boundary or stop either against the shores of the west side of Africa, (or in the Mediterranean Sea, by passing through the Straits of Gibraltar,) communicated to those districts the seeds of pestilences; by reason that the sands or other matter, thrown up by the eruptions of the American volcanoes, being of a ferruginous nature, had the effect of making the waters in their neighbourhood brackish, and that those waters, originally stagnant for a time there, were afterwards conveyed to Europe and Africa, sometimes perhaps by the regular tides, at others, by a more irregular flood, and became the occasion of pestilences in those countries, as they had before been in the continent from whence they came. * A supplement to one of the dissertations mentioned in the preface to the first volume, printed May 19, 1806, commences as follows, agreeing in substance with the statement above mentioned. "The message of Mr. President Jefferson to the two houses of Congress, in America, dated 3rd December, 1805, has the following passage: 'In taking a view of the state of our country, we, in the first place, notice the In conformity with these statements I apprehend the following lines, which purport to be an account late affliction of two of our cities, under the fatal fever, which in latter times has occasionally visited our shores. Providence, in his goodness, gave it an early termination on this occasion, and lessened the number of victims which have usually fallen before it. In the course of the several visitations by this disease, it has appeared that it is strictly local, incident to cities and on the tide-waters only, incommunicable in the country, either by persons under the disease, or by goods carried from diseased places; that its access is with the autumn, and it disappears with the early frosts:' after which it proceeds to discuss the subject under a political and commercial view in respect to quarantines. Without examining this distinguished gentleman's statements, relative to the communication of infection, (which it would certainly be prudent to doubt,) I have much pleasure in observing that he has taken one step towards the conclusion which I drew in my former notes; though that step still appears somewhat short of the truth: for if the fever is caused by the tides simply, (as Mr. Jefferson seems to conclude,) the cause being constant and universal, the effect would be perpetual, and exist every where within their influence; whereas of the cause of the pestilence in the Iliad, ought really to be understood as descriptive of the eruption of a volcano, and indeed of a volcano or volcanoes in America. [1 I1.43.] ----Τσ δ' εκλύε φοιβος Απολλων Βηδε κατ' ολύμποιο καρήνων χωομενος της Τοξ' ώμοισιν εχων αμφηρεφέα τε φαρέτρην Εκλαξαν δ' άρ' οιστοι επ' ωμων χωομένοιο Αυτό κινηθέντος οδ' ηιε νυκτι εοικως" Εζετ' επειτ' απάνευθε νεων μετα δ' ιον εκκε Δείνη δε κλαγγή γενετ' αργύρεοιο βιοιο Ουρίας μεν πρωτον επωχετο και κυνας αργές, Αυταρ επειτ' αυτοισι βελος εχεπευκες εφιεις Βαλλ', αιει δε πυραι νεκυων καιὸντο θαμειαι. In Homer and the other classics, Απολλων in it was my endeavour there to establish, that it is the occasional mixture of a flood of originally stagnant brackish waters with the tides, which is the real cause of the fever, and it is the object of this supplement to adduce some confirmations of that opinion." fact often means a volcano, as derivable from алоλλμ, and descriptive thereby of its widely destructive effects; and in the present instance, the curved shape of the volcanic mountain (Točα ;) the snow on its top (agyupeolo;) the lightning there (0στοι επ' ωμων ;) the thundering noise (δεινη κλαγγή;) the sulphureous ashes (BEλOS EXETTEUKEç;) the darkness so magnificently described (o d' NIE VUNTI EOIxw) and finally, the earthquake accompanying the eruption (auto levтos,) are all in their turn (αυτό κινηθέντος,) noticed. From this explanation also, of what on the present occasion is meaned by Apollo's using his bow, may be perceived the analogy which subsists between the method observed by the poet, in the contrivance of his characters, and that by which he devises the incidents of his poem; and from the use thus made of Apollo, it may be suspected, when the gods are brought into action, that it is (sometimes at least) for the purpose of exhibiting a poetical view of some great operation of nature. As like causes produce like effects, it was probably from its having been observed, that similar effects were occasionally produced in the imme= diate neighbourhood of the volcanoes of Ætna and Vesuvius, that the poet was led to introduce Calchas (whom I take to represent Atna,) for the purpose of explaining the cause of Apollo's anger, or, in other words, assigning the true cause of the pestilence. [1 II. 68.] --τοισι δ' ανεστη Καλχας θεστορίδης οιωνοπόλων οχ' αριστος Ην δια μαντοσύνην την οι πορε φοιβος Απολλων. The name of Calchas may be derivable from calx, as alluding to a calcination by fire; οιωνοπόλων may allude to the high flights of the eruptions of Ætna, or to the smoke issuing from its top, which makes its passage through the air like a bird, οιωνον ; and the next line refers to the many layers of lava, which prove the past duration of the mountain, as its still burning may furnish evidence of its being destined by its eruptions to |