until something 

 better shall be suggested. 



The act of creative energy, admitted alike by religion and 

 philosophy, necessarily implies the production of all the ele- 

 ments of which our physical universe is composed. How far 

 these elements were originally united in binary, ternary, or 

 still more complex combinations, we cannot possibly know. 

 The revelation of this fact, not being necessary to our moral 

 direction, has been withheld by the Creator, and we know 

 only — that " In the beginning God created the heavens and 

 the earth." As to the actual condition of the elements, at 

 that primeval period, science may fairly enquire, and is jus- 

 tified in reasoning within the limits prescribed by our moral 

 condition and intellectual powers. 



In the present state of chemical science, our elementary- 

 bodies are divided, very nearly, between the two classes, com- 

 bustible and metals, which really form but one class, and 

 those agents, which from their acting with peculiar energy 

 upon the combustibles and metals, and altering their prop- 

 erties, are called by some, supporters of combustion ; — they 



