me a safe passage through a party of brigands
who once stopped me in the passes of the Apennines.

_Onu_.--The use you have made of this relic puts me in mind of a device
of a very ingenious geological philosopher now living. He was on Etna
and busily employed in making a collection of the lavas formed from the
igneous currents of that mountain; the peasants were often troublesome to
him, suspecting that he was searching for treasures. It occurred to him
to make the following speech to them: "I have been a great sinner in my
youth and, as a penance, I have made a vow to carry away with me pieces
of every kind of stone found upon the mountain; permit me quietly to
perform my pious duty, that I may receive absolution for my sins." The
speech produced the desired effect; the peasants shouted, "The holy man!
The saint!" and gave him every assistance in their power to enable him to
carry off his burthen, and he made his ample collections with the utmost
security and in the most agreeable manner.

_The Stranger_.--I do not approve of pious frauds even for philosophical
purposes; my rosary excited in others the same kind of feeling which it
excited in my own bosom, and which I hold to be perfectly justifiable,
and of which I shall never be ashamed.

_Amb_.--You must have travelled in Italy in very dangerous times; have
you always been secure?

_The Stranger_.--Always; I have owed my security, partly, as I have said,
to my rosary, but more to my dress and my acquaintance with the dialect
of the natives. I have always carried with me a peasant as a guide, who
has been intrusted with the small sums of money I wanted for my immediate
purposes, and my baggage has been little more than a Cynic philosopher
would have carried with him; and when I have been unable to walk, I have
trusted myself to the conduct of a vetturino, a native of the province,
with his single mule and caratella.

The sun was now setting and the temple of Neptune was glowing with its
last purple rays. We were informed that our horses were waiting, and
that it was time for us to depart to our lodgings at Eboli. I asked the
stranger to be our companion and to do us the honour to accept of a seat
in our carriage. He declined the invitation, and said: "My bed is
prepared in the casina here for this night, and to-morrow I proceed on a
journey connected with scientific objects in the parts of Calabria the
scene of the terrible earthquakes of 1783." I held o