duelling, that not only the principal, who actually kills the other, "but also his feconds, are guilty of murder, whether they fought or "not: and the punishment of courfe is death." But in fpite of this fanction, strong and powerful as it is, is not the age of Quixotifm coming on again? Does not the humour rodomontade prevail among the great? and is it not creeping down, even to apprentices and attorneys clerks' [and, we may even add, PARISH PRIESTS]? I called it Quixotism; and furely I had reafon. Obferve the manners of our prefent duellifts; weigh the principles they go upon; attend to the ceremonial of their engagements, and tell me then, if any adventures of the famous Knight of La Mancha are built upon a more foolish foundation, and accompanied with more folemn, yet more ridiculous, rites than theirs.

Perhaps a ftronger inftance could not be brought, than this before us, to fhew the prevalence of fashion, not only over laws, but over fenfe, reafon, equity, and humanity. The duellift is never an amiable, and oftentimes a bad compofition: but he hath honour for his fanction and fupport; Honour, all-powerful honour: and this vain unmeaning empty word is, through the prevalence of fashion, fufficient to preferve him upon terms with fociety, and to fecure his reception as ufual among gentlemen.'

Of Logic; and the practical Use of it. A countryman, for the entertainment of his fon, when returned from the university, ordered fix eggs to be boiled; two for him, two for his mother, and two for himfelf: but the fon, itching to give a fpecimen of his newly acquir ed fcience, boiled only three. To the father, asking the reason of this, Why," fays the fon, "there are fix."-" How fo?" fays the father," I can make but three."-"No!" replies the young fophifter, "is not here one? (counting them out) is not there two? "and is not there three? and do not one, two, and three, make fix ?” “Well then," fays the father, "I'll take two, your mother shall "have one, and you shall have the other three."

Many appearances may tempt one to fufpect, that the underftanding, difciplined with logic, is not fo competent for the inveftigation of truth, as if left to its natural operations." A man of "wit," fays Bayle, "who applies himself long and closely to logic, "feldom fails of becoming a caviller; and by his fophiftical fub"tleties perplexes and embroils the very thefes he hath defended. "He chufes to deftroy his own work, rather than forbear difputing; "and he starts fuch objections against his own opinions, that his "whole art cannot folve them. Such is the fate of those who apply themselves too much to the fubtleties of dialectics." This is

*Thele fyllogiftici are terrible company to men in general, and fit only for one another. With them you cannot be faid to have converíation, but altercation rather: for there is fomething fo captious and litigious in their fpirit, that they draw every the moft trifling thing that can be started into a difpute. Before fuch, you must not expect to talk at eafe; that eafe and indolence, which make a man careless about both ideas and language: no, you must be wary and correct; you must be always upon the defenfive; you must keep a perpetual guard, as you would over your purfe, were a pickpocket in the room.

the

the opinion of Bayle, who probably knew from feeling and experience the truth of what he faid; for he was a very great logician, as well as a very great sceptic.

Our memorable Chillingworth is another inftance to prove, that logic, instead of affifting, may poffibly obftruct and hurt the underftanding. Chillingworth," fays Lord Clarendon, who knew him well, was a man of great fubtlety of understanding, and had spent "all his younger time in difputation; of which he arrived to fo

great a mastery, as not to be infer or to any man in thofe fkir"mishes: but he had, with his notable perfection in this exercife, "contracted fuch an irrefolution and habit of doubting, that by de46 grees he grew confident in nothing, and a fceptic at least in the greatest mysteries of faith. All his doubts grew out of himself, when "he affifted his fcruples with the strength of his own reason, and "was then too hard for himself."

To conclude.-What was the meaning of that ftricture upon Seneca, Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera, which, according to Lord Bacon, may thus be applied to the fchoolmen, Quæftionum minutiis fcientiarum frangunt foliditatem? Why, that by their litigiofa fubtilitas, as he calls it, by their logical refinements and diftin&tions, they had chopped truth fo down into mincemeat, as to leave it not only without proportion or form, but almoft without fubftance.'

We recommend thefe eflays [with exceptions, in fome inftances, to the Author's politics] to the perufal of those who either read for amufement or inftruction; and if they poffefs any relish for wit without petulance, ridicule without ill-nature, or fober sense without formality or dulnefs, they will find fomething of each to gratify their tafte; and if this volume doth not afford them fo copious a banquet as they may wifh, yet it will put them in the way of making the entertainment more complete, by the exercife of their own understandings, and the study of the beft Authors. B ん.

ART. III. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS of the Royal Society. Vol. LXXVI. Part II. for the Year 1786. 4:0. Ss. Davis.

MATHEMATICAL and ASTRONOMICAL Papers. The Latitude and Longitude of York determined from a Variety of aftronomical Obfervations; together with a Recommendation of the Method of determining the Longitude of Places by Obfervations of the Moon's Tranfit over the Meridian. By Edward Pigott, Efq. T would be unneceffary to enter into a minute account of all the methods here defcribed, or a detail of the feveral obfervations recorded by Mr. Pigott. He makes the latitude of York 53° 57′ 45′′ +; and longitude, by occultations of fixed ftars by the moon, 4' 27", by the moon's paffing the meridian 4 24", by Jupiter's firft fatellite 4' 31", and by a lunar eclipfe 4 16", weft, in time. The relative fituations of Greenwich and York being now, with tolerable exaЯness, determined, measuring the diftances between these two

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places

places by a series of triangles, promifes a good opportunity for finding the length of a degree of the meridian in this latitude. We do not recollect that any mathematician, fince Norwood, has attempted a measurement in England. France has rendered. itfelf famous for measurements, not only at home, but in feveral latitudes, from 0 to 66. Shall English aftronomers depend on the obfervations of the French only?

Advertisement of the expected Return of the Comet of 1532 and 1661 in the Year 1788. By the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne, D.D. F.R.S. and Aftronomer Royal.

We have only one comet on record whofe return had been predicted by aftronomers, viz. that of 1759. The elements from which Dr. Halley calculated the return of that comet were obtained from the obfervations made on the comet of 1531, 16c7, and 1682. In the first edition of his Synopfis Aftronomie Cometica, he fuppofed the comets of 1532 and 1661, from the fimilarity of the elements of their orbits, to be the fame. The interval between the paffages of these two comets through their perihelion was 128 years, 89 days, 1 hour, 29 minutes (32 of thefe years are biffextile), this added to the time of the perihelion in 1661, makes the time of the next peribelion, 1789, April 27, I hour, 10 minutes, when reduced to the Gregorian style. Dr. Mafkelyne rightly fuppofes that, fince the comet, in going from its laft perihelion, paffed the orbits of both Jupiter and Saturn when these planets were in that part of their orbits, it will have a fhorter period than the one mentioned above. He fays, therefore, ⚫ we may expect it to return to its perihelium in the beginning of the year 1989, or the latter end of the year 1788, and certainly fome time before the 27th of April 1789. But of this we fhall be better informed after the end of this year, from the anfwers to the prize queftion propofed by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, to compute the difturbances of the comet in 1532 and 1661, and thence to predict its return.'

Is not this, however, an open acknowledgment that the French take the lead of the English aftronomers? The expreffion feems to come with a peculiarly ill grace from our Aftronomerroyal! The French aftronomers are by no means wanting in felf fufficiency; and this paffage will not tend to leffen the opinion they have conceived of their own fuperior abilities.

Dr. Mafkelyne fixes the time of the perihelion to January 1, 1789, at noon: he has added a table of the comet's place, both heliocentric and geocentric, for feveral days, from April 23, 1788, to January 1, 1789; the calculations are made for a parabolic orbir, according to the elements determined by Dr. Halley from Hevelius's obfervations in 1661, allowing for the preceffion of the equinoxes. This advertisement may perhaps only be the forerunner of other publications concerning the ex

pected

pected phenomenon: the comet of 1759 was preceded by nume TOUS predicting pamphlets.

Obfervation of the Tranfit of Mercury over the Sun's Difk, made at Louvain, in the Netherlands, May 3, 1786. By Nathaniel Pigott, Efq. F. R. S.

Obfervation of the late Tranfit of Mercury over the Sun. By Edward Pigott, Efq. at Louvain.

These two obfervations contain only the egrefs of Mercury;

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A new Method of finding Fluents by Continuation. By the Rev. Sam.. Vince, A. M. F. R. S.

Every attempt toward facilitating the inveftigation of fluents, ought to be gratefully received by the mathematical reader. Various methods have been purfued with various fuccefs; but no one has yet been offered which merits the title of univerfal: for although every fluxion, howfoever complicated, may be expanded into an infinite feries; yet, if the feries thus produced neither converges, terminates, nor is fummable, it can never be useful on this account the method of finding fluents by infinite feries, which fome writers have called a universal method, can only be applicable in certain cafes, and therefore the induftry and invention of mathematicians can never be employed on this fubject without advantage, especially when the refults of their labours fupply the deficiencies of former writers.

The method which Mr. Vince hath here inveftigated and exemplified, appears to be convenient in its application; but ftill it can only be applied in particular cafes; for different methods will always be found to have their different ufes, and where one becomes impracticable, another will be found to fucceed. The nature of the subject will not permit us to make any abridgment of this ingenious paper; we must therefore refer our readers to the publication at large, where those who can find entertainment in the subtleties of analytical fpeculations will meet with full fatisfaction.

A Catalogue of One thousand new Nebula and Clusters of Stars. By William Herfchel, LL. D. F. K. S.

If the hoft of heaven be innumerable, Dr. Herschel's labours will be endless. He has here prefented the Public with one thousand new, obferved clufters of ftars, in addition to thofe formerly published. In this catalogue the Doctor has given no

:

new names to his clufters, or nebula, but he diftinguishes them by numbers he gives the difference of right afcenfion between each and the nearest known ftar, in minutes and feconds of fidereal time, and their difference of declination in degrees and minutes: the next column in the catalogue records the number of obfervations made on each clufter; by which it appears that fome of them have been obferved five, fix, feven, or eight times: We mention this circumftance as a proof of the vaft expence of labour as well as time which this feries of obfervations must have incurred..

The immediate utility of this great work we do not at prefent perceive; but as it adds to the general ftock of knowledge, the purfuit is laudable. The parallax of these nebula ought, in our opinion, to be minutely attended to; we hope the future obfervations of this indefatigable obferver, who is furnished with inftruments of very high magnifying powers, will determine whether thefe objects have any parallax or motion. It is impoffible to form any conjectures relative to thefe bodies, from their appearance alone. If they are planets or comets near their aphelia, which is by no means improbable, a change of place muft certainly be obfervable in them; which, being very fmall, will require not only good inftruments but a length of time, to be accurately determined. The expected comet in 1789 will, we hope, be attended to by Dr. Herfchel. Obfervations on comets at a great diftance from their perihelia, are much wanted in aftronomy, in order to afcertain the disturbances to which their mo tions are fubject, by approaching the planetary fyftem.

MEDICA L.

Hiftory and Diffection of an extraordinary Introfufception. By John Coakley Lettfom, M. D. F. R. Š. &c.

The cafe here recorded was an inverfion or prolapfus of the inteftinum ileon into the colon and rectum: the lower extremity of the ileon was forced along the whole length of the greater inteftines down to the sphincter ani. From the defcription here given, we are rather at a lofs to conceive the poffibility of fuch an inverfion; the mefocolon and the mefentery feem infurmountable obftacles to the defcent of the ileon, which carried along with it the colon inverted into the rectum. This circumftance ought to have been mentioned by Dr. Lettfom. If the figures given with this account are faithful copies of nature (which we doubt not), both the mefentery and mefocolon were wanting. MISCELLANEOUS. Obfervations on fome Causes of the Excess of the Mortality of Males above that of Females. By Jofeph Clark, M. D. Phyfician to the Lying-in Hofpital in Dublin.

It is proved, from regifters, that the proportion of males born, is to females, as 17 to 15, or as 9 to 8. The deaths ought therefore