An historical account of the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, in the year 1760. From a large work published at Naples, by order of the Cardinal Archbishop of that city. IN order to form an idea of Mount Vetuvius, as it was on its fummit and the parts adjacent in the year 1760, one mult fuppofe a mountain in the fiape of a lugar-loaf, whole point being taken away, leaves a fort of platform hollow to the depth of 130 feet, forming a cup, or funnel, whofe circun ference is computed at two thirds of a mile, or about 5624 Paris feet. Its border is wide enough for two men to march there abreaft. One defcends from thence to the bottom of the funnel through a foil full of chinks, from whence exhales a tuffocating fuiphureous smoke, and fometimes flames, whole colour #ews them to be of the fame kind. Sometimes this ground rifes very near as high as the border of the cup; fome of its chinks often ciofe, but others are perpetually formed. From the bottom of this funnel appears another opening, which is continually growing larger; a thick moke frequently ifues from it; one hears a noife there like the boiling of many large cauldrons on a very ardent fire, or rather like that of a torrent which dathes violently on the rocks from whence it falls; and at certain feafons are difcovered there, not only a number of paths, which the fire has made in the fides of the abyss, but also torrents of inflamed matter as dazzling as melted cryftal, Such is the form of the great and principal mouth of Vefuvius. There is another, but lefs confiderable; befides, it is in a manner filled up, as its fides are covered with an immenie quantity of afhes, and calcined flones. Mention is made here only of the first; and all was in the ftate above defcribed, from the end of March, to the 20th of December 1760, the happy era of the ceffation of an erup tion which had begun in November 1759. But on the 21st of December 1760, the flocks of an earthquake for the distance

of fifteen miles round Vefuvius, and ter that the roaring of the fea, terri the inhabitants of the country border on the mountain. The shocks were f quently repeated for three days; on 2d they amounted to five; in the m of which, the vulcano being tranquil, mitted neither flaines nor fmoke; wh fuddenly, on the fouth of Vefuvius, n the place called Il foffo delle Campagne. mile from the king's road to Naples, t the territory della torre del Greco, new vulcano's were feen to rife, and pand themselves, which began to vo forth, with a horrible noife, fmo flames, aflies, and a vaft number of bu ing ftones; while a third vulcano, fma er than thefe, increafed their numbe and while the earth hook with more v lence than ever, Veivius began to ro and a black fmoke iflued from it; whi after being railed like a rapid whirlwi diffuled itself on all fides, The g threw out a prodigious quantity of. a and pumice-stones. It was near eveni but before the fun was fet, twelve ot vulcano's appeared at fome distance fi thefe. All the fifteen, as well as large abyfs, filled the air with their flamed explosions; and at half past in the afternoon of the 24th, two of th vulcano's began to pour forth, with dreadful noife, torrents of burning la which uniting ran for eight days, bu ing and defroving on the right and le as far as the fea, through a large tract land, all that this river of fire could rea plantations, hamlets, farms, &c. a fpreading terror on all fides, which w increased by the conftant eruption fome of the other new vulcano's.

The above is the fubftance of the a thor's first chapter. In the fecond he ferves, one of the most remarkable c cumitances of this phænomenon is, ti fome of the ftones thrown out by th vulcano's took up in falling to the groun thirteen, fixteen, and even eighteen brations of the pulfe. And if we fuppo with the author, that on account of t extreme heat in which he breathed, n far from these vulcano's, and in the mi of fulphureous vapours, we fhould reck two feconds, instead of one, for the i terval between two pulfes, even th these stones had been raised to the heig of 960 Paris feet, fince they took eight feconds in falling to the groun A Paris foot is 4 gths of an inch mo than a foot English. O

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Ore fane, which might weigh 2601 ounds, Te thrown 90 paces; another, which a run could are lift, was carried 190 neer: a third, ughter, 280 pares; and a Ferth, lighter ftill, 390. For the above £, the author appeals to two of his Sends whom he names. Vefuvius itself, dough extremely agitated, all the time the explosion of the new vulcano's, re not calmed with them, but only to comence again with great fury its own erections, December 26. They contimed till the 5th of January following, together with repeated fhocks of earthquakes, which greatly alarmed the city of Naples, but which by good providence had no other bad effects.

M. de Bottis had not confined his obferations to what pafled at the foot of Velovios, especially on the fouth. He has collected alfo what happened on the d. wet and on the north of the mountain, and accompanied them with fuitable resions in chap. 3. There we find that heathes of Vefuvius were thrown as far er Nocera, Sarno, Nola, Somma, and oher places, even twelve miles diftant; theft thefe eruptions occasioned earth

quakes, even after they had ceafed, by De fubterraneous fires which they kin eded, and whofe effects extended by deFees to a great diftance.

The author, who visited many places here thefe fhocks were most violent, End there, by the thermometer, a cont of table increase of beat, a strong ful alles fmell, and more or lefs traces addinks by which it was diffused.

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In the 4th chapter, the author deof the openings from which the lavas in three places, and the various materials of which they were compofed. ab The bottom of them was formed of ftones cir of different colours, and which (if one that tayo fay) were petrified with a number thefgredients; fand, antimony, talc, py and and marcafites; octoedrons, and

, fine, and almoft tranfparent ofes; faline concretions, fulphureous thenations, nitre, vitriol, fea-falt, fal tmniac, &c. M. de Bottis has made trical analyfis of them, of which he given the refult.

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thefe vulcano's being formed in a , almost entirely cultivated, the dawhich was done to it by the torof lava, with which this plain was wed as far as the fea, could not very confiderable. Numbers of s were by this means reduced to

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bezgary, and a multitude of persons of all ranks put in mourning, their houfes being confumed, and their poffeflions fwallowed up.

The evil did not even end there. Our author fhews, in the 6th and last chapter, how fatal were the confequences, in various relpects, in the districts bordering on Vefuvius, to which neither the eruption of flames, ftones, and afhes, nor the inundation of the burning lava extended. When the conflagration of the vulcano's was over, their explosions stopped, and the earth was at reft; exhalations iflued from various places, in fome degree, peftilential, which at two different times, viz. first in January, and fix months after, in July and August, occa fioned great alarms. Thefe exhalations, or, as they are called by the peasants of thofe parts, Mofetes, infected the air and the waters, killed many animals, and were fatal even to the lives of fome perfons, as well as to the health of many o thers. Some approaching conflagrations were apprehended; and, indeed, one of the new vulcano's began again to fend forth, in July, much smoke; some flames alfo iffued from it; the earth round about was perceived to fhake; but it was abandoned through fear; and fince that time no mention has been made of any eruption, either of Vefuvius, or of the finall mountains which have risen as it were out of its bosom. Gent. Mag.

as the most adapted to favour the pro grefs of wit and genius, on account of that mild and happy temperature that reigns there in the different feafons. The exquifite taste that appears in the productions of the Grecian artifts, has been in a great measure peculiar to them. It has rarely been tranfmitted to other nations without lofing fomething of its native excellence; and its pleafing light made its way but late into the northern regions. It is not fo very long ago, that feveral capital pictures of Corregio were employed at Stockholm to stop the broken windows of the royal ftables.

The imitation of the ancients is the only way of excelling in the tublime and elegant arts of Painting and Sculpture; and we may fay of their productions, what has been faid of Homer, that the more we ftudy them, the more we must admire them, as true beauty appears moft to advantage when it is strictly examined. In order to admire the Laocoon as we admire Homer, a man must have fuch an acquaintance with that famous ftatue, as he has with an intimate friend with whom he daily converfes. Nicomachus paffed an hour or two every day with the Helen of Zeuxis, and on hearing a perfon find fault with the compofition of that famous pic ture, "Take my eyes," faid he," and you will think her a goddels."

It was with fuch eyes, that Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Pouffin, beheld the productions of the ancient artifts. They looked for tafte, truth, and beauty, at the fountain-head. Raphael fent feveral Excellent defigners into Greece to draw for him all the precious remains of antiquity that has efcaped the waste of time. It muft not, however, be imagined, that the most capital productions of the famous painters and fculptors of ancient times are free from defects. Thele de fects are even more numerous than is generally apprehended; though they are, as it were, loft in a blaze of beauties, and scarcely attended to amidst thofe fentiments of admiration that the masterly part of each production excites. Some of the greatest painters and fculptors of antiquity confined their efforts to the principal figure of each piece, and often neglected the reft. Who would imagine that the Dolphin and the Cupid that are seen at the feet of the Venus de Medicis, were the work of the fame chifel that gave perfect grace and perfect beauty to that immortal form? Look at the great eft part of the medals of the Kings of E.

gypt and Svria, nav at those where workmanship is most exquifite, and will perceive the heads highly faith and the other parts of the medal in inferior in beauty and grace. We m confider the productions of fome of greatest artists of antiquity as Lucian the Jupiter of Phidias: he admired god, without looking at his footstool.

It has been given as a rule necellary the perfection of painting, That imi tion must follow, not merely nature, nature in its most striking and perfect a pearances, in its most grand or agreeal forms, in a word, felect Nature, if I m ule that exprellion. But thofe who capable of judging of the productions the Grecian artists, and who endeavo to imitate them, will find not only t felect Nature in them, but fomething f more tranfcendent and fublime; they w find, in them, that ideal beauty, of whi the model is not visible in external natur and which, as an ancient commentator Plato tells us, is only to be found in t human mind, where it was originally in planted by the primitive fource of etern beauty.

The most beautiful and best propo tioned human form that is to be found modern times, would perhaps refemb the most beautiful body among the Greek no more than Iphicles resembled his br ther Hercules. The gentle temperatu of a pure, mild, and ferene atmospher had, no doubt, a certain influence on th bodily conftitution of the ancient Gr cians; and the manly exercises to whic their youth were accustomed, brought t perfection what nature had thus happil begun. Let us take a young Lacedemo nian, fprung from the blood of heroe whole infant motions were never restrain ed by thofe miferable fhackles that cram nature in our hapless children, who from the age of feven years has lain upon th ground, from his earliest youth has bee trained up to hardships, and whofe ver amusements, fuch as wrestling, fwimming &c. have contributed to brace his nerves to invigorate his frame, and to give forc and energy to all his motions; let us take I fay, this mafculine figure, and place him, in imagination, befide a moder beau, a Sybarite of our days, and then af an able artist, which of the two he wil chufe for his model in drawing a Thefeus an Achilles, or even a Bacchus? A Gre cian painter perceiving one day two fta tues of the first of these heroes, of which

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the one had an effeminate, and the other manly afpect, faid pleafantly," This Thefeus has been fed with roles, but the ther has been nourished with flesh." The fication of this faying is easy and evi

The Grecian games were a perpetual : atentive to the youth to apply themfelves bodily exercises, and the laws obliged the of the youth who propofed to con-end for the prize, to prepare themselves ut for this famous conteft during the space p-jef ten months at Peloponnefus, where leithe games were to be celebrated. The ay principal prizes were not always gained are by thofe who had attained to the age of manhood, but often by those who were in the prime of youth, as we fee by the Odes of Pindar.

It was in these exercises that the body quired that mafculine and noble connewhich the Grecian artists gave their estes, and which had nothing in it eibrer unmeaning or fuperfluous. The treng Spartans were obliged, every ten here, days, to appear ftark naked, in prefence theof the Ephori, who prefcribed them a Gre-rit and fevere diet, when they difcowhich red in them the leaft tendency to corht to pulence or fatnefs, which are equally inapportent with bodily proportion and videmo-r. There is ftill extant a law of Pyeroes, agoras to the fame purpose; and this is, train oubtedly, the reafon that engaged the Crampong Greeks of the earliest ages to make frome of a milk-diet, during the whole on the time that they were preparing themselves betar difputing the prize at the public games. The Grecians avoided, with the utmost , every thing that could have the t remote tendency either to distort the features of the face, or to deftroy the protons of the body. Alcibiades refuted learn to play on the flute, because it red him to make wry mouths; and in henak his example was followed by all the helg Athenians.

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The Grecian drefs was alfo fuch as left Nature its free courfe in forming the boto its juft proportions. Its natural and

garments, that disfigure our necks, thighs, and haunches. hofe modern contrivances, that a falfe modesty has invented to disguise real beauty, were unknown to the Grecian ladies.

Every one also knows the care that was employed by the Grecians to render their offspring beautiful, and the encourage ments that the government administered to animate them in this laudable defign. They carried this amiable art fo far, as to attempt changing the colour of the eyes. There were public prizes proposed at Peloponnefus, as the crown of beauty; and thofe who were victorious in this fingular conteft, were rewarded with a fuit of armour, that was afterwards hung up, to their honour, in the temple of Minerva. There were always competent judges to decide contests of this nature. Ariftotle tells us, that the Greeks taught their children the art of drawing, with a view to enable them to judge, with dif-, cernment and tafte, of those bodily proportions that conftitute true beauty.

At this very day, the Grecian ifles are remarkable for the gracefulness and beauty of their inhabitants; and the female' fex there retain ftill, notwithstanding their intermarriages with foreigners, fuch peculiar charms of complexion and figure, as exhibit a strong argument in favour of the tranfcendent beauty of their anceftors, whom, in their whimsical chronology, they look upon as more ancient than the moon. The charms of beauty are fo univerfal among the Georgians and Kadardinfkins, a branch of the Tartars, that a fine complexion and a comely figure are no rareties in thofe countries.

Thofe fatal disorders that destroy a regu ar let of features, a fresh complexion, and a well-proportioned form, were unknown among the Greeks no trace of the fmall pox, the venereal disease, or rickets, is to be found either in the authors or the tradition of that people.

In a word, whatever art can contribute to promote the health, beauty, fymmetry, and perfection, of the human body, from the state of infancy to that of manhood, was emploved by the Grecians for that purpofe, and rendered them the models of imitation to thofe who fought Nature in its fairest and most graceful forms.

But it is now time to confider the influence of these facts on the progrefs of the fublime and elegant arts of Painting and Sculpture. This fhall be the fub

edfed by thofe unwieldy and uneafy

Account

Account of the robbery of Lord Harrington, by breaking open a buaureau at his house in the Stable-yard, St James's.

IN the year 1762, Lord Harrington was

fo unfortunate as to receive into his fervice, in the capacity of a porter, one John Weket, who had before been affociated with John Bradley, and James Cooper, in robbing the chambers of Henry Mountague, Efq; in Lincoln's Inn, and the house of Mr William Burton in Hatton Garden.

Both Bradley and Cooper had been livery-fervants. Bradley in December 1763, when Wesket had lived about a year and half at Lord Harrington's, was out of place; and Cooper having before failed as a cheesemonger in Ratcliff Highway, kept a chandler's fhop and coal-cel lar in New Turn-style, Holborn; Bradley at that time being his lodger.

Wefket having formed a defign to rob Lord Harrington, took opportunities of going frequently under various pretences into the room in which his Lordship ufually fat, and in which there was a bureau where he kept his cash and notes.

By going thither to his Lordship with a letter, though it was not his business, he had seen the bureau open, while his Lordfhip was counting money, and had remarked what part of the bureau it was kept in.

He had also been told by Mr Bevel, my Lord's steward, that money had been received to pay bills; and when Bevel was asked in court how he came to give him this intelligence, he answered, that it was to apprise him of tradesmen receiving their money, that he might get from them what thefe people have long exacted, by the tyranny of custom, under the name of perquifite, at their going away; and Bevel added, that he would take care the tradefinen should come to the house to be paid, to insure the levying of this tax by the porter.

Wefket having got this intelligence, and having acquainted himself with the bureau, and the particular part of it where the money was kept, he communicated his purpose of robbing his Lord to his old affociate Bradley, and appointed him to come to aflift in the fact on Saturday evening, Dec. 5. 1763, when he knew his Lord and Lady were to be at the opera, directing him at the fame time to bring a brace of pistols and a tinder-box. With what view the piftols were or

ing to be perpetrated in fecrecy and dered, does not appear, the robbery lence, where no body could be pre but the thieves, except to fecure t retreat, if they fhould be detected in

fact. The tinder-box was to be left hind, that the robber might be fupp not to be a domeftic, nor uficiently quainted with the house to know wi to light a candle.

Bradley accordingly came, about e o'clock in the evening, with his pit and tinder box. Weket let him in the door of the porte 's lodge, and ord ing him to walk foftv, took him int little room where he flept.-" No bod fays he," has a right to come hither will get you fomething to drink, and h you fhall remain till the middle of night, and then we will have my Lo money."

Wefket immediately left him, lock him in; but returned foon after wa with a bottle of run; and Bradley t fhewed him his putols and tinder-b which he took from him, and left him gain; he was afterwards to and again veral times, but always locked the d and took the key with him when he w away.

About twelve o'clock, Lord and L Harrington came home, and between and two Wefket came to him, and him the family were fecure: Tal draught of rum," fays he, have rage, and follow me."

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They then went into the kitchen; Wefket fhewed him a very high wind which opened with a pulley and ftri telling him, that must be his way when the bufinefs was done. Bradley objected, for a very good rea becaufe he did not know where he fl come when he had got out of the v dow. He faid, however, that the pose intended might be answered w out trouble or risk; and immediately ling off his fhoes, which were dirty, made the mark of his foot upon the d fer, which it was necessary to moun get at the window; and then he dau the window and the wall, to make it pear that fome body with dirty feet got out of it.

When this was done, they both w very foftly to the bureau in my Le study; when Wesket, giving Bradley candle, took a gimlet and chiffel out his pocket, and broke open the bur He took out two bank-notes, one