We might accufe the author of a want of candour in not explaining the whole of the fubject; but as little remains, and the fubject has been elucidated with great labour, he hopes that this little may produce fome advantage to the labourer. We do not altogether approve of this conduct, though we confefs that Mr. Gale deferves public encouragement. At this moment, however, we fee that his expectations are fruftrated, and that other methods are preferred, methods probably less advantageous than those before us. But this is not now our object: we leave our author with good wishes; and, though a volunteer in the fervice, we think rewards have been more undeservedly beftowed than on the prefent literary financier. A Poem, on the Happiness of America; addreffed to the Citizens of the United States. By David Humphreys, Efq. 4to. 25. Newbery. FIC ICTION, by the testimony of Waller, is better adapted and more favourable to the genius of poetic compofition than truth. Whether the felicity, which is the fubject of the prefent poem, ftands in that predicament, the inhabitants on the other fide the Atlantic can beft determine. Whatever their opinions in general may be, Mr. Humphreys feems thoroughly perfuaded of its existence; and ftrongly impreffed with the idea, exhibits his country, as Spreading her virgin charms abroad, The laft, the faireft offspring of a God!' and the virtues of his countrymen, in the most favourable point of view, and the most vivid colours. The fervor of his zeal, indeed, fometimes betrays him into a few honest mistakes and exaggerations, that a cooler, and lefs enthufiaftic panegyrift, would certainly have avoided. Where lives the nation fraught with fuch resource, Where grow fo rife the iron, mafts, and spars, From this heterogeneous mixture, one would be tempted to fuppofe that men, metals, and trees, were the common product of the foil, and grew faster than in other countries, particularly the former. But men, Columbia, be thy fairer growth!' This gentleman's conceptions, indeed, of its future grandeur are frequently fo brilliant and dazzling, as to render his meaning fcarce perceptible. • Anon Anon fhall new Auroras rise, And ftreaming, brighten up th' Atlantic skies, Thy rifing ftars in unknown skies display, A period is fuddenly put to this ideal diffemination of literature; and the profpect of blifs fomewhat darkened by Mr. Humphreys' reflecting on the captures lately made of American veffels by the pirates of Algiers; whom he execrates with as much spirit as he panegyrises his countrymen. Not even the Digeft of Ernulphus affords a more energetic and comprehenfive anathema than the following. Infernal furies on thofe monfters haunt! Purfue the foot-fteps of that miscreant crew, Which, like Heav'n's vial'd vengeance, finge and scathe! After an animated apoftrophe to the European powers who pay an ignominious tribute to the states of Barbary, the length of which only prevents our inferting it, the author exhorts his countrymen to fpeedy vengeance, and confoles himself with the idea of its accomplishment. Woe to proud Algiers; to your princes woe! While mem'ry haunts your ears with captive fhrieks; "Think on your crimson crimes, defpair, and die."- Το To the Mufe's prefcient eye things future may be allowed to appear as prefent, or already accomplished, yet to cool profaic reflection many difficulties arife, that will probably retard, for a confiderable time, the completion of this great event, as well as the appearance of another golden age, or rather the millennium, with which the poem concludes; and, after the deftruction of these nations, is to be introduced under the aufpices of American prowefs and philanthropy. Then glorious days, by hallow'd bards foretold, See days and months and years there roll in night, We know not whether thefe hallow'd bards' are merely the Natural Natural History general and particular, by the Count de Buffon. Tranflated into English. Illuftrated with about 260 Copperplates, and occafional Notes and Obfervations by the Translator. Second Edition. 9 Vols. 800. 31. 35. Cadell. IN N our Fifty-fourth Volume, p. 371, we reviewed the first edition of this useful translation, and now mention the fecond edition of it, chiefly to give some account of the supplementary volume. The first fupplement of this author was published in 1776, and the second fome years after: the former was incorporated with the first edition of the translation, and the latter is now joined to it, and fold also separately to the purchasers of the first edition. The additions and corrections are very mifcellaneous: they add greatly to the author's character as a candid and inquifitive philofopher; and have been long collecting, since some of them are of a diftant date. The changes in the laft fupplement chiefly relate to the hiftory and theory of the earth; and these may probably be fucceeded by corrections in the other branches of his history many imperfections have been freely pointed out by later authors. The count de Buffon may be confidered as the ableft naturalift of the old fchool. Whatever may be his opinion of the first formation of the earth, he has attributed the fucceffive changes in its ftate chiefly to the agency of water; but he now begins to be more attentive to the effects of fire indeed it is only by uniting these two almost irresistible powers, that we can explain the great variety of appearances offered continually to the eye of an experienced mineralogist, and an attentive observer. The first additions relate to the article concerning the formation of the planets. It is unnecessary to add that, though the opinion be vifionary, or at leaft uncertain in its foundation, many valuable facts are collected in this part of the work. The next additions are to the article of geography, and the production of ftrata. In the latter fubject, he ftill adheres to the formation of mountains by the fubfiding of the adjoining earth: we shall select the obfervations on the hills of Peru as curious, and, in a great degree, new. The banks and beds of the earth in Peru are perfectly horizontal, and correfpond fometimes at a great distance in different mountains, most of which are two or three hundred fathoms high. They are in general inacceffible, and often as perpendicular as walls, which gives us an opportunity of perceiving the extremities of their horizontal ftrata. When any of them happens to be round and detached from others, each bed appears like a very flat cylinder, or as a fection of a cone of of no great height. Thefe different beds, placed one above another, and diftinguished by their colour and various contours, often refemble a regular and artificial ftructure. In this country, we fee the mountains perpetually affuming the appearance of ancient and fumptuous palaces, of chapels, of catles, and of domes. They are fometimes fortifications compofed of long curtins, and defended with bulwarks. After examining thefe objects, and the correfpondence of their ftrata, we can hardly entertain a doubt, that the circumjacent land has not, at fome period, been really funk. It appears, that thofe mountains, whofe bafes were moft folidly fupported, remained as monuments to indicate the height which the foil of thefe countries anciently poffeffed.' The facts next adduced are additions to thofe obfervations on the beds of fhells found in the highest mountains; and anfwers to fome objections against the opinion, that they are really fea-fhells, are fubjoined. The next fubject is on Mountains, and their Formation. Our author corrects his former opinion, that all calcareous maffes are formed by the depofition of water; and thinks that fome of them are hardened, perhaps vitrified, by fire; but that these two kinds can be eafily diftinguished. Ferrugineous matter adds greatly to the hardness: a fact fully evinced by Mr. Wedgwood's compofitions. On the Theory of running Waters our author obferves, that, with the fame quantity of water, the celerity of a wheel, which is moved by it, is increafed in proportion to the height from which the water falls; its influence is faid also to be greater in the night than in the day. The reason of the firft fact is obvious, and the fecond is eafily explained; for a certain bulk of water can only pass the trough in a given time; fo that when the denfity of the water is increased, its paffage will be more eafy from the diminution of its bulk; confequently its fall will be more rapid, and the momentum increafed the effects of wheel-work are increafed by employing the machine in the night only. A wheel nearer to the canal alfo turns with greater velocity than one more distant. In the additions to the article of Seas and Lakes, is a very curious communication from monf. Deflandes, in which he not only afcertains, by a fimple and decifive experiment, the existence of double currents in the fea, but endeavours to apply it to the affiftance of navigation. He fhows too, in the fame way, what from different views we have endeavoured to establish, that the momentum of the Atlantic is directed to the north-west. Our readers will recollect, that we chiefly argued from the direction of bays and harbours, evidently 5 formed |