We began pretty early next morning to ascend Montanvert, from the top of which there is easy access to the Glaciers of that name, and to the Valley of Ice. Having ascended Montanvert from Chamouni, on descending a little on the other side, we found ourselves on a plain, whose appearance has been aptly compared to that which a stormy sea would have, if it were suddenly arrested, and fixed by a strong frost. This is called the Valley of Ice. It stretches several leagues behind Montanvert, and is reckoned 2300 feet higher than the valley of Chamouni. From the highest part of Montanvert, we had all the following objects under our eye, some of which seemed to obstruct the view of others equally interesting the Valley of Ice, the Needles, Mont Blanc, with the snowy mountains below, finely contrasted with Breven, and the green hills on the opposite side of Chamouni, and the sun in full splendor showing all of them to the greatset advantage. The whole forms a scene equally sublime and beautiful, far from my power of description, and worthy of the eloquence of that very ingenious gentleman, who has so finely illustrated these subjects in a particular treatise, and given so many examples of both in his parliamentary speeches. The Valley of Ice is several leagues in length, and not above a quarter of a league in breadth. It divides into branches, which run behind the chain of mountains formerly taken notice of. It appears like a frozen amphitheatre, and is bounded by mountains, in whose clefts columns of crystal, as we were informed, are to be found. -1 was The hoary majesty of Mont Blancin danger of rising into poetry, when recollecting the story of Icarus, I thought it best not to trust to my own waxen wings. I beg leave rather to borrow the following lines, which will please better than any flight of mine, aud prevent me from a fall. "So Zembla's rocks (the beautious work of frost) "Fill the bright mountains, prop th' incumbent sky; "The gather'd winter of a thousand years," There are five or six different Glaciers, which all terminate upon one side of the Valley of Chamouni, within the space of about five leagues. These are prodigious collections of snow and ice, formed in the intervals of hollows between the moustains that bound the side of the valley, near which Mont Blanc stands. The snow in those hollows being screened from the influence of the sun, the heat of summer can dissolve only a certain portion of it. These magazines of ice and snow are not formed by what falls directly from the heavens into the intervals. They are supplied by the snow which falls during winter on the loftiest parts of Mont Blanc; large beds or strata of which slide down imperceptibly by their own gravity, and finding no resistance at these intervals, they form long irregular roots around all the adjacent moun tains. Five of these enter, by five different embouchures, into the valley of Chamouni, and are called Glaciers, on one of which we were. At present their surface is from a thousand to two thousand feet high above the valley. Their breadth depends on the wideness of the interval between the mountains in which they are formed, Viewed from the valley, they have in my opinion, a much finer effect than from their summit. The rays of the sun striking with various force on the different parts, according as they are more or less exposed, occasion an unequal dissolution of the ice; and, with the help of a little imagination, give the appearance of columns, arches, and turrets, which are in some places transparent. A fabric of ice in this taste, two thousand feet high, and three times as broad, with the sun shining full upon it, we must acknowledge to be a very singular piece of architecture. Our company ascended only the Glacier of Montanvert, which is not the highest, and were contented with a view of the others from the valley; but more curious travellers will surely think it worth their labour to examine each of them more particularly. Some people are so fond of Glaciers, that not satisfied with their present size, they insist positively, that they must necessarily grow larger every year, and they argue the matter thus: The present existence of the Glaciers is a suffi cient proof that there has, at some period or other, been a greater quantity of snow formed during the winter, than the heat of the summer has been able to dissolve. But this disproportion must necessarily inerease every year, and, by consequence, the Glaciers must augment; because, any given quantity of snow and ice remaining through the course of one summer, must increase the cold of the atmosphere around it in some degree; which being reinforced by the snow of the succeeding winter, will resist the dissolving power of the sun more the second summer than the first, and still more the third than the second, aud so on. The conclusion of this reasoning is, that the Glaciers must grow larger by an increasing ratio every year, till the end of time. For this reason, the authors of this theory regret, that they themselves have been seut into the world so soon; because if their birth had been delayed for nine or ten thousand years, they should have seen the Glaciers in much greater glory, Mont Blanc being but a Lilliputian at present, in comparison of what it will be then. However rational this may appear, objections have nevertheless been suggested, which I am sorry for ; because when a theory is tolerably consistent, well fabricated, and goodly to behold, nothing can be more vexatious, than to see a plodding officious fellow overthrow the whole structure at once, by the dash of his pen, as Harlequin does a house with a touch of his sword, in a pantomime entertainment. Such cavillers say, that as the Glaciers augment in size, there must be a greater extent of surface for the sun-beams to act upon, and, by censequence, the dissolution will be greater, which must effectually prevent the continual increase contended for. But the other party extrieate themselves from this difficulty by roundly asserting, that the additional cold, occasioned by the snow and ice already deposited, has a much greater influence in retarding their dissolution, than the increased surface can have in hastening it; and, in conformation of their system, they tell you, that the oldest inhabitants of Chamouni remember the Glaciers when they were much smalller than at present; and also remember the time, when they could walk from the Valley of Ice, to pla ees behind the mountains, by passages which are now quite choaked up with hills of snow, not above fifty years old. Whether the inhabitants of Chamouni assert this from a laudable partiality to the Glaciers, which they may now consider (on account of their drawing strangers to visit the valley) as their best neighbours; or from politeness to the supporters of the abovementioned opinion; or from real observation, I shall not presume to say. But I myself have heard several of the old people of Chamouni assert the fact. The cavillers, being thus obliged to relinquish their former objection, attempt in the next place to show, that the above theory leads to an absurdity; because, say they, if their Glaciers go on increasing the bulk ad infinitum, the globe itself would become, in process of time, a mere appendage to Mont Blanc. The advocates for the continual augmentation of the Glaciers reply, that as this inconveniency has not already happened, there needs no other refutation of the impious doctrine of certain philosophers, who assert that the world has existed from eternity; and as to the globe's becoming an appendage to the mountain, they assure us, that the world will be at an end long before that event can happen; so that those of the most timid natures, and most delicate constitutions, may dismiss their fears on that subject. For my own part, though I wish well to the Glaeiers, and all the inhabitants of Chamouni, having passed some days very pleasantly in their company, I will take no part in this controversy. SECT. XI. OF VOLTAIRE. DR. MOORE. SINCE I arrived at Geneva, my correspondents have made many enquiries concerning the philosopher of Ferney, which I am not at all surprised at. This extraordinary person has contrived to excite more curiosity, and to retain the attention of Europe for a longer space of time than any other man this age has produced, monarchs and heroes included. Even the most trivial anecdote relating to him seems, in some degree, to interest the public. I have had frequent opportunities of conversing with him, and still more with those who have lived in intimacy with him for many years; so that the following remarks are founded, either on my own observation, or on that of the most candid and intelligent of his acquaintance. He has enemies and admirers here, as he has every where else; and not unfrequently both united in the same person. The first idea which has presented itself to all who have attempted a description of his person, is that of a skeleton. In as far as this implies excessive leanness, it is just; but it must be remembered, that this skeleton, this mere composition of skin and bone, has a look of more spirit and vivacity than is gen |