C39 
Some of our modern British poets have also inspirited their produc- 
tions by happy allusions to the phenomena of JEtna and Vesuvius : — 
Thus in thy world material, mighty Mind ! 
Not that alone which solaces and shines ; 
The rough and gloomy challenges our praise. 
The winter is as needful as the spring, 
The thunder as the sun ; a stagnate mass 
Of vapours breeds a pestilential air : 
No more propitious the favonian breeze 
To nature’s health, than purifying storms. 
The dread volcano ministers to good ; 
Its smothered flames might undermine the world. 
Loud iEtnas fulminate in love to man.” Young. 
Another of our devotional poets has heightened the effect of his 
striking description of the descent of the God of Israel upon Mount 
Sinai, by a similar allusion : 
“ Nor shall the burning hills of old 
With Sinai be compar’d, 
a; 
.Etna shall be named no more ; 
Etna, the torch of Sicily ; 
Not half so high 
Her lightnings fly, 
Not half so loud her thunders roar 
Cross the Sicanian sea, to fright the Italian shore. 
Behold the sacred hill” — Watts's Lyrics. 
Diodorus Siculus has recorded an account of the first eruption to 
which he can attach any authenticity. He has neglected to mention 
the precise date when it occurred, but informs us that the Sicani, 
who at that time inhabited Sicily, were compelled by it to abandon 
the eastern side of the island, which was at a subsequent period inha- 
bited by the Sicilians from Italy, and to settle on the southern side. 
Thucydides mentions three different eruptions, which happened 
between the year b. c. 733, the third of the eleventh Olympiad, and 
E. c. 425, the third of the eighty-eighth Olympiad ; but he does not 
specify the exact dates of their respective occurrence. 
The first of the three, which is the second eruption, is said by 
Eusebius to have taken place B, c. 565, in the time of Phalaris. 
The second irruption mentioned by Thucydides, which is the third 
in the order of authentic memorials, is assigned to the year b. c. 476, 
the second year of the seventy-fifth Olympiad, when Phsedon was 
archon at Athens, and when Mardonius, the general of Xerxes, was 
defeated by the Athenians at Plataea. The volcanic eruption, and 
the victory referred to, are both specified in an ancient inscription on 
the Oxford marble, which however mentions the first and not the 
second year of the Olympiad, when Xantippus was the Athenian 
archon. Strabo, Silicus Italicus, Valerius Maximus, Elianyand other 
ancient authors, record a very singular act of heroism during this 
eruptioDj and which is exhibited on an ancient medal. Two Sicilian 
