sickly novice is cut off in one or two winters, the rest are subject to dropsy, and few arrive at old age."

From Camaldoli Mr. Forsyth proceeded to La Verna-a remarkable Franciscan convent overhanging the precipitous steeps of a lofty Appenine-of which the architect was the founder of the order to which it appertains.

"Here reigns all the terrible of naturea rocky mountain, a ruin of the elements, broken, sawn, and piled in sublime confusion-precipices crowned with old, gloomy, visionary woods-black chasms in the rock where curiosity shudders to look downhaunted caverns sanctified by miraculous crosses-long excavated stairs that restore you to day-light. This scenery is now under the pencil of Philip Hackart, a Prussian, brought by a reflux of art from the land of Vandals to charm Italy with his landscapes. On the top of the mountain is a mass of marine testaceous petrifactions, where Soldani has collected for his microscopical work, myriads of ammonites and nautili perfect in their forms, yet minute as sand.

"On entering the chapel of the stigmata, we caught the religion of the place; we knelt round the rail, and gazed, with a kind of local devotion, at the holy spot where Saint Francis received the five wounds of Christ. The whole hill is legendary ground. Here the Seraphic father was saluted by two crows, which still haunt the convent; there the devil hurled him down a precipice, yet was not permitted to bruise a bone of him."

The specimens we have laid before our readers of Mr. Forsyth's style, and his eloquent and forceful manner of treating every topic on which he touches are so ample that, with the exception of one or two scattered passages, we cannot afford any farther quotations—and all that we can do with respect to the remainder of the journey, is to follow him with rapid though unequal steps, and, if possible, crop, as we proceed, a few of those exquisite flowers which he has so profusely lavished over his path.

From La Verna we pass on to CORTONA, once a rich and flourishing city, and still considered with respect as the metropolis of the ancient Etruria.-Here the Etrusian Academy hold their sittings, and antiquaries meet you at every step. Half bosomed in vineyards, and seated on the ascent of a steep eminence,-with broad, black, lofty mountains in the back ground -at some distances it looks like a pic ture hung upon a wall." The prospect over the adjacent country from Santa Marguerita the Thrasimene and Clusian lakes spreading beneath you in silvery lustre-dark-browed mountains lowering in the distance-and the extensive and

diversified vale of Chiana, bound in with its glowing fence of vine-mantled hills, and studded with cottages, villas, "and convents of sober gray," extending before you in a sort of lively tranquillity-combines so many features of the magnificent and beautiful, that the whole forms a landscape not exceeded by any in Tuscany, excepting, perhaps, the famous Val d'Arno.-Cortona contains about 4000 inhabitants-yet in this little spot the pretensions of nobility are carried to as absurd and disgusting an excess as in Florence, Rome, or Naples.

We cannot stop to consider Mr. Forsyth's observations upon Sienna, &c. but hasten on with him to the head-quarters of all that is grand and deeply interesting in Italian history and antiquities-of Rome it is hardly possible to form any thing like a correct notion from the innumerable engraved views which crowd the portfolios of the curious, and in which the vanity of the artists has given to its ruins and architectural monuments so many adscititious embellishments, or so enlarged their sites, that "a stranger, arriving here with the expectations raised by those prints, will be infallibly disappointed." The Flaminian Gate is still the principal entrance of Rome. The streets are inconvenient, and the pavement, from its minute reticular construction, peculiarly disagreeable to pedestrians. The only lamps are those suspended before the images of the Virgin-Reflectors (reverberes) were once suggested, but the clergy, no doubt for the sake of decorum and morality, were averse to the innovation, and the streets of Rome are, at the present moment, involved in as comfortable and convenient darkness as a cardinal or Benedictine monk can desire.

Mr. Forsyth divides the architecture of Rome into four distinct species-the works of the Republic-those of the Empire-those of the Middle ages-and the Crection of modern times. Our limits will only permit us to make a few observations on those of the Republic and Empire.

Architectural taste was first introduced among the Romans by the Tarquins, and the few remains of the buildings of that early age are manifestly Etruscan. The blocks of which they are composed are massy, regular, but uncemented. The walls of a prison, and a common sewer, cannot be expected to evince much grandeur or elegance, but the solidity of those useful constructions show that even in the infancy of their greatness, the Romans aspired to the foundation of an "eternal city." With the kings, the

principal object was the gratification of personal ambition-conquest was the aim of the Republic; the grandest monuments of the commonwealth are the Military Ways, and the roads of Appius, Flaccus, Albinius, and Flaminius, &c. worn as they are with the use of more than twenty centuries, still remain to attest the energy and persevering spirit of their constructors. Of the aqueducts of this period, only portions of the Aqua Martia remain, and Mr. Forsyth seems to be of opinion that the superb arcades which conveyed that water to the Esquiline, are the works of Augustus. The convertibility of the Pagan Temples to the purposes of the Catholic religion has fortunately preserved some of those august edifices from destruction. Of these the Pantheon is the chief. The doors are cased in bronze. The light is admitted through "one large orb" in the centre of the roof, and grand, indeed, in the days of her glory, must have been the interior aspect of the Pantheon, when the splendour of an unclouded and meridian sun beamed into its sanctuary, and shed its perpendicular and diffusive radiance on the divine sculptures that seemed to realise the seductive fables of an enchanting mythology. The tombs of the Servilii, Horatii, and Metelli would, at first, appear to belong to the Republicbut the absence of name, epitaph, and indeed, all mark whatever that can assist us in ascertaining the persons or age to which they belong, will not allow us to form any decisive opinion on their antiquity;-they are situated without the Capena gate, and from the aversion entertained in the early times to which they are ascribed, to inhumation within the walls, it has been too arbitrarily decided that they were raised in the times of the Republic-Another sepulchre (the Cornelian) which has been classed with them, was, however, at length discovered in the heart of the city, a circumstance that, in our opinion, at least neutralises the point. None of the tombs belonging to the republican era, have the names of the buried inscribed upon them, with the exception of Cæcilia Metella's, built by Crassus.

Near the tombs on the Appian Way is a small temple ascribed to the Republic, dedicated to the god Rediculus. It was built of red and yellow brick, and the remains are so fresh that it appears as if it had been destroyed but a short while after its erection. The adhesion also of the materials is so intimate, that "each of its puny pilasters appear like one piece," and the sculpturing of the cornice is executed with a delicacy equal to that of the finest

marble. The minute and lavish ornament of this building, the design of which is remarkably poor, induces the author to refer it to a period at least as late as the reign of Severus; and the same reason operates with respect to a temple on a neighbouring hill, said to have been raised to Honour and Virtue.

Under the emperors architecture was patronised, as it had been under the kings, as an art contributing to the personal fame and splendour of the sovereign. Some of the finest works of this period were raised by the vilest characters that ever disgraced humanity. The baths of Caracalla are among the most extensive and sumptuous of the imperial edifices, and those of Diocletian are scarcely inferior in amplitude, or richness of decoration. The Triumphal Arches, of Trajan, Titus, Severus, Constantine, Gallienus, &c. are generally heavy and tasteless in their design, and loaded with meretricious embellishments. The mausolea of Augustus and Hadrian are grand and awful even in their ruins, but the proudest structure is the mighty Coliseum, the united work of Vespasian and Titus. We admire, we are astonished at, the majesty of this stupendous edifice, but we abhor the purposes to which it was devoted, and feel powerfully convinced of the imperfection of human virtue, when we reflect that it was under the administration of two of the best and wisest of her emperors, that Rome beheld the rise and completion of a structure, which, however we may admire it as a specimen of national magnificence, can excite, with respect to the scenes it displayed, and was built to display, no other sentiments than those of horror and disgust. The feelings of Mr. Forsyth on this subject are in such perfect unison with our own, that notwithstanding our resolution to refrain from farther quotation, we cannot resist the temptation of giving his sentiments on the cruel and sanguinary sports to which both sexes and all ranks of the Romans were so passionately addicted.

"Every nation has undergone its revolution of vices; and, as cruelty is not the present vice of ours, we can all humanely execrate the purpose of amphitheatres, now that they lie in ruins. Moralists may tell us that the truly brave are never cruel; but this monument says 'No.' Here sat the conquerors of the world, coolly to enjoy the offended them. Two aqueducts were scarcetortures and death of men who had never ly

sufficient to wash off the human blood which a few hour's sport shed in this imperial shambles. Twice in one day came the senators and matrons of Rome to the

butchery; a virgin always gave the signal for slaughter, and when glutted with bloodshed, those ladies sat down in the wet and streaming arenea to a luxurious supper.

« Such reflections check our regret for its ruin. As it now stands, the Coliseum is a striking image of Rome itself:-decayed vacant-serious-yet grand;-half gray and half green-erect on one side and fallen on the other, with consecrated ground in its bosom-inhabited by a beadsman; visited by every cast; for moralists, antiquaries, painters, architects, devotees, all meet here to meditate, to examine, to draw, to measure, and to pray.”

The extent to which this article has grown compels us, however unwillingly, to come to a conclusion. Our extracts; ample as they are, afford only a slight notion of the innumerable beauties of thought and expression with which this delightful volume abounds,--the variety of its subject matter-or the union it furnishes of sound judgment with a style almost poetical, and which adapts itself, as it were by instinct, to every change of topic, and at once introduces the reader to a most lively and intimate acquaintance with every thing in Italy that can in any way be interesting to him.

We wish to leave our readers in good humour, and we know no better way of accomplishing so desirable an object, than of Mr. Forsyth's animated reflections upon by the concluding this article with a few Naples.

"To a mere student of nature, to an artist, be happy among people who seldom affect to a man of pleasure, to any man that can virtue, perhaps there is no residence in Europe so tempting as Naples and its environs. What variety of attractions!-a climate where heaven's breath smells sweet and wooingly-the most beautiful interchange of sea and land-wines, fruits, provisions, in their highest excellence-a vigorous and tions and processes-all the wonders of volluxuriant nature, unparalleled in its produccanic power spent or in action-antiquities different from all antiquities on earth-a coast which was once the fairy-land of poets, and the favourite retreat of great men. Even the tyrants of the creation loved this alluring region, spared it, adorned it, lived in it, died in it. This country has subdued all its conquerors, and continues to subvert the two great sexual virtues, guardians of every other virtue,-the courage of men and the modesty of women." G.

EVERAL years ago Mr. Maclure

the importance of knowing the strength

Society of Philadelphia, some observations on the geology of the United States; he has now somewhat enlarged and corrected his former memoir, increasing it at the same time with an attempt to apply geology to agriculture, in which he is highly commendable, as we have no doubt that his endeavours will be found practically useful, even by those who do not entertain any high idea of scientific researches. Every science is connected with the wants of mankind; and many sciences are indebted for their origin to those wants, which increase in proportion to civilization and refinement. Agriculture sprung from the inadequacy of nature's spontaneous supplies of food for a large population, and has but lately become a science; medicine sprung from the natural desire of relieving our pains and lengthening our lives; geometry from the necessity of ascertaining the extent and limits of our fields; geography from VOL. III.-No. I.

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the means and dispositions of our neighbours; astronomy from the exigences of shepherds and navigators; physics from the need of becoming acquainted with the phenomena which surround us, as well to avail ourselves of their co-operation, as to avert some of the dreadful disasters of which they are sometimes the cause; cosmony from the cravings of nature, which instigate us to learn what animals, plants, or minerals may be made subservient to our use, or afford us food, raiment, weapons, tools, &c.

All the divisions of knowledge to which we have given the names of arts or sciences, have, therefore, a common ori→ gin-our wants! a common object-our uses! a common view-our improvement! These selfish motives are those which govern the majority of mankind; but philosophy refines and elevates them. This common origin and object of the sciences has often led to the belief of their identity,

as if they were all concentrated in a universal science. This hypothesis cannot now have many adherents, since the different scientific pursuits have been so well illustrated and distinguished; yet every one must be aware of the intimate connexion which exists between all the sciences. For instance, botany and geometry, which appear so widely distinct, are yet so far connected that botany must borrow part of its language from geometry, and geometry some of its forms from botany.

In a peculiarly improved stage and extended state of the sciences, the necessity of dividing them into minor sciences or branches begins to be felt, and such a division usually takes place shortly afterwards. It is to such a period that we are indebted for the new science of geology, or the knowledge of the solid part of the earth. This science was for a long time blended with natural history, mineralogy, astronomy, cosmogony, mythology, history, to which it is more or less connected, without properly belonging to either; but it has in recent days been raised to the dignified station of a separate science, and can already number among its votaries such men as Cuvier, Werner, Hutton, Patrin, Lametherie, &c. in Europe, while in the United States many enlightened men do not disdain to cultivate it for the benefit of the present generation and of posterity.

Among the latter Mr. Maclure stands conspicuous for zeal, assiduity, perspicuity, liberality, utility, and an early attention to this important subject. It is not by the size of his work that we must judge of its value; but by its intrinsic merit. We believe that in the small number of pages of his volume, more essential facts and useful truths are disclosed than in many thick volumes of yore. We shall endeavour to collect such of them as our limits will allow, and such that a tolerable idea of the value of his observations may be formed; and the few imperfections which we may have occasion to notice, will but slightly invalidate its real merit.

We agree altogether with our worthy author, when he states the fallacy of the numberless presumptive theories of the earth, which have so often been set up. While we have scarcely studied onefourth part of the surface of the earth, and while the interior of our globe is totally unknown, all speculative theories must be considered as the novels of geology rather than its history. How many of them have even been founded upon a few local facts, which are belied by so

many different facts elsewhere! Mr. Maclure mentions that those animals whose bones have been found in northern climates, while they (or their congenerous species) are now found only in tropical climates, might have been migratory, as the wild Buffaloe of America is at this time;-he might have added, that most of them being different from the now living species, were probably (as the mammoth of Siberia was to a certainty) covered with a thick fur suitable to the climates they dwelt in. Yet to account for this simple fact, a supposition has been advanced, that the equator was once where the poles are now, and vice versa! If the mutation of the poles could only be supported by this false reasoning, every supposition of the kind would fall to the ground. Fire and water were, till lately, considered as the only agents acting over the earth,- -now galvanism is allowed to have also its share; but electricity, magnetism, light, gases, air, frost, compression, and animal and vegetable agency, &c. have certainly also their share; wherefore every theory founded upon a simple or single agent, becomes an erroneous system.

Our author adopts Werner's classification of rocks; but he is not satisfied with his distinctive names of primitive and secondary; he might have added his transition, which denomination is certainly illusive. The fact is, that there are but four formations of rocks and earths, all of which, even granite, are stratified; they are the crystallized, the deposited, the volcanic, and the organic formations; the first originates in crystallizations, the second in depositions, the third in emissions, and the last in organic remains; if a fifth formation was to be added, it ought to be the agglomerated formation. The transition formation belongs to all the formations in various instances, and the alluvial to the deposited formations. All these formations often happen to be blended, which destroys altogether the theories of universal separate formations, since suppositions must yield to facts; and strata vary from the thickness of a sheet of paper to the immense thickness of several thousand feet, so far as they have been penetrated or seen.

The uniformity of the formations in the United states, and the regularity of their dispositions, strike every observer who has witnessed the disparity and irregularity which are exhibited in the formations of Europe. Mr. Maclure traces an able parallel between the two continents, and describes next the outlines and limits