fifted his infpiration, and augmented and deepen'd the rumbling of his periods. It begins in the following manner: "The gloriously tranfcendent, and highly-exalted precipice, from which the fonorous accents of my lungs refound with repeated echoes, is fo pompous, magnificent, illuftrious,and loftily towering, that, as I twirle around my arm with the artful flourish of an orator, I feem to feel my knucles rebound from the, blue vault of Heaven, which juft arches over my head. Aand upon an amazing eminence that heaves itself up,on both fides fleep and ftupendous! high and horrendous! The fpiry Teneriffe, the unshaken Atlas, or Olympus divine and celeftial, when compared to this prodigious mountain, fink to fands, and dwindle to atoms. It is deep-rooted in its ever during foundations, firm as the earth, lafting as the fun, immoveable as the pillars of nature! I behold from this awful and afton thing fituation, the concave expanie of uncreated space, ftretch itfelf above; and the land and ocean below, spreading an infinitude of extenfion all about me. But what daring tropes and flaming metaphors fhall I felect, Oafpiring Beacon! to celebrate thee with a fuitable grandeur, or lift thee to a becoming dignity? How does it shoot up its inconceivable !pinnacle into the fuperior regions, and blend itfelf with the cœrulancircum ambient ether! It mocks the fierceft efforts of the most piercing fight, to reach to its impenetrable fublimities. It looks down upon the diminished fpheres; the fixt fars twinkle at an immeafur able diftance beneath it; while the planets roll away, unperceived, in a vaft, a fathomlefs profound !******" By this little quotation from Mr. Brimflone's panegyric on BeaconHill, my reader will in fome meafure be able to judge of his manner of thinking, and expreffing himself. It appears plainly that he heaps his fubject with improper and foreign thoughts that he trains thofe thoughts into the most unnatural and ridiculous diftortions; and, laft of all, that he clouds them with fo many needlefs fupernumerary epithets, as to fling the whole piece into this unaccountable huddle of impertinence and inconfiftency. George is migh fond of hard founding words, and, his topick be what it will, he has p petual recourfe to them upon all em gencies. He once took it in his he to be in love, and wrote a poem his mistress on that delicate paffion But inftead of the gentle flow of ha mony which any one would reason bly have expected, and which is deed effential to compofitions of th kind, his numbers ftalked along furdy and outragious as in any oth of his performances. I myself cour ed in fifty fix lines of it, three cele als, eight immortals, eleven unbour eds, fix everlastings, four eternit and thirteen infinites; befides bello ings, ravings, yellings, horrors, t ribles, racklings, hubbubs and cl terings, without number. But wi pleafed me the moft of any of friends compositions, was, A poeti defcription of a game at pufh p Sure, thought I, when I read the tle, there can be nothing very lo and impetuous upon fo trivial a m ter as this. How I was furprized of my mistake, my reader will in fo measure conceive, when he und ftands that the firft diftich of the po runs thus, "Rage, fire, and fury in my bo roll, And all the gods rush headlong my foul." He then proceeded to compare pins to two comets, whofe heads he expreffed it, enlightened the bou lefs deferts of the skies with a blo glare, and threw behind them ther dy volumes of their tremendous tra into the tra&lefs wastes of immen When the pins met in the progre the game, for a fimilitude, he fup ed the two continents to be to from their foundations, and encou with a direful concuffion, in the of the briny atlantic; or rather, he, as if two fyftems of worlds, planets and all, fhould be hurled fiftless one against another, and da horrible chaos, from the general of matter, and wrecks of a whole verfe. He concluded the poem the following lines, which I look to be the moft finished pattern of fort of productions, that I have where met with; whether I con roar, Infinite earthquakes rock the bounding shore." I fhall conclude these remarks upon bombaf, with an observation which Iought in juftice to make, in favour of those who fall into it; viz That no person can be a confiderable profiCeat this way, who has not a good hare of natural powers and abilities. Hence, when we see a young man delivering himself in this warm manner, he is to be regarded as a good genius run wild, for want of cultivation from fudy, and the rules of art: And it follows, that should such a juvenile writer, take proper methods to improve his mind, by innuring himself to a clofe way of reafoning, and by converfing with the beft authors, however defective he might be in this particular at firft, he would in the end make a chaßte and excellent writer. Thus it happened to the immortal Virgil, whofe divine Eneid once hot itself into fo great a luxuriance, as to be near twenty times as large as it appears at this day. As his imagination cooled by years, and his judg meat ripened, and hafted on to marurity, his style dropped the falle glare of ornaments, and fhone with an equal purity and elegance; his thoughts leuned to proportion themfelves to his fubje&t, and caft themselves into that exact fymmetry of arrangement and dispɔfizion, in which they now charm us ; and, in a word, a new beauty began to dawn in every line of that exquifite work which confecrates his deathlefs fame to the admiration of all pofterity. N Natural Hiftory of Cold. melting of ice, if it be laid upon fome fubftances it melts failer than upon others, nor can we affign any Caufe for the difference; it melts fooner in a filver plate than upon the palm of the hand; and it melts fooner upon copper than any other metal whatfoever. Ice melts fooner in water than exposed to the air of a fimilar temperature, fooner in water a little warm than near the fire where it is hotter. It melts fooner in the void than expofed to the atmosphere. If it takes twenty minutes to diffolve in open air, it will be but four minutes diffolving in the exhaufted receiver. It takes a much longer time to melt than it does to form. Water congealed in fix minutes, takes some hours to refume its fluidity, if placed in fuch air as would not freeze it naturally, and yet of moderate coolness. Upon this principle it is that ice houses are formed, for we must not imagine that, at the ordinary depth to which these are funk, water would congeal if left to itfelf. On the contrary, water brought there always preferves its fluidity. The large maffes of ice or fnow that are placed there, melt in fome proportion; but as their thaw is carried on very flowly, there is ftill fufficient quantities of ice left for the purposes of luxury. Of all fluids oil of olives freezes fooneft, and other oils in fucceffion; I mean of thofe oils that have been made by preffure, not by diftillation. Water and fuch infipid liquors follow next, then fpirits of wine, and all fp rituous liquors, which however take a large quantity of freezing cold to congeal them. The moй watery parts of thefe begin to freeze firft, while the ftronger fiery (pirit flies to the centre, and frequently is found concentred in the midst of the cafk in the hardeft frofts, ftill preferving its Auidity. Spirit of nitre and fuch acid fpirits, as well as vinegar itfelé greatly refift congelation, tho' they are found not able to endure extreme cold, which at length deftroys their fluidity. Quick-filver, it was thought till of late, was not to be congealed by any degree of cold whatfoever. But in this naturalifts were miftaken; for the royal academy at Petersburg, have not long fince congealed it into au icy mafs by a method well known to almoft every philofopher before, but profecuted by none of them with equal perfeverance. The Ruffian acade mifts only used the fame arts by which philofophers were accuftomed to make artificial ice at pleasure. We fhall firf give the common method of making ice, and then the new art of freezing quick filver. It was faid in the beginning of this chapter, that fal ammoniac being mixed with pounded ice or fnow, melted them, and at the fame time made them colder. A fimilar, tho' not fo intense a cold, may alío be thus given to fnow-water by any falt what fover; fuch as alum, copperas, faltpetre, or common fea falt, which we ufe at our tables. Now, if we take about four pounds of fnow, or pounded ice, and mix them with about a pound of falt; in this compofition, if we fet a water glafs up to the edges in water, and filled with water, we shall foon ieethefalt diffolve the ice or snow; but while diffolving, it will at the fame time freeze the water in the glafs into one folid mafs of ice, or at least will leave a fufficient quantity flicking to the fides to fhew the truth of the experiment. Naturalifts all infift upon the neceffity of using falt of fome kind or other in this experiment; but I have often made ice by the fire fide, without any falt whatfoever, and which every perfon that pleases may readily try. It is only to fill a fmall deep pewter difh with water,and upon that to place a common pewter plate filled, but not heaped with fnow. Bring this fimple apparatus near the fire, ftir the now in the plate with a cane or any other inftrument. The fnow will diffolve, and the ice will be formed upon the back of the plate which was fet in the difh of water. I have tried it frequently without falt, and it anfwers. though not with equal efficacy. But of late there has been a more effectual method of congealing fluids than any yet mentioned. It has been difcovered that fluids flanding in a current of air, grow by this means much colder than before. It has been difcovered alfo, that all fub. ftances grow colder by the fluids they contain or are mixed with being evaporated. If both these methods, therefore, are practised upon the fame body at the fame time, they will in creafe the cold to almost any degree of intenfenefs we defire. The Ruffian experiment at Peterfburg, of congealing quick filver was thus: At a time when the quick-filver was found to have fallen extremely low, and the cold confequently to be very intenfe, the mercury being by de Lifle's thermometer, which is beft adapted for meafuring the degrees of cold, as Fahrenheit's for measuring thofe of heat, being, I fay, by this thermometer, fallen to 250 degrees, they encreased the cold by mixing the fuming sprit of nitre, and having been left to cool in fnow, with half as much fnow in a common glafs, ftirring it till it becomes of the confiftence of pap, the thermometer being dipped into this compofition, the quick-filver funk to 470 degrees. Upon a repetition of this experiment, when the mercury (which contrary to the manner of water, inftead of dilating fill continued to contract with increased cold) funk to 500 degrees, they broke the glafs, and it was found frozen into an hard folid mafs; but what was most extraordinary, it bore the hammer like a common metal, and was beat into the fhape of an half crown. At laft however, it began to break, and being thawed, recovered its former fluidity. From hence we fee that the fpirits either of falt or nitre, are pos feffed of the power of cooling liquors in a much higher degree than the common fubftances in concrete. If common falt-petre finks the thermometer to 11 degrees, fpirit of nitre will be found to fink it eight degrees ftill lower, as has been difcovered by Fahrenheit. From all that has been faid upon this subject, we can give probable reasons for the different degrees of cold in different regions, though under the fame latitude, and confequently bleffed with equal proportions of folar heat. Thus for inAance, the latitude of Moscow and Edinburgh, is precifely the fame, yet in the one the cold is often found to be forty degrees greater than freezing while the other feldom feels above five. One reafon may be that the air of of the one country may be more charged with falts proper for producing cold than the other. It may be alfo obferved, that the internal or central heat of one region may be exceeded by that in the fame parallel, and it must therefore be for this reafon colder. It may be faid, that a country which lies high, and on whose mountains ice gathers in great quantites, will upon that account be colder fill, for c, as we have feen, is not only produced by cold, but also prodeces cold. The regions of NorthAmerica are colder by far than thofe of fimilar latitudes in Europe, and probably for the reafons already mentioned. Elay on Tafte. come next to confider its deviations reign of King Charles II. which the authors too of that time deemed an Auguftan age; when nothing was in vogue but an affected brilliancy of wit; when the fimple majefty of Milton was over looked, and paradife loft almost entirely unknown; when Cowley's laboured and unnatural conceits were admired as the quinteffence of genius; Waller's gay fprightliness was miftaken for the tender fpirit of love poetry, and fuch writers as Suckling and Etheridge were held in efteem for dramatic compofition. What conclufion are we to form from fuch inftances as thefe? Is there any thing that can be called a ftandard of talle, by appealing to which we may diftinguith between a good and a bad tafte? Or is there in truth no fuch diftin&tion; and are we to hold according to the proverb, there is no difputing of tafte; but that whatever pleafes is right, for that reafon that it does please? If there be no fuch thing as any ftandard of tafte, this confequence muft immediately follow that all taftes furdity of which presently becomes are equally good; a pofition, the ab, glaring. For is there any one who will feriously maintain that the taste of a Hottentot or Laplander is as delicate and correct as that of a Longinus or an Addifon? or that he can be charged with no defect or incapacity who thinks a common news writer as excellent an hiftorian as Tacitus ? There is therefore fome foundation for the preference of one man's tafte to that of another; or, there is a good and a bad, right and a wrong in tafte, as in other things. The diverfity of taftes which prevails among mankind, does not in every cafe infer corruption of tafte. The tastes of men may differ very confiderably as to their object, and yet none of them be wrong. One man relishes poetry moft; another takes pleafure in nothing but biftory. The young are amufed with gay and prightly compofitions. The elderly are more entertained with those of a graver caft. It is not in matters of tafle, as in queftions of mere reafon, where there is but one conclufion that can be true, and all the reft are erroneous. Truth, which is the obje&t of reafon, reason, is one; beauty, which is the of mankind the ultimate appeal mu But have we then, it will be fa no other criterion of what is beau ful, than the approbation of the m jority? Muft we collect the voice others, before we form any judgme for ourselves, of what deferves a plaufe in eloquence or poetry? By means; there are principles of real and found judgment which can be plied to matters of tafte, as well as the fubjects of fcience and philofop He who aumires or cenfures any wo of genius, is always ready, if his t is in any degree improved, to af fome reasons of his decifion. He peals to principles, and points out ground on which he proceeds. T is a fort of compound power in wi the light of the underflanding alw mingles, more or lefs, with the Tafte, as before explained, is ultimately founded on an internal fenfe of beauty, which is natural to men, and which, in its application to particular objects is capable of being guided and enlightened by reafon. Now, were there any one perfon who, poffelfed in full perfection all the powers of human nature, whofe internal fenfes were in every inftance exquiAre and juft, and whofe reafon was unerring and fure, the determinations of fuch a perfon concerning beauty, would, beyond doubt, be a perfe& fandard for the tafte of all others. Wherever their tafte differed from his, it could be imputed only to fome imperfection in their natural powers. But as there is no fuch living standard, no one perfon to whom all mankind will allow fuch fubmiffion to be due, what is there of fufficient authority to be the ftandard of the various and op. pofite tastes of men? Moft certainly there is nothing but the tafle, as far as it can be gathered, of human nature. That which men concur the moft in admiring, must be held to be beautiful. As take must be esteemed juft and true, which coincides with the general fentiments of men. In this Kandard we must reft. To the fenfe But, though reason can carry u a certain length in judging conc ing works of tafte, it is not to be gotten that the ultimate concluf to which our reasonings lead, at laft to fenfe and perception. may fpeculate and argue concer propriety of conduct in a tragedy an epic poem. Juft reasoning When we refer to the concu fentiments of men as the ultimat of what is to be accounted bea in the arts, this is always to be derflood of men placed in fuch tions as are favourable to the p exertions of tafte. We refer t fentin |