feffes almost all the properties of the gluten of farina, yet it differs from this fubftance in its greater tenacity and elafticity. Moreover, the proportion of this fubftance is much greater in animals than that of gluten in vegetables. Laftly, animal fat and refin differ from expreffed oils and vegetable refins even in many of their external properties. 6 The falts of the animal kingdom differ, in like manner, from thofe of vegetables. Befides the fmall quantity of muriatic acid and foda found in both kingdoms, and the sebacic acid, which is much more abundant in animal fat than in expreffed vegetable oils, the vegetable kingdom is diftinguished by the oxalic, tartareous, malic, citric, and benzoic acids; and the animal kingdom by the lactic, phofphoric, lithic, and formic acids, and the bafis of the faccharine acid of milk. All thefe proximate principles of animals may be refolved into the following remoter principles, viz. oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, photphorus, lime, and iron. Thefe are precifely the fame in plants, with this difference, that the quantity of phosphorus and nitrogen in the latter is very fmall, which bodies, on the contrary, form a conftant and principal part of animals.' P. 368. At the end are added an outline of the phlogistic system, and a defcription of Woulfe's apparatus for compound diftillation. From the former part we fhall conclude our article with a short extract. In a fimilar manner they endeavoured, in their phlogistic fyftem, to account for moft of the other phænomena in chemistry, to which the loofe and indefinite theory of phlogifton afforded great facility. But the futility of moft of thefe explanations is manifeft, as foon as we infift upon a strict conformity with the established principles of the mutual action of bodies upon each other, and demand an exact account of the weight and measure of the bodies made use of in experiments. There are many things in nature which we cannot explain, and which will always remain obfcure, It is therefore unreasonable to reject a fyftem becaufe it is unable to remove the veil which hides the caufe of many appearances. The antiphlogistians do not, indeed, arrogate to themselves this merit ; but their fyftem deferves the preference which is granted to it by almoit all the naturalifts of the prefent age, fince it explains moft of the phænomena explicitly, uniformly, and with the minutest circumstances; appears more conformable to the fimple path of nature, and draws all inferences from matters of fact, without requiring the aid of fulle arguments. Nihil eft in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in fenfu. A Walk through fome of the Western Counties of England. By the Rev. Richard Warner, of Bath. 8vo. 75. Boards. Robinfons. 1800. PEDESTRIANS we have ufually found lively and cheerful: they escape the vexations of tired horfes and uneafy carriages; free and independent in their exertions, they can at pleasure court the fhade or bafk in the fun. Mr. Warner in this tour, however, wanted fhelter rather than fhade, for the weather was unfeasonably wet; but the rain did not check his vivacity, or quench the brilliancy of his fancy. Were we to be feverely critical, we might wish that, at times, it had fhortened his digreffions, which are occationally difproportioned. But even the hint is ungrateful, for to us they have beguiled fome tedious hours of pain, and we believe that to no one they can be unpleafing. Let us, however, follow him, not indeed paffibus æquis, but in a defultory path, to give fome idea of his route, and of the entertainment the reader who accompanies him more closely may reafonably expect to derive. From Bath, the refidence of our pleasant pedeftrian, Mr. Warner proceeds to Glaftonbury, but returns to the north and weft, to examine the Cheddar cliffs, which, we regret to fay, have not yet been honoured by the vifits of a fcientific traveller. This north-western courfe terminates at Axbridge, and Mr. Warner proceeds, nearly fouth, to the embouchure of the Parret, and from thence, along the Bristol Channel, to Minehead, Lymouth, and Ilfracombe. Barnftaple and Biddeford next share his attention, and, advancing north-west, he enters Cornwall at Kilkhampton, vifiting Werrington and Laumcefton; but the rain prevented his farther progrefs, and he preffed across to Bren Tor, Lidford, and Oakhampton, and, paffing over a corner of Dartmoor, proceeded to Chagford, Moreton, Bovey-Tracey, and Chudleigh. From this laft place his courfe was directed as far as Totnefs to the fouth; and, again croffing the Teign at Newton-Buthel, he advanced to Teignmouth and Exmouth. Impelled homeward by the inclement weather, he next paffes haftily through Ottery to Honiton, Chard and Ilminster to Glastonbury. From Glastonbury he returns to Bath through Chewton Mendip, Clutton, &c. to vifit Wookey hole and the druidical remains at Stanton Drew. In this tour the line was well chofen, and comprehended a varied picturefque fcenery; nor would Mr. Warner have added greatly to its intereft had he really vifited the Belerian promontory. The beautiful expanfe of Falmouth bay, the bold gigantic features of St. Michael's mount, might have attracted his attention and excited pleasure and aftonishment; but these feelings must have been purchafed by many a weary footstep, through paths the moft tedious and forlorn. The feafon of his travels was not well chofen. They began in September; and had October been a dry month, as it often is, he muft have purchased the advantage by encountering the equinoctial gales. In the first part of his tour he is perhaps too digreffive; but he expatiates with feeling on the ancient remains of Glaftonbury, and, with a little archnefs, on the fubterraneous paffage from the George inn to-not the altar of the church, but the abbot's bed chamber. Time and rapine, violence and gradual decay, have made still more deplorable havock in the great church-a mighty fabrick, the building of which alone must have exhaufted a quarry. Imagine, my dear fir, a cathedral extending in length from east to west 420 feet, fpreading its tranfepts to the breadth of 135, rifing to a fublime height, adorned with innumerable rich flrines "antic pillars," fculptured windows, and painted glafs, the whole executed in the pureft Gothick ftyle, and finifhed with the most elaborate art; let your fancy, I repeat, reprefent a building like this, and you will have before you fuch a fplendid cathedral as once existed at Glaftonbury. Then let the bufy workman go on, and people this enor mous edifice; let him introduce 500 monks, the regal train of the lord abbot, pacing its confecrated pavement in gorgeous proceffion at the folemn hour of midnight, and illuminating its high-arched roof with a thousand flaming tapers: bid him ftrike the pealing organ, and fwell the note of praife in one grand chorus from the affembled multitude, and he will add to his first picture, the most impreffive of all religious fervices, the celebration of a nocturnal mafs by the abbot and his dependant monks. 'To me, who contemplate with particular pleasure the ancient ecclefiaftical architecture of this kingdom, and admire the pageantry of the Romish ritual, though I lament the purposes to which it is ap plied, fcenes like the ruins of Glastonbury abbey afford confiderable gratification. My imagination readily enters into "the deeds of the days of other years;" and while I tread the hallowed spot, reverts with eafe to, and interefts itself in the tranfactions which it has witneffed, the grandeur it has exhibited, the viciffitudes it has fuffered.' P. 25. The miraculous thorn is well known to be a late flowering variety. The county to the weft of Glaftonbury is gained from the fea, and now below its level: its encroachments are only prevented by dykes; and the burial place of Arthur, but for thefe, would still be the island of Avalonia. Of Cheddar cliffs we shall copy the defcription. Here indeed Nature, working with a gigantic hand, has difplayed a fcene of no common grandeur. In one of those moments, when the convulfes the world with the throws of an earthquake, the has burst asunder the rocky ribs of Mendip, and torn a chafm across ifs diameter of more than a mile in length. The vaft abruption yawns from the fummit down to the roots of the mountain, laying open to the fun a fublime and tremendous fcene-precipices, rocks, and caverns, of terrifying defcent, fantaftic forms, and gloomy vacuity. The rugged walls of the fiffure rife in many places perpendicularly to the height of 400 feet, and in others, fall into obliquities of more than double that elevation. Whilft pacing their awful involutions (through which now runs the turnpike-road to Bristol) it requires but little imagination to fancy onefelf bewildered amid the ruins of fome ftupendous caftle, the gigantic work of diftant times, when a whole nation lent its hand to the enormous labour, and the operation was effected by the united ftrength of congregated multitudes. The idea of ruined battlements and folitary towers is perpetually fuggefted by lofty crags and grotesque maffes of rock, which stand detached from their parent hills, and lift their beetling heads over the distant road below. Though the character of this huge chine be in general that of terrific grandeur and rugged fublimity, it has notwithstanding fome milder features; Nature, in her paffion for variety, having introduced a few touches of the picturefque, by occafionally throwing over the bare face of the rock a 'mantle of ivy, and fprinkling here and there, amongst the crags and hollows, the yew, the ash, and other mountainous trees. Nor has The provided entertainment for the artift alone; the botanist and mineralogift will have reafon to applaud her bounty, whilft he creeps along the crags of Cheddar cliffs, or treads the mazes of their Here the dianthus glaucus difcovers its rare and crimfoned head, accompanied by thalectra, polypodia, afplenia, and many other plants equally curious and uncommon; and there are found lac lunæ, coralloids, italactites, fpars, and chryftallizations (cryftallifations.) caverns. On approaching Cheddar cliffs, I could not but notice the very pleafing effect produced by a fingular contraft "Vestibulum ante ipfum," at the entrance, all is gentle and beautiful. A brook, clear as glass, rufhing from the roots of the rocks, leads its murmuring course by the fide of the road on the left hand, backed by a shrubby wood, at the edge of which rifes an humble cottage, the calm retreat of health and peace, and on the oppofite fide the ground fwells into a fteep, fufficiently covered, however, with verdure and vegetation to form a foft feature in the scene; but a step farther, "Primisque in faucibus orci," a fudden alteration takes place, the rocks fhoot up in all their grandeur, their black fummits, fcarred with the tempefts of heaven, nodding ruin on the head of the gazing spectator.' P. 44. The incidental remarks on inclofure, though candid, might have been spared; but the little epifode of Joanna Martin is natural and interefting. The whole of the tour along the Briftol Channel deferves much commendation for its accuracy and clearness. Minehead, Lymouth, and Ilfracombe, are well defcribed; nor have we seen a better or more fatisfactory account of the principal object in thefe regions, the Valley of Stones. Its nature is moft clearly developed when approached in this direction. The length of the defcription alone prevents us from tranfcribing it. The fource of the Tamar and the Torridge, which, though rifing in focial neighbourhood, diverge in different directions, and fall into feas widely distant, greatly difappointed Mr. Warner; but the fource of every river is modeft and unaffuming, and gives little profpect of its future magnificence. Our traveller was equally, and with reafon, difappointed in the expected fublimity of Lidford cafcade. To the Tamar, however, he was afterwards reconciled. 'Shortly after this (near Milton Abbot) inclination, my old friend the Tamar again introduced himself to me, but in a very different character to what he wore when I had firit the pleasure of his acquaintance. He was now a deep majestic river, flowing filently through rich meadows, whofe fertile banks bore grateful teftimony to the fecundating influence of his waters. At Greystone-bridge he affumed peculiar beauty, and with the aid of his banks and woods formed a scene ftrikingly picturefque. Here the Tamar, gently murmuring over a pebbly bed, leads his ftream under a light and neat fione bridge, moft taftily ornamented with a thin veil of ivy, and confifting of seven arches, which are but partially feen through the alders, willows, and other waving plants which fringe the margin of the stream. A narrow ftrip of meadow curbs the river on the left hand, fkirted with an airy fillet of tall elegant afh and beech trees, backed by a folemn wood of oak. After fhooting through the bridge, the Tamar makes a bold sweep to the right, which introduces a magnificent fteep bank in the front of the picture, one deep mafs of fhade from top to bottom. A little cottage (the turnpike-houfe) at the further end of the bridge, juft difcerned through the wood of the fore-ground, is a happy circumftance in the enchanting fcene.' P. 150. Of the Lid at Lidford-bridge alfo he fpeaks refpectfully. On my approach to Lidford, the river, which I had seen at a diftance, approximated alfo, and about half a mile before I reached the public-houfe I croffed a small bridge thrown over a narrow gully, the fides of which were fo obfcured by wood, that nothing extraordinary was prefented to the eye, But this fpot only required obfervation to make it extremely impreffive. Hither my guide again led me, and placed me in a situation where I could difcover all its parts. The fcene which here difplayed itself bore a strong refeaiblance to that at the Devil's-bridge, though upon a lefs fcale |