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take leave of this writer with a fhort fpecimen or two of his raillery on himself.

"I do not know whether my nativity was ever regularly caft; but if it was, I am confident it must have appeared, that I was born under the malignant influence of fome or other of the planets to which the old chemifts paid a more particular devotion; and it is well known, that they had much recourfe to the planets. For I cannot otherwife account for my being fo exceedingly obnoxious to lecturers in chemifry as I have been. If I might adopt the doctrines of my Scotch antagonists, I should fay they feem to be poffeffed of an inflinctive antipathy towards me, and to fall upon me as naturally as the wild affes, in Arabia, fall upon the horie, or, if they like it better, as the wild horfes of Arabia fall upon the afs."

Why the doctor's Scotch antagonists are to be dragged into this English difpute we do not readily conceive, any more than we can dif. cover from the construction of the fentence, whether the doctor chufes to fit down under the appellation of the horfe or the ass. We would thence drop a hint, however, into the doctor's ear, to be aware for the future of handling that dangerous weapon, wit. He is more adroit and dexterous at turning an electrical wheel and working in a bowl of water or quickfilver. Witness again,

"Dr, H-s feems to be much offended at the rapidity, as he calls it, of my philofophical publications. Now every man has a peculiar manner, and a peculiar fate. No two men are, in all refpects, alike. He is not what I am, nor am I what he is. It may be my fate to be a kind of comet, or flaming meteor in fcience, in the regions of which (like enough to a meteor) I made my appearance very lately, and very unexpectedly; and therefore, like a meteor, it may be my destiny to move very fwiftly, burn away with great heat and violence, and become as fuddenly extinct. Let Dr. H-s, therefore, if he be wife, keep out of my way; let him wait till my fated period arrive (which, in the nature of things, cannot be far diftant) and he may then, after feeing my fall, like a flow fober-moving planct; attended by his faithful fatellite Dr. Brocklefby, perform his own revolution unmolefted, when I thall be involved in darkness."

Again, we fay, Dr. beware of being witty, particularly againft yourfelf: not that there is any harm ridentem dicere verum of other people; but that it fo often happens, in the other cafe, Many a true werd is spoken in jeft."

66

ART. XX. Obfervations on the Art of Brewing Malt Liquors, in o Series of Strictures on a fecret System inculcated in a private Course of Lectures on Brewing, lately delivered to jeveral eminent Initiates in that Myftic Mode of Practice; to whofe Perufal they are particularly dedicated by a Practical Brewer. 8vo. 2s.

Wilkie.

Jev.

Semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam? We had hardly perufed thefe ludicrous obfervations, before the following letter, with Mr. Jackfon's printed Syllabus of a private Courfe of Lectures on Brewing, inclofed, came to our hands through the mediation of our bookfellers; to whom it was addressed.

To

Gents

To Meffrs. WALLIS and STONEHOUSE.

You will doubtless give your Opinion upon the Pamphlet publishd against the Syftem of Brewing as inclofd.

I am a Brewer and amongst many more of my Bretheren find my Self much hurt by thefe Lectures for in a little Time there will be no Such Thing as getting an Apprentice with a Fee if fuch pretenders to our Art be permitted to initruct any Perfon whatever that applies for a Courfe of Lectures from the within named Perfon: he has inftructed many Country Brewers, who run away with all the Trade, where they refide to the Ruin of others Several of them have increafd their Trade 2 and 3 Times more than what they did, as Everard at Lynn, Temple at Portfm, and Cook at the Isle of Wight and many more, but as He will not inftruct two in a Place I have no Chance amongst them therefore hope you will fay all you can in your next Review, to put a Stop to thefe Lectures fo prejudicial to every one in the Trade but thofe in the Secret and you will greatly oblige many hundreds as well as your humble fervt

a practical Brewer.

If it were poffible for us to fuppofe any practical brewer, a degree above his own draymen, fo ignorant of the art and mystery of reviewing, as to imagine we could be duped by fo fhallow an artifice, we fhould, at moft, give him credit only for brewing fmall-beer.We had in particular too good an opinion of Mr. Jackfon's underftanding to think he entertained fo bad a one of the London Reviewers, as to fuppofe their accounts of books to be drawn up, like those of fome other Reviewers, by their bookfellers and printers. Yet were it fo, the Reviewer muft be as ftupid as illiterate, not to fee that the above letter is intended as a puff to Mr. Jackson's Lectures. And a miferable puff it is! Not that we profefs to know enough of the theory and practice of brewing, to determine the merits of the caufe in difpute. As fpeculative chemifts we might be apt to think Mr. Jackson in the right; while, as lovers of malt-liquor; it is ten to one but we hould give it in favour of the practical brewer. For us, therefore, they may even brew as they bake, we will not undertake to fettle the point between them. It is but justice, nevertheless, to the manufacturer of the pamphlet before us to own, that he is a much better fcribe than the writer of the above letter. This will appear from the following exordium.

66

It is judiciously afferted by a certain Right Reverend author, that nothing is more difficult than to give a domonftration in form of a propofition alm ft felf-evident. On the contrary, it may be faid, that nothing is more eajy than to build a hypothetical lyftem on a matter not demonjirable by rules of art. How far the truth of the latter obfervation will be evinced in the following pages the reader will beft determine, after he has perufed them; and whether a confideration like the former has hitherto prevented the good old dames of Yorkshire, long celeb ated for their skill in the enchierefis * of brewing fine ale, from communicating Scientifically their practice to the cloudy pates of the

* Vide advertisement entitled A Syllabus, &c.

M 4

more

more fouthern profeffors of brewing, I know not; but it has not occurred to me, in the whole courfe of my extenfive researches into this matter, that any of thefe ladies ever published a fyftematical, theoretical, and chemical treatife on brewing, or ever had the public fpirit to read lectures on the practicability of making Yorkshire ale in the county of Middlefex.

"If we admit the probability of their good inclinations to oblige the world in either of thefe particulars, it is evident that the only in. tervening obstacle was the difficulty of communication, for their mode of practice is fimplicity itfelf. Give the experienced dames but good malt, hops, and water, and they will brew you the fparkling beverage, with the greatest facility; but afk them how they arrive at fuch excellence, and you will foon be convinced that they are no chymifts. This is a circumftance the more to be lamented, as it is now reduced to chemical certainty, and though an old woman may make very fine ale, it is from the chymift only that we are to be taught the whys and wherefores of her practice; and that it will not fignify a farthing to a brewer, to be able to dazzle the eye, delight the palate, and exhilarate the mind with his liquor, fince no perfon of understanding will credit the teftimony of their own fenfes, or believe it to be good, unless he can, like Dean Swift's ordurous philofopher, restore it to its primitive component parts, trace every cause from every effect, deduce every effect from every caufe, and prove it to be good, fecundum

artem.

"This is the bufinefs of the chymift, and unless the brewer will unite the brewhouse with the laboratory, he may fcald his fingers in his worts, and I will not believe they were hot, unless he can demonftrate that there was heat in them.

"The brewer founds his fuccefs merely on confirmed experience; the chymift on profonnd analyfis and dogmatical hypothefis. The brewer is fatisfied to find, that by taking his liquors at a certain heat, with a certain kind of malt, and conducting his fermentation in a certain manner, and to a certain period, he can produce a certain kind of beer, other particulars being regulated accordingly. The chymift goes a much nicer way to work. With this chemical key * he unlocks every door of the principles of brewing. He can walk at large in a kernel of malt, like Shakespeare's Queen Mab, fail over the furface of a boiling wort, like the Nautilus, on a hop-leaf, and fecurely vifit every corner of a fermenting mutt, in an air bubble. Hence the important difcovery of the brewer's philofopher's Stone, which, in despite of all learned refearches and long practice of Mr. Combrune, who, it feems, has all his life inadvertently fucked the wrong end of the afparagus †, with the united efforts of many other lefs philofophical heads, has been referved for that phænomenon of chemical knowledge, that prodigy in the brewing science, H. J— Efq; F. R. S. justice of the peace for the County of Middlesex, and grand mafter of the fecret fociety of Brewers, founded by himself, and by his art fupported. His, then, be the immortal honour of the disco very; but, for the emoluments, let them flow fecurely into the gaping

Vide Preliminary Addrefs. + Vide Preface to Jackson's Treatife on Ifinglafs.

pookets

pockets of his Sir Epicure Mammons (amongst the most unworthy of whom I have the honour to be numbered) for his great foul defpifes little pecuniary gratifications, difpenting knowledge with a liberal hand, as Aihley does punch, pro bona publico.

"It is the poffeffion of this golden fecret that has made a very Midas of every one of the chemical brewers, pupils of the lecturer. Let not the witling fneer at this, and, with a farcaflic infinuation, quote Boileau non us:

Miaas, le rei Mudas, a des creilles d'ane.

"We defy the malice of fo perverted an application, and appeal to the productions of our chemical profeffor, the lecturer, for proofs of our own powers in that God-given art, whence we affume the appelat on. He needs but give the magic touch, and all is changed to goid. When common brewing mortals have drained all their materials to a husk, and are at their ne plus ultra; by a dextrous mancu, vre, or chemical encheirifis, he performs the wonders of the wonderworking bee, extracting honied fweets from fetid flowers. With a handful of exprented hops, or exhausted grains, he stands aloft opposed to Jove himself, and pours a golden fhower upon the world. viction follows his creative hand, and infidelity itself exclaims Arentes Cereris decerpit ariftas,

OVID.

Con

AUREA mefis erit! "Thefe are great and uncontrovertible truths, of which any perfon may be convinced by initiation, which will at once put him into the poffeffion of all the defiderata of the brewing art, and teach him the grand arcana of thefe our chemical myfteries. And furely there is no brewer fo bigotted to the fog of ignorance, as not to with our funfhine of fcience to difpel it, or fo unambitious, fo unattentive to his own intereft, as not to pant after the acquifition of our philofophers ftone, when the purchase is so very eafy as 50 or 60 ounces of amalgam only; for which a few experiments will foon reimburse them, provided he is careful in his proceffes to guard against evaporations in fumo.

"As to myfelf, however, I must acknowledge that, having been for fome time under the influence of a certain old woman, famous for brewing, perhaps, the fineft ale in the kingdom, I have got fuch a grovelling habit of making very fine, untheoritical ale, and have met with fo much approbation for it amongst the ignorant unchemical beer-bibbers, who form the bulk of the English nation, that really I have no longer any ambition to foar in the fublimer heights of chemif try; but, quitting thofe dangerous precipices which mark the road to fame, am content to defcend again to the level of mankind, pleased with the humble fatisfaction of being able to produce, with certainty, the fpumy liquor, fweet to the fenfe, and pleafing to the eye,' without the rifque of evaporations in fumo, to which chemical proceles are extremely liable."

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The remainder of the pamphlet abounds in fhrewd reflections and keen raillery on Mr. Jackfon's lectures; which may, notwithstanding, (for ought we know, as we are not let into his fecret) be very meritorious. For in matters of art and science, we by no means look upon ridicule as the teft of truth. We should, indeed, be apt to fufpect this pamphlet to have been written rather by a profeffed wit,

than

+

than a Practical Brewer, did not a little circumftance, which wits, who difregard all petty pecuniary confiderations, are known to be above: This is the mercenary Price Tavo Shillings ftaring the purchafer in the face, from the half-title to this twelve-penny pamphlet. This circumftance, we fay, favours fo much of the mesh-vat and the other additional half-penny on the pot of porter, that we impute it wholly to the genius of a Practical Brewer..

BOOKS and PAMPHLET S, Published in the courfe of the Month, of which a farther account is deferred.

ART. 21. A compleat view of the Manners, Customs, Arms, and Habits of the Inhabitants of England, from the arrival of the Saxons to the reign of Henry VIII. By Jofeph Strait. 31. 35. White.

ART. 22. Materia Medica Antiqua et Nova Repurgata et Illuftrata : five, De Medicamentorum Simplicium Officinalium Facultatibus TradaBy John Rutty, M. D. Dilly.

tus.

ART. 23. Obfervations on the London and Edinburgh Difpenfatories. B the late John Rutty M. D. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Dilly.

ART. 24. Mifcellanies; or, a Mifcellaneous Treatife containing feveral Mathematical Subjects. By William Emerfen. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Nourfe ART. 25. Nova Genera Plantarum, quas in intinere ad infulas maris Auftralis collegerunt, defcripferunt, delinearunt, annis 1772-1775Joannes Reinoidius Forfter, L. L. D. 4to. 11. 7s. White. ART. 26. Afurther Examination of our prefent American Meafures, and of the reafins and the principles en which they are founded. 35. Dilly. ART. 27. Confiderations on the Americen War. Is T. Becket. ART. 28. The Journal of the Proceedings of the Continental Congress, held at Philadelphia in 1775. Publifhed by order of the Congress. 3s. Almon.

ART. 29. A Collection of all the Treaties of Alliance, Commerce and Peace between Great Britain and other Powers, from the Revolution in 1688 to the prefent time. 2 vols. 8vo. 12s. Almon.

ART. 30. The Critical Moment; on which the Salvation or the Defiraction of the British Empire depends. By Janus. 25. Secker.

ART. 31. Remarks on the different opinions relative to the American Colonies. Is. Kearfly.

ART. 32. The Heroic Epiftle anfwered. By the R-t He Lord 15. Wilkie.

C

ART. 33. Memoirs of the celebrated Comedian, and very
fingular Genius,
Mr. Thomas Wefton.
Is. 6d. Bladen.

ART. 34. Primitive Religion, elucidated and restored in a Supplanatory Abbreviation of a late Differtation on the original Do&trines of the Metempfichofis. is. Hawes.

ART. 35. Reflections on the Life and Character of Chrift. By Edmund Lord Bishop of Carlife. Is. 6d. Merril, Cambridge.

ART. 36. The Whig. A Poem. 1s. 6d. Dixwell.

COR.

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