One of the most interesting departments of this unique collection is that of the Papyri, or MSS., discovered in the excavation of Herculaneum. The ancients did not bind their books (which, of course, were all MSS.) like us, but rolled them up in scrolls. When those of Herculaneum were discovered, they presented, as they still do, the appearance of burnt bricks, or cylindrical pieces of charcoal, which they had acquired from the action of the heat contained in the lava, that buried the whole city. They seemed quite solid to the eye and touch; yet an ingenious monk discovered a process of detaching leaf from leaf, and unrolling them, by which they could be read without much difficulty. It is, nevertheless, to be regretted, that so little success has followed the labours of those who have attempted to unrol them. Some portions, however, have been unrolled, and the titles of about 400 of the least injured have been read. They are, for the most part, of little importance; but all entirely new, and chiefly relating to music, rhetoric, and cookery. The obliterations and corrections are numerous, so that there is a probability of their being original manuscripts. There are two volumes of Epicurus "on Virtue," and the rest are, for the most part, productions of the same school of writers. Only a very few are written in Latin, almost all being in Greek. All were found in the library of one individual, and in a quarter of the town where there was the least probability of finding anything of the kind. The following is a list of the most important works that have been discovered:-- 1. Philodemus, on the Influence of Music on the Human Constitution. 2. Epicurus upon Nature. 3. Philomedes on Rhetoric. 4. Id. on the Vices. 5. Id. on the Affinities of the Vices and the Virtues. 6. Id. on the Poets. 7. Id. some Philosophical Fragments. 8. Id. on Providence. 9. Democritus, some Geometrical Fragments. 10. Philostratus on Unreasonable Contempt. 11. Carnisirus on Friendship. 12. Cotothes on Plato's Dialogue of Isis. 13. Chrysippus on Providence. We shall give the reader a specimen, in a fragment of a poem on the Actian war, copied from a manuscript taken from Herculaneum; supposed to be written by C. Rabirius:-- COL. I. ... XIM......... AEL .. TIA· ........... .. CESAR . FA .. AR . HAR . IAM. ..... G ... .. RT.·HIS·ILLE .. NATO . CVM ..... ELIAPOR .. QVEM IVVENES; gRANdAeVOS·ERAT·pEr cVNcTA seguntus[281] BELLA·FIDE·DEXTRAQVE POtENS·RERVMQuE·PER·Vsum CALLIDVS·ADSIDVus traCTANDO·IN MVNERE martis IMMINET oPSESSIS ITALuS·IAM·TVRRIBVS alTIS· Adsiliens muriS·NEC·DEFVit IMPETVS·ILLIS. COL. II.