Mr. Tennant's Defence of his Bleaching Liquor. quor prepared with afhes. Now, every chemift knows that this liquor will confift of the folution of the ufual falts, produced by receiving the oxygenated muriatic acid gas into a folution of pot afh, together with a quantity of oxygenated muriatic acid, in an uncombined ftate. It is likewife perfectly well known, that fuch liquor will deftroy dyed colours. This liquor therefore with which Mr. RUPP compares that made of lime, is totally unfit for bleaching any kinds of goods into which dyed colours enter, and confequently, wherever these are to be bleached, his ftatement does not apply. The fact is, that where fuch goods are bleached, three times this quantity of afhes, or even more, is univerfally used. Wherever, therefore, fuch coloured goods are to be bleached (and fuch goods conftitute a great proportion of the cotton manufactory in Britain), his statement will not apply. But befides this, it is to be obferved (as Mr. RUPP would have feen if he had read the specification, or applied for information to any of the refpectable bleachers in his own neighbourhood who use the procefs, and who keep their doing fo no fecret), that the introduction of common falt along with the lime in my procefs, was merely to increafe the specific gravity of the water, for the better fufpenfion of the lime; and as an addition, that afterwards might or might not be made, as experience should direct. The falt, therefore, is now regularly omitted; mere agitation being found perfectly fufficient to keep the lime in fufpenfion. With this correction, therefore, even with Mr. RUPP's proportion of afhes, the comparative value of this part of the ingredients of the liquor made with ashes, and that made with lime, will be as 38, 9d. to 7d. and in all cafes, the faving brought about by ufing the lime liquor in preference to that made with afhes, will be equal to the difference of price between the ashes and lime, and even fome diminution of the quantity of lime may with fafety be admitted. With regard to the additional labour in preparing the liquor, it is a mere trifle. A workman muft attend while the liquor with afhes is preparing; when he makes the liquor with lime, he needs only to add to his ufual attendance a very moderate portion of bodily labour, applied to agitate the liquor in the receiver. Several of the bleachers in this country have now even faved him this, by connecting their agitators with their plash-mill, or other moving machinery. 405 Mr. Rupp next attempts to prove, that both this and the ufual liquor prepared with afhes, are inferior to the fimple oxygenated muriatic acid for the purpofes of bleaching. I have already ftated, that bleaching liquor, containing the ufual falts formed from the oxygenated muriatic acid gas and pot afh, together with uncombined oxygenated muriatic acid, was totally unfit for bleaching goods which contained dyed colours. The fimple oxygenated acid is confequently totally unfit for bleaching fuch goods. If, therefore, we fet afide the liquor made with a full proportion of afhes and alfo that made with lime, a great proportion of the cotton goods manufactured in Lancashire, and almoft the whole of the Glafgow fabrics will be deprived of this great improvement in the art of bleaching. It must be allowed, therefore, that even on the fuppofition of the inferiority of the power poffeffed by the alkaline and lime liquors, they must be retained for the purposes of bleaching goods containing dyed colours. Alfo, that we must prefer lime to the alkaline liquor, because it is cheaper, by the difference of price between the alkali and lime, and that this difference will be very confiderable, becaufe a very large proportion of afhes must be used, in order to preferve the dyed colours that enter the compofition of the goods. It still remains to determine, whether the fimple oxygenated muriatic acid is more applicable to the purposes of bleaching, where no dyed colours enter the fabric, than alkaline or lime liquor. In favour of the fimple oxygenated acid, Mr. RUPP quotes his experiments in the laft vol. of the "Manchester Memoirs." Where experiments are made only on a few grains, and where we have no better teft of their relative differences or agreements, than a difference of colour induced by a few drops, as it appears to the eye of an experimenter, perhaps, from fome preconceived theory, inclined to favour a particular conclufion, I would build but little on fuch experiments; if we add to this, the great danger to the fabric, univerfally allowed by bleachers, in every attempt made with the fimple oxygenated acid, either in a fluid, or gazeous form; the impoffibility of workmen operating with it on account of its fuffocating vapours, and the doubtfulness of overcoming that, even by Mr. RUPP's ingenious contrivance (for he cannot fuppofe, that a bleacher can calculate fo exactly, as to have exhausted the oxyge nated 406 The Sacrament an Ancient Jewish Rite. nated acid every time he finds it neceffary to remove the goods, from its action, and I fee no other way of preventing the efcape of the gas in Mr. RUPP's machine, whenever this operation becomes neceffary), we must conclude in favour of the liquor made with lime, and the more efpecially, as even the bleachers, who find it neceffary to be at the expence of afhes in their bleaching liquor. my bleaching works here. 13th June, 1798. I am, hr, CHAS. TENNANT, Bleacher. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, operate on white goods, now, in general, A theological difquifitions, the origin AMONG the most curious topics of of tranfubftantiation, or the belief of the real prefence, has never, I think, been yet fufficiently cleared; but, to ourselves and to this age, it is of little importance. In the eye of every chriftian, but the catholic, it is an obfolete fuperftition, and only now ferves to remind one of a fanguinary epocha, in the annals of modern Europe, when the human race was thinned for one of the most abfurd of idolatries, that of cooking a God, and of eating him up alive; affuredly, when the Egyptians worshipped the onions growing in their garden, they were more rational. Mr. RUPP has next drawn an objection to the liquor made with lime, from a very fertile fource of every kind of ar gument, viz. from chemical theory, and fufpects that the lime, or muriate of lime, may become a mordant, and so make the goods liable to become yellow after bleaching with this liquor; or unfit them for being ufed in printing. Befides the matter of fact, which totally contradicts this, as has been afcertained by the experience of feveral printfields, particularly by that at Meffrs. FINLAY and Co's, in this neighbourhood, and at the field of Meffrs. ORR's, at Stratford, in Ireland, I am unacquainted with any proof, that lime, or any of its faline compounds, were ever found to poflefs any power in fixing colours in dying either cotton or linen, in as far as relates at least to the madder and weld coppers. Thefe obfervations will, I hope, fatisfy the public, with regard to the force of Mr. RUPP's objections to my method of preparing bleaching liquor; and the approbation it has received from numerous and refpectable bleachers in England, Scotland, and Ireland, will ftill be allowed to establish the character of a fimple invention, which, in whatever manner it may benefit me, will, I have no doubt, foon appear a great national benefit. I have no doubt, if Mr. Rupp had known, that from the date of my letters patent, I have been ready to treat with all bleachers upon the most moderate terms, for the fale of licences to practife my invention; he would have taken the trouble to investigate a little more fully into its merits himfelf, and likewife to have heard the report of the very eminent bleachers who are employing my procefs in his own immediate neighbourhood, before he had condemned it in fo unqualified But the RITE ftill remains, although, in the bread and wine, we do not any more imagine we eat the real body, or drink the real blood of Jefus. I have long been defirous of difcovering the origin of this extraordinary ceremony; but my inquiries have hitherto been baffled, among the learned. In a very eccentric work, lately published, among a mafs of other matter, there is a note on this curious topic, which, as I know not to deny, I would with to offer it to your theological correfpondents, either to refute, or to explain. The note in question, is the following, literally tranícribed. is "Chriftianity is nothing but improved Judaifm. I will give one instance, which I have never obferved remarked. The SACRAMENT, for which fo many have fuffered, a fimple rite, Now performed every fabbath night by the religious Jew. Wine and houfe; after a benediction, he hands the cup bread are placed before the mafter of the round, and breaking the bread, gives to each a portion. Jefus, amidft his difciples, was performing this rite, called KEEDUSH, and in the allegorical ftyle of a young Rabbin, faid of the bread and wine, blood, and this is my body;" which they certainly were, when affimilated in his perfon. To this fimple circumftance, we owe all the idiocy and cruelty of transubstantiation !” This is my VAURIEN, vol ii. p. 219: According to this account, the modern Jew, while he refuses to take the facrament, actually performs it hebdomadally; and the modern Chriftian, while he ima gines it a teft of his creed, in fact, only joins in a very ancient Jewijh ceremony. I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, York, June 4, 1798. C. P. On the Perfonification of Abstract Ideas in Poetry. For the Monthly Magazine. 407 briefly elucidate them by well-known examples. The paffions of Le Brun, in An ESSAY on the PERSONIFICATION of which human faces are marked with the ABSTRACT IDEAS in POETRY. AMONG the various artifices which poets have employed in order to produce that novelty which is effential to a high degree of pleasure or furprife, none is more remarkable than the exhibition of new forms of animated beings, endowed with peculiar powers and qualities, by which they are rendered actors in the fcenes into which they are introduced. Of thefe, there are two principal fpecies; the one, comprifing thofe fupernatural beings which derive their origin from popular fuperftition or philofophical doctrine, modified by the poet's imagination; the other, confifting of creatures merely of poetical invention, formed, by means of the process called perfonification, from abftract ideas of the mind. Of thefe laft, Additon, in one of his elegant papers "On the Pleafures of the Imagination" (Spectator, No. 420), fpeaks in the following manner: "There is another fort of imaginary beings, that we fometimes meet with in the poets, when the author reprefents any paffion, appetite, virtue, or vice, under a vifible fhape, and makes it a perfon or an actor in his poem." To this enumeration, however, might have been added some abstract ideas perionified; fuch as nature, time, death, fleep, and the like, which equally come under this head of poetical creation. Of fuch, then, it is the purpose of the prefent Effay to treat; and it is the manner in which these fictitious perfonages are formed, rather than the propriety of their introduction into the poem, that I mean at present to confider; not excluding, however, fome remarks on their immediate agency; which, in fact, may be regarded as part of their description and character. On comparing a number of examples of this kind of perfonification, it prefently appears, that there are two general methods by which it is effected. Either a fimply human form is drawn, impreffed in a fuper-eminent degree with the quality or circumstance intended to be perfonified; or a creature of the fancy is exhibited, the character and design of which is expreffed by certain typical adjuncts or emblems. The first of these may be termed a natural, the second, an emblematical, figure. From the union of thefe two modes, a third, or mixed fpecies is produced. That thefe diftinctions may be immediately conceived, I fhall MONTHLY MAG. No. XXXII. ftrongest expreflions of anger, terror, defire, &c. are merely natural perioo fications. The common female figure of Juftice with her fword, fcales and bandage, is purely emblematical. That of Plenty, reprefented by a full-fed, cheerful figure, bearing a cornucopia, is of the mixed fpecies. Thefe illuftrations are taken from painting; but the ideas may equally be conveyed by words. Under each of the preceding heads I fall adduce a variety of examples from the poets, which will give fcope to fuch critical remarks, as may tend to establish clear and precife notions concerning the refpective excellence of the feveral kinds. The natural fpecies of perfonification will first be confidered; then by an infenfible gradation we fhall flide into the mixed, and conclude with the purely emblematical. 1. It may be proper before entering upon the particulars of this fection, to anticipate a doubt which will readily fuggeft itfelf to a reflecting mind. In what, it may be asked, confifts the merit or advantage of a kind of fiction which approaches fo nearly to reality? If rage, for inftance, be depicted only by the figure of a man in a violent fit of fury, what are the inventive powers exerted by the poet, or what is gained by the perfonification? It is to be acknowledged, that in thefe cafes, the merit of invention, peculiarly fo termed, can scarcely be claimed. Yet fince every circumstance must be accumulated by the poet which can give force and life to the piece, and a general character be formed out of the detached features of a number of individuals, to which muft frequently be added fcenery and accompaniments contrived to correfpond with, and enhance the effects of, the leading figure, the neceflity of fuperior defcriptive talents in order to fucceed in fuch representations cannot be difputed. Then, with refpect to the ufe of fuch fictions, it is to be confidered, that these imaginary beings are not merely human agents, circumfcribed by known laws in their operations: they are a kind of genii, whofe fphere of action is only limited by a congruity dependent on their feveral characters. But the truth of these observations will be fufficiently illuftrated during the investigation of each particular example. of I fhall begin with the perfonified figure FAMINE, or rather, HUNGER, as 3 G reprefented 408 On the Perfonification of Afract Ideas in Poetry. reprefented by Ovid in his "Metamorphafes." Ceres, having vowed revenge against Erifthon for cutting down a facred tree, fends a meffenger for this ghaftly phantom, who is thus defcribed: Famem lapidofo videt in agro, Unguibus & raras vellentem dentibus herbas. Hirtus erat crinis; cava lumina; pallor in Thro' her harfh hide her inwards all were fhewn; The arid bones above her crooked loins Each ankle feem'd a monftrous bunch of bone. It is fcarcely poffible to conceive a more ftriking image of a famished perfon. The hard fkin, hanging breasts, crate or basket work of the ribs and fpine, and joints apparently enlarged, are circumitances drawn from the life, and reprefented with wonderful force. At the fame time, the figure is merely natural. Here are no types or emblems, as, indeed, none were wanted; for fuch a fub. ject could not fail of being its own interpreter. The furrounding fcenery is equally real. Eft locus extremis Scythiæ glacialis in oris, Trifte folum, fterilis, fine fruge, fine arbore tellus. In icy Scythia's fartheft bound, there lies The fanciful or preternatural part of the fiction is the manner in which the poet employs this phantom. He makes her take the opportunity of Frifiathon's lying alleep, to infpire him with her herfef; and the poor man awakes poffeffed by a met infatiable hunger, which compels im, fit, according to the French phrate, manger fon bien, to eat up his eftate, and at laft, abfolutely to devour himself. There is fomething ludicrous in this idea, which may serve to fhew the difficulty of preferving ftrict propriety throughout an imaginary scene; yet the agency of Famine cannot be faid to be This notion unfuitable to her nature. of infpiring a quality by touching or breathing on a perfon, may frequently he met with in the beft poets to express the action of thofe fictitious beings. Churchill's" Prophecy of Famine" affords no addition to the defcriptive part of the perfonification, except fome ftrokes of fatirical humour, difgraced by national illiberality. The employment of the imaginary being to utter a prophecy, is agreeable enough to the general notion of a genius, and is rendered more cha racteristic by the local circumftance of the pretence to fecond fight. The next figure I fhall prefent is that of SLEEP, as likewife drawn by the elegant and inventive pencil of Ovid. Though he is raifed to the title and dignity of the God Somnus, yet in form and attributes he is a mere drowsy mortal; and the poet's invention is chiefly displayed in the fcenery and accompaniments. He inhabits a gloomy cavern, into which the rays of the fun never penetrate, but where a kind of perpetual twilight reigns in the foggy air. From hence all thrill and enlivening founds are banished, and a dead filence eternally prevails, broken only by the foft murmurs of the waters of Lethe. Around the entrance grow all kinds of foporiferous herbs. The god himfelf lies faft afleep on an ebon couch railed high with down. On the approach of Iris, who is fent to him with 2 melfage, with much ado he roufes himself. His painful reluctant efforts are very happily expreffed in the following lines: tarda Deus gravitate jacentes Vix oculos tollens, iterumque iterumque relabens, Summaque percutiens nutanti pectora mento, Excuflit tandem fibi fe; cubitoque levatus Quid veniat- fcitatur. Met. xi, 616. The god, his heavy eyes fearce lifting up, Once and again funk down; his nodding chia Struck on his breaft; at length himself he On the Perfonification of Abstract Ideas in Poetry. When this bufinefs is difpatched, the heavy deity immediately compofes himfelf to flumber again. —rurfus molli languore folutum Depofuitque caput, ftratoque recondidit alto. Ib. 648. His head again, in languor foft diffolv'd, In questo albergo il grave Sonno giace; 409 Ariofto in the perfonification of MoL- Les plaifirs nonchalans folatrent alentour. Chanoines; L'autre broie en riant le vermillon des moines; Lutr. ch. ii. 100. It has, I think, been justly objected to Boileau, that he puts too long a fpeech into the mouth of this languid perfonage; but he could not refift a favourable occafion for fome ingenious adulation of Louis XIV. The conclufion, however, though clofely copied from Ovid, is per -La Molleffe oppreffée Che non puo andare, e mal fi regge in piede. fectly beautiful: Il Silenzio va intorno, e fa la corta : Orl. Fur. xiv. 93. Here drowsy Sleep has fix'd his noifelefs throne, Here Indolence reclines with limbs o'ergrown Thro' fluggish eafe; and Sloth, whofe trembling feet Refufe their aid, and fink beneath her weight. Before the portal dull Oblivion goes, He fuffers none to pafs, for none he knows. In fhoes of felt, with fable garments bound; Hoole. It is a truly characteristical stroke in Ariott, that when the command is delivered to Sleep, he makes no reply, but intimates with a nod that it shall be performed. The very learned and elegant Profeffor Heyne, in an Excurfus to the fifth book of Virgil, has enumerated various ways in which the poets reprefent Somnus as caufing fleep. Virgil makes him fprinkle the temples of Palinurus with a branch wet with Lethean dew. Some ingeniously defcribe him as lulling to repofe by the fanning of his wings; and one gives him a horn out of which he pours fleep. Boileau has imitated both Ovid and Dans fa houche a ce mot fent fa langue glacée, dort. In Thomfon's allegorical poem, " The Cafle of Indolence," fimilar conceptions to thofe of the writers above-mentioned are dreffed up in the most exquisite beauties of defeription and verfification. But it is neceffary to felect parts of a well-known piece, the whole of which is fo admirable. I. A. [To be continued.] To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, BY your leave, Mr. Editor, I will correct an error of Mr. HOUSMAN, in the laft paper he has favoured us with in your valuable Mifcellany. Speaking of Litchfield, he fays, "This town is remarkable for having given birth to two eminent men, viz. the late Dr. Johnson, and Mr. Garrick the comedian." The latter was born at the Angel-inn at Hereford, in the year 1716, and was fon of Captain Peter G. (a French refugee) who was quartered there with a troop of horse. It is true he received the firit rudiments of his education at the free-fchool at Litchfield (which he afterwards completed at Rochefter), where Dr. Johnfon and he were fellow-ftudents. By the infertion of these few words, you will not only restore to Hereford the honour the juftly claims, but alfo confer a favour on your obedient fer vant, HEREFORDIENSIS. Cambridge, March 6, 1798. 3 G 2 To |