⚫ and there, forefts and falling ftreams covered the fides of the hills. Rivers in many places, in the most beautiful cascades, ⚫ were tumbling along; and cataracts, from the tops of mountains, came roaring down. The whole was grand, wonderful, and fine. On the top of one of the mountains 'I ⚫ paffed over at noon, the air was piercing cold, on ac' count of its great height, and fo fubtle, that we breathed with difficulty, and were a little fick. From hence I faw ⚫ feveral black fubjacent clouds, big with thunder, and the lightning within them rolled backwards and forwards, like fhining bodies of the brighteft luftre. One of them went off in the grandeft horrors through the vale below, and had no more to do with the pike I was on, than if it had been a ⚫ fummit in another planet. The fcene was prodigious fine. • Sub pedibus ventos & rauca tonitrua calcat.

Till the evening, I rid and walked it, and in numberless C windings round unpaffable hills, and by the fides of rivers it < was impoffible to crofs, journeyed a great many miles: but

no human creature, or any kind of houfe, did I meet with • in all the long way; and as I arrived at last at a beautiful lake, whofe banks the hand of nature had adorned with vast old trees, I fat down by this water, in the fhade, to dine on a neat's tongue I had got from good Mrs. Price; and was fo delighted with the ftriking beauties and ftillness of the place, that I determined to pass the night in this fweet retreat. That our Readers may have an opportunity of viewing this uncommon Writer in all lights, we fhall fubjoin a fpecimen of his folitary humour, when he chufes to indulge in a rural reverie; which is not unfrequent with him: he seems, above all things, to have a prevailing taste for country-retirement. We juft now left him determined to pass the night in a pleafant valley, by the fide of a beautiful lake. Nor was it one night only,' fays he, that I would have rested there. Often did I with for a convenient little lodge by this sweet • water-fide, and that with the numerous fwans, and other fowl that lived there, I might have spent my time in peace 'below, till I was removed to the established seat of happi• nefs above.

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Had this been poffible, I fhould have avoided many an affliction, and had known but few of thofe expectations and disappointments, which render life a fcene of emptiness, and bitterness itfelf. My years would have rolled on in peace and wisdom, in this fequeftered, delightful scene, and my filent meditations had been productive of that good < temper, and good action, which the refurreétion of the dead,

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⚫ the diffolution of the world, the judgment-day, and the eter ⚫nal state of men, require us to have. Free from the various • perplexities and troubles I have experienced, by land and • fea, in different parts of the world, I fhould have lived, in this Paradife of a place, in the enjoyment of that fine happiness, which eafy country bufinefs, and a ftudious life, afford; and might have made a better preparation for that ⚫ hour which is to difunite me, and let my invifible spirit depart to the fhades of eternity. Happy they, who, in fome ⚫ fuch rural retirement, can employ fome useful hours every, day, in the management of a little comfortable farm, and * devote the greater portion of their time to facred knowlege, heavenly piety, and angelic goodness; which cannot be dif⚫ folved when the thinker goes, nor be confined to the box of • obscurity, under the clods of the earth: but will exift In our fouls for ever, and enable us to depart in peace to the happy regions. This has ever made me prefer a retired country life, when it was in my power to enjoy it.-

The lake I have mentioned, was the largest I had feen in this wild part, being above a mile in length, and more ‹ than half a mile broad; and the water that filled it, burft ⚫ with the greatest impetuofity from the infide of a rocky mountain, that is very wonderful to behold. It is a vant, craggy precipice, that afcends till it is almoft out of fight,, and by its gloomy and tremendous air, ftrikes the mind with a horror that has fomething pleafing in it. This amazing cliff ftands perpendicular at one end of the lake, at the diftance of a few yards, and has an opening at the bottom, • that is wide enough for two coaches to enter at once, if the • place was dry. In the middle of it there is a deep channel, down which the water rufhes with a mighty swiftnefs and force, and our either fide, the ftone rifes a yard above the • impetuous ftream. The afcent is eafy, flat, and plane. How far it goes, I know not, being afraid to afcend more than forty yards; not only on account of the terrors com mon to the place, from the fall of fo much of water with a ftrange kind of roar, and the heighth of the arch which covers the torrent all the way; but because, as I went up, there was of a sudden an encrease of noife fo very terrible, that my heart failed me, and a trembling almoft difabled • me. The rock moved under me, as the frightful founds ⚫ encréafed, and as quick as it was poffible for me, I came ⚫ into day again. It was well I did; for I had not been many minutes out, before the water overflowed its channel, and • filled the whole opening in rushing to the lake. The in• crcafe

creafe of the water, and the violence of the difcharge, were an aftonishing fight. I had a great escape.'

Mr. Buncle here takes occafion to introduce his favourite conjecture concerning the great abyss; the existence and reality of which he is at fome pains to demonstrate. As the rocky * mountain,' (juft mentioned) fays he, is higher than either Snowden, in North-Wales, or Kedar-Idris in Merioneth'fhire, (which have been thought the highest mountains in this ifland) that is, it is full a mile and an half high from the bafis, as I found by afcending it with great toil on the • fide that was from the water, and the top was a flat dry rock, ⚫ that had not the least spring, or piece of water on it, how • fhall we account for the rapid flood that proceeded from its infide? Where did this great water come from?-I anfwer, might it not flow from the great abyfs-and the great increafe of it, and the fearful noife, and the motion of the rock, be owing to fome violent commotion in the abyss, occafioned by fome natural or fupernatural cause?

That there is fuch an abyfs, no one can doubt that be. lieves revelation, and from reafon and hiftory it is credible, ⚫ that there are violent concuffions on this vast collection of water, by the Divine appointment: and therefore I imagine it is from thence the water of this mountain proceeds, ⚫ and the great overflowing, and terrifying found, at certain times. To this motion of the abyfs, by the Divine power ⚫ exerted on it, I afcribe the earthquakes; and not to vapour,

or electricity. As to electricity, which Dr. Stukeley makes *the cause of the deplorable downfall of Lisbon, in his book • lately published, (called, The Philofophy of Earthquakes) there are many things to be objected against its being the origin of fuch calamities :-one objection is, and it is an infuper• able one, that electrical fhocks are ever momentary, by every ⚫ experiment, but earthquakes are felt for feveral minutes. Another is, that many towns have been fwallowed up in earthquakes, though Lifbon was only overthrown. Such was the cafe of the city of Callao, within two leagues of • Lima. Though Lima was only tumbled into ruins, Oct. 28, 1746; yet Callao funk downright, with all its inhabitants, and an unfathomable fea now covers the finest port in Peru, as I have feen on the spot. In the earthquake at Jasmaica, June 7, 1692, in which several thoufands perifhed, it is certain, that not only many houses, and a great number of people, were entirely fwallowed up; but that, at many of the gapings, or openings of the earth, torrents of water, that formed great rivers, iffued forth. This I had REVIEW, Dec. 1756.

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⚫ from a man of veracity, then on the spot, who was an eye⚫ witness of these things, and expected himself every minute to defcend to the bowels of the earth, which heaved and fwelled like a rolling fea. Now to me the electrical stroke does not appear fufficient to produce these things. The power of electricity, to be fure, is vaft and amazing. It may cause great tremours and undulations of the earth, and bring down all the buildings of a great city: but as to split⚫ing the earth to great depths, and forcing up torrents of waC ter, where there was no fign of the fluid element before, I queftion much, if the vehemence of the elemental electric fire does this.-Befide, when mountains and cities fink into the earth, and the deepest lakes are now feen to fill the places where they once ftood, as has been the cafe in many countries, where could these mighty waters come, but from the abys?-The great lake Oroquantur, in Pegu, was once vaft city. In Jamaica, there is a large deep lake, where ⚫ once a mountain ftood.-In an earthquake in China, in the province of Sanci, deluges of water burst out of the earth, Feb. 7, 1556, and inundated the country for 180 miles. Many more inftances of this kind I might produce, exclu• five of Sodom, the ground of which was inundated by an ir⚫ruption of waters from beneath, (which now forms the Dead Sea) after the city was deftroyed by fire from above; that the land which had been defiled with the unnatural lufts of the inhabitants, might be no more inhabited, but remain a lafting monument of the Divine vengeance on fuch crimes, to the end of the world: and the ufe I would make of ⚫ those I have mentioned, is to fhew, that thefe mighty wa⚫ters were from the furious concuffion of the abyss that caused the earthquakes. Electricity, I think, can never make feas and vaft lakes to be where there were none before. Loch⚫erne, in the county of Fermanagh, in the province of Ulfter in Ireland, is thirty-three miles long, and fourteen broad, and as the old Irifh chronicle informs us, was once a place where large and populous towns appeared, till for the great iniquity of the inhabitants, the people and their fair habitions were deftroyed in an earthquake, and mighty waters from the earth covered the place, and formed this lake. Could the electrical firoke produce this fea, that was not to be found there before the deftruction? Is it not more reafonable to fuppofe, that fuch vaft waters have been forced by a fupernatural commotion from the great aby's, in the earthquake that deftroyed the towns which once flood in this place?) del Jus

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To this, then, (till I am better informed) I muft afcribe ⚫ fuch earthquakes as produce great rivers and lakes: and ⚫ where no waters appear, I believe the earthquakes are caufed by the immediate finger of God; either operating on the abyfs, though not fo as to make the water break out on the earth; or by directing the electrical violence or ftroke; or ⚫ otherwife acting on the ruined cities, and fhattered places.' Our Author now digreffes, further, into a long train of reflections on fecond caufes, the immediate and univerfal operation of the Deity, the reafon of the tides, mufcular motion, &c. &c. He fays abundance of good things, and fhews a great deal of reading and reflection upon each of these topics and his deductions from the whole appear to breathe the true fpirit of piety towards the Almighty First Caufe, the God and Father of all.

In page 190 this ingenious Vifionary [pardon the expreffion, Sir! it is dictated by our real opinion; and we are perfuaded you are too good a man to wifh, that we fhould difguife or fupprefs any honeft fentiment, or requifite circumftance, on this, or any other occafion] refumes his defcription of the natural curiofities he met with, in and about the delightful valley and lake; and from an extraordinary unfathomable loch, on the top of a high mountain, he again attempts to prove his hypothefis concerning the great abyfs, or vaft treafury of waters within the earth, which he confiders as the caufe of all fuch lochs. As what he fays on this fubject, may afford entertainment to many of our Readers, we fhall here give a larger extract than ordinary.

Another extraordinary thing I faw in the place I have mentioned, was a water on the top of a hill, which stood at the other end of the lake, and was full as high as the mountain, from the fide of which the water poured into the lake. This loch measured three quarters of a mile in length, and half a mile over. The water appeared as black as ink, but in a glafs it was as clear as other water, and bright in running down. It tafted fweet and good. At one end, it runs over, its rocky bank, and in feveral noify cafcades, falls down the face of the mountain to a deep bottom, where a river is formed, that is feen for a confiderable way as it wanders along. The whole is a ftriking fcene. The swarthy loch, the noify defcending ftreams, clumps of aged trees on the mountain's fide, and the various fhoars and vallies below, afford an uncommon view. It was a fine change of ground, to afcend from the beautiful lake, (encompaffed with mountains, and adorned with trees) into which was

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