they have furnished us with at least one truly original comedy, I mean the Poftzug that piece is excellently conftructed, and they are our own manners and our own foibles which it expofes. Had Moliere himself treated the fame fubject, he could not have fucceeded better. I am forry I can, not give you a more ample detail of our good productions: but I do not blame the nation on this account; it wants neither fenfe nor genius; but it has been kept back by caufes which have prevented it from diftinguishing irfelf as early as its neighbours. Let us go back, if you pleafe, to the revival of letters, and compare the fitua tion of Italy, of France, and of Ger. many, at the period of that remarkable revolution in the human minde You know that as to letters, Italy became once more their home, and that the houfe of Efte, the Medici, and Pope Leo X. by the protection they afforded them, contributed to their advancement. While Italy was growing refined, Germany was agitaed by the difputes of Theologians, who were divided into two factions, each of which fignalized infeif by its hatred for the other, r, its enthuliaim and fanaticifm. At this time Francis I. undertook to thare with Italy in the glory of contributing to the refloration of letters; but he wafted himfelf in vain attempts to transplant native country his labours were fri fruitlefs. The monarchy, exhaited by the payment of the king's ranfoni to Spain, was in a ftate of languor. The wars of the legue which fucceeded the death of Francis, prevented the people from applying themfelves to the fine arts. It was pot til towards the end of the reign of Louis XIII. when the wounds e, ceived in the civil wars had been cared under the adminiftration of Cardinal Richelieu, and when the times favoured the attempt, that the project of Francis 1, was refumed. The court encouraged learned and them into ingenious men; the fpirit of emula-. tion arofe; and foon afterwards, under Louis XIV. Paris yielded not to Florence nor to Rome. But what was then doing in Germany? At the very moment when Richelieu was gaining immortal honour by improving and refining his country, the war of thirty years was at its height. Ger.. many was ravaged and pillaged by twenty different armies, which, fometimes advancing, and fometimes retreating, carried ruin and defolation, in their train. The country was laid wafte, the fields were uncultivated, the towns almost defert. Germany had but little time to breathe after the peace of Weftphalia: fometimes the oppofed the forces of the Ottoman empire, at that time'very formidable: fometimes he was engaged in refifting the armies of France, who, in order to extend the empire of that natien, were attempting encroachments on the frontiers of Germany. Can we fuppofe, that while the Turks were. befieging Vienna, while Melac was ravaging the Palatinate, while flames confumed towns and cities, when the afylum of death itfelf was violated by the unreftrained licence of the foldicry, who dragged from their tombs the bodies of the electors for the fake of their trifling fpcils can we fuppofe, that while unhappy mothers were faving themfelves from the ruins of their country, and carrying their infants, worn away with famine in their arms;-can we fuppofe, I fay, that at fuch a time men were making fonnets at Viena, or epigrams at Manheim ? The mufes delight in tranquil abodes; they fly from places difturbed by dif order and alarms. It was not therefore till after the war of the fucceffion that we began to repair what fo many fucceffive calamities had made us lofe. Thus it is neither to the génius nor to the fenfe of the nation that we must attribute the little progrefs we have made; but we mult refer it wholly to a train of difaftrous circunftances, to D a fuc 1 a fucceffion of wars that have ruined men. [After drawing a very flattering picture of the prefent political state of the German empire, the author goes on thus:] you inftructing youth; gives his own opi- ་ Let us examine then what remains to be done, in order to extirpate from our fields thofe briars of ancient barbarism that ftill infeft us, and to accelerate those defirable attainments to which our countrymen afpire. I have faid it already, we must begin with polifhing our language, which needs the file and the plane; it must be treated by able hands. Perfpicuity is the first rule which thofe who either glanzen wie ein karfunkel am fiofpeak or write ought to prefcribe to "ger der jetzigen zeit." "Your themselves, fince their aim is to paint Majefty parkles like a carbuncle their thoughts, or to exprefs their "en the finger of the prefent time." ideas by words. Of what ufe are the When Profeffors fpeak in this ftyle, jufteft, the strongest, or the most bril- what have we to expect from the puhant thoughts, if they are not made pils? A certain poet, who dedicated intelligible Many of our authors his works to I don't know what patpride themselves in a diffufe Tyle; tou, expreffes himself in the following they heap parenthesis upon parenthefis, manner. Schiefs, groffer Gonner, and often do not find, till you fchiefs deine ftrahlen, arm dick, auf have got to the bottom of the whole "deinen knecht hernieder." "Shed, page, the verb on which the meaning great Patron, fhed the beams of thy of the fentence depends: nothing in-bounty, as thick as my arm, upon jures perfpicuity more than this methy flave." What fay you to beams thod of construction: the ftyle of fuch as thick as one's arm? Ought not authors is prolix without being abun one to have faid this poet, My dant, and one may as foom unriddle the enigma of the Sphynx as compre hend their thoughts. There is another cause which retards the progrefs of letters as much as the faults I at tribute to our language and to the ftyle of our authors I mean the want of proper models to ftudy from. Our nation has been accufed of pedantry, because we have had a multitude of Commentators, dull and laborious on trifles. To do away this reproach, we begin to neglect the ftudy of the learned languages, and, that we may not be thought pedants, we are becoming fuperficial. [The author proceeds to examine the defects of the German method of * • good friend, learn to think before you In order to judge of the taste that abominable 1 abominable pieces of Shakespeare tranflated into our tongue, and the whole audience expiring with pleafure at the fight of thofe ridiculous farces, worthy of the favages of Canada. I term them thus, because they fin against all the rules of the drama. Thefe rules are not arbitrary; you will find them in Aristotle's Art of Poetry, which prefcribes unity of time, place, and action, as the only means of rendering tragedies interefting; while in these English pieces, a play contains the time of feveral years. In fuch a cafe what becomes of probability? Now you have watchmen and gravediggers brought on the ftage, difcourfing in language worthy of them; immediately afterwards princes and queens appear. How can fuch a medley of high and low, of buffoonery and forrow, please or affect! Shakespeare may be excufed these monftrous deviations from propriety; for the arts do not arrive at maturity the moment of their birth. But here, at this day, we have a Goetz de Berlichingen appearing on the ftage, a deteftable imitation of thefe wretched English pieces, and the pit applauding and loudly demanding the repetition of scenes disgusting low. I know that there is no difput-, ing about taftes; but allow me to fay, that thofe who feel as much pleafure at a rope-dancing or a puppet fhew as they do at a tragedy of Racine, mean only to kill time; they prefer what fpeaks to their eyes to what fpeaks to their minds, and what is nothing but shew to what touches the the heart. [Returning to his fubject, the author next propofes a a reformation in the German univerfities, and confoles" himself with the idea that many great men may yet be formed in them. ced the famous des Vignes, Chancel lor of the unhappy Emperor Frede rick II, that which produced the authors of the Epiftola obfcurorum virorum, much fuperior to the age in which they appeared, and which were the models of Rabelais; the foil that nourished the famous Erafmus, whose Praife of Folly teams with wit, and which would be ftill better if fome monkifli barbarifms, partaking of the bad taste of the times, could be retrenched from it; the country which gave birth to Melanchthon, a man of as much wildom as learning, cannot be exhaufted, but will produce many more. How many great names might I not add to thefe? I reckon boldly among the number of our countrymen, Copernicus, who, by his calculations, rectified the planetary fyftem, and proved what Ptolemy had advanced two thousand years before; while a monk from another quarter of Germany, difcovered, by his chemical experiments, the astonishing effects of gun-powder: another invented printing, that happy art, which perpetuates good books, and enables the public to acquire knowledge at an eafy rate :an Otto Geric, to whofe inventive mind we owe the air-pump. I fhall not certainly forget the celebrated Leibnitz, who filled Europe with his fame, if his imagination led him to form fome vifionary fyftems, we must confefs that his wanderings are thofe of a great mind. I might enlarge this lift with the names of Thomafius, of Bilfinger, of Haller, and many others; but the praise of some would humili ate the fel-love of others. 2 [After mentioning fome further difficulties the German literature had to ftruggle with, he concludes thus : Thefe, Sir, are the different ob ftacles Goetz de Berlichingen is the chef-d'œuvre of the celebrated Goethe. This author is called the Shakespeare of Germany, not because in his hiftorical pieces he fets at nought the dramatic unities, but becaufe, like Shakespeare, he is remarkable for his intimate acquaintance with the human paflions, and for his forcible and natural representations of thema. ftacles which have prevented us from proceeding with the rapidity of our neighbours; however, thofe who come laft fometimes exceli their predéceffors. This might happen to us fooner than we think if Sovereigns had a tafte for literature, or would encourage those who have: let us have but Medick and we will not want great men. And Auguftus will not fail to produce a Virgil. We fhall have our claffic authors; our neighbours will learn German in order to read them; the Courts will speak the language with rapture; and it may happen that, be ing polished and perfected, it may extend from one end of Europe to the other. That flourishing period of out literature is not yet come, but it is approaching; I promife you it will arrive: I thall not fee it, my age forbids me to entertain the hope. I am like Mofes; I fee afar off the promifed land, but I thall not enter it. Excufe this comparison: I mean not to make a parallel between Mofes and myfelf; but the profpect of the flourishing pe riod of our literature is far preferable to that of the parched and rugged rocks of the fterile Idumæa. Obfervations made on the Paragelidum of M. de Reinenberg. THIS paragelidum confifts in a cord twisted round the principal branches of a tree, the extremity of which is plunged into a vessel of wa ter. The refults of the experiments. I have made are thefe:-If the water into which the cord falls has its furface covered with ice of two lines in thickness, the water in a veffel of the fame capacity, placed on the fame line without a cord, is not frozen at all. If the veffel without the cord contains ice of a line in thickness, there is ice in the veffel with the cord of the thickness of three or four lines. So that in this experiment the cord may be confidered as a conductor of cold. I lay afide all theory to confine myfelf to the fact. If this conductor preferves fruit trees from those froits. which in fpring deftroy the flower, procefs fo fimple must be of the greateft utility. Defcription of the Plate prefixed to this Number. THE OLD BRIDGE of AUCHINDINNY is fituated in the County of Edinburgh, upon the river Ek, having the eftate of Greenlaw on the North-eaft end, on the South-weft that of Auchindinny. It is of confiderable antiquity; and, lying on the great road from Edinburgh to Peebles, was probably many times paffed by the Royal families and Nobility of Scotland in their way to Peebles, to the Play. It appears never to have had any ledges, though only nine feet broad. The famous John, Duke of Argyle, in paffing from the Whim, in. Tweedale, to Edinburgh, often called on Mr Inglis at Auchindinny, anđ ufed to fay, that though he never knew fear in the field of battle, yet he never paffed that bridge without terror of broken bones. It has been difufed for fome time, as there is now a very` commodious bridge for paffengers a bout twenty yards down the river. Account, Some Account of Dr Jofeph Priestley; from the European Magazine. D teen years; and yet in that time I was well acquainted with Dr Lardner, Dr Fleming, and feveral other zea. lous Socinians, especially my friend Mr Graham. The first theological tract of mine (which was on, the doctrine of Atonement) was publishel at the particular requeft, and upder the direction. of Dr Lardner ; and he approving of the fcheme which I had then formed, of giving a short view (which were thofe of Cal view (which was all that I had then thought of) of the progrefs of the cor ruptions of Chriftianity, he gave me a few hints with respect to it. But fill I continued till after his death indifpofed to the Socinian, hypothefis. After this, continuing my ftudy of the Scriptures, with the help of his Letters on the Logos, I at length changed my opinion, and became what is called a Socinian; and in this I fee continually more reafon to ac quiefce, though it was a long time before the arguments in favour of it did more than barely preponderate in my mind For the R JOSEPH PRIESTLEY was born, if we are not mifinformed, at Field-head, near Bir ftall, about feven miles from Leeds, in the year 1728 or 1729: His fa ther was a merchant and manufacturer, and he received the early part of his education from the Rev. Mr Scott, a Diffenting Minifter in the neighbourhood. The principles of the Sect to which he belonged, and in which he remained fome years, were thofe of Calvin. Thefe, however, he has totally renounced; and having published a narrative of what led him to the feveral changes of his opinions, we deem it the moft proper to give it in his own words. *Having been educated in the ftricteft principles of Calvinifm, and having from my early years had a ferious, turn of mind, promoted, no doubt, by a weak and lickly contite tion, I was very fincere and zealous in my belief of the doctrine of the Trinity; and this continued till I was about nineteen; and then, I was as much shocked on hearing of any who denied the divinity of Chrift (thinking it to be nothing less than impiety and blafphemy) as any of my opponents can be now; I therefore truly feel for them, and moft fincerely ex 66 cufe them. "About the age of twenty, being then in a regular course of theological ftudies, I faw reafon to change my opinion, and became an Arian; and notwithstanding what appeared to me a fair and impartial study of the Scriptures, and though I had no bias on my mind arifing from fubfcribed creeds and confeffions of faith, &c. I contimued in that persuasion fifteen or fixM.m VOL. XIV. No. 82. arguments which had the principal weight with me at that time, and particularly thofe texts of Scripture, which fo long retarded my change of opinion, I refer my readers to the Theological Repofitory, Vol. III. p. 345: I was greatly confirmed in this doctrine, after I was fully fatisfied that man is of an uniform compofition, and wholly mortal; and that the doctrine of a feparate immaterial foul, capable of fensation and action when the body is in the grave, is a notion borrowed from heathen philofophy, and unknown to the fcriptures. Of this I had for a long time a mere fufpicion; * * Letters to Dr Horley, in Anfwer to his Animadverfions on the "Hiftory of the Corruptions of Christianity," 8vo. |