Dr. Free to døp. Moore,—Fiuman vetrijactions not ajceriaina. 303 efteem for me: I have received compliments from Hayes on account of fome of my works which he approved; and that he regarded my politics, I have an evident proof from his adopting my plan of invading Normandy, firft published in the 58th Monitor, Saturday, September 1756, which paper is luckily preferved, notwithstanding the violent removal of my writings, and is requetted to be returned when feen by Mr. Pitt; for this defcent upon Normandy was followed by the reduction of Cherburg, and the conqueft of Belleifle, which if not given up at the peace, would have been of the fame advantage to England, as the poffeffion of the Ifle of Wight - would be to France. Thefe are fome of the fervices I have rendered my country, both in church and fiate, for which I do not expect at this time fuch a reward as my long refidence in the University, and the expences of my four degrees, might in equity and ancient cuftom require, becaufe of late thofe emoluments have gone to people of another ftamp, who have never feen an university; but as matters now ftand, and for prefent ufe, that Mr. Pitt would be fo good as to give me a fmall penfion to enable me to buy my own bread as I ufed to do, and, that I may not be altogether another Ariftides, to provide me a coffin when I make my exit. I am, my Lord, &c." [To this his Grace faid, that it was a melancholy thing for a perfon who had been fo long in the profeffion, and fo active in it, to have his bread to feek at this time; and that he would repreprefent the cafe to Mr. PITT. Grace afterwards did him fignal fervice.] His Mr. URBAN, Chiding fold, May 15. a months back, relating to the fofil bones of Gibraltar, and alfo of a human skeleton formed in the rock; 1 thall beg leave to propofe a few remarks for the confideration of thole of your readers who are curious in thefe enquiries. In the courfe of repeated vifits to the firft Cabinets of Natural History in Europe, and alfo no final pains beftowed in the perufal of authors on the fubject, and a frequent intercoucle among gentlemen celebrated in this kind of research; I have not pro cured a decifive fact, to place beyond a doubt, the existence of any part of a hu 1 of man skeleton petrified, or, to speak more critically, changed to that indurated ftate in which many animal bones are formed in the bowels of the earth; fuch as of elephants, hippopotami, deer, bears, &c. The apparent fact, which feems most to have engaged the curious, has been the pretended difcovery of a petrified human fkeleton in the rock of Gibraltar, in 1742, and alluded to in your Magazine. Many circumftances concurring to prove the inaccuracy of this difcovery, I was induced to give myfelf fome trouble to at tain more competent information. Having an opportunity of being introduced to a gentleman prefent at the discovery of this reputed petrified skeleton, Mr. Mynor, furgeon, of Chancery-lane, at that time furgeon to the garrifon; I found, on enquiry, that the human remains in queftion were difcovered in digging the foundation for the Navy Hofpital, about 152 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and about 82 feet above that part the rock in which the firatum of petrified animal remains are found at this day, and which ftratum has caufed the mifconception in the eyes of the publick, of an entire fkeleton being found in the fame congeries. They were found in a common grave, excavated in the folid rock, and at firft unnoticed by the workmen; who had dug tranfverfely over the body, but which was obferved by perfons prefent; Mr. Mynor being one, who affured me, that in the cift was an evident appearance of loofe foil, thrown over the body. He had no authority whatever to lay the bones were of a more folid texture than is ufually the cafe with any other bones that have been interred report, therefore, feems to have confufed or connected the discovery of this entire skeleton with the remains of animal bones that are difcovered at the inferior fite of the rock, at the altitude of 82 feet, in an abfolute ftate of patrifaction; and which feem to have a perfe&t correfponding fimilarity with the petrified bones on the coaft of Dalmatia and the adjacent ifles, as defcribed in the travels of the Abbé Fortis; feveral fpecimens of which were not judged unworthy of the notice of the earl of Bute, who transported them to this country. The Homo Deluvii teflis of Scheuchzer is not confirmed by any convincing proofs. The copper-piate has no refemblance whatever to a human fkele. ton; nor has the Abbé Fortis given any unexceptionable evidence, that hunan petrified petrified remains have been found in the Mr. URBAN, May 12. T is obferved by a good writer, that fame ftratum with the animal petrihed feldom any flate is ruined, but there remains on the coaft of Dalmatia, and in the ifles of Cheffo and Ofero. He fays, he examined, with his friend Mr. Symonds and Profeffor Cirilli, a piece of a congeries of thefe bones, and obferved a human jaw, a vertebra, and a tibia, fomewhat larger than ufual in our age; but as this account has no critical definition to establifh the faine as a matter of fact, it is impoffible it can ever be admitted by any ferious enquirer after truth; and as many animal bones bear a very near analogy to the human, it is very potlible for thefe gentlemen to have been deceived in comparative anatomy, which requires no ordinary skill and practice to elucidate; no imputation, therefore, of any incautious relation and obfervance is here hinted at. Human bones have been found indurated and preferved by vitriolic, fparry, and ferruginous incruftation; these are modern operations of daily procefs, but have no relation to the petrifaction incident to the bones of elephants and other animals confined in the bowels of the earth; in earth undisturbed fince its original formation of confiftency, and which bones (in fome cafes) are indurated to the hardeft agate." The human body, found in the copper mines at Falham in Dalecarlia (fee Linnæus, Tom. i. Syft. Nat.) is an infance of the truth of this remark; alfo the human feull found in the Tiber, now in the British Muleum, and fuppofed to be petrified, which is only inveloped with a ferruginous incruftation. Similar operations daily take place in various fprings, which depolit their earthy and ineral fubftances on bodies expofed to them. en Having briefly cited a few inflances to prove the want of accurate and established fact, relative to the difcovery of Anbropolithi remains; I fhall conclude, with hoping, that thefe remarks may be confidered as no pofitive alertion, but afing from my own oblervations only, and being detuous of promoting this quiry to more general and comprehenfive views. There is evidently no attefted fact on the fubject, of fuficient accuracy and importance, as I have before faid, to admit of any grounds for argument, and therefore I confider this circumftance as justly meriting the attention of perfons of skill and knowledge in the fcience of Colmogonv. Yours, &c. JAMES DOUGLAS. are evident fignals and prefages of it; and that, in general, it is no difficult matter to perceive, meaning from obferva tions to be made in reading the hiftories of nations, when cities and kingdoms are tending towards their final period and diffolution; and that there are as certain tokens and fymtoms of a confumption and decay in the body politic, as in the body natural. The author then goes on to lay as follows: I would not prefage ill to my country; but when we confider the many heinous and prefumptuous fins of this nation of England; the licentioufness and violation of all order and difcipline; the daring infolence of robbers and fmugglers, in open defiance of all law and juftice; the factions and divifions, the venality and corruption, the avarice and profusion of all ranks and degrees among us; the total want of public ipirit, and ardent paflion for private enes and interefts; the luxury, and gaming, and diffoluteness, in high life, and the ta. zinefs, and drunkennels, and debauchery, in low life; and, above all, that barefaced ridicule of all virtue and decency, and that fcandalous negic&t, and i wifh I could not lay contempt, of all pub ic worship and religion; when we conti der thefe things, thefe figns of the times, the flouteft and not fanguine of us all must tremble at the natural and piouable confequences of them.' Thefe obfervations and reflections, Mr. Urban, are undoubtedly but too juft; and every good citizen muft fincerely with that the people of this land would have the grace to take timely notice of them, to be wife, and take warning by them. The author, however, has far too lightly touched the execrable and ruinous article of gaming. We have rum uis of people's tofing £40.000 at a fitting; and it is certain, that all play, not for divertion or amufement, but from principies of avarice and rapacity; and that fo great is the a:dency of their difpofition towards it, that they will not forbear on day's the moft folemn and facred; days inftituted for different and better purpoles, and properly not their own. Oh! Newmarket Newmarket! the bane of the great, and in confequence of the whole nation, there can be no hope ot amendment, till thy accurfed meetings are prohibited by law. Yours, &c. L. Ë. Mr. The Parrot, as defcribed by Pliny, mifreprefented by others. Mr. URBAN, Mar. 9. THE HE ancients fo often copied each other without acknowledgement, that it is not eafy to difcover to whom a remark originally belongs. Apuleius tells us, that in India the kind of Parrot which hath five claws, and feeds on acorns, imitates the human voice molt perfectly. "Ad difciplinam bumani fermonis facilior eft Phittacus, glande qui vefcitur: & cujus in pedibus, ut hominis, quini digitali numerantur, non enim omnibus Pfittacis id infigne." Florida.Solinus relates the fame. "Inter nobiles & ignobiles difcretionem digitorum facit numerus: qui præftant, quinos in pedes habent digitos, ceteri ternos." Polibiftor. c. 52. Both these authors, as Salmafius obferves, have tranfcribed from Pliny to heedlefly, that they have confounded his defcription of the Parrot with that of one of the Pica. making mention of the Parrot, he proceeds, Minor nobilitas, quia non ex longinquo venit, fed expreffior loquacitas, certo generi Picarum eft.-Addifcere alias negant poffe, quam quæ ex genere earum funt, quæ glande vefcantur: & inter eas facilius, quibus quini Junt digiti in pedibus." Hilt. Nat. lib. %. C, 42. After The first traveller who hath left anv account of himself in our language, and whofe work is valuable for its ftyle and curious obfervations, alfo adopts this tale. "There ben (in the lond of Pref tre Jobu) manye Popegaves, that thei clepen [call] Pitakes in hire langage: and thei fpeken of hire propre nature; and falven [falute] men that gon thorghe the Defertes, and fpeken to hem als [as] appertely [plainly] as thoughe it were a man. And thei that fpeken well han a large tonge, and Lan five toos upon a fote. And there ben alfo of other manere, that han but three toos upon a fote, and they fpeken not, or but litille, for thei cone not but cryen." The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville, Knight, p. 331, edit. 1725. Maundevile, the contemporary of Chaucer and Langelande, is hardly dealt with by many, who do not difiinguish between his own remarks and the mar vayles of Inde, which he borrowed from Pliny and other fabulous hiftorians, to embellish his book, and feafon it to the tafte of the readers of his age. A plein narration of facts, however engaging at prefent, would have had little attrac tions for thefe who were accuftomed to GENT. MAG. May, 1788. perufe vifionary legends with delight. 385 Ornithologifts are extending their catalogue every day. But I am not aware that any bird in a natural ftate, except we may believe this inftance, has hitherto been found with more than four claws. For the fifth claw of the Darking fowl is unquestionably the confequence of domeftication, which is con→ tinually furnishing trefh varieties in cicurated or tamed animals, as well as in cultivated plants. Yet it is difficult to imagine why the first propagator of this fory fhould be induced to affert an abfolute falfehood. The notorious negligence and extreme credulity of the writers in early times, have induced the moderns to look on many of their relations as more It was groundless than they really are. this confideration which led the commentators on Martial to fufpe&t the text to be vitiated, and tempted them to pro. pofe emendations, where the poet introduces a Rhinoceros with two horns, they being acquainted only with that kind with one horn. But later difcoveries concerning this extraordinary quadruped have proved the original reading be genuine. (Phil. Tranf. vo'. LVI. p. 32.) I have alfo fhown before, that what the ancients faid with regard to Amber growing on trees, and the Partridge with the appearance of two hearts, extravagant and chimerical as it may teem, had its foundation in nature. T. II. W. to obedient to the faith, might now become obedient, by the diligent ftudy and praftice of all virtues : fo that τα δικαια may mean any actions, good, boneft, &c. as, throughout the Sacred Writings, all virtue in general, every kind of duty to be performed between GOD and man, is expreffed by the term & dixae; and by oi dixxios are meant thofe, who in every refpect, as far as man is able, follow and difcharge the duties of virtue." "The expreffion pornos dixi is therefore the famne as το φρονεῖν τα διxxx, or to wish, think, meditate, execute nothing but what juftice, probity, piety, and, in fhort, virtue in every in ftance would have to be done. Thus, φρονεῖν τα της σαρκός και τα πνευματος, faid St. Paul to the Romans, viii. 5; φρονεῖν τα επιδεια, to the Philippians, iii. 19; Opovery Ta aw, to the Coloff. iii. 2; which expreffion the purest Greek writers very frequently ufe, in order to fignify the thought of our mind, the affent, entire approbation, and acting in confequence of that approbation. In Elian's Var. Hift. lib. vi. cap. 4, EλAnnina Peover is "to follow the Greeks," Grecos fequt (as in Vigil one is faid, Res Agamemnonias victriciaque arma fecutus), or to favour the Greeks, to wish them well, &c." [Obf. I. According to the interpretation which JENSIUs gives of Ελληνικα φρονεῖν, the pallage is not applicable: but, as the phrate is ufed by Elian himself, it is an apt illuftration. The man, who on the difcovery of Lyfander's poverty refused to fulfil the marriagecontract with his daughter, was punithed by the Ephori, Λακονικά Φρονεί, δε άλλως Ελληνικα, "for he thought and acted neither as a Lacedæmonian, nor indeed as a Greek of any other state." Exλnuna gore, in this acceptation, correfponds with dinara porsiy. But fuch an expreffion as ra Φιλιππε φρονῶνες, in the third Philippic of Demofthenes, is not fimilar to the paffage immediately under confideration, though it might be adduced to illuftrate Ου φρονεῖς τα τε Θ:8, αλλά τα των αν θρώπων, in St. Matt xvi. 23.-The Andromache of Euripides fupplies us with another inflance parallel with dixaia Φρονείνα i. e. thinking and acting in all things without exception craftily, and not honeftly. Obf. II. Whence could it proceed, that a fcholar like JENSIUS fhould write, "Ut apud Virgilium dicitur aliquis," and not mention the name of POLYMESTOR (It cannot be conceived that he had not read the Hecuba of Euripides.) St. Luke, chap. ii. ver. 52. Και Ιησες προεκοπίε σοφια. ufe this word, goxole, to exprefs pro"The Greek philofophers very often ficiency in the purfuits of virtue11 weaxofas Deness. Epict. cap. 16 and 18-onμesa @goxoloves. Cap. 17. "The word is taken from workers in mines, who gradually open their way, and make more ample room by beating against the ore: for nonly fignifies to pound, beat: @poxomley, to beat for ward." [Obf. Horace fays, Eft quodam PRODIRE tenus, fi non datur ultra. Epift. I. i. 32.] St. Luke, chap. iii. ver. 13. Μηδεν πλέον παρα το διαλλαγμενου i poole, and in chap. xix. ver. 23, Δια τι εκ έδωκας το αργύριον με επι την τραπεζαν, και εξω ελθων συν τῷ τοκῳ αν επραξα αυτό; So Lucian, in his Vitarum au&tione, Φερ' ίδω τι και πράξεις με Tsp auT8-in Demofthenes feveral times, σρατίεσθαι φορές, χρημαία. But in thefe expreffions the primary fignification is preferved; for whoever exacts tributes on public authority, he makes and gets money. Το πρατίειν is a word of very copious meaning and ufe: it therefore fignifies alfo " to obtain :" thus parler si wafe Tiros-Ifocr. ad Nicocl. Alfo," to be in this or that condi tion,” as εν πραττειν, κακως πραττειν. [Obf. I. On wpaoole, in chap. iii. 13, it may be remarked, that Xenophon, in his Hiftory, ufes the word in the fame fen(e-Εκ τότε δε Αλκιβιάδης μεν σχετο ες τον Ελλησπολον και ες Χερρονης σου χρημαία πράξων. Χen. Ελλ. lib. I. c. iii. THOMAS MAGISTER explains the word thus: @garla & μover to wor Critical Obfervations on the Ferculum Literarium of Jenfius. 387 και πάσχω, αλλά και το απαιτῶ, ὁ και εισπρατίειν λεγομενο Ob. II. Xenophon allo ufes the word πραττειν, “ε το obtain:” ελεγον ότι Λακεδαιμονιοι παίλων ὢν δεονται πεπραζόλες είεν παρα βασιλέως. Ελλ. 1. 4. Ol. III. The ufe of εν πρατίειν, and xaxws @garles, to imply "being in a happy or wretched condition," "being fortunate or unfortunate," is fo frequent, that it is almost needlefs to refer to authorities. The reader may fee inftances in Elch. 'Exl. Onb. ver. 4. 77Ӕ(ch. Прод. 264-Eurip. Фоьу. 1618. 1528-Soph. Hλ. 1009. 1032-iλ. 429 -Plato's Axxi. a. x. It may, how· ever, be remarked, and proved by examples at length, that early is alfo ufed to fignify" to do a good action”— and κακως πραττειν " to do a bad altion.” In Xenophon's Memorabilia, lib. II. c. i. 33. Ηδέως μεν των παλαιών πράξεων μεμνήθαι, Εν δε τας παρασας ήδονται IIPATTONTEƐ "they remember with pleafure actions paft, and are delighted in well doing the prefent." Thefe words of Deïanira, 66 και γαρ ύτερῳ το γ' ΕΤ ΠΡΑΣΣΕΙΝ, &c. Soph. Trach. 92. the Scholiaft thus paraphrafes: Kai yag το βραδέως τα δέοντα ποιεῖν επειδαν ακέση τις, κέδρος αποφερείαι; and BRUNCK has properly tranflated them, "Nam qui vel fero, fimulac monitus eft, ad bene faciendum fe adplicat, is lucrum aufert," An inftance of garle with the adverb xaλw; in a fimilar fenfe does not immediately occur; but with the adje&tive naλα it is found in Euripides, and fignifies "facere :" Αλλα επει τα μη καλα Hec. 1257. Πράσσειν πολμας. where πράσσειν μη καλα is “ to commit actions base." Of weaσor nanwg we have an example in the following lines, which, whether written by Euripides (as Grotius thinks), or by Philemon, or Diphilus (as older commentators had conjectured), are well worthy of our notice, as they enforce two important doctrines of Natural and Revealed Religion, the Being of GOD, and a Future Punifbment: Ε, τις δε θνετων οιεῖαι ταφ ἡμέραν Κακον τι πρασσων της Θεὸς λεληθεται, Δοκεῖ πονηρα και δοκῶν ἁλισκεται· Ότ' αν σχόλην αίεσα το χανει δίκη, Τιμωρίαν έλισεν ὧν ήρξεν κακως. See Hug. Grot. Proleg. Stob. If in the daily intercourse of life He thinks profanely; and amidst his thoughts But though thefe inftances of tv @gatλειν and κακως πραττειν, in the acceptation of “ doing a good aftion, or a bad action," be of indifputable authority, nevertheless they are not to be reconmended for the imitation of thofe who would compole in the Greek language, They may fecure from cenfure, buc would not entitle to commendation, in point of accurate diction, any writer who fhould choose to deviate from more general practice under the fanction of fome rare examples. Euripides, in Iph. T. ver. 326, has raiaTo-Sophocles, in Oed. Col. 1697, ed. Brunck, yeralain Oed. T. 1274, ed. Br. ¿ozt. 8, ♪ xeywooalo, all Ionicifas in Iambic veries: Æfchylus, in Prom. 265, has πρασσονίας εξω δε ταυθ ̓ ἁπαιδί ηπι· sauny, the fecond foot being an Ana pelt and other veftiges of Ionic diction are to be found in the Greek tragedies which are profetfedly Attic. Nor to the reader who remembers that the lonic and Attic dialects were once both the fame; who conjectures that probably through every ftage of the Attic dialect fome Ionic phrafeology fill kept its ground; who is not fo partial to the moft exact writers as to imagine that they never inadvertently admit into their compofitions fome inaccuracies, Quas aut incuria fudit, HOR. A P. 352. and who thinks the Greek tragedians, writing as they did in the ancient Attic, might very easily fall into an Ionicifm ; will there appear any reason to suppose that |