the ocean; and the sea immediately rushed in violently, and formed the great gulph that we call the Mediterranean. Fables are not altogether fabulous; they are histories of remote periods, disguised by two very ancient and common defects; ignorance, and a love of the marvellous. It is not very credible that Hercules separated the two mountains with his hands; but I can easily believe that in the time of some Hercules, (for there have been fifty), the ocean may have torn asunder, perhaps with the assistance of an earthquake, two mountains more feeble than the rest and have by that means rushed in between Europe and Africa. Then a new spot was discovered on our globe, by the people in the moon, for you recollect, madam, that the water forms a dark spot. It is the general opinion that Sicily has been separated from Italy, and Cyprus from Syria: new islands have sometimes been formed in the sea; earthquakes have ingulfed some mountains, and produced others, as well as changed the course of rivers. Philosophers give us reason to fear that the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, being over great subterranean vaults filled with sulphur, will some time or other fall in, when the vaults are no longer strong enough to resist the fires contained in them, which now have vent at such openings as Vesuvius and Ætna. All this will be sufficient to diversify a little the appearance we make to the inhabitants of the moon. I would rather tire them said the Marchioness, with a monotonous appearance, than entertain them by the ruin of provinces.