When now the morning trembles o'er the main, And Freedom pours contentment on their lot. And the death-fated squadrons gasp and die. When gathering clouds the blackening sky deform, The faithful matrons chimb the shelving cliff; With faithful hearts (the only wealth, they boast), The simple maid, whose thoughts, devoid of guile, For mild Religion sooths her rising grief. Ои On some occasions, the author expresses himself in a manner so dark and obscure as to be scarcely intelligible. When he makes his heroine say • I share the sullen dignity of heaven,’— we hope that he is not chargeable with any intentional impiety, though we think such expressions very unjustifiable. MONTHLY CATALOGUE, NATURAL HISTORY. Art. 16. Elements of Mineralogy. By Richard Kirwan, Esq. F. R. S. L. & E. M. R. I. A. &c. Second Edition, with considerable Improvements and Additions. Vol. II. 8vo. pp. 520. 8s. Boards. Elmsley. THE name of Kirwan deservedly ranks high among experimental mineralogists; and the present volume will by no means detract from his fair fame. It includes the salts, inflammables, and metallic substances, and some very valuable forms of analysis, mostly from Klaproth. We think, however, that some other improvements might yet be made, particularly the following: Ban First, The nomenclature of the saline substances appears in several instances to be wantonly and unphilosophically altered. Science of all kinds, especially chemical and mineralogical, is but just beginning to raise itself from the confusion of terms with which it has been overwhelmed; and it ought to be a very serious consideration with every author not to alter received terms without some good reason; least of all should it be done when it leads to improprieties and actual errors. We do not see the advantage of changing the name of potash to tartarin, nor of soda to natron, nor of ammonia to volalcali. We think, also, that the neutral salts are much more properly called by the names of their constituent substances, than by the appellations of the old chemists, derived from false theories, or from the places where they were first found, or from the persons who discovered them. Sulphate of soda appears to us a far better term than Glauber's salt, and muriate of potash than muriated tartarin or salt of Sylvius. Besides, Mr. Kirwan is inconsistent with himself: why does he use the terms nitrated soda and nitrous ammoiac, instead of nitrous natron and nitrous volalcali? A still stronger objection, however, lies against the confused use of the word Epsom; which sometimes means sulphate of magnesia, and sometimes simple magnesia. Thus we meet with the highly improper appellations, nitrous Epsom, marine Epsom, &c.-the substance known by the name of magnesia being sometimes called by this name, sometimes by that of Epsom, which last at the same time is also used for sulphate of magnesia. Lime, or calx, and selenite, are also indiscriminately used, though the latter is generally confined to the sulphate of lime. These appear to us important errors. The second source of improvement would be in ceasing to express Art. 18. Select Specimens of British Plants. No. I. Imperial folio, The plates in this work are said by the editor, Mr. Freeman, to be taken from the drawings of some ladies. The plants figured are Saxifraga granulata, S. Hypnoides, Serapias latifolia, and Brassica oleracea, two plates. We do not remember ever to have seen their superiors in accuracy of delineation and in elegance. As to the utility of the publication, that is another question: it is scarcely worth while to purchase, at the extravagant rate of ten shillings for each plate, representations of the rarest and most beautiful of the vegetable race; much less when the plants are themselves neither rare nor very beautiful. The present publication can add nothing to the science of botany, for the plants which it contains have been repeatedly figured before, with sufficient exactness. Art. 19. Observations on the Structure and Economy of Plants. To which is added the Analogy between the Animal and the Vegetable Kingdom. By Robert Hooper, of Pembroke College, Oxford, M. D. F. L. M. S. and Fellow of the Linnean Society. 8vo. pp. 129. 38. Rivingtons, &c. 1797. The subjects comprehended in this tract are, 1. the anatomy of plants; 11. the chemical analysis of plants; 111. their natural functions; IV. their vital functions; v. their animal functions; vi, their generation; vII. the analogy between plants and animals. It cannot be expected that, in the small compass of a pamphlet, subjects so various, so important, and many of them so much controverted, should be treated in any other than a cursory manner; and, accordingly, we think that we perceive a few errors in point of fact and arrangement, but they are not of great consequence. An accurate account of the anatomy, pathology, physiology, and analysis of vegetables, would be a most desirable and valuable work; but it would demand much time, much knowlege, and numerous experiIf, howments, to bring it even to a tolerable degree of exactness. ever, the present tract should have any tendency to draw our great botanists to a scientific investigation of their peculiar province, it will yet, whatever be its own imperfections, deserve well, of science in general. A.Ai. Do Do Do ANTIQUITIES, &c. Art. 20. Mr. Nichols having placed his initials at the close of the introductory preface, we presume that this volume is an additional proof of bis unwearied attention to subjects of this kind. He observes that the use of books of accompts for ascertaining and exemplifying the prices of the several articles of life, in different ages, has always been acknowleged; and that, at the same time that they shew how economically our ancestors lived, they inform us how they could afford to live. Among many uninteresting entries in the churchwardens' accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, we have several that may be deemed highly to the honour of the celebrated Dr. Busby; particularly, among other items, as his annual gift towards the parish-school, six pounds which, one hundred and twenty years ago, may be set down as very handsome. The long inventories of sacerdotal furniture, as used in the Romish church, are not a little tedious in perusal; and those of domestic or agricultural implements may be more curious as matter of reference, than pleasant to read. The light that is thrown on antient customs is, in general, too faint to dispel the palpable darkness in which the private lives and mamers of our ancestors, in the middle centuries, are now obscured and hidden from our view. As much, probably, as could have been done to elucidate, has been effected by the annotations of the late venerable antiquary, Dr. S. Pegge. In so multifarious a collection, we should find it no easy task to offer to our readers any extract in series, unincumbered by unim portant articles; we therefore refer them to the work at large. - The lovers of antiquarian study owe much to Mr. Nichols for his unabated industry in printing and elucidating so many masses of antient evidence; yet to those who are less ardent in the same pursuit, a general idea of the subject, formed on a judicious selection of striking instances, illustrative of peculiar habits of life in different ages, would be more acceptable than every kind of instance so indiscriminately given, and repeated without end. It is observable that several of the articles have been already published: but the majority of them are taken from the original MSS. EDUCATION. Art. 21. L'Art de parler et écrire correctement la Langue Françoise; G 4 author Dally author is not one of those journeymen writers, who, because they have learned to pronounce the French à la Parisienne, imagine themselves masters of the language, and annually pour forth new, crude, Indigested systems on the credulous inhabitants of this metropolis. M. de Levizac is a man of letters and taste, who has made a particular study of his maternal tongue, and seems perfectly acquainted with all its beauties and defects. He has carefully perused the best grammarians and critics of his nation, availed himself of their joint labours, and added many judicious and useful observations of his own. The Abbé divides his work into twelve chapters. In the first he treats of the noun substantive. The article is the subject of the second, one of the best in the book. Next comes the adjective; then the pronoun; then the verb, preposition, adverb, conjunction, and interjection, in the order here marked. The tenth chapter, which treats on syntax, and the figures of speech, in as far as grammar is concerned, is an excellent piece of composition. The rules are clear, the examples appropriate, and the observations just. What he says of the use of the participle passive ought to be carefully noted by every one who wishes to speak or write French with purity and elegance. In one thing, however, we disagree with the author: it is in what he says of the participle reduite, in the translation of Infelix Dido, &c. "Pauvre Didon, où t'a réduite De tes maris le triste sort?" We are decidedly of opinion that Rollin and the gentlemen of Portroyal were in the right; and that, in all such cases, the participle active should be used même en depit de l'Academic. The Port-royalists were learned philosophical grammarians, and contributed more than any others to bring the French language to the degree of perfection which it has attained; though it is yet far from the degree attainable. M. de Levizac has fairly pointed out its absurd Gallicisms and Bizarreries. These are the subject of Chap. 1x. which deserves to be carefully studied by the learner.. Chap. XII., and last, is a very neat analysis of The Death of Hyppolitus in Racine's Phædra, addressed to a young lady whom the au thor, it seems, had taught the French language. Here not only the verbal arrangement, but the more recondite beauties of the verse, are excellently pointed out and illustrated by the author, who gives in this chapter a model of grammatical exercise, as it is termed, not easily to be equalled. Annexed to the grammar are seven useful tables. The first contains such substantives as, in different genders, have a different sig nification. The second is a list of countries, towns, and places, which have always the article prefixed to them; and to which few strangers attend. The third table consists of adjectives, which assume differ. ent meanings according to their place and arrangement. fourth, the author gives some rules for placing, after adjectives, the prepositions de and a: but he confesses that they are hardly reduce able to rule; and that nothing but a familiar acquaintance with the language can here be our guide. In the fifth table, we have a list of verbs which govern the infinitive without the preposition; of those In the which |