Mr. URBAN, April 10. ***T this crifis, when alinoft all the powers of Europe are engaged in war, nothing can be more useful or import XXX ant than the follow ing obfervations, extracted from a new and much improved edition of a Treatife on Tropical Difeales. They are the remarks of a gentleman, well acquainted with foreign climates; are founded on accurate in vestigation, and sanctioned by long experience. Our diftant colonies, our militia, our fleets, and armies, are under great obligations to the writer.I have only to add, that this communication comes from an impartial hand; and if any apology fhould be thought neceflary for tranfmitting this extract to your Magazine, it is principally due to the author for the liberty I am now taking with his excellent publication. Yours, &c. J. RN. "THE fame mifchiefs which attend de lays in offenfive war, and the fame medical confiderations which relate to military operations in hot climates, apply, in a con fiderable degree, to military operations in every climate; and particularly to fuch as are carried an in Europe, in the autumnal feafon of the year. "Expedition and health are the foul of martial enterprife: and next in importance, in any army, to that general who beft understands the fecret of not exposing his foldiers to difeafes, is that phyfician who best knows how to meet their causes, and remove them the speedieft. "Curing diseases in an army is never ⚫ well done, unless it be done quickly. There never are conveniences in an army for long fickness. A foldier's bed is often only a blanket, and all his neceffaries contained in his knapsack. The attacks of difeafes are here always fudden and viojent. The cure, if poffible, fhould be juunde-but it must be citò, if at all. For, * Dr. Mofeley. GENT. MAG. April, 1793. PART I. the diseases of a few days in an army have fometimes defeated, and often nearly ruined, many of the greatest designs in the annals of wars. "On the 23d of October, 1415, Henry The Fifth, with his English archers, would not have "afrighted the air at Agincourt †," if impetuofity had fuffered the French to remain quiet; and, had the battle been delayed another week, his whole army would have been ruined. "He embarked with 50,000 men from Southampton, on the the 18th and 19th of Auguft 1415, and landed at Havre de Grace on the 21ft. He marched to Harfleur, befieged and took it. During the fiege, which was not fix weeks from the time of his leaving England, he loft nearly half of his army by the bloody flux. Two thouthe flux, which was got among his troops, fands died of it in one day, Rapin fays, had made, and still did make, fuch ravage, that not above the fourth part of his army were able to bear arms. This diftemper had not feized the common foldiers only, but even the most confiderable perfons were not free from it. The Bishop of Norwich, and the Earl of Suffolk, were already dead of it. the Earl of Arundel, and feveral other offi The Duke of Clarence, the King's brother, cers of diftinction, were fo dangerously ill, that they were obliged to return to England in hopes of a cure.' Oliver Cromwell's army was fo reduced by "In 1650, in the month of September, fluxes, from a few days rain, before Dunbar, that he had, probably, never been protector of England, if the Lord had deferred delivering the Scotch army into his hands a few days longer. When Cromwell faw the Scotch army in motion, he said, 'the Lord is going to deliver them into our hands.' after the battle of Dettingen, a heavy shower In 1743, on the 28th of June, the night of rain fell, preceded by very hot and dry weather, to which the English troops, lying all night on the field of battle, without tents, were expofed, and the night following they encamped on wet ground. Shakspeare, Henry V. Chorus, A&t 1. lefs Ifs than eight days, five hundred men were il with the dyfentery, and within fix weeks, half that army was afflicted with it. "The combined armies of Auftria and Pruffia, amounting to nearly 100,000 men, under the command of the King of Pruflia and the duke of Brunfwick, which in the autumn of 1792 entered France, for the purposes declared in the Duke of Brunf wick's manifeftos of the 25th and 27th of July, at Coblentz, being topped in their Career, were in one month rendered, chiefly by the dyfentery, incapable of any other operation than retreating. "A great army remaining on the fame ground, in autumn, fuppofing the feafon not fo uncommonly wet as this has been, muft foon be ruined by disease. "The filth alone of an immenfe body of men, ftationary in the field in autumn, aud compreffed as this army muft neceffarily have been, was fufficient to give rife to every fpecies of peftilence; and, from the contaminated fate of the air which furrounded them, it was impoffible that the troops could recover from any difesfe whatever. Under fuch circumstances, when a nu merous army can no longer advance, that moment is the fignal for retreat. There fore, thefe commanders, after the d of September, when they poffeffed themfelves of Verdun, and found they could proceed only fourteen miles farther, remained in the field only to fill their hofpitals. For, from this period, their army began to decay rapidly; and by the 12th of October, when they were obliged to furrender Verdun, on being fummoned, their fick had augmented fo much, from various caufes, and became fo great an embarraffment, that, when they were compelled to quit France, they found their whole army in fuch a mifrable condition, that even their retreat was attended with danger, and accomplished with difficulty, in the midft of the havock of death. "I find, and indeed the fact has ever been the fame, that the Pruffians were very healthy during their marches towards France, from their own country; and alío afterwards, while they were moving from place to place; and kept in motion :-but when arrested in their progrefs, fixed to one fpot on the marthy plains of Champagne, and expofed to the evils I have mentioned, a more fudden or extenfive fcene of military difafter was never exhibited. Thus this vaft and wonderfully appointed force, which had taken almoft three years, in "dreadful note of preparation,” was able to remain only two months in France. "Longwy, the first and last place they occupied, was given up to them on the 23d of Auguft; and they furrendered it, by capitulation, on the 23d of October. "The occurences and event of this hort, tut memorable expedition, fhew the impor tance of skilful physicians in a great army; which, far from home, is always a great evil, and has more wantsthan are generally calculated:-when health is one of them, numbers effect nothing, but in their recoil multiply diftrefs, and increase confufion." Mr. URBAN, Ο April 19. No man, I am confcious, can more frongly obje&t to the publication bumufly, or without the knowledge of private correspondence, either pofiand conjent of the authors themfelves, if living, than myfelf. But, in a cafe of fuch importance and general concern as the rectifying the public judgement, and the appropriation of literary honours to those who really deferve them, let punctilio give way to truth. The following then, Sir, is an extract from a letter to a perfon, once known in the world of literature, but feveral years ago deceased. The writer of the letter is ftill alive; from a regard to whofe peate and feelings, which perhaps might feverely fuffer, were he unwilling to be dragged into a papercontroverfy, I fhall only give it to the prefs anonymously though I feel, with how much more weight it would appear, if authenticated by the author's name, whofe veracity no one would venture to impeach, and whole candour is well known through the medium of his writings. "Northampton, 08. 26, 1746. "By the Rev Mr. Layng's permission, I have fent fome of his delicately foft tranflation of Taffo to Cave. The whole 16th bock will be published foon. Taffo is certainly, next to Homer, Virgil, and Milton, the greatest geuius nature ever formed. Layng has pointed out feveral of his beauties to me. The English never have had any notion of him:-but they will be in raptures, when Layng's Tranflation appears; for, his excellency is poetry, and he is no the best poet in England, indifputably. He TRANSLATED A CONSIDERABLE PART OF POPE'S HOMER, and was VERY INTIMATE with him. He is exceffively good natured, and defpifes fame fo much, as rarely to put his name to any thing, and often burns, or gives away, excellent things." Such is this allertion, too general, on which to detract from the general merit of our English Homer; but, as it appears to have been countenanced by, if not originating from, M. Layng humfelf, an affection furely well worth developing. I therefore leave it for the investigation of your readers, having premiled, that the lines of the 16th book, mentioned in the letter, appear in Mr. Urban's vol. XVII. p. 100. There are fome elegant lines of Mr. Layng's in vol. XIX. addreffed to Stra han, the tranflator of the Eneid: but whether he was qualified to affift Pupe, we may reafonably doubt. These two fpecimens of his poetry are fpirited, but, I think, rather barb, instead of delicately-foft, and with a greater variation of paufes than Pope would have thought allowable. Yours, &c. INDAGATOR. Mr. URBAN, Litchfield, April 18. IN your lait Magazine I was furprised, and forry, to fee extracts from a former correfpondence between Mr. Hayley and myself, on the fubject of Dr. Johnfon's Lives of the Poets. I remember fending, many years ago, to fome of my diftant friends, thefe very extracts, induced by the wit and elegance of the Haylean paffages; not fufpecting that my confidence would be betrayed by their publication; a circumftance to which I never fhould have confented, because I could not be unconfcious that it would be difagreeable to Mr. Hayley. You have received an inaccurate tranfcript of the extracts from my letters. In the firft, p. 198, the word Sparkles fhould be fpangles, alluding to the filver fpangles on the zone of Serena. In the laft fentence on the fame page, instead of the nonfenfe made by the words its formal vifits, I wrote " on any of bis former wifits;" and the fenfe of the pallage, which fucceeds, is fpoiled by the interpolation of the words "and to." It was originally written thus: "So true it is, that to decry the genius of others, is too apt to induce the multitude, ever flattered by feeing thofe fuperiorities levelled which they have grudgingly allowed, give double credit to the abilities of the leveller." Nor let's injurious to the sense of the first passage in the fifth extract is the omiffion of two words. It should be, "Nothing was ever better imagined than the Leviathan fimile for a Being fo heterogeneously conftructed." And, in the concluding fentence of these extracts, the word magnify being improperly printed with a capital letter, feems to begin a new fentence, and it is rendered utterly confufed by the word thefe being used inflead of their. It should be, He would as foon ridicule the memory of his greatest benefactors as thofe of indifferent pesple, magnify their foibles into crimes," &c. Yours, &c. ANNA SEWARD, T is a misfortune incident to human nature, that its fineft frailties may be perverted to the most destructive ends. Love, the brightest park that enlivens the foul, burns frequently for the impureft purposes, and lends its rays too often to inflame the eyes of luft, and to light the adulterer to his couch. There is "ne'er a mother's fon between this and the antipodes," from "beardlefs fixteen to greybeard fixty," who has not at fome period of his life fruggled in the Cytherean net, and confefled the power of the blind god. But let them defcribe the impulses that push them forwards into the fnare, and you will find that they have worthiped fome other deity than real Love: fome ufurper, who has borrowed his name and authority. From the beginning it has been fo, and to the end it will continue fo; for, the prefent age, with all its refinements, is more difiant from the knowledge of real love than our forefathers were in the 15th century. But, of all the artillery which love has employed to brighten eyes and foften hearts, the 'mott effectual and forcible is the modern novel. Of all the arrows which Cupid ever shot at youthful hearts, this is the trueft. There is no refifting. It is the literary opium, which lulls every fenfe into oblivious rapture; and, rfpecting the bias, of a young lady's mind, one may venture to turn out the Lanes and Hook hams, with half a dozen of their combuftible duodecimos, against the nurse, the mother, and the Common Prayer Book-Aye and they would conquer them too. Thefe gentlemen are real patriots, never-failing friends to the propagation of the human fpecies. They have counteracted the defigns of the Biitifh Senate against matrimony, and, in contempt of the Marriage Act,pofl-chaifes and young couples run fmoothly on the Northern Road. All this, and more, we owe to novels, which have operated like electricity on the great national body, and have raised the humble fpirit of citizens to a parallel with the verieft romp of quality. But what charms all ranks of people in thefe productions is the manner-unreftrained by that difgufting fimplicity, that timid coynefs that checked the fancies of former ages, the modern Mutes are flark naked; and it is no vague atferron, that they have contributed more than any other caute to debauch the morals of the young of the fair fex. Novels, according according to the practice of the times, are the powerful engines with which the feducer attacks the female heart; and, if we judge from every day's experience, his plots are feldom fruitless. Never was an apter weapon for so black a purpofe. Tricked out in the trappings of tafte, a loose and airy difhabille, with a flaggering gait and wanton eye, the modern Mufe trips jauntily along, the true child of folly and fashion. A wretched levity of thought, delivered at random in an incoherent ftyle, paffes current for fentiment; and fo alertly has this mental jargon played its part, that our young ladies begin to throw out Steele and Addifon for H-- and R——. the man was clear and exact in the ac. count. He fays, "that, on Thursday morning, the 4th inft. he was engaged in mending a hedge, and in lopping a tree near for that purpose it inclined towards him; the hedge, and ground he ftood upon, moved, and be, at the fame moment, beard a noise not unlike a diftant bail-form. On running from it, towards the river Wye, between which was a narrow meadow, he obferved a fight, awful and alarming; a large part of the floping hill, with trees, &c. on it, moving gradually towards him; and it fince appears clearly, from fome accurate obfervations made on the spot, that it continued its motion, more or lefs, from Thurfday to Friday morning. By the next morning, it had buried a horfe road, for fome hundred yards; and, on my taking an accurate furvey of it, on Monday morning, its appearance was that of a very extraordinary convulfion of nature. I cannot fay, as Baker fays, of its neighbour, Marcley Hill, that it moved upwards, it was a movement downwards, and, in its progrefs inclining S. W. it has left immenfe chafms in the earth, and moved tones thence of the magnitude of upwards of five or fix tons; a number of trees thrown down, fome moved ftand What effect that graceless rapture, and those broken periods, which are in almoft all novels, may produce on untutored minds, let a thousand boarding-schools witnefs. This contagion is the more to be dreaded as it daily fpreads through all ranks of people; and Mifs the Taylor's Daughter talks now as familiarly, to her confident Mifs Staytape, of fwains and fentiments as the accomplished Dames of genteel life. In short, if a man of fenfe has a defire to chufe a rational woman for his wife, he reaches his grand climacteric before he can find a fair-one to trust himself with, fo universal is the corruption. These are the fatal confeng, and now remaining fo; and a cirquences of Novels ! P. P. P. Mr. URBAN, Hereford, April 12. Send you I fome particulars of a cir cumftance that has occafioned fome furprize, and indeed, confternation, among numbers in this neighbourhood; you will obferve, that, in its effect, it is nearly a counterpart to the moving of Marcley Hill, in the neighbourhood of which, this fecond commotion has happened. On Sunday last, I heard it mentioned, that an earthquake had happened at Caplow Hill, 2 miles from the village of Fownhope, and 8 miles S. E. from Hereford. Knowing how much thefe accounts are often enlarged upon, I treated it lightly, till I heard more particulars, the fame evening, which induced me to walk there on Monday morning, as my curiofity was much excited to fee the effects of the commotion that had taken place, which altogether exceeded every expectation I had formed. The account from a man and boy, that were on the fpot when the ground firit began to move, is as follows. Of the truth I have no reason to doubt, as *See Camd. Brit. II. 443. 461. new ed. cumftance of a large old yew tree, fill more remarkable, it appearing to have moved near 60 feet, and now is fianding firm and uninjured. The chalms and cracks are from fix inches to fire feet wide, and fix and feven feet in depth. Had I not feen the tracks of perfons feet in fome parts of it, I fhould icarce have attempted to have examined it to accurately. The people near infift it is more than fix acres of ground that has moved. As far as I can form an opinion from walking over it, I believe it to be from 4 to 5 acres. Some part of the fall came into the river, and, had it continued, muft have materially changed the face of it. From all the obtervations I can make, it appears to be an extraordinary fall, or flip, of ground, occafioned by the earth being Loofened, from the wet and rain of the last year. The immenfe large ftones being moved in various directions, is the only circumstance, that inclines the opinion to think it more than a mere flip of the ground. A new road, made on the top of Caplous Wood, leading to Rofs, is near where the fall, or flip, first began. On flanding on the fum mit of the precipice it appears to have funk funk fifty feet perpendicular, and then to have moved, or travelled onwards; on the right hand of the road, due W. is the fall; and on the left hand, due E. rifes that part of the hill that forms the camp, whence is an extensive and beautiful view. Due E. from the camp, at less than two miles diñance, is feen its wandering neighbour, Marcley Hill; due W. near 600 feet, is feen the river Wye, meandring in great beauty through a fine country. The village of Fownhope, with the house and park at Holmme Lacy (the Duke of Norfolk's); the celebrated Dindac camps Cardon Hill, near Thorchefter; Lady Hill, near Fofdy; the whole, terminated by the Brecon and Radnorbire hills, conftitute a part of this charming fcene. The town of Hereford is feen in a fine point of view, near Rotheras wood. difregard thofe qualities in a neighbour, that do not contribute to the intereft, amufement, or convenience, of themselves. Horology effentially benefits the commu. nity at large, but the knowledge of it poffeffed by your correfpondent cannot be made by his prefent neighbours conducive to the above ends, and therefore they take exception to it. It is extraordinary, that, notwithstanding the generality of people are bourly experiencing the utility of clocks and watches, few care how they are conftructed. I understand not horology myself, I confefs, but I refpe&t the art that has fupplied me with two fuch great conveniences as those above-mentioned, and I respect the perfons who practice that art. But, fetting all this afide, I particularly honour your correfpondent for perfevering in a recreation that he is confcious-justly confcious-is rational and innocent. A As I made a sketch of the appearance clergyman fettled in the country stands of the ground on Monday, I will in my peculiarly in need of an entertaining emnext add a memorandum, which will ploy that comes under that description, tend to explain it better. And, if this and a clergyman is more circumfcribed proves acceptable to Mr. Urban, I will than a layman in the selection of a standmake a more exact and finished drawing amufement, because the gravity of ing, to accompany it, and fhall then be induced to take another walk. Mr. URBAN, April 5. THE HE reafons urged, p. 38, by the ingenious clergyman for not making known his name, have excited, in my mind, a train of reflections on his fituation. Regarding him as a valuable individual in a great measure loft to himfelf and to fociety. I lament exceedingly the unfortunate eiror committed by his perents in not placing him in the line his genius pointed to: had they done fo, he might now have been one of the firft artifts in it, been happy, affluent, refpect. ed, and poffibly diftinguithed by fcientific honours! Errors of this kind are the more inexcufable, because irremidiable; and, in respect to your correspondent, the miftake is the more to be regretted, by reafon that fo few are gifted with a tafte for horology; excellence in which is therefore very rare, men never attaining eminence in any fcience they have not an intuitive turn for. Acquainted with country life, I readily comprehend the circumftances this gen tleman alludes to his principal parihioneis, I make no doubt, call him an odd mortal, and the inferior ones probably confider him as a kind of conjurer. Men are greatly addicted to disparaging what they do not understand, and are apt to his calling must be preserved, and he must be always in the way forfear of being wanted unexpectedly to comfort or baptize the dying; and yet, many days may pafs together, without his receiving any requifition to perform either those or any other occafional duties; hence, many leisure hours must occur on weekdays, and it furely is not neceffary that they fhould be all spent in the compofition of fermons. As many clergymen, for want of fomething to enliven thefe periods of tedium, fall into habits very unbecoming their profeffion; I think, that your correfpondent is fo far from being blamable, that his example is worthy of imitation; and I fincerely wish, that fome man of confequence may procure him preferment in a place where he would be likely to meet with that esteem, which his fente, piety, ingenuity, and diftintereftnefs, entitle him to.-But, alas! my with is nugatory; as the narrowness of his circumftances will prevent him from becoming known to men who have the power of conferring fervices of that kind; for, as he is not able to give good dinners, keep fine horfes, make a figure in any manner at public meetings, or take the other ufual methods of obta ning the favour of the world, he is not likely ever to gain an introduction to a man able to relieve him in the way I mean; but indeed, if he was able and willing to do these things, eccentric talent would pafs |