way to mofs, or the bare rock, and a folitary and stunted shrub fometimes protrud ing itself, feemed to mark, not fo much the barrenness of the foil, as, the profcription of vegetable life.

We at length attained the summit of St. Gothard, and were faluted on our arrival at the convent by a courteous monk, who came out to welcome, and invite us to take refreshments. During three or four months in the year thefe Capuchins fpend their time agreeably enough, and probably there is no fpot half fo far out of the reach of the habitable globe, where fo much variety of amusement is to be found. Every fucceffive guest has much to inquire or impart, and here above the world thefe hermits have many opportunities of witneffing the whimfies and follies with which it abounds. They informed us, that the day before our arrival a numerous retinue of horfes, oxen, mules,

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mules, and other cattle, had paffed in the fuite of a great man, whofe carriage they had dragged, by his order, from the bottom of the mountain, that he might have the fame. of croffing St. Gothard in a vehicle with wheels. As our countrymen are known to be the only travelling philofophers, who make experiments of this kind, the Monks had no difficulty in conjecturing on the approach of this long proceffion, that if it was not the Emperor, or the Burgo-mafter of Berne, the two greateft perfonages they had heard of, it must be an English Lord; and they were not mistaken in their conjecture; it proved to be an English Lord, who, for the reafons above-mentioned, had run the risk of breaking his neck in his mountain. gig, over precipices, which he might have traverfed without danger on horseback, or if he could not ride, in a litter. A tragical effect of this fort of temerity had happened fome time before to another young English nobleman,

nobleman, who, although repeatedly warned by his tutors, that if he attempted to swim down the cataracts of the Rhine, near Rhinfelden, he would inevitably be dashed to pieces, made the fatal experiment, and perished with his companion on the rocks.

In the winter the intercourse of these fathers is confined chiefly to the muleteers, who, at all seasons, traverse these mountains in spite of fnows and avalanches. Here the poor traveller, beaten by the tempefts, finds repose and nourishment; nor do the Monks demand, even of the wealthy paffenger, any recompence for the courtefies they bestow. Every thing that their house affords is fet before him with cheerfulness; and he ufually returns the hofpitality, by leaving on his departure a piece of money under his plate, in order to provide for the relief of travellers, lefs fortunate than himself. But these pious fathers chiefly maintain this benevolent

nevolent establishment, by begging once a year through Switzerland for its fupport, and well would monaftic orders have deferved of mankind, and a stronger force than the French revolution would it have required to deftroy them, had they confecrated their lives and labors to works of fimilar usefulness, and thus become the benefactors instead of the burdens of fociety.

The name of Gothard was given to this mountain, according to hiftorians, before the establishment of Christianity, from the Deity worshipped there, who was ftiled, as the name imports, the God of the fummit, or God over all: the canonization of the mountain did not take place till the twelfth century, when Pope Innocent the second made the mountain a faint, and, with Roman policy, chained the god of the vanquifhed faith to the car of Christian triumphs.

umphs. Lofty mountains are in fcripture called the Mountains of God; and although worfhip in high-places has been ftigmatized as idolatry, yet surely, if the temple, which beft delights the Supreme Being, be a temple not made with hands, that which next to the pure and innocent heart is most worthy of his fublimity are the fummits of thofe everlasting mountains, the faint but nearest resemblance on earth of his unchangeableness and eternity.

On the top of St. Gothard, one of the moft elevated mountains of Europe, we had once imagined the view into Italy on one fide, and over Switzerland on the other, would reward all our toil; but this platform fo raised above the level of the earth, is only a deep valley, when compared with the lateral mountains, and skirting-piles of rock that bound the view to this defart, diverfified only by the habitation of the Capuchins,