A faculty this, which the foul exerts, more or lefs, in all; and yet it is difficult to difcover from whence the true impulfe arifes; how it is circumfcribed, or what brings it to an end for, in real active life, our ideas are regular, actions are (or fhould be) determined by fome certain views, and we complete them by juft and confonant measures. But in dreams, the imagination reigns abfolute, and will and judgement are entirely fubfervient to its command: creating difcontented thoughts, vain hopes, vain aims, and inordinate defires; and yet, was this alone, without the aid of the fenfes, or the apparent help of the memory, it can engage us in fcenes of the deepeft reach, and the higheft importance; can officiate for reafon and judgement; can affemble and compare ideas, begin and finish adventures; can inftantaneously fhift the fcene, and bring on the catastrophe at her own pleasure, without asking leave of the will or understanding. It can even proceed much further, and prefent thofe images, and correct thofe circumstances, which were never in the power of the waking mind even to conceive; hurries over actions with incredible velocity, or hangs a load on the wing of time, and lengthens our duration to what term the pleafes. The imagination, fays Shakespear,

And then dreams he of smelling out a fuit :

And fometimes comes the with a tythe pig tale, Tickling the parfon as he lies afleep; Then dreams he of another benefice. Sometimes the driveth o'er a foldier's neck,

And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,

Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades.' Romeo and Juliet.

This is exemplified in the cafe of thofe, who have dreamed, through the actions of three days in a fuc. ceffive feries, in the compafs of a few hours; and of others, who, in one night, have made a tour over the whole globe, or executed some unnatural feat. Again, when we are awake, the action of recollecting, inventing, arranging, and com. mitting our ideas to writing, is a work of incredible pains and labour, advances flowly, and is di vided into a number of ftages, be fore it arrives at a point in view, or can prefent the images of the writer to the reader: whereas many people have dreamed of reading books on a variety of fubjects, clearly, confiftently, and elegantly written, which they never faw waking; whereby it appears, that the imagination compofes the work, attends the thread of the whole narration, judges of its excellency, and remembers its contents, all at the fame inftant of time: an inconteftable proof, in my opinion, that it is of a much more noble and

comprehenfive nature than we ge. nerally fuppofe it to be; and can, when delivered from the bands of fenfe, and difencumbered of the body, act more like the Deity, then

fuch

by thofe who continually refide in

doing.

Some further account of the fall of a huge mass of fnow from the Alps near Piedmont in Italy; and of three women overwhelmed by it in a fable, from the ruins of which they were extratied alive, after a moft borrible confinement of thirtyfeven days: extracted from a philoJophical narrative of the whole affair lately published at Turin, by doctor Simis, phyfician to bis Sardinian majefty. [See our first volume, p. 297.]

T has been obferved of the Alpine fnows, that, when fallen on declivities of more than forty-five degrees to the horizon, they flide off in a body, as foon as the earth under them has melted enough of the contiguous lay to acquire a certain degree of flipperinefs; and fo tumble headlong over any precipice they may meet with, to rest where they happen to fall; or elfe, by having their direction gradually changed, drive a confiderable way into the plain, and even over any little flope that may ftand in their way, bearing down every thing before them with irresistible violence.

foretell, by certain figns, the fudden rife of thefe terrible whirl. winds.

Sometimes too, a very confiderable quantity of fnow happens to be whirled about by the wind, with fufficient force to tear up the thickeft and ftouteft trees from their roots, to beat down animals to the ground, and to fuffocate them; as is too often the cafe with thofe who are indifcreet enough to attempt the paffing of the Alps, efpecially of Mount Cenis, at a time judged improper

February and March of the year 1755, they had, at Turin, a great fall of rain; and, as it generally fnows in the mountains when it only rains in the plain, it cannot appear furprising that, during this interval, there fell vast quantities of fnow in the mountains, which, of course, formed feveral valancas. The bad weather, which prevailed in fo many other places, prevailed likewife at Bergemoletto, a little hamlet feated in that part of the Alps which feparates the valley of Stura and Piedmont from Dauphine and the county of Nice. On the 19th of March, many of the inhabitants of this hamlet began to apprehend that the weight of the fnow, which was already fallen, and ftill continued to fall, might crufh their houses, built with ftones peculiar to the country, and held together by nothing but mud and a very fmall portion of lime, and covered with thatch laid on a roof of fhingles and large thin ftones, fupported by thick beams. They therefore got upon their roofs to lighten them of the fnow. At a little diftance from the church food the houfe of Jofeph Roccia, a man of about fifty, who, with his fon James, a lad of fifteen, had, like his neighbours, got upon the roof of his houfe, in order to leffen the weight on it, and thereby prevent

G 3

its

its deftruction. In the mean time, the clergyman, who lived in the neighbourhood, and was about leaving home, in order to repair to the church, and gather the people together to prayers, perceiving a noife towards the top of the mountains, looked up, and defcried two valancas driving headlong towards the village. Wherefore, raising his voice, he gave Jofeph notice inftantly to come down from the roof, to avoid the impending danger: and then immediately retreated himself

into his own house.

Jofeph Roccia immediately came off the roof at the priest's notice, and with his fon fled as hard as he could towards the church. He had fcarce advanced forty fteps, when, hearing his fon juft fall at his heels, he turned about to affift him. But, by the time he had taken him up, the fpot on which his houfe, his ftable, and those of some of his neighbours ftood, was covered with a huge heap of fnow, without the leaft fign of either walls or roofs. Such was his agony at this fight, and at the thoughts of having loft, in an inftant, his wife, his fifter, his family, and all the little he had faved, that he lost his fenfes, fwooned away, and tumbled upon the fnow. His fon now helping him in his turn, as foon as he came to himself a little, he made a fhift to get to a friend's houfe at the diftance of 100 feet from the fpot where he fell. Mary-Anne, his wife, who was standing, with her fifter-in-law Anne, her daughter Margaret, and her fon Anthony, a little boy, two years old, at the door of the ftable, Jooking at the people throwing the (now from off the houfes, and wait.

ing for the ringing of the bell that was to call them to prayers, was about taking a turn to the house, in order to light a fire, and air a shirt for her husband, who could not but want that refreshment after his hard labour. But, before he could fet out, fhe heard the priest cry out to them to come down quickly; and, raifing her trembling eyes, faw the aforefaid valancas fet off, and roll down the fide of the mountain; and at the fame inftant she heard a terrible report from another quarter, which made her retreat back quickly with her family, and shut the door of the ftable. Happy it was for her that she had time to do so ; this noife being occafioned by another immenfe valanca, the fole cause of all the mifery and diftrefs fhe had to fuffer for fo long a time: fo that, in a very fhort time, the fnow was lodged about 42 feet in height, 270 in length, and 60 in breadth.

The inhabitants of Bergemoletto, whom it pleafed God to preferve from this difafter, being gathered together, in order to fum up their misfortunes, first counted 30 houfes overwhelmed; and then, every one calling over thofe he knew, 22 fouls were miffing, of which number was their parish prieft, who had lived among thein 40 years. The news of this terrible difafter foon fpread itfelf over the neighbourhood; and all the friends and relations of the fufferers, with many others, to the amount of 300, flocked of their own accord from the adjacent villages, to give their affiftance on this melancholy occafion. Jofeph Roccia, notwithstanding his great love for his wife and family, and his defire to recover part of what he had

loft,

houfe, and fet their other affairs to rights. In April 1757, they all enjoyed perfect health, Mary-Anne, who still laboured under dimnefs of fight, occafioned by her being too haftily expofed to the light. The others foon returned to their ufual labours, and have ever fince continued to lead the fame life they did before their misfortune.

Some account of a country boy bleffed with a most furprifing memory; extracted from a letter figned G. 4. and dated Bridport, June 9.

I

Send you an account of a parish prentice boy I have met with, who is now about eleven years of age, can neither read nor write, yet has a genius greatly fimilar to that of the famous Jedediah Bux. ton of Nottinghamshire, who, although he could neither read nor write, could folve mcft questions in arithmetic, and many queftions in algebra, by a method he had adapted to himself, and wrought by his memory only. I put to this boy the following queftions, which he answered very readily; and I make no doubt but, as he grows up, he will come up to, if not exceed, Buxton.

I first asked him the amount of the aliquot parts of a pound from a 16th to a 32d part, which he anfwered very quickly.

I next afked him the amount of

h'm fix-pence, and if he went on to 100, I would give him a fhilling; he then continued his work to 50, and defired to he excufed the remainder till morning, when he took up the queftion where he left off, and gave me a true anfwer.

I next afked him, if an hundred ftones were laid in a right line a yard afunder, and the first ftone a yard from a basket, how far a man muft run to fetch them into the baf ket. He quickly went up to the 30th ftone, and would have done the remainder, if I had promifed him more reward.

He keeps a very good account, by his memory only, of the money he has given him from time to time, which is put into a box to be kept for him; and although it is very often but a penny or two-pence at a time, or whatever it is, he will tell the day every fum was put in, and who gave it him, for two years back, and how much is now in the box, though he has not feen his bank told over from the first commencement of it.

Surprising inftance of

the great infectroufnefs of fome difeafes, where a free current of air is wanting, eveR in the most temperate climates; from Dr. Brocklesby's œconomical and medical obfervations.

progreffion; which, after a paufe of a few minutes, and twirling his thumbs, as is ufual for him to do when at work, he gave me a true anfwer. I then told him, if he would proceed to 50, I would give

that air, corrupted by pu trefaction, is, of all other caufes of fickness, the most fatal and leaft understood; for thefe deftructive ftreams work like a ferment, and ripen all diftempers into a putrid and malignant nature: but the air