And shadowy woods, and rocks, and towering hills, And fome lone nymph that timorous fpeeds along, Of thofe bright eyes that abfence shrouds in vain ; Ah gentle thoughts! foon loft the city cares among." P. 114, The reflections of Mr. R. on the nature of the fonnet, which occur in the fifth chapter, are fo judicious that we are tempted to fubjoin them to this fpecimen of that compofition. "The form of the fonnet, confined to a certain verfification, and to a certain number of lines, was unknown to the Roman poets, who adopting a legitimate measure, employed it as long as the fubject required it, but was most probably derived from the Provençals*; although inftances of the regular itanza now used in these compofitions may be traced among the Italians, as early as the thirteenth century. From that time to the prefent the fonnet has retained its precife form, and has been the most favourite mode of compofition in the Italian tongue. It may, however, be justly doubted whether the Italian poely has, upon the whole, derived any great advantage from the frequent ufe of the fonnet. Confined to fo narrow a compafs, it admits not of that extent and range of ideas which fuggeft themfelves to a mind already warm with its fubject. On the contrary, it illuftrates only one diftinct idea, and this must be extended or condensed, not as its nature requires, but as the rigid laws of the compofition preferibe. One of the higheft excellencies of a master of this art, confifts, therefore, in the felection of a fubject neither too long nor too fhort for the space it is intended to occupy. Hence the intention is cramped, and the free excurfions of the mind are fettered and reftrained. Hence too the greater part of thefe compofitions difplay rather the glitter of wit than the fire of genius, and hence they have been almoft folely appropriated to the illuftration of the paffion of love: a fubject which, from its various nature, and the endless analogies of which it admits, is more fufceptible than any other, of being apportioned into thofe detached fentiments of which the fonnet is compofed." To thefe opinions on the fonnet we cordially fubfcribe, nor have we ever confidered it as a fymptom favourable to the claim of genius among our prefent verifiers in this country, that they have applied themfelves more than in any former period to this barren and technical fpecies of compofition. The legitimate fonnet indeed is not attempted, yet the precife epigrammatic ftrain of fourteen lines, is offered daily to the public; in the inftance of Mrs. Smith, and one or two more, with a degree of effect that forms its apology; but too often with a disgusting barrennefs of harmony and poetry. We shall This conjecture is rather dubious. Rev. return return in the enfuing month to this pleafing publication, when, perhaps, we fhall infert fome further proofs of the poetical talents of Lorenzo, and the ability of his tranflator. (To be continued.) ART. II. Confiderations on the medicinal Ufes and Production of factitious Airs. By Thomas Beddoes, M. D. and James Watt, Engineer. Part III. 8vo. 121 pp. 35. Bulgin and Roffer, Briftol. Johnfon, London. 1795. THESE confiderations are introduced by a pretended letter from a Sir Jeremiah Morrifon, Bart. M. D.* an octogenarian, as he calls himself, complaining of the low ebb to which phyfic is reduced, This he attributes to the custom now prevailing, of confounding the different orders of practitioners; the clown with his wooden fhoe, treading on the kibe of the peer; and to the difufe of the grave and decent habit, which formerly diftinguifhed the phyfician, and with that, of their grave converfation and deportment. Some diabolical schemes are propofed by the pretended writer, to check the progrefs of the new philofophy, which the editor weakly infinuates, has, by its celebrity, excited the jealoufy of the regular phyficians. The letter is oftenfibly publifhed, with a view to ridicule the folemn appearance, and formal manners, of the physicians of the old fchool, and to recommend the liberality and eafe inculcated by the favourers of the new doctrine: but, we think, not very happily. For, although we fhould allow that the grave and folemn deportment, recommended by the baronet, was fometimes a cover for dulnefs and ignorance, and that the mifchief accruing from" the apothecary's affuming the cha racter of the phyfician, the licentiate of the fellow" may not always be fo great as he apprehends (as there are, certainly, many gentlemen, in both thofe claffes, who fully deferve the confidence and reputation they have acquired) yet we cannot help thinking that the levelling doctrine, which feems more or lefs to have pervaded and infected all ranks and focieties of men, gives in this, also, a reasonable ground for alarm. The * The letter is dated, June, 1795. No place of abode, either of the Baronet, or of Dr. Daniel Lorimer Renfhaw, to whom it is addreffed, facility facility with which a diploma is obtained from fome schools in a neighbouring country, as well as on the continent, and the fwarms of graduates annually fent by thofe kind alma matres, many without having ever feen the fchool from which their diploma came, and fome who are scarce able to read their credentials, has certainly contributed to degrade the practice of phyfic: and the recent attempt of an affociation, to remove the bar that excludes all perfons from becoming fellows of the College of Phyficians, who have not had a regular education, would, if fuccefsful, have had a fimilar tendency. What gentleman of liberal education would, in that cafe, have laboured to attain the principles of a fcience, in which, if learning was not thought to be neceffary, it might be confidered as holding a fubordinate rank. We are far from believing that the gentlemen engaged in this ftruggle, intended by removing this bar, to open the door of the college indifferently to all that fhould offer, to the illiterate as well as to the learned; and it is under a conviction that they did not mean this, that we have ventured to make thefe obfervations, which may not only console them, but, perhaps, induce them, on further reflection, to rejoice in their defeat. For, take away the obligation of paffing through the regular Ateps to a learned education, and what other criterion could they have established, that would not be - liable to evasion? If the new doctrine, inculcated by the book before us, should prevail, want of erudition could certainly not be objected as a plea for exclufion. A happy knack at making experiments, or conducting fome aerial proceffes, feems the principal requifite in this art, which, although it may require ingenuity, does not demand any great portion of learning; and confequently, had the fuit been fuccessful, we fee no ground upon which a feat could have been refused in the college, to an experimental illiterate adventurer, armed with a diploma. The Confiderations themfelves are made up principally of letters from perfons, giving an account of the benefit they had received, from inhaling the different airs, after all the ufual medicines had proved ineffectual in their feveral complaints, and from medical correfpondents containing fimilar accounts, with reflections upon the cafes. Among the patients, fome are faid to have been cured; others, after experiencing fome relief, were, by accidental circumstances, prevented from continuing the medicine; in others, the difeafe having been too far advanced before they had recourfe to the airs, could not be fubdued. Any one who confiders the formidable apparatus with which the airs are adminiftered, and the hyperbolical praises by which they are recommended, will not wonder that the patients often thought themselves, and fometimes actually were were relieved. Such is the power of imagination over our frame, that, while under its influence, the tooth ach, and even the tortures of the gout and ftone, are not unfrequently fufpended. What wonders has animal magnetifm been faid to perform, all which must have been effected by the mere agency of the imagination. To the fame power we must attribute the great cures faid to be performed, and the numerous profelytes made, by a Myerfbach and a Brodum. The learned editor of this collection will, we dare fay, admit, or certainly ought in candour to allow, the truth of our obfervations; and will agree, that a much longer space of time must be allowed, and many more experiments made, before the stories of the fplendid feats performed by the airs can be admitted, and their reputation fully established. Of the many infallible remedies that have been discovered within the prefent century, how few have had merit fufficient to preferve them, longer than they were fupported by the enthufiafm of their inventors! The confideration of the fabulous letter is resumed at the end of the pamphlet, and the editor takes upon himself to affirm, p. 108, as he fays, "on the beft authority," that two facts related in it, of a very flagitious nature, are well authenticated. But as Sir Jeremiah Morrifon reprefents himself as a fellow of the College of Phyficians, and at this time in great practice about St. James's, it is impoffible but the editor must know that there is no fuch perfon in exiftence. The whole feems a flimfy fiction, calculated to ftrengthen the faith of the fubfcribers to the author's propofed aerial inftitution, by pretending that it has excited jealoufy among the London phyficians, and to gain new profelytes. The editor after all confoles himself with the hope, that if this country fhould, ungratefully reject his inventions, they will be adopted by the French. That ingenious people," ," he fays, p. 109," which has nearly conquered leifure for cultivating the arts of humanity, will affuredly not neglect a ftudy fo clofely allied to the purfuits in which it has already excelled." ART. III. Aikin's Defcription of the Country from thirty to forty miles round Manchester. (Concluded from our last, p. 469.) IN N revifing a work of this extensive and multifarious nature, we could not have given our readers any adequate idea of its plan and execution, without making many extracts from it. We We now proceed to conclude what we wished to fay and exhibit of it, by fome more extracts and remarks. Having rested fufficiently at the centre, we fhall take our courfe along the circumference. In the parish of Leigh is the new village of Tildfley. "This eftate had, in the year 1780, only two farm houses, and eight or nine cottages, but now contains one hundred and fixty two houses, a neat chapel, and nine hundred and feventy-fix inhabitants, who employ three hundred and twenty-five looms in the cotton manufactories of Marfeilles quiltings, dimities, corduroys, velvets, velveteens, thickfets, muflins, muflinets, and new ftripes for furniture. Lately Mr. Johnfon has erected a large factory, fix ftories high, and a fteam engine, with dye-houfes and other extenfive buildings for the woollen bufinefs, which confifts of kerfeymeers and various fancy goods, in all woollen, and filk and woollen. There are two other factories upon the eftare, intended to be let for the woollen business, and one very large building newly erected, intended for the fpinning of woollen and worited. It is Mr. Johnfon's intention, to introduce the woollen branches into this part of the country, and it certainly appears a very eligible fituation. P. 299. At Prefcott" the watch-tools made have been excellent, beyond the memory of the oldeft watch-makers; and the manufacture has been much extended by improvements in making new tools of all forts, and the inventions for firft cutting teeth in wheels, and afterwards for finishing them with exactnefs and expedition. The drawing of pinion wire originated here, which is carried as far as to fifty drawings, and the wire is completely adapted for every fize of pinions to drive the wheels of watches, admirable for truth and fitnefs for the purpose, but left for the workmen to harden. This pinion wire is now very cheap, the price having been lowered by a fingle workman in that branch, who left the country forty years fince, and fettled at Islington, where he offered it at half price to the tool fhops in London. They make here small files, the beft in the world, at a fuperior price indeed, but well worth the money, from the goodnefs of the fteel and exactness of cutting. They do not attempt making the larger files. They make watch-movements most excellent in kind, which is greatly owing to the fuperior quality of their files and tools. They likewife excel in what is called motion-work, fuch as dial wheels, locking fprings, hour, minute, and fecond hands, &c. Main fprings, chains for movements, and watch-cafes, were not part of the original manufacture, but are now made here. All the fe branches extend from Prefcott to the furrounding villages, and all along the road to Liverpool, in which town the bufinefs feems finally to have centered: the drawing of pinion-wire particularly, is now principally carried on at a place called the Park, near Liverpool. Upon the whole, this tool-making bufinefs keeps removing to Liverpool, in the fame manner as the fuftian making, which originated at Bolton, has removed to Manchefter. The tool and watch-movement makers are numerously scattered over the country, from Prefcott to Liverpool, occupying fmall farms in conjunction with their manufacturing bufinefs, in which circumstance they |