S. Thomas Aquinas discomfiting
Plato, Aristotle, and Averroees. The latter was completely overthrown,
and in the most literal sense, for he was grovelling in the dust at the
feet of S. Thomas, while his disarranged turban had fallen from him.

The district of lava and ashes above Nicolosi is succeeded by forests of
small trees, and we are now fairly within the _Regione Selvosa_. At
half-past 8 o'clock the temperature was 66 deg., at Nicolosi at 4 o'clock it
was 80 deg.. About 9 o'clock we arrived at the Casa del Bosco, (4,216 feet),
a small house in which several men in charge of the forest live. Here we
rested till 10 o'clock, and then after I had put on a great-coat and a
second waistcoat, we started for the higher regions. At this time the
air was extraordinarily still, the flame of a candle placed near the
open door of the house did not flicker. The ascent from this point
carried us through forests of pollard oaks, in which it was quite
impossible to see either a path or any obstacles which might lie in
one's way. The guide carried a lantern, and the mules seemed well
accustomed to the route. At about 6,300 feet we entered the _Regione
Deserta_, a lifeless waste of black sand, ashes, and lava; the ascent
became more steep, and the air was bitterly cold. There was no moon, but
the stars shone with an extraordinary brilliancy, and sparkled like
particles of white-hot steel. I had never before seen the heavens
studded with such myriads of stars. The milky-way shone like a path of
fire, and meteors flashed across the sky in such numbers that I soon
gave up any attempt to count them. The vault of heaven seemed to be much
nearer than when seen from the earth, and more flat, as if only a short
distance above our heads, and some of the brighter stars appeared to be
hanging down from the sky. Brydone, in speaking of his impressions under
similar circumstances says:

"The sky was clear, and the immense vault of heaven appeared in awful
majesty and splendour. We found ourselves more struck with veneration
than below, and at first were at a loss to know the cause, till we
observed with astonishment that the number of the stars seemed to be
infinitely increased, and the light of each of them appeared brighter
than usual. The whiteness of the milky-way was like a pure flame that
shot across the heavens, and with the naked eye we could observe
clusters of stars that were invisible in the regions below. We did not
at first attend