ART. VI. Familiar Effays on interefting Subjects. Small 8vo. 3 s. fewed. Leigh and Sotheby. 1787. TH HESE entertaining and improving Effays are declared, in the Preface, to be the work of the Rector of an obfcure village and it were to be wished that every village had a refident paftor equally able, and, what is of no lefs importance, equally well difpofed, to form the minds of his parishioners to the va rious duties of humanity. The fubjects here confidered are, Method-Meanness, contrafted with Ingenuoufrefs-The prefent fashionable Mode of educating young Ladies-Second Thoughts are beft-The Bleffing of a contented Mind -Emulation in Youth-Domeftic Happiness-On the Causes of the Depopulation of the Country-On Exercife, and Temperance-On Humanity to Animals. We shall produce the greateft part of the laft of thefe Effays, which we are perfuaded the benevolent author will cheerfully allow us to exhibit by way of fpecimen; as it may be read with profit in many families where the fubject is deemed too trifling to deferve attention, and may prompt fome to think, who never thought before : It is of the first confequence, in training up the youth of both fexes, that they be early infpired with humanity, and particularly that its principles be implanted ftrongly in their yet tender hearts, to guard them against inflicting wanton pain on thofe animals, which ufe or accident may occafionally put into their power. • How many difpofitions have been formed to cruelty, from being permitted to tear off the wings of flies, whipping cats and dogs, or tying a ftring to the leg of a bird, and twirling it round till the thigh is torn from the bleeding body! How highly neceffary is it for pa. rents to watch with anxious care over their offspring, and ftrenuously to oppofe fuch habits as thefe (though they often arife from mere childish imitations, rather than from a bad heart), and to ftifle in the birth every wish and defire to inflict forture, or even give unneceffary pain! I have seen one inftance to the contrary. It was of an amiable young lady, with whom fuch care was taken to keep her fenfibility awake, that he was in a continual agitation, by thofe unavoidable accidents which animals experience; but this fo rarely happens, that the danger lies on the other fide, and there is little fear of fuch a quality being carried too far. This tendency to cruelty, fo direful in its effects to young minds, "grows with their growth, and ftrengthens with their ftrength," till, by the time boys arrive at manhood, they have loft all those fenfitive perceptions, which do honour to human nature. Young mafter must have a little horse to ride, and a favorite fpaniel to accompany him; thefe alternately commit, what he terms faults, and, because they are his, he is to chastise them as he thinks proper. If the young gentleman is heir to a good eftate, the domeftics look up to him as their future mafter, and, not daring . to displease him, he is foon initiated by the fervants into the "art of ingeniously tormenting" all forts of animals, fuch as tying cats together by their tails, which irritates them to fight, or by fhoeing them with walnut-fhells; an owl is to be attached to the back of a duck, which of courfe dives in hopes of exonerating itself, and the owl follows, and when both return to the furface, the wet, but tortured owl, affords wonderful fatisfaction to the young fquire and his affociates. Badger-baiting is fucceeded by bull-baiting, and our hero is at length ushered into that noble diverfion, the folace of fome of our nobility, yet the difgrace of this kingdom, the cock-pit, where, amidst dreadful oaths and execrations, he completes a character which is above all fear of fhame or humanity. He is fo well taught to laugh at the diftreffes and infirmities of his fellow-creatures, that he would look upon it as a glorious act to drive over an old woman, fhould fhe happen to be too decrepit to escape the career of his phaeton; and his fupreme delight is to fee two human beings exposed naked upon a ftage, and ufing the moft skilful efforts to knock each other on the head. What a fhout rends the air when one has laid his antagonist, for a time, breathlefs on the stage, with the blood. ftreaming from the wound! In vain do we, who are not initiated into the fupreme felicity of such scenes, look around to find out that pleafure of which we can form no idea. But furely, amongst the fofter difpofitions of the other fex, we fhall never find the leaft tendency to cruelty. Yet are the ladies of this island not exempt; although I am proud to boast, that there are no women in the known world, who poffefs fo much delicacy and fenfibility; and yet, in fome inftances, I cannot exculpate them. Do they not confine the feathered warblers in a cage, barring them from freedom, their inherent right, and from thofe employments to which inftinctive nature fo ftrongly impels them? Will the lark carol with that energy, on one poor fod in his wire prifon, as when he foars into the fky till his flight is imperceptible? I have known feveral of my female friends ambitious of a curious collection of infects. What was the confequence? In the courfe of the fummer you fee their dreffingrooms adorned with a number of those beautiful flutterers, stuck through with large pins; and I have feen my fair friends exulting in having caught one with variegated colours, holding his wings after he was impaled, left the agonies of expiring life fhould injure his beauty after death. Is the lady fond of angling? fhe takes her ftation by the fide of the murmuring ftream, and, with the utmoft unconcern, forces the barbed hook through the defenceless body of the writhing worm, and there it must remain, in torture, as a bait for the fish; for, fhould death put a period to its existence, it is no longer fit for ufe, and must be fucceeded by another fufferer. Can there be a more dreadful, a more ingenious piece of torture contrived than this? yet will they tell you, with a laugh, it is only a worm. Is pain then confined to beings of a larger bulk? Has not the worm a body, in all its parts exquifitely formed by the hand of Providence? Shakespeare fays, "Whilft the poor worm, which we tread upon, • There There is another fpecies of inhumanity, which all ranks, except the poor and indigent, ftand accused of:-this is the cuftom of travelling poft. How have I feen the trembling chaife-horse panting for breath, every limb fhattered by the hardness of the road, come reeking into the inn-yard, and nearly expiring under the extreme exertion to which he has been driven! his fides bleeding with the fpurs or lashes of the unfeeling post-boys! every mufcle and tendon quivering with convulfive agony! In vain is he offered food; his mouth is parched with thirst and duft, he refuses fuftenance, water he is denied, because it would probably put an end to his existence, and he is preserved for future and conftant torment. But there must be fome great caufe, a ftranger would fay, fome very good reason, why horfes have been driven fo unmercifully. On the contrary, it is the conftant cuftom of those, who by their fituations can afford it, to tip the poftilion an extraordinary gratuity, for which fum he would, at any time, flog his horfes, who muft fuffer in proportion, till they nearly expire under the torture. Inhuman custom! barbarous politeness! dreadful effect of polished manners! I have myself no doubt, that we must inevitably hereafter give an account of the expenditure of our time, and the motives upon which we acted, and that those who thus unfeelingly indulge themselves in fuch procedures toward the brutal creation, when no cause of moment demands fuch exertions, will be called upon to answer for those merciless lashes, and for thofe excruciating pangs, wantonly inflicted upon the uncomplaining animals, by whom they are fo fwiftly drawn. Thefe poor creatures, alas! experience no advantage from the prohibition contained in the fourth commandment; but, by the force of all-ruling fashion, are doomed to fuffer more on that day than on any other. But shall not this double breach of the laws of Heaven and humanity meet with double retribution, in the future difpenfation of rewards and punishments? While the gentleman turns with horror from the brutal carmen, inflicting unmerited punishment on his faithful horfes, let him reflect, that he is himself more culpable in the practice above-mentioned, because his education ought to have inculcated better principles. Let not these reflections be called too ftrong, or too fevere-the caufe of humanity (the cause of every thinking and confiderate man) demands it. So various, fo complicated are the evils under which the domeftic animals fuffer by the hand of man, that no expreffion can be too forcible to refcue them from the cruelties under which they fo often languish.' The aim of the Effayift, to ftem the current of vice and folly, is highly laudable. But, while a moral author gratifies his own humane wishes by inftructive writing, and kindred minds read and approve, vice and folly go on regardless of any but themfelves, having neither leifure nor inclination for books: vice will not listen to counfel, and folly cannot receive conviction; fo that reformation can only catch up ftraggling individuals, in fituations peculiarly favourable for it. As for inftance, where a tender-hearted mother of a family may, by the aid of a wellwritten effay, foften the difpofition of an unthinking fon or husband; husband; or where inftruction takes a retrograde course, as it fometimes may, by a fenfible child happening to have finer feelings than the parent. ART. VII. Tables of the apparent Places of the Comet of 1661, whofe A PIEN, the Imperial aftronomer, observed a comet, and traced its path from Oct. 2d, to Nov. 20th, 1532. Fracaftor, a phyfician at Verona, obferved the fame comet, from Sept. 22d to Dec. 4th, in the fame year. Hevelius obferved a comet in the months of February and March 1661. Dr. Halley, in confequence of the difcoveries of his friend and mafter, Sir Ifaac Newton, applied himself to calculate the orbits of all thofe comets of which fufficient obfervations had been recorded. In doing this he found many of them fimilar, and befitated not to pronounce thofe, whofe elements were almost coincident, to be only one comet, obferved at its feveral returns to its perihelion. Thus he found the elements of the comets of 1456, 1531, 1607 and 1682 to agree fo perfectly with each other, that he concluded them to be one and the fame, and predicted its return in the year 1759. Halley, however, only announced the return of the comet on a general view of the fyftem; Clairault reduced it to an accurate calculation, and gave the laft decifive proof of the truth of the doctrine of universal attraction. An equal fimilarity in the elements of the comets of 1532 and 1661, deduced from the obfervations of Apien, Fracaftor, and Hevelius, induced Halley to predict its return in 1789. The difficulties however of accurately calculating its places, or even of afcertaining the true time of its perihelion, are much greater than those with which the celebrated Clairault encountered. This comet, in receding from its laft perihelion, approached near to Jupiter and Saturn, when it paffed their orbits; it is probable alfo that it paffed not far from Herfchell's planet; the influence of these large bodies must have been very confiderable: and it is impoffible to know whether other bodies, yet undifcovered, might not disturb this comet in the remote parts of its orbit. All the calculations, therefore, will be liable to errors which aftronomers must despair of correcting. Sir Henry Englefield, in the work before us, has given the places of the comet on fifteen different fuppofitions of its arrival at its perihelion, from Auguft 25th, 1788, to Auguft 12th, 1789. In each fuppofition, the apparent longitude and latitude is given for every 8th day, from 96 days before, to 96 days after, the perihelion. The method in which Sir Henry has conftructed the the tables is mechanical, viz. from the projection of the comet's orbit on the plane of the Ecliptic; but, without the drawing which accompanies the pamphlet, we cannot give an account either of the projection, or of the method of computing from it the places of the comet. We can only fay, that it is ingenioufly contrived, and neatly executed; and will be found tolerably accurate, at leaft as accurate as fine pointed compaffes and good fcales can make it. The defcription of the method of taking the right afcenfion and declination of the heavenly bodies, with the reticule rhomboid of Dr. Bradley, without placing the inftrument in the plane of the Equator, would be totally unintelligible without the figures it is worthy the attention of the practical aftronomer. ART. VIII. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS of the Royal Society. Vol. LXXVIII. For the Year 1788. Part I. concluded; from P. 249. PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS. Of the Methods of manifefting the Prefence, and afcertaining the Quality, of Small Quantities of natural and artificial Electricity. By Mr. Tiberius Cavallo, F. R. S. MR R. Cavallo juftly obferves, that our knowlege of electricity goes very little, if at all, beyond the fuperficial part of it; that those who are now willing to diftinguish themselves in this branch of philofophy, ought to examine the electrical power, not fo much in its accumulated as in its incipient ftate; that its firft origin, or very beginning, ought to be investigated; as it is afterwards very easy to understand its increafe, and to comprehend how a great quantity may be accumulated by repeated additions of the fmalleft portions. He accordingly gives an account of the different methods that have been contrived for afcertaining fmall quantities of the electric power, pointing out their respective advantages and defects. He confiders more particularly the two ingenious improvements made by Mr. Bennet, to one of which, the electrometer, we think he hardly does juftice. Its advantages, he fays, are a greater degree of fenfibility, and a more eafy conftruction:' its difadvantages, firft, that the inftrument is not portable; and, fecondly, that even when not carried about, it is apt to be spoiled very eafily but we can affirm from our own experience of it, that it is portable, and not more liable to be fpoiled than is naturally to be expected in fo delicate an inftrument: we are well affured that it has been carried from Derbyshire to London and York, without injury. Mr. |