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ceive that Mr. Knight has just left the question where he found it, and has not proved that gravity is the cause of déscent of radicles, and much less of the ascent of germens. The very influence of the water which drove the wheels was sufficient to account for the tendency of the roots of the plant to approach its source, which was below.

We would recommend to Mr. Knight, whose ingenuity and industry we admire, not to forget in his future speculations on plants the wonderful powers of a living system, the operations of which can never be accounted for on physical principles. There appears in all beings, animal and vegetable, a provision for repairing accidents, for seeking conve niences, and for repelling external attacks, for which philosophers have in vain laboured to account, and which physicians have been satisfied to call in the human body the vis ́medicatrix nature. Plants as well as animals seek their welfare through every obstruction; and mechanical philosophy will be found as inadequate to elucidate the actions of vegetable as of animal life. How vain would it be to endeavour to explain the phenomena of the growth of animals by the operation of gravity! The human fætus for great part of its existence lies with its feet upwards, and its extremities are smaller in proportion than those of the adult; but nobody will say that this is caused by gravity drawing the fluids downwards, and depriving the legs of their share of nourishment. Yet we know something of the anatomy of man, while of that of plants, the vessels of which perform a great part in produc ing all these disputed phenomena, we are in a state of com paratively profound ignorance.

Mr. Knight's arguments drawn from the growth of trees, are quite inconclusive, and the facts remarked by him may be explained on grounds directly opposite to those which he has taken. But we cannot afford more room to the consi deration of this paper, to which we must not forget to allow its due merit of ingenuity and industrious observation.

vi. A Third Series of Experiments on an artificial Substance, which possesses the principal characteristic Properties of Tannin, with some Remarks on Coal. By Charles Hutchett, Esq. F.R.S.-The observations of this ingenious chemist must always be received with great pleasure by every lover of that science to which he devotes his time. The merit of this series of experiments on tannin, we have before bad occasion to notice and if we do not now enter into any very long discussion regarding the contents of the present communication, it is because we have already alluded in a former critique to the discoveries of Mr. Hatchett. In the

present paper we are presented with a number of experiments upon the effects of sulphuric acid upon various oils, resins, and other vegetable bodies, of which many produced the artificial tannin, and probably all would have done so, had the process been stopped at the necessary period. Some observations are also made on the possibility of applying this method of forming the tanning principle to the practical advantages of the arts, and it appears highly probable that a long time will not elapse before something of the sort be effected. But it is not in this view only that the experiments of Mr. Hatchett are likely to benefit the world. He has opened the way to a long series of investigations, the resuit of which will probably be to throw a wonderful light on the operations of the chemistry of nature, and perhaps to enable us to form many of those products, on which rarity or peculiar excellence confer an extraordinary value. The most economical manner of forming the tannin artificially, is found by the author of this paper to be, after extracting all the natural tannin by water to roast the residuum and moisten it with nitric acid, and in general it appears that most vegetable substances may be treated with advantage in this way. It seems highly probable that peat may be applied successfully for the purpose, and thus that substance, which a few years ago served no purpose but to afford fuel to some of the most wretched parts of the country, may not only be converted, as has lately been discovered, into valuable manure, but aid in the formation of one of the most essential products of a civilized country, that of leather. This paper concludes with some observations on the nature of coal, which Mr. Hatchett seems disposed to consider as of aqueous origin. We do not wonder at this: it is natural that a gentleman who has been so remarkably successful in the investigation of the changes of vegetable matter in the humid way, should push his doctrine as far as it will go, but he admits the striking results of Sir James Hall's experiments on the fusion of animal and vegetable substances under compression, and expresses a wish in which all must join, that that expert and profound philosopher should proceed in the investigation of the action of heat on organized bodies. Mr. Hatchett, it appears, does not intend to pursue farther the economical inquiry into the formation of artificial tannin.

VIII. An Account of a small Lobe of the Human Prostate Gland, which has not before been taken Notice of by · Anatomists. By Everard Home, Esq. F.R S.-Mr. Home, whose anatomical and chirurgical skill is well known to the public, here describes a new lobe of the prostate gland, of nʊ

great importance in its natural state; but which, by its diseased enlargement, becomes the source of serious inconvenience. The paper is accompanied with a plate, which shews very clearly the situation of this lobe.

ART. VIII.-Fragments upon the Balance of Power in Europe. Translated from the German of the Chevalier Fred. Gentz, just published. Sco. 7s. 6d. Peltier. 1806.

M. GENTZ, the author of these Fragments,' is known to the public by several publications, which discover ingenuity, knowledge, and what may be called the art of writing; but they have never passed the boundaries of sophistry.

He is always either ignorant, or he conceals the knowledge of primary causes; and he ascribes the origin of errors and calamities, to events, the effects of errors and calamities which he wholly overlooks.

M. Gentz assumes as a truth, that the struggle of the French revolution, and of the combined powers, is like the war of the gods and the Titans, or contending between good and evil.

This perhaps, in no period of the contest, would be proved to be the case. The refusal to France, in its first commendable efforts to mitigate the evils of its government, was a crime against the interests of humanity, the punishments of which are now inflicting on Europe.

The extravagancies and atrocities of the French revelation, were effects, not of the spirit of reform, for it exhibited Itself in wise and moderate propositions; not of atheism, for it was never adopted but by a drunken populace as a temporary pretence for depredation; but of the incessant intrigues of the agents of foreign powers, whose object was, by the example of France, to terrify the surrounding nations from any projects or hopes of reforming the abuses of their own governments.

In this dreadful project they succeeded for a time; but while they have left the people without hope, they have accelerated their own danger.

The French revolution, intended as a vortex for France only, into which might be thrown the philosophers and reasoners of Europe, is opening and daily extending its tremendous crater, and will involve in it all its authors. For it is in vain that such declaimers as M. Gentz dwell on combinations after combinations of ministers without wisdom, and cabinets without virtue, against a devastating torrent, the ingredients and fuel of which have been principally furnished by themselves.

These Fragments,' it must be confessed, exhibit the systematic perfidies of France in strong colours. But what had France for ten years experienced from the cabinets of Europe? Where are the lessons given her in wisdom, justice, and humanity? If there be a Providence (which all men believe except atheists and hypocrites) there must be retributions; and many of those who see in Bonaparte every thing that is unprincipled and perfidious, see in him also the scourge of justice, and the minister of ... vengeance!

If the eloquence of M. Gentz and his credit with political cabinets were employed in persuading them, even now, to reform their own errors and abuses, he might assist in producing some amelioration of the impending catastrophe of Europe. His present description of the measures and conquests of France, promote rather than impede them, by impressing on the minds of his readers the most hopeless and desponding sentiments.

The reader may judge between us and the author, after perusing the following paragraph,

But if reason and experience compel us to pronounce that indifference to the public good, which characterizes a very great proportion of the people of our time, an incurable evil; what are we to think of another error, which though less frequent, is still more revolting than that, (for it would be going too far to call it more destructive,) I mean the satisfaction with which some amongst us hail the dissolution of all the old constitutions, the more than half finished, and soon to be completed, subjection of Europe! Here it is not grounds of consolation which they offer us to sweeten a bitter and inevitable destiny; it is formal congratulations, it is a call to joy and exultation. One informs us with philosophical profundity, that what in appearance is so frightful, if considered in a just point of view is the best and most convenient way to attain an everlasting peace; war the only evil-for human wisdom will ere long get the better of earthquakes, pestilence, and famine—will soon vanish from the earth, when every thing is subjected to one master. Another is of opinion, not quite without ground, if the conclusion. followed from the premises-that the old political body is become so weak, the joints which unite the different nembers so feeble, and the spirit which animated the whole so exhausted, impotent, and scant, that its dissolution should not occasion much regret; but on the contrary, as opening a better prospect for futurity, that it is more to be wished for than deprecated. The vigorous creative hand of one individual, of an absolute sovereign, will restore to every thing lite and youth. A third dwells on the greatness of the man whom Providence has chosen to govern the world according to his will; when the struggle is once finished, and every obstructing obstacle removed, then will his mighty genius put us again in possession of what we have lost, and convert united Europe into a scene of com

fort and abundance, of splendor and bliss.The public hear this language, not indeed with unqualified confidence, but without any symptom of disgust; and in the minds of most people, there is something which predisposes them favourably to receive it. They pant after repose. They think it impossible but the present painful, embroiled and tumultuous state of things, must tend to a speedy and determinate issue; leading either to the re-establishment of order, or to the completion of that disorder, where every thing must begin But as the road which conducts to the former of these results is much more long and rugged than that which leads to the latter, they accustom themselves, by little and little, to consider the very abyss of evil as a sort of haven in which their hopes repose; and thus become familiar with the most criminal wishes, of which they were originally quite unaware.'

anew.

ART. IX.-Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology, with Tales and Miscellaneous Poems. 8vo. Phillips. 1806.

THE fate of that interesting collection of fragments and minor poems, known by the title of the Greek Anthology, is somewhat curious. About one hundred years previous to the Christian æra, Meleager the Syrian selected from the works of all the celebrated masters of Grecian poetry, the most exquisite specimens in the lighter departments of poetical composition, besides which he enriched his' Garland' (such was the title he gave to his inestimable compilation) with all the most beautiful fugitive pieces he could collect from oral recitation, and with the most striking inscriptions to be found on the temples, pillars, and other public monuments of departed bravery and virtue. Nearly one hundred and fifty years after the time of Meleager, a continuation of his work was undertaken by Philip of Thessalonica, which exhibited in melancholy and regular graduation the decline of national genius. The next of these collectors follows at a long interval of five hundred years. In the sixth century it was reserved for Agathias to sound the base string' of intellectual humiliation, and to collect testimonies of the utter extinction of taste and genius among his enslaved and effeminate countrymen. He was probably assisted in his labours by an officer of the Imperial palace, Paul the Silentiary, a dissolute courtier, who appears to have regarded the muse only as the handmaid of vice and it is a most afflicting reflection, that the comparatively worthless remains of Agathias and his colleague outnumber the relics which have reached us from Meleager and Philip conjointly. During the frightful darkness of the following centuries, the dialect CRIT. REV. Vol. 9. December, 1806.

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