infects comprised in three lines; but then we have the fatisfac tion of learning that it belongs to the Genus of the Hydra.

In a new Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, a Reader will naturally expect to meet with fome information with regard to the many interefting discoveries or improvements in Philofophy or Art, that diftinguish our own times. With refpect however to matters of this kind, our negligent or uninformed Compilers generally obferve the most profound filence. We shall clofe this article with giving a few instances, out of many that have occurred to us, of their ignorance or negligence in this par ticular.

In the first place, no fuch article as Fixed Air is to be met with in this Dictionary; though a fubject certainly entitled to fome confideration in the philofophical or chemical departments of a work of this kind, on account of the confiderable light thrown on feveral of the most interesting parts of natural philo fophy, by afcertaining the existence of this fluid, as a conftituent part of many bodies, and by the difcovery of its various properties and relations. Overlooking and excufing their omiffion of the more recent discoveries of philofophers on this fubject, we shall obferve that not only thofe of Dr. Brownrigge, communicated to the publick in 1765, and of Dr. Black, published in 1756, are here paffed over unnoticed; but likewife the numerous and interefting experimental investigations of this aerial fubftance, published by Dr. Hales above forty years ago, as well as the obfervations of Boyle, made in the last century. Fixed Air not being to be found either in its proper place, or under PNEUMATICS, we turn to the articles Lime, and Magnefia, or rather to the treatife of CHEMISTRY, to which our Compilers refer us, at these two articles. Here they evidently appear not to have obtained the leaft glimpse of this element, nor of the important results derived from the complete and copious detection of it in these two substances, though effected by their own countryman, Dr. Black, near twenty years ago. We next confult the article MINERAL Waters, where we find them fpeak-` ing of thofe of Pyrmont, as conftituted of a fubtile aqueous fluid, a volatile iron, and a predominating alcali;' and fhewing themselves as completely ignorant of this aerial and capital ingredient, to which these and other waters of this kind owe their grateful pungency and principal virtues, as if Dr, Brownrigge and others had never difcovered or written a fyllable on the fubject. In fhort, after all our fearches, we have not been able to find the leaft hint or fymptom, indicating that these Compilers and Digeftors of the fcience of the prefent age, were conscious that fuch a principle as fixed air exifted in any one corner of the universe.

Under

Under PNEUMATICS (page 490) our Compilers have thought proper to speak of Lightning and Thunder, and repeat the old story of fulphureous and nitrous bodies, rifing into the atmofphere, fermenting with each other, and taking fire fpontaneously; and yet fome one of our confiftent affociated bookmakers had before given us, under the article ELECTRICITY, a different and just account of the cause of these meteors, while he was tranfcribing from Dr. Priestley's hiftory of that fcience.

To proceed only one step further in this unedifying and tirefome investigation:-The refracting Telescope is here curforily described in the compafs of less than a page, juft in the state in which it was delivered down to us from the days of Galileo and Kepler, with all its imperfections on its head. The fame profound filence and fecrecy, which our Compilers have obferved with regard to the modern Pneumatical discoveries of our countrymen, they religiously maintain likewife with respect to the improvements made in the above-mentioned branch of Optics, which terminated in the invention of the Achramatic Telescope: one of the most brilliant difcoveries of the prefent age. Not a hint tranfpires concerning the theory of this inftrument, nor is even the name of it to be found in this New and Complete digest of the Arts and Sciences.

We scarce need to repeat the Apology fuggefted toward the beginning of this article; which we have been induced to extend to its prefent length, principally on account of the utility of compilations of this kind, the pretty extenfive demand for them, and the large price of the prefent work. On the whole, we fhall only further obferve with regard to it, that it is formed on an exceptionable plan, injudicioufly, negligently, in fome inftances ignorantly, and, upon the whole, we may add, dishoneftly, executed. The expreffion is not too harsh, when we confider the method purfued by our Book-wrights, of manufacturing the bulky parts of their work, or their systems, and of adding fheet to sheet, by the prompt expedient of almoft literally tranfcribing whole treatifes, or detached parts of treatifes; instead of extracting the fubftance, and felecting and digesting their most valuable contents: while their fhort and meagre articles, in the detached part of it, of which forty or fifty fometimes are included in a fingle page, render this department of the work a mere Dictionary of Definitions.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For A PRI L, 1774.

POETICAL.

Art. 13. Otaheite: a Poem. 4to. 1 S. Bathurst. 1774.. HE fmooth, correct, and flowing ftyle of verfe in which this

pofition. But though his poetry is good, it is, in our opinion, toq general in its defcriptions to be interefting; at least, fuch were the fentiments with which the perufal impreffed us. What relates parti cularly to Otaheite is conveyed in the following lines:

But Fancy leads us o'er yon ifle to rove,

The CYPRUS of the SOUTH, the Land of Love.
Here, ceafelefs, the returning seasons wear

Spring's verdant robe, and fmile throughout the year;
Refreshing zephyrs cool the noon-tide ray,

And plantane groves impervious fhades difplay.
The gen'rous foil exacts no tiller's aid

To turn the glebe and watch the infant blade;
Nature their vegetable bread fupplies,
And high in air luxuriant harvests rise.
No annual toil the foodful plants demand,
But unrenew'd to rifing ages ftand;
From fire to fon the long fucceffion trace,
And lavish forth their gifts from race to race.
Beneath their fhade the gentle tribes repofe;
Each bending branch their frugal feaft bestows:
For them the cocoa yields its milky flood,

To flake their thirst, and feed their temp'rate blood;
No ruddy nectar their pure bev'rage ftains,

Foams in their bowl and fwells their kindling veins.
Their evening hours fucceffive sports prolong,
The wanton dance, the love-infpiring fong.
Impetuous wishes no concealment know,
As the heart prompts, the melting numbers flow:
Each OBEREA feels the lawless flame,

Nor checks defires fhe does not blush to name.

• No boding prefage haunts them through the night;
No cares revive with early dawn of light:
Each happy day glides thoughtless as the laft,
Unknown the future, unrecall'd the past.
Should momentary clouds, with envious fhade,
Blot the gay fcene, and bid its colours fade;
As the next hour a gleam of joy fupplies,
Swift o'er their minds the paffing funfhine flies
No more the tear of tranfient forrow flows,
Ceas'd are the lover's pangs, the orphan's woes.

Thus the fleet moments wing their eafy way;
A dream their being, and their life a day.

Unknown

Unknown to these foft tribes, with ftubborn toil
And arms robuft to turn the cultur'd foil;

Through tracklefs wilds to urge their daring chace,
And rouze the fierceft of the favage race;
Unknown those wants that prompt th' inventive mind,
And banish nerveless floth from human-kind.

Can cruel paffions these calm feats infest,

And ftifle pity in a parent's breaft?
Does here MEDEA draw the vengeful blade,
And ftain with filial gore the blushing fhades
Her, where Arcadia fhould its fcenes unfold,
And paft'ral love revive an age of gold!

Ah! fee in vain the little fuppliant plead
With filent eloquence to check the deed:
He fmiles unconfcious on th' uplifted knife,
And courts the hand that's arm'd against his life.
Not his laft fighs the mother's bofom move;
She dooms his death, her facrifice to love:
Impatient haftes her am'rous vows to plight,
And feals with infant blood the barb'rous rite.
Reclin'd upon her lover's panting breast,
See in his arms the beauteous murd'ress preft!
No keen remorse the wanton trance destroys,
No thrilling terrors damp their guilty joys;
Nor ties of focial life their crimes reclaim,
Nor rigid Justice awes, nor virtuous Fame.

On minds which thus untaught thus darkling ftray,
To pour the radiant beams of heav'nly day;
To point where Nature the great outline draws,
Where Truth reveal'd gives fanction to her laws;
To bid th' intemp'rate reign of Senfe expire,
And quench th' unholy flame of loose defire;
Teach them their being's date, its ufe and end,
And to immortal life their hopes extend,
How great the triumph!-

On the whole this may be properly enough called a pretty poem. Art. 14. St. Thomas's Mount: a Poem. Written by a Gentleman in India. 4to. 28. 6d. DodЛley. 1774

*

ad

St. Thomas's Mount is a beautiful place in India, on the coast of Coromandel. On this account the juvenile Author had many vantages with refpect to novelty of fcenery, imagery, and objects; and, availing himself of this, he has produced no very contemptible poem. Thus he describes the hunting of the Antelope :

But mark the beauteous Antelope!-he fprings

He bounds-he flies-nor needs the aid of wings.
Not the fleet greyhound, Perfia's boafted breed,
Nor, from Arabia's coaft, the rapid steed,

This poem, the Author tells us, was written before he had attained his 20th year.

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In swiftness can compare-he ftrips the wind,
And leaves them lagging, panting, far behind.
Now, freed from dread, he fports upon the plain,
Until their cries falute his ears again;

Again the fugitive his flight renews;

In vain the ftretching eye his winged course pursues.
Then fay what fwiftnefs fhall this prize obtain,
Which dogs and horfes follow but in vain ?
Behold the Chetah of the leopard-kind,
Watchful as night, and active as the wind.
Bred to the fport, he fteals towards the prey,
As the herds browze, or inattentive play :
One he felects, and meas'ring with his eyes
The distance, darts like light'ning to the prize:
(So, when the fowler takes his certain aim,
A fwift deftruction ftrikes the flutt'ring game.)
The helpless prey his ufelefs fpeed bemoans,
Drops the big tear of grief, and dies in groans.
But thould or chance or accident betray
Th' approaching favage on his murd'rous way,
Inftant the Antelope betakes to fight-
Inftant the Chetah, furious at the fight,
Springs to arreft his speed-but fprings in vain!
Refcu'd, he now exults and bounds along the plain:
But lo! the disappointed Chetah turns,
While tenfold fury in his bofom burns:—
Beware, ye hunters! left, his ire to fate,
Heedlefs you feel ACTEON's wretched fate!
All but his keeper, whofe familiar hand
Supplies his wants, and practifes command;
Sooth'd by his voice, reluctantly he ftays,

Growls furly difcontent, and flow obeys.".

The fecond Canto contains, by way of epifode, the peregrinations of St. Thomas, who, the Author takes it for granted, propagated the gospel in the Eaft-Indies.

Art. 15. The Patron, a Satire. 4to. Is. Flexney. 1774The Author profeffes to imitate Juvenal. In this view we may apply to him his own farcafm on the late Dr. Goldsmith.

The puny Doctor, he tells us, tore from the brawny fhoulders of Johnfon, a corner of his mantle, in which he fwath'd himfelf o'er and per:

Gh thus robed affumes a mock command,

And in thofe regions † reigns Jn at fecond hand. But if the Author has no pretenfions to rank with the illuftrious Roman, he may be allowed to fit down with his ingenious countryman Oldham.

Left the Author fhould be fuppofed capable of ungenerously infulting the dead lion, we muft obferve that this poem was published before the Doctor's death.

the proud manfions of immortal fame."
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