have happened in fome remote periods of pait time, and which neceffarily lead the understanding to a contemplation of the fublimeft fcenes in the natural world, the following difcoveries may not be uninterefting to your readers.

De Maillet relates, that in the year 1714, the great Duke of Tufcany, having employed men to dig a ditch from the Old lufirmiary at Leghorn, to the new, called St. James, through a rock, which at the depth of twenty feet terminated in mud, found a tree of ten or twelve feet in length and hollow within. This was taken by myfelf, fays De Maillet, and others, to be a pump. The horns, bones and teeth of animals were also found here. I have alío, adds the fame author, feen in the fleep rock of the Apennine mountains, which a torrent had undermined, the prow of a ship,that flood out fix cubits. This fhip was completely petrified.

Bertazzolo relates, that, in laying the foundation of the fluice of Governolo, in the territories of Mantua, he met with feveral pieces of fhips. And De Maillet fays, that he has feen in the royal academy of Paris, a bone taken from the skeleton of a man, entirely petrified, and found in the plaifter quarry of Montmartu.

Several mountains of Tufcany are covered with banks of oyfter thells, efpecially the mountains of Pifa. Some of the banks are two or three miles in extent, and hid under earth and fand, three or four feet deep. There are fach appearances in the mountains of Peru, Virginia, on the coaft of Dauphine ifland, and at a place about fix miles from Bourdeaux, in the panhof Croix du Mont. There, on the top of a high mountain, we find two beds of ftone; the uppermoft of which is five or fix feet thick; and a bed of oyfter fhells twenty or twenty-four feet thick. Moft of thefe offlers are clofe and contain a small quantity of argillacious earth, which feems to be the fubftance of the oyЯer diffolved. Thefe oyfter fhells are united in a bank by the fand, which being mixed and petrified, form at prefent but one common body.

About half a league from Frankfort, out of a mountain called Saxen

haufen, ftones are dug, the whole whofe fubftance is compofed of [mall petrified fhells. They are united by a fine fand, which forms a very hard flone, and of which the walls of that city are built. At Vaguine, a small town in Provence, we find another mountain full of thells and large oylters. The fields adjacent to Havre de Grace are alfo full of oyfter thells.

Appearances of the fame kind have been difcovered in America. As our foldiers, in the year 1776, were digging the well in the fort at Nantasket, a large body of clam fhells was found fixty feet below the fummit of the heighth. Many of them were wholeand perfectly found.

The earth between York and James Rivers in Virginia is ftill moreextraordinary, Between these two rivers, the land is very level, and its furface about forty feet above high water mark.

Near York-town, where the banks are perpendicular, you firft fee a ftratum of earth intermixed with fmall thells, which has the appearance of clay and fand. This is about five feet high. On this lies horizontally fmall white fhells,the cockle, clam and others; then comes a body of earth, fimilar to that firk mentioned, and of about eighteen inches think. On this earth lies another thin body of fmall fhells, then a third body of earth, and of about the fame thicknefs with the laft. On this lies another body of white shells of various kinds, and of about three feet thick, with very little fand or earth mixed with them. On this lies a body of oyfter thells about fix feet thick, and then a body of earth to the furface. The oyfter shells are so united by a very frong cement, that they fall, when undermined, in large bodies from one to twenty tons weight. All thefe ftrata feem to be perfectly horizontal.

The account of thefe different ftrata of earth and thells, I had from a gentleman, whofe long refidence at Yorktown gave him an opportunity to examine them with accuracy. This gentleman further informed me, that after riding seven miles from Yorktown, he discovered, at a place from which a large body of earth had been

removed,

through a camp, and zeal is spread through a religious affembly. It is owing to the quickness with which all leatiments are excited in the human breaft, that diftrefs meets with fo speedy a relief, that affliction raises fympathy in a moment, and that freadth p receives a generous retura of affection, before it grows cold. But when the mind has lost its tone, and every firing is relaxed or broken by the rude din of the world, it utters none but harth difcord, it feel, no generous impreffions; it is unmoved by public fpirit, gratitude, pity and benevolence: Nothing but the touch of grofs and fenfual obje&s, or the clamour of ambition, angry paffions or the fore of intereft can awake it.

The original principles of taste and virtue are so mixed together, that it is afton thing they should ever be feparated. Hirmony, beauty, fublimity, proportion and virtue, are fo united that they who poffefs one muft be poffeffed of all of them; and he who difclaims the laft,has no preten fi. ons to the first. I need not inform you, that I only affert this after Shaftsbury, and all the elegant moralifts of antiquity. A perfon may be an admirer of falfe beauty, falfe wit, falfe foreace, falfe compofition of mufic: but he who has a tafte for truth and nature will feel himself transported with every thing that is juft and elegant in human conduct, as well as in fcalpture, painting and poetry. Steel thought that he who would make a deliberate pun, would pick a pocket; and Snakefpeare has been quoted a thousand times for saying,

"The man that has not mufic in his foul,

"Is fit for treasons, ftratagems, and fpoils."

Now however pretended thefe opiBions may be, I believe you will readily admit, that he who is dark and defigning, fufpicious and revengeful, evious and difcontented, muft have fuch a diftorted frame of mind as to be incapable of relishing any thing That is excellent and lovely in the naJural or moral world. In mufic, he'll admire a jig; in dramatic performances, a tragi-comedy; in gar

dens, chinese temples; in painting, Dutch gambols; in poetry, rebufes; in natural hiftory, monfters; in books the lives of highwaymen and pirates; in diverfions, pantomimes and wire dancing.

I am more ambitious to footh every harsh note in my own breaft, and more pleafed with harmonizing the clafh of oppofite paffions, than Handel could have been in bringing the cannon or the thunder into a concert: And there is fomething in a fenfibility of honour, propriety and decorum, more valuable than a nicety of ear, which can diftingu:sh a jar amidst a thousand inftruments.

It is with fuch reafonings as thefe that I have often confoled myself, when I was not in extafy at an opera, and did not expire by the fine hand of Giardini. I can hear the fwell of an Italian warbler, without being diffolved: But tell me of a gallant foul who nobly fuftains the fhocks of adversity, or fteadily braves the terrors of death; who can forgive his enemy, or weep with his friend; let me read of a Montrofe, a Sidney or a De Witt, and every nerve is in agitation. Let me hear of the Spartan's answer to the menaces of Philip, "What, will he hinder us from dying?" Or that of Crateficles to her fon Cleomenes, who was lamenting her being obliged to become an hoftage: "Let me go before old age difqualifies me for ferving my country," or the heroic fpeech of the valiant foldier, fainting with the lofs of blood, and carried unwillingly off the field; "Let me have one fire more, and then I'll go." Or to comprehend all that is great in one character, tell me of a General who fights only for the fafety and happiness of his country, and every firing vibrates within me.

Every one ought to confider what notes, whether of joy, grief or fear, he is moft apt to exprefs, and fo to modulate himself, as to make his life one continued ftrain of melody. What inconceivable pleafure must arife from fuch admirable œconomy and regulation! What transporting found muft the chorus of many welltuned paffions produce! There is not an object in the world better worth attending to (if mental pleasure hands -I

for

for any thing in human eftimation) than to be always refponfive to the cry of diftrels, and vocal to the gene rous founds of friendship and humanity; never to be difcomposed by the tumult of rage, or warped by prejudices, ot jarred by cross accidents, but to flow like the current of a gentle

ftream over theives and pebbles always

musical.

Perhaps it may look like degrading human nature, to resemble it to a founding inftrument: But when I fee old Harper capable of exulting at nothing, but the jingling of guineas, or his nephew delighted only with the rattling of dice; the mufic of their whole lives does not come up to the variety or number of notes on a falt box. Ecigenio, who complies with the infolent demand of every company for wit, a tale, or a song, is taken up for amusement now and then, like a fudle.

What can I compare Clarinda to who fluns you with continual noife, and is always repeating her adventures, her conquefts, her bargains, her misfortunes, but a drum? What is Flavia, with her changing notes, dying airs, and feraphic captores, but an Eolian harp? And Amaryllis, who keeps a lift of all the mifcarriages of her acquaintance, and proclaims fcandal round the town, but a trum pet?

It it very well, that the hardness of fingle ipfruments does not break the harmony of fociety, being loft and fwallowed up in the general chorus: But fhould you attend to the whole tenor of the conduct of many, who pretend to make a great noife in the world, what have you been liftening to all the while, but a dull a recitative, a catch, a fing fong, a mere country dance, a horn pipe, or difmal dirge?

I cannot help thinking (frange as it may feem) that the fineft mufic, which life affords, is a duet formed by the union of two well tempered fouls. Their wishes and defires confpire with the ftri&teft fymphony; they are tuned by heaven to all the foft and elegant notes of friendship; their paffions preferve an equal tone, without fwelling too high of finking too low; they feel no difcord, they know

The following account of th Life and military Service of the COMTE DE GRASSE was taken from a Briti publication, printed Auguf 1782.

RANCOIS Joseph Paul de Graff

1767, at the family manfion of Graff Tilly in Provence. This is one of th moft ancient and noble families France. They take their name fro Grace, or Graffe,in Latin Grinnicum a populous and rich city, and one the moft confiderable in Provence. ftands upon a hill in a very fertile fo and is now the feat of a B fhop, rem ved hither from Antibes, which li three leagues to the fouth-eaft, in an a exceedingly infalubrious, and which early times was very fubject to t depradations of pirates. In the vicin ty of this city lies the family eftate the Comte de Graffe, which is ve fplendid, as it is now faid to be wor 100,000 livres a year. The Com entered into the marine fervice the age of fifteen, and has purfued t ftudy and practice of naval tactic without intermiffion, for the last fil years, as he is now exactly fixt five..

It is very common for the office of France to belong to the land and fervice; and at the age of the Com to be both a general on fhore, and admiral afloat; but it is not fo wi the Comtehe confined himself a together to the navy. In his you

he was a man of great gallantry, a was reckoned one of the handfom men of the age; his profpects we great; his connexions powerful, an his accomplishments brilliant; wi fuch recommendations as thefe, cannot be wondered that he four eafy access to the most elevated circle and that he had ample opportuniti