mucus with which the body of fifhes is furnished, and which always mixes with the water: they continued to live in it without any inconvenience. A drop of arfenical acid put into a pretty large quantity of water where there was a very vigorous fifh, killed it inftantaneously. Its mouth was fhut and the covers of its gills ftuck clofe to the body. Another fish lived fix minutes in citron juice, the openings of the gills were fhut when it was dead. Water, gently acidulated by means of fixed air, killed a very lively fish in a few minutes; its mouth, and the apertures of the gills, ftood wide open. Thofe that I plunged into lime water difcharged, in a few minutes, a large quantity of fanies; they fhewed fome figns of life af ter this evacuation, but foon died. It is well known that lime is made ufe of to catch fishes in ponds, and eels in rivulets, where there is little water; and that a few lime-ftones thrown in will speedily kill them. Fishers employ various fimilar methods of catching fish, if we may ufe the expreffion, by refpiration. In India the juice of many plants is employed for this purpofe. In the fouthern provinces of France they use the juice of a fpecies of fpurge (Euphorbia characias Lin.) which grows abundantly in waste places: the twigs are cut into small pieces and thrown into the water, which is fufficient to kill a great number of fishes. It is known that the milky juice of fuch plants may be fpread over a very large surface. Sketch of the Life and Character of Dennis O'Kelly, Eft. land, and born in the province of Connaught, where the defcendants from the aborigenes of the island, and thofe of the old Milefian race mostly refide. His parents probably were peafants of the lowest order, as Mr O'Kelly, though he latterly was able to affume the fang froid in his manners and converfation, was perfectly illiterate; but being bleffed with a good memory, and native drollery, he was feldom at a lofs in converfation, and took part in every fubject propofedalways pleafant, and never offenfive; for though his voice was coarfe, his addrefs was complaifant. Poffeffing thefe qualities, to which may be added an inquifitive difpofition, it is not surprising that he pleafed in the different claffes of mankind in which he has appeared. It has been faid that his first rife was owing to the penchant of a lady of fashion, but this is falfe: we have ftated the facts of his life, and we are competent to fay, that he rofe by flat tures were through a medium of gambling; and that at laft, having been ruined by play, he was arrested, and lay for a confiderable time a wretched prifoner in the Fleet prifon, where, after feveral months refidence, he be came tapfter to the warden. It was here his acquaintance with Charlotte Hayes originated: fhe had money, and he poffeffed those abilities of perfon and conftitution which the preferred to all others, and they formed a connection without the interference of Hymen, which lafted till death ftopped it, and diffolved the fentimental union-a proof on his part if not of love, at leaft of gratitude. After three years confinement, O'Kelly and his fair one were liberated from prifon, and they both immediately fet down in purfuit of plans which they had laid while in durefs. Charlotte took a houfe in King'splace, or rather a temple for the celebration of the orgies of Venus; and O'Kelly, who had been invefted in 2 the the Fleet with the title of Count, got acquainted with the cuftomers, who in return for their voluptuous enjoyments made him a complete mafter of horfe-flesh, and let him into all the arts arifing from a knowledge of the turf. One of them permitted him to become a purchafer of a half quarter of the celebrated horfe Eclipfe, (bred by the late duke of Cumberland), of which in a fhort time he became fole proprietor, and on the turf as a racer, and in the ftable as a ftallion, this animal has raised for his proprietor not only feveral thousand pounds, but the fwifteft cattle that ever appeared at Newmarket. In 1760 Mr Kelly accepted an enfigncy in the Westminster regiment of militia, and by degrees rofe to the dignity of lieutenant-colonel; and from the above date to 1777, experienced many difficulties in fupporting his ftud: but Charlotte being fuccefsful in her vocation, purchased a small eftate at Clay-hill, near Epfom, where fhe built a house, of which the conftituted the count oftenfible mafter, and here he kept his ftud-and here he faw the best and the worst company but here he would never permit any Species of play to go forward, or even matches for the courfe to be made. a The anecdote of our hero's mistak ing his bedchamber at an inn in York, though perhaps univerfally known, muft not efcape notice. Miftaking his chamber-he got into that of lady he got into her bed. The lady tarted, fcreamed, and alarmed the houfe. The count would have retreated, but was prevented by a croud who had reached the door and prevented it, and if it had not been for the intreaties of the lady, he would probably have fallen a facrifice to rafhnefs and ill-founded refentment. The bufinefs however did not end here. The lady's relations commenced an action against O'Kelly, and he was terrified into the disbursement of five hundred pounds. Scarcely had he got free from this fcrape, when another prefented itself. A party having dined at a coffee-houfe, under the Piazza in Covent-Garden, of which the well-known Dick England made one, a gentleman of the company came into the public room, where O'Kelly and a Mr Rochfort, fince fhot in a duel at Warley common, were then abufing Mr England in terms of the groffeft language, though Rochfort had been under very many pecuniary obligations to him-The gentleman returning to his company, repeated what he had beard, upon which England privately departed, and entering the coffee-room, feized each of his calumniators by the heads, which he knocked together, and after wards beat both till they took afylum under the tables. For this affault he was indicted, and pleading guilty, the court of King's Bench, on hearing the affidavit in mitigation of judgment read, fined the defendant one filling. Kelly, by his fucceffes on the turf, having acquired a very confiderable fortune, purchafed the feat formerly belonging to the duke of Chandos, called Cannons, fituated in the county of Middlefex, near Stanmore; and here, after a very fhort poffeffion, he was feized by a violent fit of the gout, which doctor Warren with all his skill could not expel from his stomach, and he died at about the fixty-feventh of his age. year As to his difpofition of mind, it wanted nothing but early cultivation; for though the habits of his life, being a profeffed gamester, cannot be commended, yet his intentions were good, and expanded as his fortune increased. He was charitable without oftentation, and profperity did not inflate him with pride; for he called his relations from obfcurity and penury, fupported them in eafe and plenty, and at his death left them independent. On On the Literary Character of Dr Goldsmith". Ingenii largitor venter. THE HE old faying, vexatio dat intellectum, I am forry to obferve, feems to have received fome confirmation from the inftances of many ingenious men, digni meliore fato, worthy of a better fate. To the diftreffes which poets have felt are often attributed the finest of their poems; but perhaps it may be juftiy urged, that their industry, and not their abilities, was increafed or excited by diftrefs. This indeed is partly true, but not entirely. They must have had abilities inherent in them or they could not have been excited, according to that common obfervation, that it is impoffible to get blood out of a ftone; but, at the fame time, there is every reafon to believe that their abilities were actually improved by that thoughtfulnefs and attention which diftrefs has a tendency to produce. And yet, with refpect to poetry, a diverfity of opinions prevail on the effects of diftrefs; for while the author in my motto fays, that hunger gives ingenuity, another informs us, that Anxietate carens animus verfus facit, omnis acerbi Impatiens, nec de lodoice paranda Sollicitus; fatur eft cum dicit Horatius, Euce. That the mind must be free from anxiety in order to make good verfes, nor be troubled with the care of procuring a rug. Horace has his belly full when he calls on the name of Bacchus with all the frantic enthufiafm of poetry. I am afraid Juvenal, who is rather given to declamation, wrote on this fubject without a due attention to actual experience: for in his time, as well as ours, poverty feems, to have had a favourable influence on poetry. Many inftances may be produced of this truth in the annals of modern li terati; and I believe we may add to From his want of attention to that Goldfmith, though a good writer Edwin and Angelina is one of the * Winter Evenings; or Lucubrations on Life and Letters, 3 vols. In the Traveller he adopts a different style of poetry; but in the ftrong and nervous language of a Dryden, a Tickell (or of an Addifon, in his Letter to Lord Halifax,) he exhibits the fame fine vein of exquifite fenfibility. The first ten lines conftitute a poetical paragraph not often exceeded in magnificence of style and tenderness of affection by any verses in the English language; and the fubfequent paffages are feldom inferior in ftrength, and often exceed it, in imagery. The whole breathes a manly spirit, and a love of human nature, of liberty, and of his country. It is one of thofe poems which, among the numbers which daily fink in the gulph of oblivion, will glide along the stream of time to late pofterity. It is formed to be placed in the rank of claffics, because it addreffes at once the imagination and the heart. Such feelings are raised by it as muft please always and univerfally; and this is indeed the effect of all the works which live and flouIrish in ages diftant from their production, when the arts of conciliating favour and exciting attention, and when partiality and personal interest operate no more. Next in reputation to the Traveller ftands his Deferted Village. The fub ject did not require fo nervous a ftyle as the Traveller; but it required fweet nefs, tenderness, fimplicity; and in these moft delightful graces it richly abounds. The poet every where difplays a zeal for the happiness of mankind in the lower ranks of fociety, and a deteftation of that pride, vice, and luxury, and of those deviations from nature and primitive fimplicity, which enormous opulence contributes to introduce. The verfification has in it fomething original. It is excellently adapted to the fubject, though it is unlike that of Pope, Dryden, or any predeceffor. There is fomething in its flow remarkably pathetic. It came from the heart; and the imagination only added the beautiful tinges of a poetical colouring. The public, who, in a length of time are always fond to decide with folidity of judgment, though often too hafty in their firft applaufe, have felected all the more ftriking paffages of the poem, and almoft committed them to memory. The Village Preacher, the Village Schoolmafter, and the Village Alehouse, are drawn with affection,and have recommended themselves to the attention of every fympathizing reader. I have known faftidious critics of reputed learning, who pretended that they could fee no fuperior excellence in these poems, and fuggested that the popularity of a poem was in their minds a fufpicious circumstance, and led them to conclude, prima facie, that it was of little intrinfic value. But it may be fairly concluded that fuch perfons, actuated by envy, undervalue what they have been unable to obtain; and, like the fox in the fable, ftigmatize, as unworthy their endeavour, the grapes which they cannot reach.. Men of logical and mathematical heads are apt to view a poem principally with an eye to its plan, and to the mechanical circumstances of method, and the regular difpofition of the component parts; but fuch perfons. have indeed no jufter idea of real beauty, than a common ftone-mason or bricklayer, who works by rule and line, of the magnificence of a fine piece of architecture. A poem is indeed the more perfect the more regular its plan; but there are graces beyond the reach of art, and thefe will fully compenfate, when they abound, for the want of mechanical regularity. Dulcia funto. Let poems give pleasure and they will be read, while critics rail unheard and unregarded. Goldsmith is buried in the PoetsCorner, and he is chiefly to be confi dered as a poet; for though his profe is animated, and contains many fine images expreffed in vivid language, yet it is incorrect and unequal, the hasty pro production of neceffity working against inclination. His Citizen of the World has, with many good papers, many abfurd ones, and many written in a careless manner. It will never hold a diftinguished place in a felect library. Some of his Effays are beautiful. There is a delicacy of phrafe, and a tenderness of affection in many of them, and the author has attempted humour on several fubjects with fuccefs; but here alfo is fomething of inequality, incorrectnefs, and abfurdity. His Vicar of Wakefield I think the best of his profaic writings. It fpeaks to the heart, and caufes fuch an interest, as leads the understanding to connive at fome degree of improbability. The Hiftories of Greece, Rome, and England, are merely compilations, haftily finished for the temporary fupply of money; and though they are not without animated paffages, cannot be raised higher in the fcale of literature than the rank of school-books. Goldsmith had a great tafte for na tural history, and wifhed to write fome thing in the manner of the elder Pliny. But he had not a fufficient share of science to qualify him for the performance. In his Animated Nature he therefore had recourfe to compiling, and I believe defcended to mere tranflation. What he wrote himself difplays his genius to advantage, but not his accuracy; and, upon the whole, he appears to have been more folicitous to write an entertaining than a folid book. It may pleafe and improve school-boys and fuperficial readers, but scholars and philofophers will rather chufe to draw from the fountains which fupplied his ftream, and which, it must be confeffed, in the prefent cafe, often runs in a fhallow current. Want made him write much, and rather on fubjects fuggefted by his paymafters than by the unbiaffed feelings of his own genius. The lumber of the compilations will fink in the gulf of oblivion; but the poems will glide on to pofterity. Their ftyle and pathos have been well imitated by Mr Crabbe in his Village; nor is the lofs of a Goldfmith unfupplied by a Cowper. Account of the Chevalier Lorgna's Experiments concerning the Purification of THE Sea Water. HE want of fresh water frequently experienced by navigators, and the philofophical curiofity of mankind, even in the remoteft ages, must have pointed out the advantage which would accrue from the difcovery of a method of purifying fea water, fo as to render it fit to drink. Various have been the projects propofed, and many fruitless attempts have been made; but we know of two methods only of effecting this great defideratum. One is by diftillation performed with certain precautions, of which we shall fay nothing at prefent, much having been written about it by various authors; the other is by congela tion. The accounts of navigators who have failed confiderably near the poles of the earth do by no means agree with refpect to the state of purity of the ice which they have met with in the fea; fome afferting that it was falt, others that it was perfectly fresh, fo that when melted into water it was quite proper for drinking, &c.; and others again have afferted that it was partially purified, viz. neither fo falt as the fea water in general, nor fo far purified as to be useful like river water. Various have been the hypothefes offered in explanation of these apparently contradictory accounts, but no fatisfac tory explanation was published previous |