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account is thus quoted by Mr . Swinburne , in his Tour through Sicily : — On the 15 th of August , 1643 , as I stood at my window , I was surprised with a most wonderful delectable vision . The sea that washes the Sicilian shore swelled up
and became , for ten miles in length , like a chain of dark mountains ; while the waters near our Calabrian coast grew quite smooth , and in an instant appeared as one clear polished mirror , reclining against the ridge . On this glass was depicted , in chiaroscuro , a string of several
thousands of piastres , all equal in altitude , distance , and degree of light and shade . In a moment they lost half their height , and hent into arcades , like Roman aqueducts . A iong cornice was next formed on the top , and above it
rose castles innumerable , all perfectly alike . These soon split into towers , which were shortly after lost in colonnades , then windows , and at last ended ia pines , cypresses , and other trees , even and similar . This is the Fata
Morgana , which , for twenty-six years , I had thought a mere fable !!' " To produce this deception , many circumstances must concur , which are not known to exist in any other situation . The spectator must stand with his back to the East , in some elevated place
behind the city , that he may command a view of the whole bay ; beyond which , the mountains of Messina ( in Sicily ) rise and darken the back-ground of the picture . The winds must be hushed , the surface smooth , the tide at its height , and the waters pressed up by currents to a great elevation in the midst of the
channel . All these events coinciding , so soon as the sun surmounts the eastern mils behind Reggio , ( in Calabria , ) and rises high enough to form an angle of 45 degrees on the water before the city ;
every object existing , or moving at Reg-Rio , will be repeated upon this marine looking-glass : each image will pass rapidly off in succession as the day advances , and the stream carries down the
wave on which it appeared . Thus the Parts of this moving picture will vanish * n the twinkling of an eye . Sometimes the air is so impregnated with vapours ,
<™ u undisturbed by winds , as to reflect ob jects in a kind of aerial screen , rising about 30 feet above the level of the sea . h cl ° udy , heavy weather , they are drawn ° » the surface of the water , bordered with fine prismatic colours *
In a small work lately published , ^ utled , The Qonchologisfs Companion , we have seen a description of the Fata xor gan < ip which is given as if seen by the ^ mpuer of that work . It is , however ,
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"Captain Smyth , in hid * Memoir , says , iy ) on this subject , * One of the most extraordinary phenomena of this celebrated region is an aerial illusion , called the Fata Morgana , from being
supposed to be a spectacle under the influence of the queen of the fairies , the Morgaiu la Fay' of popular legends . It occurs during calms , when the weather is warm , and the tides are at their highest ; and is said , by some refracting property , to present in the air multiplied images of objects , existing on the coasts ,
with wonderful precision aud magnificence . The most perfect are reported to have been seen from the vicinity of Reggio , about sun-rise - I much doubt , however , the accuracy of the descriptions F hare heard and read , as I cannot help thinking that the imagination strongly assists these dioptric appearances , having never met with a Sicilian who had
actually seen any thing more than the loom , or mirage , consequent on a pecu > liar state of the atmosphere ; but which , I must say , I have here observed , many times , to be unusually strong . It is spoken of , by some , as a luminous ignescent phenomenon , infallibly predictive of an approaching storm . ' **
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Popular fFisdom . 6 ? &
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Sir , ARE there not certain critical and climaeterical periods in the history of the human mind as well as body ? For myself , I am conscious of several great changes in my habits
of thinking , wrought out naturally or as the consequence of growth and experience : and nothing is more instructive or entertaining than to look at one ' s-self in a former state of mind .
I refer not so much to opinions as to great principles , by which opinion , and every thing else in the mental constitution , is modified . There was a time when I considered improvement to consist in differing from , or as I was accustomed to call it , rising above the mass of mankind ;
what was popular was with me erroneous ; and I perpetually mistook singularity for originality . This sentence , I am aware , does not read well , but in writing it I exemplify one of my changes . Vears ago , if I penned a few lines for a magazine , I was not satisfied with myself unless I made
so exactly similar to the above , by Father Angelucci , that we hope to be pardoned for suspecting it to be identically the same .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1826, page 579, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2553/page/7/
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