1797+] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
wc SER, 
ne Author of a Book called Meker- 
chus Redivivus, has endeavoured, 
with fome argument, and more ridicule, 
tomperfuade tie literary world, that the 
prefent mode of reading Latin and Greek 
verfe is contrary to the practice of the 
poets themfelves and their contempo- 
raries, as well as dcftruétive of that har- 
mony which fhould arife from the me- 
trical arrangement of the fyllables. It is 
not my defign, at prefent, to make a for- 
anal attack upon his new-old fyftem, but 
to offer an objection, which, if he has 
béen accurate in his ftatement of the 
practice of the ancients, cannot be very 
dificult toanfwer. Iris, 1 believe, ge- 
nerally allowed, that the ‘nicer ears of 
the Auguftan age were difgutted by the 
rhiming hexameters, one of which Is 
mentioned by acritic of fome eminence, 
as giving particular offence. It is the 
following ; : y 
Vir precor uxori frater fuccurre forori. 
Now it appears, on reading this verfe ac- 
cording to the above fyftem, that there is 
norhime in it; the profody (which that 
mode of reading fo clofely follows) di- 
viding the laft fyllable of aor: from the 
two former, and giving it additional 
ftrength cn account of the paufe: fo that 
Ovid’s notion of a rhime was not fupe- 
rior to that of a worthy fabricator of 
Birth Day Odes, who, in one of his effy - 
fons, has the following couplet : 
~ Set before ye, all the flory, 
Praifing more high, Britain’s glory. 
The laft jine of which, if we give the 
proper quantity to the fyllables, prefents 
us with the fame kind of rhime as the 
hexameter above quoted, if read accord 
ing tothe rules of Mekerchus. If this 
be ‘not a rhyming hexameter, I requeft 
the difciples of Merkerchus ‘to inform 
ime, whether there be any fuch, where 
they are to be found, and how they mutt 
- be read to produce the chime of fimilar 
founds which conftitutes rhime ? 
+ Septcmber 4, 1797: H. M. 
a er 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
SKETCHES OF OBSERVATIONS MADE 
IN A JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 
IN 1799. 
(CoxTINUED FROM OUR MaGAZzINE 
oF May.) 
On Mount Vefuwius and the Solfatara. 
Tt was my good fortune to arrive at 
* Naples at atime when there was an 
eruption of Mount Vefuvius, of confider- 
able confequence, of which, however, 
Ox the made of reading Latin. 
193 
the dangerous effects were not fufficiently 
extenfive to forbid a near invettiyation 
of the phenomena it exhibited. 
Thgce Englith gentlemen, and myfelf, 
chofe a day when the flood of Java from 
the-mountain’s fide, and the projection of 
fire and ftones from the crater, feemed te 
have redoubled. At five in the afternoon, 
we began to afcend Vefuvius by the 
fhorteft and fteepeft road.—It was the 
middle of July; the weather was un- 
commonly hot, even for that climate and 
feafon; the fun declining towards the 
horizon, darted his fiery rays direétly on 
our backs 3; while in our faces we had a 
fuffocating reflection from the burning 
and fulphureous furface of the foil. 
-After a long and laborious march a+ 
mong the loofe athes, which, by flipping 
from under our feet, cheated us of many 
a weary ftep, we halted at a confiderable 
dittance from the crater ; and asthe fua 
was not yet fet, turned our backs upon 
the mountain, to conternplate the en- 
chanting profpect of which it gave us the 
command. ‘The city of Naples, ‘the 
noble bay, the town of Portici, and the 
ifland of Capri, in the diftance, compofe 
a picture, fuch as the plaitic hand of na- 
ture has very feldom produced. While 
it continued faintly illumined by the fet. 
ting fun, we thought it impoflible for 
any thing to exceed it in beauty ; bur. 
when it was more viyidly enlightened 
by a burft of fire and flames from the 
Volcano, the fcenery became fo grand 
and ftriking that we could not help re-: 
gretting the tranfient paflage of the gleam. 
- The fun foon funk beneath the hori- 
zon; the twilight died away; the town, 
the bay, and ifland, vanifhed from our 
fight ; and nothing remained but a fcene 
of the moft horrible complexion—Stones 
of great weight were projected, by fre- 
quent explofions, to a prodigious hewhtr ; 
large fheets of liquid fire followed ; and 
attec undulating for a moment in the air, 
fell back intothe bowels of the mountain, 
which returned a hollow groan; while 
three diftinét rivers of /uva flowed froin 
as many chafims a little below its mouth ; 
trickled down the fteep, like the tears of 
nature deploring the horrid defolation ; 
and mingling in the plain below, formed 
an extenfive lake of an ob{cure, fiery 
appearance. 
The immenfe quantity of- matter 
thrown out, eyen at this time, feemed to 
me fufficient to overturn the fyfiem of 
Buffon, and his followers, who contend 
that the foyer of a volcano does not ex. 
tend beyond its bafe. Bur how much 
more 
