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and stf fa ? a $ 'I catt discover , pectifiar to that edition , is the following passage , which Itii mediately $ iK * ee £ as thfe last jxaragraph butene , u > the above quotation , on Barca and Zadro ,:
(< Hence late expos'd ( if distant fame says true ) A smother'd city from the sandy wave Emergent rose ; with olive-fields around , Fresh woods , reclining herds , and Slletit flocks , Amusing all , and incorrupted seen .
For by the nitrous penetrating salts , Mix'd copious with the sand , pierc'd , and preserv'd , Each object hardens gradual into stone , Its posture fixes , and its colour keeps . The statue-folk , within , tm mimber'd crowd
The streets , in various attitudes surpi iz * d By sudden fate , and live on every face The passions caught , beyond the sculptor ' s art . Here leaning soft , the marble lovers stand , Delighted eren in death ; and each for each
Feeling alone , with that expressive look , Which perfect Naturje only knows to give . ^ . And there the father agoni / ing ? t > ends Fond o ' er his weeping wife , and infant train
Aghast , and trembling , tho' tney know not why . The stiffen ed vulgar stretch their arms to heaven With horror staring ; while in council deep Assembled full , the hoary-headed sires
Sit sadly-thoughtful of the public fate . As when old Rome , beneath the raging Gaul , Sunk her proud turrets , resolute on death , Around the Forum sat the grey divan Of . Senators , maj / ectic , motiouless ,
With ivory staves , and in their awful robes Dress'd like the falling fathers of mankind ; AmazM , and shivering , from the solemn sight . ; " . The red barbadians shrunk , aud 4 e # * n'd them Gods . " . . .
Dr . Shaw , in his TraveU ^ Wtil * I " t . 111 . p . 163 ^) aaeri )> e « t ^ > % 8 C report of a petrified city in Afriea to the Perefrrinctiio of Baurngjurfefi ^ published in 1597 , but wliofce travels com-Pjenced blW ? , I fi ^ . Ae , lear ^ ^ out according to a French biographer , the very credulous Jesuit Kirchfrr +
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tafcjiig itp < the tftoftch-otts tale , * in a chfopiier of his Mzirtdi fittbtermnefy entitled , Parite Returh in Laptdes tonver ^ arum Observationes . There tie introduces ( Mund * SuL . 1666 , II . 50 ) , on the authority of a Vice-Chancellor of the Knights of Malta , his " Jy < hmrabiiis Historia de Civitate Africa in
Saxum , una cum lacoLk et Anicna * libus converse . " This history of a petrified city i » given to Kiteher , or the authority of a captive Ethiopian , who , brought to Malta , in 1634 , at ten years of age , was baptized , and at length became an Archdeacon . Some of your readers may bd amused by a sight of the Jesuit's introductory paragraph :
" Addam tantummodo hlc coromdis loco formidabilem historiam , quae hostits temporibus accidit in pago quodam Africae Mediterraneae , qui nostris tetnporibus totus admiranda quadam
metamorphosVfn saxinrt , una cum homitiibu ^ , animaHbus , arbodbas , supellectil ^ domestica , frumentis et « bis , conversiis fiiisse narratur ; quoniam ver 6 res gravissi morum et fide dignorum hominum testimooio
vera comperta fiut , ct quotquot ego istarura partium Arabes ea de re cofisului , ita rein sese habere , fassi sunt . Totins rei seriem prout Melit 4 ad ine eani descripsit Ifabelus Vice-Caiicellarius , ordrnis equitum Hierosolymit : Me apponendam duxi "
r Dimnson may have read Kircher % or met with the Peregrinatio ot Raumgarten . Otherwise , I suppose , he was indebted for his petrified city
to the following * attempt to ascertain the extent of British credulit } ' , as I find it preserved by Dr . Shaw , and in ? Gent . Mag . ( XVII . 436 ) . It was probably first published early in the 1 7 th century , if not before .
" Memorial of Cassem Aga , the Tripoli Ambassador at the Court of Great Britain , concerning the petrified city in Africa , two days' journey south frdm Orguela , and seventeen days' journey , from Tripoli , by caravan , to the south- ^ ast . iC
As one of my friends desired me to give him , in writing , an account of what I knew touching the petrified eity , I told him what I had heard from different per hgii 8 > and particularly from the * nouth of one man of credit , who had ' been on the spot ; that is to say ,
" That it was a very spacious city , of a r ^ uad form , having , great and small streets Jberein , furnished with stops * - with a vast castle magnificently built ;
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vol . xvii . 3 q
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M » M 4 ? orM . No / XXVltt . 4 # *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1822, page 481, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2515/page/25/
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