English travellers who have favoured us with their opinions on this point, and with descriptions of the place, are Addison and Eustace; and from their researches, and from the accounts of others, we will endeavour to collect such facts as appear most interesting, both of a descriptive and historical kind. Addison, in the account which he gives of this place, expresses his scepticism as to the fact which gives to it all its interest. He says " "At about eight miles from Naples lies a very noble scene of antiquities. What they call Virgil's tomb is the first that one meets with on the way thither. It is certain that the poet was buried in Naples; but I think it almost as certain that his tomb stood on the opposite side of the town, which looks toward Vesuvio. By the tomb is the entrance to the grotto of Posilippo. The common people believe it to have been wrought by magic, and that Virgil was the magician, who is in greater repute among the Neapolitans for having made the grotto than the Æneid." With respect to two epigrams of a | after the death of Virgil, that in his time, Roman poet, adduced by an author who although his works had ever since his maintains the sceptical opinion, he says death been the admiration of all the they only seem to insinuate that Silius Romans, and even formed a part of the Italicus was proprietor both of the tomb rudiments of their early education, that of Virgil and of Cicero's villa, a circum- his tomb was already neglected, and that stance very immaterial to the present Silius Italicus alone restored its honours. question, but rather favourable than Nor is this neglect without its parallel in otherwise to the common opinion; for all ages, not even excepting our own. it is known that Cicero's villa lay on the Sixty years after the death of Pope, same side of Naples as Posilippo, and, whose works might be found in all as Virgil's tomb belonged to the same hands, and almost in all languages, his master as the villa, it may be supposed house was levelled with the ground, his that they were not far distant from each grotto defaced, and the trees, planted by other. In fine, says he, in opposition to his own hand, rooted up. these arguments, or rather conjectures, The edifice to which the above remarks founded upon the vague expressions of a refer is situated on the hill of Posilippo, single poet (a poet often censured for his which derives its name (and not inapobscurity), we have the constant and un-propriately, as appears from the descripinterrupted tradition of the country, sup- tions furnished by travellers) from two ported by the authority of a numerous Greek words, which signify to banish host of learned and ingenious antiqua- sorrow. It is a small and ruined square ries; and upon such grounds we may building, of reticulated masonry, flat still continue to cherish the conviction roofed, placed on a sort of platform on that we have visited the tomb of Virgil, the brow of a precipice on one side, and and hailed his sacred shade at the spot on the other sheltered by a superincumwhere his ashes long reposed. bent rock. An aged ilex, spreading from But the arguments already stated are the sides of the rock, and bending over not the only ones which attest the inter- the edifice, covers the roof with its everesting fact for which we are collecting verdant foliage. A number of shrubs evidence. There is an inscription which, spring around, and interwoven with ivy, though not genuine, is still very ancient, clothe the walls, and hang over the preengraven upon a marble slab opposite cipice. The laurel, however, which was the entrance of the tomb, distinctly once said to have sprung up at its base, claiming for this ruined structure the and covered it with its luxuriant branches, honour of containing the remains of the now flourishes only in the descriptions of poet. It was inscribed by order of the poets and ancient travellers. Close to the Duke of Pescolangiano, then proprietor tomb, a little lower on the hill, is the of the place. In addition to this, an entrance to the celebrated Grotto of PoItalian author, Pietro de Steffano, assures silippo. This is an excavation through us that he himself had seen, about the the rock, nearly three quarters of a mile year 1526, the urn supposed to contain in length, and twenty-four feet in breadth, the ashes of Virgil, standing in the mid-constituting the high road between Naples dle of the sepulchre, supported by nine on the one side, and Puteoli, Baiæ, &c., little marble pillars, with an inscription on the other. "Its height," says Eusupon it, which is well known to have tace, "is unequal, as the entrance at been intended by the poet for himself, each end is extremely lofty, to admit the and written some few moments before he light, while the vault lowers towards the expired. He adds that Robert of Anjou, middle, where it is about twenty-five feet apprehensive lest such a precious relic from the ground. It is paved with large should be carried off or destroyed during flags of lava, and in many places lined, the wars then raging in the kingdom, and, I believe, vaulted with stone-work. took the urn and pillars from the tomb, During the day two circular apertures, and deposited them in the Castel Nuovo. bored through the mountain, admit a dim This extreme precaution had an effect glimmering of light from above; and at very different from that intended, and night a lamp, burning before an image of occasioned the loss it was meant to pre- the blessed Virgin, placed in a recess in vent; for, notwithstanding the most la- the middle, casts a feeble gleam over the borious search, and frequent inquiries, gloomiest part of the passage. Such, made by the orders of Alphonso of however, is the obscurity towards evenArragon, they were never more disco-ing, that nobody ventures to go through In intimating his opinion as to the place of Virgil's burial, Addison does not go into the arguments which support it. They are drawn from some verses of an ancient Roman poet, in which he describes himself as having arrived at the tomb, "secutus littus," (literally, "following the beach,”") and that, therefore, it cannot be on the hills; and in which he also describes it as situated "where Vesuvius vents his rage;" whence it is argued that it must be near the foot of that mountain. Against these conclusions, however, Mr. Eustace contends, we think with justice, that, with respect to the first argument, the mode of interpretation adopted is barely admissible, even in logical or metaphysical discussions; that it is not conformable to the latitude allowed in ordinary description, whether in conversation or writing, and still less to the boldness of poetical composition. The expressions alluded to seem evidently to describe the general features of the country, and not the particular spot where stood the tomb of Virgil. Besides, the word littus does not mean the beach only, but extends to the immediate neighbourhood of the sea. Now the road to Virgil's tomb runs actually along the beach; and though it turns from it in ascending the hills, yet it is always within sight of it, and, in fact, never deviates half a quarter of a mile from it, even when it terminates in the sepulchre itself. Surely, says Eus-vered. tace, a sepulchre, standing upon an eminence a quarter of a mile from the sea, and looking down upon it, may be said to be upon the coast. With respect to the second passage, the same author shows that the word translated where does not necessarily mark contiguity, but frequently only a general vicinity, as in the same country or district. It may, perhaps, excite a feeling of surprise that it should be necessary to adduce evidences so latent and farfetched as these which we have mentioned, with reference to a fact which ought to be so notorious. We need, however, the less to wonder, when we read, from the pen of the poet Martial, who was born about forty-eight years it without a torch; and even with a torch one feels a sort of joy on escaping from these subterraneous horrors. The grotto is, on the whole, a very singular and striking object; and the approach to it on both sides, between two vast walls of solid rock, and its lofty entrances, like the gates into the regions of the dead, and the shrubs and tufts of wild flowers that wave in loose festoons from the top of the precipice, as if to soften the terrors of the chasm beneath, form altogether a most picturesque and extraordinary combination." THE LIFE OF PETRARCH. (Concluded from page 242.) AFTER the death of his parents, Petrarch devoted himself more than ever to literature, under the auspices of John of Florence, an elderly ecclesiastic with whom he became acquainted; and in such pursuits it is probable that he would have spent an uninterrupted life, but for the circumstance which formed the main era of his history, and determined the tenor of his character. This was his meeting with Laura, whose name has ever been inseparably connected with his own, and whose charms he has immortalized in his verses. He first saw her going to the church of St. Claire, in Avignon, and immediately became passionately enamoured of her. She, however, was a married lady, and consequently treated his advances with becoming disregard. His passion, however, lasted as long as her lifenay, as long as his own, and, connected with the circumstances already mentioned, gave birth to all those tender effusions of feeling which have ever since been ranked among the chief ornaments of Italian literature. About this time he became acquainted with and joined the household of the Colonna family, and shortly afterwards left Avignon to improve his knowledge and relieve his mind by travelling. This expedient, however, proved utterly ineffectual to banish the recollection of Laura. He returned, afresh devoted himself to study, re-opened his half-healed wounds by some casual encounter with the object of his regard, composed myriads of sonnets to her, and at length fled precipitately from Avignon to the solitudes of Vaucluse, where he had at first fallen in love with Nature, and was followed thither by all the demons which his own morbid sensibility had conjured. Arqua, nine miles from Padua, the Florentines that you grew pale over the midnight lamp, day, after vespers, in the church of the Cor- PHILOSOPHY AND CONSISTENCY. AMONG all the excellent things which Mrs. Barbauld has written, she never penned any thing better than her essay on the inconsisten cy of human expectations; it is full of sound philosophy. Every thing, says she, is marked at a settled price. Our time, our labour, our ingenuity, is so much ready money, which we are to lay out to the best advantage. Examine, compare, choose, reject; but stand to your Here he wrote much of his poetry, devoted own judgment, and do not, like children, when himself assiduously to study, and entered upon you have purchased one thing, repine that you the composition of some historical works. Here, do not possess another, which you would not however, he was not forgotten by the world. purchase. Would you be rich? Do you think In August, 1340, when he was in the thirty-that the single point worth sacrificing every seventh year of his age, a letter came to his thing else to? You may, then, be rich. hands from the Roman senate, inviting him to Thousands have become so from the lowest repair to Rome to receive the poet's crown of beginnings by toil, and diligence, and attenlaurel-a custom which had been obsolete at tion to the minutest articles of expense and Rome for more than a thousand years. By a profit. But you must give up the pleasures of most singular coincidence, another letter ar leisure, of an unembarrassed mind, and of a rived the same day from the Chancellor of the free unsuspicious temper. You must learn to University of Paris, offering him the same ho- do hard if not unjust things; and as for the nour, and urging their claims against those of embarrassment of a delicate and ingenuous spirit, it is necessary for you to get rid of it as fast as possible. You must not stop to enlarge your mind, polish your taste, or refine your sentiments; but must keep on in one unbeaten track, without turning aside to the right or to the left. "But," you say, "I cannot submit to drudgery like this; I feel a spirit above it." "Tis well; be above it, then; only do not repine because you are not rich. Rome. Petrarch was long in an enviable dilemma as to which offer he should take. On the one hand no poet had ever been crowned at Paris, and he coveted the proud distinction of being the first. On the other hand he thirsted for the honour of being ranked among the bards from whose works he had derived so much of his poetical genius and eminence, and whose names stand inseparably connected with the Eternal City. At length he decided for Rome, whither he repaired in the spring, and, after submitting himself to an examination from his patron, King Robert, of Naples, he arrived at Rome, and was formally crowned with laurel in the capitol. Shortly after this he was made Archdeacon of Parma, and, subsequently, Canon of Padua. Whilst he was living at HERODOTUS remarks (lib. ii. p. 150), “For my part, I believe the Colchi to be a colony of Egyptians, because, like them, they have black skins and frizzled hair." Upon this passage Volney, in his "Travels through Egypt and Syria," has the following remark:-"This historical fact affords to philosophy an interesting subject of reflection. How are we astonished when we behold the present barbarism and ignorance of the Copts, descended from the profound genius of the Egyptians and the brilliant imagination of the Greeks; when we reflect that to a race of negroes, at present our slaves, and the objects of our extreme contempt, we owe our arts and sciences, and even the very use of speech; and when we recollect themselves the friends of liberty and humanity, that, in the midst of those nations who call the most barbarous of slaveries is justified, and that it is even a problem whether the understanding of negroes be of the same species with that of white men!"-Volney's Travels, 3rd English edition, p. 78. A LOVER'S GIFT. In the reign of Elizabeth, it was "the custome for maydes and gentelwomen to give their favourites, as tokens of their love, little handkerchiefs of about three or four inches square, wrought round about, and with a button or a tassel at each corner, and a little one in the middle with silke and thread; the best edged with a small gold lace, or twist, which, being folded up in foure crosse foldes, so as the middle might be scene, gentlemen and others did usually wear them in their hats, as favours Is knowledge the pearl of price in your esti- of their loves and mistresses; some cost sixmation? That too may be purchased by steady pence a-piece, some, twelvepence, and the application, and long solitary hours of study richest, sixteenpence." And of the gentleman's and reflection. But," says the man of let-present, a lady in Cupid's Revenge, of Beauters, "what a hardship is it that many an mont and Fletcher, says :illiterate fellow, who cannot construe the motto on his coach, shall raise a fortune, and make a figure, while I possess not the common necessaries of life!" Was it for fortune, then, 66 Given ear-rings we will wear, (With their names carved) on our wrists. THE evidence given by Vice-Admiral Fleming before the Committee of the House of Commons is entitled to very serious attention, and cannot fail to make an impression eminently favourable to our cause. Amongst other matters, he was examined on the condition of the free negroes in the Caraccas; and the information which he communicated is adapted to dispel many of those delusions which colonial artifice has imposed on the British public. He not only bore testimony to the good order and prosperity of the emancipated negroes, but represented them as freely engaging in the cultivation of the sugar-cane, and that on terms more profitable to their employers than those on which slave-labour could be commanded. Admiral Fleming has thus supplied another practical refutation of colonial theory. The advocates of slavery boldly affirm that the free negro cannot be induced to engage in this onerous species of labour, and hence they assert the necessity of coercion. Were their premises correct, their inference would fail to command our assent; but facts prove their unsoundness, and justify the claims of humanity. It is deeply mortifying to our national pride to find the Spaniard an advocate of freedom, and the Englishman a defender of slavery. But we must allow the Admiral to speak for himself: Have you visited the Caraccas?—I have. "Did you find the black population free at that time?—They were all free to a certain age; but the old negroes were not free, they were continued as slaves. When Bolivar first issued the order for emancipating the slaves, he confined it to those of a certain age, I think twelve the women, and fourteen the men, and he gave greater facilities to those who remained slaves for obtaining their freedom. "Was sugar cultivated in the Caraccas ?-Yes, and exported to a considerable extent. In all parts of the Caraccas there is an immense quantity used, and a great deal exported, notwithstanding there is a heavy export duty. "Were free blacks so employed ?—-Free blacks, upon their own account. Are you able to state what the rate of wages is of the free blacks?—In the Caraccas it is lower than in Cuba; they can get a black man to work for 9d. a day. "Have you ever heard the point discussed in the Caraccas as well as in Cuba, among planters, of the comparative cost of free labour and slavelabour?—No, I never heard it among the Spaniards; I have heard some English planters and American planters that were there discuss it. "What was the prevalent opinion among persons whose judgment you thought best entitled to consideration?—There was no difference of opi nion; the Spaniards and Columbians thought that free labour would do perfectly well; the Americans and the English were for the establishment of slavery, but the old Spaniards and Columbians were for freeing them. "Upon general principles, or upon the score of profit-Upon the score of profit; the Marquis del Toro, a cousin of Bolivar, who has immense estates there, and had a great number of slaves, worked them all by free labour. was four months here, and went 200, or 300, or 400 miles in the interior; I went to Valentia, and I went twice down from the Caraccas to Port Cavalio; I was down at the lake of Valentia, and all through the Vallor de Veragua, which is the finest country there. Having travelled in the interior, with your attention particularly directed to the subject, and seeing the condition of those newly-emancipated negroes, will you state the result of your reflection and observation upon the subject?-My opinion, from what I saw, is, that the black population in the Caraccas are making rapid progress towards which the people are anxious to avail themselves civilization. There are many schools established, of. Many of them are learning trades, and, generally, the desire of knowledge was very great amongst them. They maintain themselves perfectly well, without any assistance, either from their former masters, or from Government. "Was the manumission in the Caraccas suddenly effected?—Yes, it was done by an order of Bolivar, who had authority from the Congress for doing it in 1821. He had previously freed his own negroes. Many of the principal people had done the same. "Did you see any traces of cultivation receding, or was the agriculture and the cultivation of the country progressing?-It was progressing very rapidly, but it had been the seat of war before, and consequently there had been ruin. The second time I went to the Caraccas there were large fields of wheat, which had never been sown before, and, since that time, I know that America cannot import wheat there. "Have you reason to know whether the cultivation of sugar has increased or decreased throughout the Caraccas?--It has increased, I was told. "You visited the Caraccas at two periods, first in 1828, and again afterwards; were you able yourself to form an estimate of the progress that had been made in the interval?—Yes, they were rapidly improving; the second time I visited the Caraccas there had been a year and a half of peace, and the party-spirit had evaporated, and confidence in the Government had been established; they were rapidly improving in every respect, in agriculture and in all the arts. "Were they driven to labour on sugar plantations as the sole means of obtaining a subsistence, or did they take it as labour which they had no strong objection to, as furnishing them good wages, and the means of livelihood to maintain themselves in comfort?-They took it as a means of maintaining themselves; they were not driven to it by absolute necessity; they might have got other modes of living if they had chosen; in the interior of the country they might have got lands very easily to cultivate. "And therefore they continue the labour on sugar plantations freely and voluntarily ?—Yes, freely and voluntarily. "Was not one of the generals in the Caraccas a black man?-Yes, General Peyanga was a perfectly black man, a complete negro; he was a very well-informed man, a very well-educated person, and well read in Spanish literature; he was a very extraordinary man. "Did you happen to know whether English officers served under him?-Many were serving under him; I knew many other black officers, of very considerable acquirements, in the Caraccas and in Cuba also. I have known a black priest, a perfect negro, born in the Cape de Verde Islands, a very well-informed person. THE GROWTH OF CORAL ISLANDS. Of all the genera of lithophytes, the madrepore is the most abundant. It occurs most frequently in tropical countries, and decreases in number and variety as we approach the vast reefs many of the basaltic and other rocky poles. It encircles in prodigious rocks and islands in the South Sea and Indian Ocean, and, by its daily growth, adds to their magnitude. The coasts of the islands in the West Indies, also those of the islands on the east the Red Sea, are encircled and incrusted with coast of Africa, and the shores and shoals of rocks of coral. Several different tribes of madrepore contribute to form these coral reefs; but by far the most abundant are those of the genera carophylla, astrea, and meandrina. These lithophytic animals not only add to the cording to some naturalists, they form whole magnitude of land already existing, but, acislands. Flinders, gives the following interesting account That excellent navigator, the late Captain of coral islands, particularly of Half-way Island, on the north coast of Terra Australis. “This little island, or rather the surrounding reef, which is three or four miles long, affords shelter from the south-east winds; and, being at a moderate dav's run from Murray's Isles, it forms a convenient anchorage for the night to a ship passing through Torres Strait: I named it Half-way Island. It is scarcely more than a mile in circumference, but appears to be increasing both in elevation and extent. At those banks produced by the washing up of no very distant period of time, it was one of sand and broken coral, of which most reefs afford instances, and those of Torres Strait a great many. These banks are in different stages of progress: some, like this, are become islands, but not yet habitable; some are above high-water mark, but destitute of vegetation; whilst others are overflowed with every returning tide. It seems to me that, when the animalcules which form the corals at the bottom of the ocean cease to live, their structures adhere to each other, by virtue either of the glutinous remains within, or of some property in salt water; and the interstices being gradually filled up with sand and broken pieces of coral washed by the sea, which also adhere, a mass of rock is at length formed. Future races of these animalcules erect their habitations upon the rising bank, and die, in their turn, to increase, but principally to elevate, this monument of their wonderful labours. The care taken to work perpendicularly in the early stages would mark a surprising instinct in these diminutive creatures. Their wall of coral, for the most part, in situations where the winds are constant, being arrived at the surface, affords a shelter, to leeward of which their infant colonies may be safely sent forth; and to this, their instinctive foresight, it seems to be owing, that the windward side of a reef, exposed to the open sea, is generally, if not always, the highest part, and rises almost perand perhaps many more, fathoms. To be conpendicular, sometimes from the depth of 200, stantly covered with water seems necessary to the existence of the animalcules, for they do not work, except in holes upon the reef, beyond low-water mark; but the coral, sand, and other broken remnants thrown up by the sea, adhere to the rock, and form a solid mass with it, as high as the common tides reach. That elevation surpassed, the future remnants, being rarely covered, lose their adhesive property; and, remaining in a loose state, form what is sand, coral, and shells formerly thrown up, in | against the king, he took up arms in the same cause, and was one of the first who pieces of wood, pumice stone, and other ex- opened the war, by an action at a place traneous bodies which chance had mixed with called Brill, about five miles from Oxford. the calcareous substances when the cohesion began, were inclosed in the rock, and in some He took the command of a regiment of cases were still separable from it without much foot, under the Earl of Essex, and disforce. The upper part of the island is a mix-covered a degree of skill and courage ture of the same substances in a loose state, worthy of his character and his cause. with a little vegetable soil, and is covered with But he was very early cut off by a wound the casuarina and a variety of other trees and which he received in a skirmish with Rushrubs, which give food to parroquets, pigeons, and some other birds; to whose ancestors, it pert, at Chalgrove field. He was struck is probable, the island was originally indebted in the shoulder with two carabine balls, for this vegetation."-Professor Jameson's Illus- which, breaking the bone, entered his tration to Cuvier's Essay on the Theory of the body, and his arm hung powerless and Earth. shattered by his side. He rode off the field alone, and, with great pain and difficulty, reached Thame, where he lingered six days, and expired in the midst of earnest prayers for his country and himself." "It was thus," says Lord Nugent, "that Hampden died, justifying, by the courage, patience, piety, and strong love of country, which marked the closing moments of his life, the reputation for all those qualities which had, even more than his great abilities, drawn to him the confidence and affections of his own party, and the respect of all. Never, in the memory of those times, had there been so general a consternation and sorrow, at any one man's death, as that with which the tidings were received in London, and by the friends of the Parliament all over the land. Well was it said in the Weekly Intelligencer of the next week, 'The loss of Colonel Hampden goeth near the heart of every one that loves the good of his king and country, and makes some conceive little content to be at the army now that he is gone. The memory of this deceased colonel is such that in no age to come but it will more and more be had in honour and esteem; a man so religious, and of that prudence, judgment, temper, valour, and integrity, that he hath left few his like behind him.' Hampden's character," continues the nomost jealous enemies, Lord Clarendon, ble author, "it would be presumptuous to declares, he carried himself through the say more than what his acts tell. The whole suit with such singular temper and words are good in which it is shortly commodesty that he obtained more credit prised in an inscription remembered by and advantage by losing it than theme, on many accounts, with many feelings king did service by gaining it. Indeed, no- of affection. With great courage and thing more is necessary, in order to convince consummate abilities, he began a noble posterity that Hampden was at once one opposition to an arbitrary court in deof the most extraordinary and one of the fence of the liberties of his country; supbest of men, than to notice the confes- ported them in Parliament, and died for sions and accidental implications of his them in the field.' opponents. JOHN HAMPDEN. JOHN HAMPDEN, of Hamden, in Bucks., was born at London, in 1594, and was distantly related to Oliver Cromwell, his father having married the Protector's aunt. In 1609 he was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford; whence, without taking any degree, he removed to the Inns of Court, and made a considerable progress in the study of the law. In the second parliament of King Charles, which met at Westminster, in February, 1625-6, he was elected a member of the House of Commons, and continued to sit through the two next parliaments; but became most notorious in 1636, when he nobly resisted the unjust demand of shipmoney. In consequence of this resistance the fury of the government was levelled against him, and he was accordingly brought to trial at the King's Bench; and, though the decision of that court was against him, yet, as one of his From the time of this trial he became one of the most popular men in the nation, and a leading member in the Long Parliament. "The eyes of all men,' says Clarendon, "were fixed upon him as their pater patria, and the pilot that must steer the vessel through the tempests and rocks which threatened it." After he had held the chief direction of his party in the House of Commons Of His body has been exhumated within these few years, and, notwithstanding the length of time during which it had been under ground, the face was quite perfect; and, what was still more remarkable, it was stated, in the daily prints of the time, that living animals were found in the brain. Inscription over the bust of Hampden in the temple of British worthies at Stowe. |