CAMBRIDGE, JAN. 25. 1764.

LAST night HARVARD COLLEGE, suffered the most ruinous loss it ever met with since its foundation. In the middle of a very tempestuous night, a severe cold storm of snow attended with high wind, we were awaked by the alarm of fire. Harvard-Hall, the only one of our ancient buildings which still re­mained, * and the repository of our most valuable treasures, the public LIBRARY and Philosophical APPARATUS, was seen in flames. As it was a time of vacation, in which the students were all dispersed, not a single person was left in any of the Colleges, except two or three in that part of Massachusetts most distant from Harvard, where the fire could not be perceived till the whole sur­rounding air began to be illuminated by it: When it was discovered from the town, it had risen to a degree of violence that defied all opposition. It is conjectured to have begun in a beam under the hearth in the library, where a fire had been kept for the use of the General Court, now residing and sitting here, by reason of the Small-Pox at Boston: from thence it burst out into the Libra­ry. The books easily submitted to the fury of the flame, which with a rapid and irresistable pro­gress made its way into the Apparatus-Chamber, and spread thro' the whole building. In a very short time, this venerable Monument of the Piety of our Ancestors was turn'd into an heap of ruins. The other Colleges, Stoughton-Hall and Massa­chusetts-Hall, were in the utmost hazard of sha­ring the same fate. The wind driving the flaming cinders directly upon their roofs, they blazed out several times in different places; nor could they have been saved by all the help the Town could afford, had it not been for the assistance of the Gentlemen of the General Court, among whom his Excellency the Governor was very active [...]—All the Fathers, Greek and Latin, in their best editions. — A great number of tracts in defence of revealed religion, wrote by the most masterly hands, in the last and present century.— Sermons of the most celebrated English divines, both of the established national church and pro­testant dissenters:—Tracts upon all the branches of polemic divinity:—The donation of the vene­rable Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts, consisting of a great many volumes of tracts against Popery, published in the Reigns of Charles II. and James II. the Boylean lectures, and other the most esteemed English sermons:—A valua­ble collection of modern theological treatises, pre­sented by the Right Rev. Dr. Sherlock, late Lord Bishop of London, the Rev. Dr. Hales, F. R. S. and Dr. Wilson of London:— A vast number of philological tracts, containing the rudiments of al­most all languages, ancient and modern:—The Hebrew, Greek and Roman antiquities.—The Greek and Roman Classics, presented by the late excellent and catholic-spirited Bishop Berkeley; most of them the best editions:—A large Collec­tion of History and biographical tracts, ancient and modern.—Dissertations on various Political subjects —The Transactions of the Royal Society, Aca­demy of Sciences in France, Acta Eruditorum, Miscellanea curiosa, the works of Boyle and New­ton, with a great variety of other mathematical and philosophical treatises.—A collection of the most approved Medical Authors, chiefly presented by Mr. James, of the island of Jamaica; to which Dr. Mead and other Gentlemen made very considerable additions: Also Anatomical cuts and two compleat Skeletons of different sexes. This collection would have been very serviceable to a Professor of Physic and Anatomy, when the revenues of the College should have been suffici­ent to subsist a gentleman in this character.—A [...]

Under the head of Mechanics, there were ma­chines for experiments of falling bodies, of the centre of gravity, and of centrifugal forces;—the several mechanical powers, balances of different sorts, levers, pullies, axes in peritrochio, wedges, compound engines; with curious models of each in brass.

In Hydrostatics, very nice balances, jars and bottles of various sizes fitted with brass caps, ves­sels for proving the grand hydrostatic Paradox, siphons, glass models of pumps, hydrostatic ba­lance, &c.

In Pneumatics, there was a number of different tubes for the Torricellian experiment, a large dou­ble-barrell'd Air-pump, with a great variety of receivers of different sizes and shapes; syringes, exhausting and condensing; Barometer, Ther­mometer;—with many other articles.

In Optics, there were several sorts of mirrors, concave, convex, cylindric; Lenses of different foci; instruments for proving the fundamental law of refraction; Prisms, with the whole appa­ratus for the Newtonian theory of light and colors; the camera obscura, &c.

And a variety of instruments for miscellaneous purposes.

THE following articles were afterwards sent us by Mr. Thomas Hollis, Nephew to that ge­nerous Gentleman, viz. an Orrery, an armillary Sphere, and a box of Microscopes; all of exqui­site workmanship.

For Astronomy, we had before been supplied with Telescopes of different lengths; one of 24 feet; and a brass Quadrant of 2 feet radius, carrying a Telescope of a greater length; which formerly belonged to the celebrated Dr. Halley. We had also the most useful instruments for Dialling;— and for Surveying, a brass semicircle, with plain [...] and magnetic needle. Also▪ a curious Te- [...]