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1796.]

The Writings of Dr. Arne.

Maelgon, Lywelyn, Iorwerth, Davyz, Cadwallon, Hywel, Cadell, Madoc, Einion, and Phylip; the daughters were Gwenlliant,

and Angbarad.

Of thefe, Rodri, Hywel, Davy, and Madoc, were the most diftinguished in hiftory. Hywel was a fine poet, as appears by his compofitions, of which there are eight preferved. His mufe feems to have been principally devoted to the fair, fex. His mother was a native of Ireland; and, though not born in wedlock, he was the first who afpired to the throne, after the death of Owain; which event no fooner took place, but his brother Dayz became his competitor, under the fanction of a legitimate birth.. The conJequence was, that the country became embroiled in a civil war; which, however, terminated, before the conclufion of the fame year, by the death of Hywel. The battle where this happened, was fought in Arvon, a diftrict comprehending the level country about Caernarvon, between Snowdon and the fea, in the ancient divifion of the country. But the exact spot where the action took place, cannot, I believe, be pointed out; though there are feveral remains of military works in that part of Caernarvonfhire.

Influenced by difguft at the unnatural diffenfions among his brothers, Madoc, who is reprefented of a very mild difpofition, refolved upon the matchlefs enterprife of exploring the ocean weftward, in fearch of more tranquil fcenes. The event was, according to various old documents, the difcovering of a new world; from which he effected his return, to inform his country of his good fortune. The confequence of which was, the fitting out of a fecond expedition; and Madoc, with his brother Ryd, lord of Clogran in Ireland, prevailed upon fo many to accompany them, as to fill feven fhips; and, failing from the ifle of Lundy, they took an eternal leave of Wales. There is a large book of pedigrees ftill extant, written by Jeuan Bregva, who flourished in the age preceding the time of Columbus, wherein the above event is thus noticed, in treating of the genealogy of Owain Gwynez: "Madoc a Riryd a gawfant dir yn mpell yn y Merweryz, ac yno y cyvannezafant." Madoc and Riryd found land far in the fea of the weft, and there they fettled. Lywars, the fon of Lywelyn, commonly called Prydyz y Mer, feems to have compofed two of his poems, in the time between the first and the fecond of the two voyages of Madoc,

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One of thefe pieces must be confidered of great importance and curiofity: it is an invocation, as if he were undergoing the fiery ordeal, to exonerate himfeif from having any knowledge of the fate of Madoc: the fecond, being a panegyric upon Rodri, another brother, has a remarkable allufion to the fame event; and alfo, to the fate of Hywel. The paffage runs thus :

Dau deyrn terwyn dydores yn 'lid;
'Lu daiar a'u hofes !.
Un ar dir, ar dorvoz 'rydres,
Yn Arvon yn arwar traçwres;
Ac arall, myrawg, yn mynwes mawr-yor,
Yn mawr var anghymmes,
Yn efguraw hawl hawz adnes;
Yn efgar i bawb am beues.

THE TRANSLATION.

Two princes, of firong paffions, broke off in wrath; beloved by the multitude of the earth. One on land, in arvon, allaying of ambition; and another, a placid one, on the bofom of the vaft ocean, in great and immeafurable trouble, prowling after a poffeflion eafy to be guarded; eftranged from all for a country.

This article has run too long to admit of any thing more being now faid upon the fubject. I fhall therefore conclude. Your's, &c. MEIRION.

Dec. 8, 1796.

To the Editor of the Monibly Magazine.

SIR,

IN the laft Number but one of your

Magazine we were favoured by one of your mufical correfpondents with, fome account of the Life and Genius of Dr. Arne. In this biographical sketch, X. affirms, that Dr. Arne was the "firft musician who placed our clum to barmonic excellence on a level with the Italians.” From what I have feen, however, of the Doctor's works, I confefs I have not formed of them fo elevated an opinion as your biographer.

Good compofition I am fond of, and would, confequently, thank him to point out thofe pieces which he ranks equal to the productions of the Italian mafters. I am far from being prepoffeffed against the genius of my own countrymen, but I have always conceived the Italian compofers to poffefs more tafte and originality than any which our own country could boaft of.

It is ftated by X. that Comus was the production which fixed the bafis of Arne's profeffional fame, and that the mufic is as inimitable as the poetry, and

will ferve to unite the names of Milton
and Arne fo long as harmony is culti-
vated." This opera, I confefs, I never
heard; but upon referring to it, I find
the very firft fong, "Now Phoebus finketh
in the weft," to be a moft flagrant pla-
giarifm from Handel; the fubject, note
for note, correfponding to "Come, ever-
Smiling Liberty; and the fong
beds of fading flowers" is evidently taken
from Pergolefi's "San&ta Mater."

"Nor on

that in ftrong clayey foils, when its effects are more advantageous than could be accounted for by its mere feptic power, its usefulness confifts in decompofing alum, and fetting at liberty a certain quantity of fixed air.

This latter theory appears to me entirely groundless.

"All clay," your correfpondent obferves, "contains a very confiderable quantity of alum. When lime is applied to a clavey foil, it decompofes the aluminous mixture in the clay, as the vitriolic acid has a ftronger attraction for the calcareous earth than for the earth of alum. liberation of fixed air, while the lime is uniting with the acid, is favourable to vegetation."

Of the Opera, in general, nothing is left to admire but the Recitative," How gentle was my Damon's air." This is peculiarly fweet and expreffive, and the melody which follows is not lefs beauti-The fully pathetic. That Arne has made clofe imitations of the Italian mufic, will immediately appear on comparing his fine fong "The Soldier tir'd," with the Italian fong "Vo folcando."

Your biographer farther remarks, that "The feature of nature is prominent in all his airs; never affected, never pedantic, never vacant; they are as remarkable for the juftnefs of their expreffion as for their beautiful fimplicity.

In anfwer to this affertion, I call to his mind the low and vulgar Gavot, which follows the fublime Largetto in the overture of Artaxerxes, and would refer him alfo to the collection of fongs in "Lyric Harmony," which, I prefume, he cannot have feen, as they are, perhaps, fcarcely to be equalled for vacancy and dullnefs.

I will mention a piece of the Doctor's which his biographer did not enumerate: that well-known fong "Rule Britannia." This piece will probably ferve to bear up his name when the mufic of Comus fhall be forgotten. I am ready to allow, that Dr. Arne deferves a diftinguished place in the Republic of Harmony, but not the exalted one which your mufical friend has affigned to him.

I am, fir, your's, &c. Leicester, Dec. 5, 1796.

Y.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

YOUR correfpondent, T. (Number III, p. 186) after stating the well-known fact, that lime is a useful manure in certain cafes, endeavours to account for its afefulness in two ways. In the first place, taking for granted the truth of Sir John Pringle's theory, that lime is of a septic nature, he fuppofes it to act usefully by promoting the putrefaction of dead vegetable fubftances which it may meet with in the earth. In the second place,

It is a mittake that all clay contains alum. The combination of fulphuric acid with argil, which conftitutes alum, is feldom found ready formed by nature. It is almoft entirely an artificial production, and is obtained by roafting aluminous ores which confift of clay combined with fulphur. So far from all clays containing alum, very few of them contain even aluminous ore: and even thofe that are combined with fulphur, contain no alum till the fulphur is converted into fulphuric acid by combuftion.

But even fuppofing for a moment that alum does exift in all clay, and is decompofed by lime, whence arifes the fixed air on which fo much stress is laid? Every one knows that lime contains no fixed air; that the very formation of lime confifts in expelling fixed air from calcareous earth by means of heat.

Norwich, Dec. 4, 1796.

J. P.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

YOUR Readers are much indebted to

the liberal fpirit which pervades your Magazine, and which has induced you to prefent them with the important proceedings of the public inftitutions in France. Perhaps an useful difcovery in the practice of phyfic will not have the lefs credit with you as coming from a man who probably differs from you in political fentiments. The difcovery, would call the attention of your medical readers, is a new febrifuge.

to which I

ZANNETTINI, phyfician to the French army in Italy, has addreffed a letter to the infpectors-general of health to the republican armies, in which, after characterizing the double-tertian fever, which

he

1796.]

Writings of Collins... Latin Phrafes.

he names the pernicious, he mentions the effects of a new and very fimple remedy, the flowers and feeds of the Leffer Nettle. He gave them in fubftance, infused in wine, in tertians, quartans, and the pernicious fever, with the fame precautions, and in the fame manner, as the Peruvian bark. This remedy proves confiderably heating, and, in an over-dofe, is apt to produce a kind of lethargic fleep. The extreme dofe that he recommends is a drachm, two or three times in the twenty-four hours. It feems to be particularly useful in raifing the patient from that fate of langour and debility which is characteristic of the pernicious fever; for which purpose, as well as for procuring an intermiffion, he has found it much preferable to the bark. He alfo recommends a flight infufion of it in wine, as an excellent prefervative from the difeafes of marthy and unwholefome fituaYour's,

tions.

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Letter to Dodwell, and Three Letters

to Clarke-reprinted together. Letter to Rogers, and Letter printed in the London Journal. Letter to the Archbishop of Dublin, in Vindication of the Divine Attributes.

I fufpect that fome other controverfial pamphlets are in being; but that the Difcourfe on the Miracles has never feen the light. It is certainly due to the reafon and to the learning of Collins, to to print one complete edition of his works, with his life prefixed; but the English nation is careful only of the reputation of

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its pricfts, and defpifes that of its philo
fophers.
Nov. 9, 1796.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

IT is a practi e with me to read over as

much of your entertaining and instructive Mifcellany as appears to me suited to the capacities of my wife and daughters. We are a domeftic family, and the first evening of the month is constantly taken up with reading, on my part, and working on the part of the women. I skip over, as you may imagine, all the hard words, but they will fometimes intrude themfelves, and every one has a right to interrupt me for an explanation. I was thus a long time before I could get through fome excellent Remarks on Converfation in your laft Magazine; and the next evening was furprited by a piece of paper, which my youngest daughter put into my hands, with this address: "Papa, I wish you would tell the gentlemen who are fo capable of amufing and instructing us, that English is just as good as Latin, and that a ftory will lofe nothing by being understood by us girls. As you explained the hard words to us laft night, I took it into my head to look out for plain English, and now, pray tell me, whether they will fuit the purpose?"

I took the paper, and found the hard names, with the English, written down in two columns, thus:

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I was fo much pleafed with the thought, that I told my girl, we would fend the hint to the Magazine; for it certainly would fave me much trouble, if the writers in it had a greater affection for their own language, which, upon examination, will be found capable of affording terms. for almoft every purpofe. If you do, fays fhe, pray afk, whether it is proper to fay, "there are a variety of things,' for I don't like the expreffion. I fhould fay, "there is a variety."

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Now, fir, you may do what you please with my letter, but do not afcribe pertnefs to my daughter; for fhe, as well as her fifters, is accuftomed to fpeak her mind to me without referve, and though her thoughts may appear ftrange, they

are

are always innocent, and enliven our 14th chapter, comprehending, at least, the evenings at home.

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For the Monthly Magazine. CHRONOLOGICAL REMARKS ON THE

BOOK OF NUMBERS.

IF it be admitted that the Egyptians and Jews originally dated by lunar years of one month each; and that this mode of reckoning was ftill prevalent when many of the documents whence the Pentateuch has been compiled were originally drawn up; but was already come into difufe at the time when the Pentateuch acquired its prefent form (fee vol. ii. p. 636) it will appear probable, that a period of forty months thould,

as in the cafe of the lives of the Patriarchs, have been afterwards taken for forty years.

Now this appears actually to have been the cafe with the time paffed by the Ifraelites in the Arabian wilderness, between their flight from Egypt and their conqueft of Canaan.

1. Forty months are abundantly fufficient for this fhort journey, incumbered as it was, like the wanderings of all nomade nations, with a vaft fuite of cattle, women, and artificers. It would imply no common ignorance of topography and of the object of their march, to lofe more than three or four years in this part of the enterprize.

2. Either there is a chafm of narrative, of which the text fhows no fymptom, between the 19th and 20th chapters of Numbers, which detailed the adventures of more than thirty-fix years of peregrination or there is an interpolation in the

23d and 30th verles, a paffage agreeing remarkably in fpirit with others liable to a fimilar imputation. We poffefs a narrative of only forty months of peregrination; we are told in the 14th chapter, prophetically, that it would endure forty years.

3. So far as a book may be supposed fubject to fupernatural protection, the improbability of chafm or of interpolation must be allowed equal; but fo far as a book may be fuppofed under the guardianthip of the lawgiver and his priefts, interpolation is much the more probable, for it may often be an object to fecure for a new pedigree, or a new law, the fame venerablenefs with thofe already familiar; but it can feldom be an object to abolish the memory of the exertions and exploits of the hallowed fathers of their

country.

Ought we not, then, in the cafe before us, to infer, that there is interpolation and not chaẩm: fince, even on the fuppolition of fupernatural interpofition, the probability of either is in itfelf equal? and fince all the external circumstances favour the latter fuppofition; and, to conclude, that we poffefs the whole narrative of the Jewith fojourn in the wildernefs, which extends through a period of only forty months?

If thefe arguments fhall appear valid, they will authorize our lopping 36 years from the received duration of the life ef Mofes, and our believing him to have died at the age of 84 years.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

APPROVING much of your Literary

Notices, I prefume that it enters into your plan, to give fome information on works which have been thus promised to the public. I fhould be obliged to you, if by means of your widely-circulated Magazine, you could inform me in what ftate of forwardness Dr. Waring's Moral Philofophy is at present. Great part of it was, I understand, printed at the univerity prefs of Cambridge above these two years. Dr. Farmer, mafter of Emanuel college, in the fame univerfity, received fubfcriptions for the Antiquities of Leice&er. Pray, has the book been published -I have not yet feen a copy. Your's,

Dec. 15, 1796.

INDAGATOR.

1796.]

India Company.... Lime.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

IN

SIR,

the infancy of commerce, when the defective state of navigation rendered the intercourfe between diftant countries more difficult and dangerous than at prefent, and when the infurance of veffels and their cargoes, by which the merchant, in a great measure, fecures himself from rifk, was not fo generally practifed, the establishment of joint-stock companies, with exclufive privileges, was certainly attended with beneficial effects, by encouraging those branches of trade which would have been deemed too hazardous for individuals to engage in, or required a greater capital than our merchants in general then poffeffed.

But whatever may have been their original utility, it has evidently been gradually declining; the accumulation of capital, and the increafing spirit of mercantile adventure, have qualified individuals for undertaking concerns of the greatest magnitude; and fuch focieties, of the above description, as ftill exift, have been, for fome time, generally confidered both unjuft in principle, and as obftacles to the full expanfion of commerce. Our Eaft-India Company, which is the chief fociety of this kind now remaining, has long enjoyed great, and deferved, celebrity, in their mercantile capacity. They appear to have carried the commerce of the Eaft nearly to its utmost extent; and their conduct, as merchants, having, in general, been fuch as reflects upon them much credit, and fhows a juft regard to the interefts of their country, it appears furprising that they fhould lately have adopted a measure which appears to have a very contrary tendency: among other regulations for preventing the company from monopolizing any article of which they are the fole importers, it was provided, that they should fell all goods within twelve months after importation, and in lots of a limited value; and if their charter contains no exprefs prohibition from engaging in the home manufactures of this country, it is undoubtedly becaufe the framers of it had not the most diftant idea that "The United Company of Merchants of England, trading to the EaftIndies," would ever attempt any thing of the kind. The measures recently adopted by the Company, of working a confiderable part of their import of Bengal rawfilk into organzine, ought to be viewed by manufacturers of all defcriptions with the most jealous attention, as, from their tenacious adherence to the undertaking, MONTHLY MAG, No. XI.

851

notwithstanding the ftrong objections that have been made to it, there appears but too much reafon to fufpect that it may be only part of a much more extenfive plan. The company, at prefent, import indigo, fugar, cotton, hemp, flax, &c. and if the principle is once established, it may be eafy to invent fome plaufible reafon for extending it to the preparatory branches of other manufactures. It cannot, in the leaft, be apprehended, that the money to be raised by the intended increase of the Company's capital is to be employed in any way befides their regular commercial concerns; neither can it be supposed that they have at prefent the most remote intention of spinning the cotton, or printing the callicoes they import; yet only five or fix years ago, it appeared at leaft equally improbable, that the Company fhould engage in throwing organzine: it may therefore be the intereft, as well as the duty, of perfons engaged in the various manufactures of the country, to confider well the tendency of the above meafure before it is fully established, and to oppofe a dangerous precedent before they feel its confequences.

Nov. 9, 1796.

J. J. G.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

IT is very probable, that Lime, from its

cauftic quality, may have fome beneficial effect, when combined with other fubftances, for the purpose of manure : as, however, this effect can be but of fhort duration, lime foon lofing its caufticity by being exposed to the atmosphere, its permanent advantage does not appear to be accounted for.

When particles of lime are faturated with moisture and fixed air, they become precisely what they were before calcination, excepting that they were then in maffes, and are now detached and as the faturation is foon effected, that circumftance does not explain the caufe of its utility, which is apparent for several years.

Fixed air, in order to affift vegetation, must be brought into contact with, and abforbed by, the vegetable, into the circulation of which it enters, and is again emitted, after having undergone fome change of character, in the form of pure air. But I do not confider it in the power of a plant to detach from the particles of lime contiguous thereto, any part of the fixed air which may have been combined with thofe particles, that combination

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being

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