founded on that miserable, though strong consolation, that all mankind were involved in the same calamity, and that I imagined that I was perishing with the world itself. At last this. terrible darkness was dissipated by degrees, like a cloud or smoke; the real day returned, and even the sun appeared, though very faintly, as when an eclipse is coming on. Every object which presented itself to our eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed changed, being covered with white ashes, as with a deep snow.

"We returned to Misenum, where we refreshed ourselves as well as we could, and passed our anxious night between hope and fear: though, indeed, with a much larger share of the latter; for the earth still continued to shake, while several enthusiastic persons ran wildly among the people, and making a kind of frantic sport of their own and their friends' wretched situation. However, my mother and I, notwithstanding the danger we had passed, and that which threatened us, had no intention of leaving Misenum till we should receive some account of my uncle.'"

"How singular it was," said Susan, “ that Pliny should read an historical work, at a moment of such imminent danger. Do you call it fortitude, Sir?"

"I am something, my dear, of lord Lyttelton's opinion, respecting this part of this really amiable man's conduct: That, when all nature seemed falling into final destruction, to be reading Livy and making extracts was an absurd affectation. To meet danger with courage is manly, but to be insensible to it is brutal stupidity; and to pretend insensibility where it cannot be supposed, is ridiculous falseness.""

"But his conduct, in refusing to leave his mother, you will allow, was noble," remarked Mrs. Spencer.

"Undoubtedly it was a beautiful act of filial piety; and whilst I have passed a censure on the one act mentioned, I wish it to be remembered, that no Roman ever excelled him in sincere integrity of heart and greatness of sentiment; although there was a mixture of vanity blended with his virtue, which impaired and disgraced it."

"I think, Sir," said Ann, "you spoke of some cities being destroyed at this time.

"Yes, my dear, and Herculaneum was one. Like Pompeii and other cities, it was thought to be utterly destroyed, till the beginning of the eighteenth century, when it was discovered; and many of the houses were found perfectly

furnished, and the furniture in good preservation."

"Do volcanic eruptions ever occur in other countries?" asked Susan.

"The principal apertures of this kind," replied Mr. Wilmot, “ besides Vesuvius, are, Etna in Sicily; Stromboli, one of the Lipari Islands, north of Sicily; and Hecla in Iceland.

"So late as the year 1783, a volcanic eruption in Iceland surpassed any thing recorded in history. The lava spouted up to the height of two miles perpendicular, and continued thus for two months; during which time it covered a tract of three thousand six hundred square miles of ground, in some places more than one hundred feet deep; and this tremendous visitation was followed by a train of consequences, the most direful and melancholy, some of which continue to be felt to this day.

"Immense floods of red hot lava were poured down from the hills, with amazing velocity; and, spreading over the low country, burnt up men, cattle, churches, houses, and every thing they attacked in their progress. Not only was all vegetation in the immediate neighbourhood of the volcano destroyed, by the ashes, brimstone, and pumice which it emitted; but, it be

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ing thrown up to an inconceivable height in the atmosphere, they were scattered over the whole island; impregnating the air with noxious vapours, intercepting the genial rays of the sun, and empoisoning whatever could satisfy the hunger or quench the thirst, of man or beast. Even in some of the more distant districts, the quantity of ashes that fell was so great, that they were gathered up by handsful, Upwards of four hundred people were deprived instantly of a home; the fish were driven from the coasts; and the elements seemed to vie with each other, which should commit the greatest depredations: famine and pestilence stalked abroad, and cut down their victims with ruthless cruelty, while death himself was glutted with the prey. In some houses there was scarcely a sound individual left to tend the afflicted, or any who possessed sufficient strength to inter the dead.

"The most miserably emaciated tottering skeletons were seen in every quarter. When the animals that had died of disease and hunger were consumed, the wretched creatures had nothing to eat but raw hides, and old pieces of leather and ropes, which they boiled, and devoured with avidity. The horses eat the flesh off one another; and, for want of other suste

nance, had recourse to turf, wood, and even excrementitious substances; while the sheep devoured each other's wool. In a word, the accumulation of miseries originating in the volcanic eruption, was so dreadful, that, in the short space of two years, not fewer than 9336 human beings, 28,000 horses, 11,461 head of cattle, and 190,488 sheep, perished on the island.

"Such is Dr. Henderson's account of this melancholy calamity; a visitation which was awful in its nature, and unparalleled in its horrors."

"What a blessing it is," said Ann, "that we live in England, where no troubles of the kind ever assail us."

"Cherish the feeling of thankfulness, my dear girl," said Mr. Wilmot; "for it is indeed a favoured-a privileged country. And here," said he, turning to a full-length portrait of George the Third, "is the picture of our late venerable monarch; whose benevolent wish, that every child in his dominions might possess a Bible, and be able to read it, deserves to be transmitted from sire to son.

"The ornament of his domestic circle, his gentle and pious daughter, was taken from and his reason lasted only to receive her

him;