however be recollected, that of the interior of Africa, and many parts of South America, we know little. Were these regions better explored, the disproportion might not be so great. Of the mud volcanoes the account is curious. We shall select the description of one in the island of Taman, in the mouth of the river Cuban, in the Taurida. Another is in Sicily; and, during an eruption which ensued from it, the local temperature of the earth was lower than that of the surrounding air. This last eruption took place in February 1794. It was the greatest and most copious ever known. It happened at the top of a hill situated at the north point of Taman, near the bay of the same name. The appearance of the place seems to indicate that there had been a similar eruption at a period far back. The ground not covered over by the last is of the same nature as the more recent sediments; it is the same soil, with the difference only which vegetation and the atmospheric influence must necessarily produce. The place where the new gulf opened was a pool where the snow and rain-water usually remained for a long time. The explosion took place with a noise like that of thunder, and with the appearance of a mass of fire, in the form of a sheaf, which lasted only about half an hour, accompanied with a thick smoke. The ebullition which threw up a part of the liquid mud lasted till the next day: after which the mud continued running over slowly, and formed six streams, which made their way from the top of the hill to the plain. The body of mud collected by these streams is from three to five archines, that is, from six to ten feet deep, and may be reckoned more than a hundred thousand cubic fathoms-an effusion which approaches the marvellous! In July, which was the time Mr. Pallas visited the place, the surface of those beds of mud was dry, extremely uneven, and cracked like clayey ground. The gulf that had vomited them was stopped up with the mud which was likewise dry. It was not dangerous to walk over it, but it was frightful, as the horrid bubbling, which was then still heard 'in the interior of the hill, showed that its bowels were not so tranquil as its surface. The mud thus discharged is always a soft clay, of a bluish ashcolour, every where of the same nature, mixed with brilliant sparks of mica, with a small quantity of marly, calcareous, and sandy fragments of schist, which seem torn from the beds directly over the reservoir whence the explosion proceeds. Some crystals and sparkling lamine of pyrites, found on these fragments, prove that the heat of the reservoir was not sufficiently powerful to affect the beds which contained those pyrites; nor was the mud discharged from the gu'f more than lukewarm. The sheaf of fire was probably nothing more than the effect of the phlogistic air, which might have caused the explosion. P. 257. It must be remarked, that the whole of this country is gained from the sea; and the explosion seems evidently to arise from the expanding vapours, struggling for vent, without the assis tance of heat. M. Pallas thought it proceeded from the water reaching an old coal-mine which still remained on fire. Some other similar explosions are recorded. The burning springs are sufficiently known; but our author is not aware of the principle on which the inflammation depends, which is more commonly inflammable air than volatile bitumen: the difference of their nature is however inconsiderable. When a volcano is extinguished, the fire, it is said, may be expected again to rage if the country be subject to earthquakes; and on this principle-though, as we have said, a doubtful one --our author promises security, or threatens danger. Maritime and submarine volcanoes are considered at some length; and several curious facts are recorded on these subjects. We can add nothing to the little that we have said on the latter, for little is known. If, however, the submarine volcanoes resemble those on the shores, their eruptions must be of very short duration, and their discharges chiefly aqueous. This our author allows: but he differs from us in supposing the expanded air will throw off the water: we think the air, as it is called, to be produced by the access of the water, and that the steam and water will be ejected together. The subject is however obscure; and the probability may rather be, that these submarine volcanoes are expansions of air independent of heat. We believe many instances are recorded of islands being generated by volcanic fires. One has been formed in the neighbourhood of Iceland within a few years; and another we have lately mentioned, which was raised in the Indian seas, almost under the immediate inspection of two missionaries. The famous Atlan tic territory was submerged, as our author thinks, by a volcanic explosion. It was in his opinion situated on the west of Spain, and may have been a part of the American continent. We have been fuller in our account of this work than we intended. It is indeed a pleasing one, without any essential error. It contains much general information, but is too slight and superficial for the experienced naturalist.. As the original is not before us, we cannot speak of the accuracy of the translation. It is, however, free and perspicuous, and appears to be faithful. ART. V.-The Poetical Works of John Milton, &c. By the Rev. Henry John Todd, M. A. (Continued from p. 254 of the present Volume.) THE fourth volume contains Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. The remarks which Mr. Dunster had subjoined in his edition of Paradise Regained to the end of each book, Mr. Todd has connected, and prefixed as a preliminary discourse. To these he himself has added remarks on the origin of the poem. On this subject the Muses had not been before silent. In our own language, Giles Fletcher had published Christ's Victorie and Triumph, in 1611-an elegant and impressive poem in four parts, of which the second, entitled Christ's Triumph on Earth, describes the Temptation. To this poem, however, the Paradise Regained owes little obligation. Perhaps the Italian Muse might afford a hint. In the following sacred poem, consisting of ten books, "La Humanita del Figlivolo di Dio. In ottaua rima, per Theofilo Folengo, Mantoano. Venegia, 1533,' 4°. the fourth book treats largely of the temptation; from which I will cite the descriptive scene, after the devil has tempted our Lord, and has been rebuked with the reply "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, &c." "Al suon di tanta, et tal sententia un grido Ecco à la mensa l' inuitar sott' ombra, Per suo non già, ma ben per nostro merto." There had been published also at Venice, in 1518, "La Vita et Passione di Christo, &c. composta per Antonio Cornozano. In terza rima." The subject of the sixth chapter of the first book is the Temptation to which is prefixed a wooden cut, wherein Satan is represented as an old man with a long beard, offering bread to our Lord. The tempter indeed is an aged man, like the tempter of Milton, in Vischer's cuts to the Bible, as noticed by Mr. Thyer; and in Salvator Rosa's fine painting of the Temptation, as noticed by Mr. Dunster. See the Life of Milton in the first volume. The devil is also represented in a monastic habit by Luca Giordano, in a picture of the Temptation, which made a part of the Dusseldorp collection. But poetry likewise seems to have painted, not seldom, the gray dissimulation of the tempter in the same colours. Milton draws him in the habit of an aged Franciscan in his admirable verses In Quint. Novembris. There is a poem, entitled "Monachos mentiti Dæmones," in Wierus De Prestigiis Damonum, Basil. 1583, p. 84, in which the assumed disguise is somewhat similar : "Ecce per obscuræ tenebrosa crepuscula noctis Atro tectus erat monachum simulante cucullo, Vtque solent, raso vertice tonsus erat." In Ross's description of the Temptation, Christiados, lib. viii. ed. 1638, p. 178, he is also thus painted, by the adaptation of Virgilian phrases: "His actis, deserta petit spelæa ferarum: Hic inter vastas rupes, atque horrida lustra, Vsque quater denis jejunia longa diebus Terribili squalore senis, cui plurima mento Sordidus ex humero nodo dependet amictus, There is an Italian poem, which I have not seen, entitled II Di-' giuno di Christo nel Deserto by Giovanni Nizzoli, dated in 1611. And observe also among the works of P. Antonio Glielmo (who died in 1644), enumerated by Crasso in his " Elogii d' huomini letterati," Il Calvario Laureato, Poëma; a kindred subject perhaps with that of Paradise Regained.' Vol. iv. P. xvii. We have omitted the concluding sentence: it is not the only instance in which we have thought Mr. Todd too liberal of praise. The editor of Milton should have acquired a severer taste. He who is working upon jewels can surely distinguish gems from paste. The remarks upon the defects of the poem are just. Doubtless the Paradise Regained, like the mild and pleasing brightness of the lesser luminary, will ever obtain its comparative admiration. The fine sentiments which it breathes, the pure morality which it inculcates, and the striking imagery with which it is frequently embellished, must commend the poem, while taste and virtue are respected, to the grateful approbation of the world. The versification indeed wants the variety and animation which so eminently distinguish the numbers of Paradise Lost. And it cannot but be acknowledged that the plan is faulty: for, to attribute the redemption of mankind solely to Christ's triumph over the temptations in the wilderness is a notion not only contracted, but untrue. The gate of everlasting life was opened, through the death and resurrection of our Lord. Dr. Bentley's remark has not yet been controverted: see the note on Paradise Lost, b. x. 182. I do not, however, think that Paradise Regained is without "allusions to poets either ancient or modern," as is insinuated in a preceding remark: it exhibits, on the contrary, several elegant imitations, interwoven with Milton's origi nal graces, both of the classical and the romantic muses.' Vol. iv. P. 335. The preliminary observations on Samson Agonistes are from the Rambler, Nós 139 and 140, and from Mr. Cumberland's Observer, N° 111. To the list of poems upon the same character may be added a Spanish epic, the Sanson Nazareno of Antonio Henriquez Gomez, one of the worst poems in the language. This volume is concluded by the catalogue of plans of other subjects, intended for tragedies by Milton. The fifth volume contains Lycidas, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Arcades, Comus, and the Sonnets. Mr. Todd has given a curious epitaph on Mr. King, the subject of the monody written by a Mr. Booth of Corpus Christi. "Heere lies the love of gentle hearts, Which makes the seas more fluent runne. Which makes the seas farre more profound, &c." • It concludes with this quaint couplet : "Thus whilst poore breathing mortalls weepe, The wit, and mirth, lies in the deepe." Vol. v. p. 6. To these minor poems little could be added after the learned and copious annotations of Warton. Mr. Todd's labours, however, have not been vain. He gives the following beautiful extracts from a masque by Marston, of which the manuscript is in the possession of the duke of Bridgewater. SONG by CYNTHIA. "From ladies y' are rudely coy, From gallants who still court with oathes; "The Songe. "Audatious nighte makes bold the lippe ; Whilst to Apollo's harpe you trippe, Now meete, now breake, then fayne a warlike salley; "During this songe the masquers presented theire sheelds, and tooke forth their ladyes to daunce. "After they hadd daunced many measures, galliards, corantos, and lavaltos, the night being much spent; whilst the masquers |