an Eruption of Mount Vefuvius. 4g 
As many poetical defcriptions of this eruption will 
not be wanting, I llaall confine mine to fimple matter of 
fa£t in plain profe, and endeavour to convey to you, sir, 
as clearly and as diftindtly as I am able, wbat I faw my- 
felf, and the impreflion it made upon me at the time, 
without aiming in the lead; at a flowery ftyle. 
The ufual fymptoms of an approaching eruption, fucli 
as rumbling noifes and explofions within the bowels 
of the volcano, a quantity of fmoke ifluing with force 
from its crater, accompanied at times with an emiffion 
of red-hot fcorice and allies, were manifeft, more or lefs, 
during the w r hole month of July; and towards the end 
of the month, thofe fymptoms were increafed to fuch a 
degree as to exhibit in the night-time the moll beautiful 
fire-works that can be imagined. 
Thefe kinds of throws of red-hot fcorice and other 
volcanic matter, which at night are fo bright and lumi- 
nous, appear in broad day-light like fo many black fpots 
in the midft of the white fmoke; and it is this circum- 
fiance that occafions the vulgar and falfe fuppofition, 
that volcanos burn much more violently at night than in 
the day-time. 
On Thurfday, the 5th of Auguft laft, about two 
o’clock in the afternoon, I perceived from my villa at 
Paufilipo in the bay of Naples, from whence I have a 
Vol. LXX. H full 
