| 123 and also with all those whom my Father hath given me out of the world; wherefore lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all ye may be able to staud [stand]. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth; having on the breastplate of righteousndss [righteousness]; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you, taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you, and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up that where I am, ye shall be also. Amen.
Eruption of Mount Ætna.
The following account of the recent eruption of Mount Ætna, is from a correspondent of the London Despatch [Dispatch ?]. The eruption took place in the fore part of December last.
We started from Palermo, by the Messina road, at half past 7 o'clock on Monday morning, December 5, and towards sunset on the following day, arrived at Aderno, (114 Sicilian or 115 English miles from the capital,) and thence while changing horses, we had the first view of the eruption. We could plainly discern the fiery stones rising and falling, but at that distance looking like sparks. A ball of fire seemed to roll up from the crater, swelling as it rose into the form of a vast balloon, from the top of which proceeded a blazing column, which at length, burst at its summit, and fell in soft showers of slowly descending fire. Next morning we arranged for our excursion up the mountain, and started at 12 at night. The lava light grew stronger as we advanced, and on turning a projecting point of the mountain, the crater and the upper part of the stream of lava burst upon our sight in all its magnificence.
We were now 4500 feet up the mountain, and about six miles distant from the crater. I do not think it looked grander at any higher point. The volcano was spouting out fire and red hot stones to a prodigious height (fully twice as great as that of the cone, which is 1100 feet high) in a large column, apparently of the size of a martello tower, at the mouth of the crater, and distending to an enormous bulk, till at its utmost height, it burst into myriads of fiery fragments, those on the left being particularly conspicuous, because there was no lava there, and the red hot stones contrasted with the dark side of the mountain. As they fell they cast a bright glow on the snow, and each particular fiery fragment lighted up its own portion of the snowy surface, while a column of illumined steam arose wherever the hissing balls of fire sunk upon the ground.
The higher we climbed the longer line we saw of lava; and after another hour and a half's ascent we reached a plain of seeming sand and (being in fact, pulverized scoriæ,) of about a mile square in extent, and studded with genissa or broom, the only plant that grows at this height, which was above that of Cassa del Bosco. Here the guides required us to stop, as it would be highly dangerous to proceed further during the night. We were, however, well content to halt in the position we had now attained, as we enjoyed a complete view of the crater, and of the whole stream of lava from its source to the lowest depth it had yet reached. The crater thus seen, resembled an enormous bowl brimming over with molten metal, such as one sees in the carron founderies[foundries], which streamed down in the cascades of living fire, and it struck against some stupenduous [stupendous] rock upon the mountain side, and separated into various currents, twisting and winding in rivulets of fire, snake-like, along the surface of the mountain; so tortuous in its course that where the stream of lava was full ten miles long, no part of it had yet reached above two miles from its source in the volcano.
Along with the volume of flame incessantly vomited forth by the crater, we now heard at every burst a booming sound like the roaring of the sea against an iron bound coast, gradually swelling louder and louder, as if beginning far down in the bowels of the earth, and bellowing more fearfully as it approached the outlet, whence it issued ever anon with fresh explosions like terrific peals of thunder. In the prodigious blaze of light we could not for some time perceive that the lava did not, as we at first supposed, brim over the lip of the cup, but burst a passage through the side of the cone some 300 feet below the top, whence it gushed forth in an impetuous flood, and presently flowed in bubbling runnels of liquid fire that ran along the ground, at first in narrow streams sometimes as fine as chains of forked lightning linked together, flashing along the snow, but these as they descended fell into one another, and united in one wide meandering lava flood. Another current swept down the hill side with a statelier match, the flood of fire occasionally overflowing, flinging a golden glare upon the surrounding snow, till at a distance of about two miles from its source it struck against a tall
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