stood. If it had found any conductor to carry it to her head or body, in all probability she must have been killed. A good strong head of hair, if it is kept perfectly clean and dry, is probably one of the best preservatives against the fire of lightning. But so soon as it is stuffed full of powder and pomatum, and bound together with pins, its repellent force is lost, and it becomes a conductor.-But I beg pardon for these surmises. I throw them in the way of my readers only for them to improve upon at their leisure: for we have it ever in our power to be making experiments in electricity. And although this fluid is the most subtile and active of any we know, we can command it on all occasions; and I am now so accustomed to its operations, that I seldom comb my hair, or pull off a stocking, without observing them under some form or other. How surprising is it then, that mankind should have lived and breathed in it for so many years, without almost ever supposing that it existed! But to return to our mountain.

So highly electrical is the vapour of volcanos, that it has been observed in some eruptions both of Ætna and Vesuvius, that the whole track of smoke, which sometimes extended above an hundred miles, produced the most dreadful effects; killing shepherds and flocks on the mountains; blasting trees, and setting fire to houses, wherever it met with them on an elevated situation. Now probably the flying of a kite, with a wire round its string, would soon have disarmed this formidable cloud. These effects, however, only happen when the air is dry and little agitated; but when it is full of moist vapour, the great rarefaction from the heat of the lava generally brings it down in violent torrents of rain, which soon convey the electrical matter from the clouds to the earth, and restore the equilibrium. BRYDONE.

SECT. XLIH.

ON MODERN ROME.

A man, on his first arrival at Rome, is not much fired with its appearance. The narrowness of the streets, the thinness of the inhabitants, the prodigious quantity of monks and beggars, give but a gloomy aspect to this renowned city. There are no rich tradesmen here, who, by their aequisitions, either ennoble their sons, or marry their daughters into the houses of princes. All the shops seem empty, and the shop-keepers poor. This is the first impression. But turn your eye from that point of view to the magnificenee of their churches, to the venerable remains of ancient Rome, to the prodigious collection of pictures and antique statues, to the very river and ground itself, formerly the habitation of that people, whom, from our cradles, we have been taught to adore, and, with a very few grains of enthusiasm in your composition, you will feel more than satisfied.

The surface of modern Rome is certainly more elevated than it was in ancient times. Such an alteration must happen, in the course of ages, to every city which has been often destroyed by time and fire, as all the rubbish is seldom removed; but the ancient pavement, on which Trajan's pillar stands, shows the ele vation in that place not to be above seven or eight feet; and, I am informed, some of the triumphal arches are not above three or four feet in the ground. The most remarkable change is this; that the Campus Martius was, in the time of the ancient Romans, an open area, and now it is covered with houses. The circuit of the city, in Pliny's time, did not, by his account, exeeed the present dimensions, but its populousness must have been amazingly different..

Were an antiquarian to lament over any fall, any metamorphosis of ancient Rome, perhaps it might be the present state of the Forum, where now there is, every Thursday and Friday, a market for cows and oxen, on the very spot, where the Roman orators

were accustomed to thunder out their eloquence in the cause of their clients, and their country, and their gods. Accordingly, the Forum is now known by the name of Campo Vaccino.

Surrounding the Forum are many vestiges of antique grandeur, triumphal arches, remains of temples, the ruins of the Imperial Palace, the Campidog lio, &c. all bespeaking the magnificent state of Rome. in the times of the Emperors. The great Amphitheatre, called also Il Colosseo, where the spectacle of combats was exhibited, is also in its neighbourhood. In this place the spirit of modern Rome seems to prevail over that of ancient Rome; for where the wild beasts and gladiators formerly entertained seventy or eighty thousand spectators, you now see a few miserable old women and beggars, who are praying at the feet of fourteen small chapels, which represent the fourteen mysteries of our Saviour's passion.

The magnificence of the Roman Emperors, in embellishing the city, rose to such a height, that they ransacked all the quarries of Egypt for alabaster, granite, porphyry, and every kind of marble that country afforded; and though time and Gothic rage must have destroyed great quantities, yet, such was the profusion brought to Rome, that, besides the amazing number of columns, statues, vases, and tables, still preserved entire, you see the very posts in the streets, all of them without exception, made of granite, alabaster, or marble. But the most stupendous sights of all, are the prodigious obelisks, consisting of only one piece of marble. I meditate on these objects till I am lost in wonder and confusion. We have no idea of the mechanical powers by which they were dug out of the quarry, and brought from Egypt. We are astonished at the enormous size of the stones at Stonehenge, and cannot comprehend by what contrivance they were carried and laid in that form; but the largest of them is small, when compared with the largest obelisk at Rome, which I think is one hundred and one feet long, and proportionably thick.

The ruin of the triumphal bridge near St. Angele is an object that cannot but strike a man of letters. This was the bridge over which every general marched into the city, to whom a triumph was decreed, either for the conquest of a province or any other signal vietory. From the time of Romulus to that of the emperor Probus, there were about three hundred and twenty of these triumphs. There are now only a few remains of the piers. Who can behold this scene, without ruminating on the nature of the human heart, and recollecting to what trials it must have been exposed in the course of so proud and so flattering a procession?

Many of the churches in this city, and above all St. Peter's, are so very magnificent, that they vie with ancient Rome in every article but that of durableness, much of their beauty being derived from pictures, stucco, and gilding, the transitory ornaments of two or three ages. I cannot forbear remarking, in this place, that the pride of modern Rome is one of the causes of her wretchedness. She boasts of her gold and silver lying dead in her churches ; but had that gold and silver a free circulation through the country, it would enliven trade, and furnish property to thousands, who are now starving in the most pressing indigence.

St. Peter's never fails to please both the learned and unlearned eye. The wonderful regularity and adjustment of its parts, like the beauty of a fine face, demand no skill in drawing to taste its charms. Its colonades, fountains, and obelisk, give it an inimitable elegance. It must be confessed, however, that the approach to this noble edifice is confined and shabby; but they now talk of demolishing the narrow mean street leading from St. Angelo; and should this design take place, the avenue will be answerable to the building; though, to render St. Peter's church still more perfect, the Vatican, with its eleven thousand chambers, should be removed, which, like an ugly excrescence. protuberates on one side, and destroys the symmetry of the elevation.

In the Vatiean, besides a great number of Raphael's paintings, are the excellent and celebrated statues of the Belvedere Apollo, the Laocoon and the Antinous. The Laocoon wants an arm. There lies on the ground one of marble, which, it is said, Michael Angelo had begun, in order to perfect the statne, but perceiving how unspirited his work would appear, compared with the original, he left the limb in the state we see it, not half executed, a monument of his modesty and self-knowledge. It may be imagined that no one since has been so presumptuous as to make an attempt after him, and therefore the deficiency is supplied by an arm of ter

ra cuota.

SECT. XLIV.

OF THE MODERN ROMANS.

SHARP.

In their external deportment, the Italians have a grave solemnity of manner, which is sometimes thought to arise from a natural gloominess of disposition. The French, above all other nations, are apt to impute to melancholy, the sedate serious air which accompanies reflection.

Though, in the pulpit, on the theatre, and even in common conversation, the Italians make use of a great deal of action; yet Italian vivacity is different from French: the former proceeds from sensibility, the latter from animal spirits.

The inhabitants of this country have not the brisk look, and elastic trip, which is universal in France; they move rather with a slow composed pace. Their spines never having been forced into a straight line, retain the natural bend; and the people of the most finished fashion, as well as the neglected vulgar, seem to prefer the unconstrained attitude of the Antinous, and other antique statues, to the artificial graces of a French dancing-master, or the erect strut of a German soldier. I imagine I perceive a great resemblance between many of the living countenances S

VOL. I.