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On the Language of Natural History.

ferving a treatife on the Latin terms used in Natural History; in which I expected to find a masterly difplay of the defects of the language ufed in defcribing the diverfified productions of nature; but was extremely pained in finding myself not only difappointed in my expectation, but in being abfolutely at a lofs to comprehend the end and aim of Mr. BRAND (the author) in his erudite differtation. The harfhnefs and obfcurity of the Latin terms used in natural hiftory have been long very justly and feverely cenfured; nor have the tranflations of them in our language been lefs difapproved. As the attempts hitherto made to improve and familiarize thefe terms do not appear to have aided the promotion of the very important defideratum, a pure, claffical, and chafte language of natural hiftory, I fhall endeavour, in the following curfory remarks upon this interefting fubject, to fhew the defects of our prefent English terms, and the inconvenience neceffarily arifing from them; and thence deduce the propriety of reforming them, together with the principles upon which fuch a reform fhould be conftructed. In this view I fhall wave any further notice of Mr. BRAND's treatise, it being, to the beft of my judgment, though profeffedly written on the fame fubject, foreign to my purpose.

Many of our most enlightened naturalifts have laboured to establish a vernacular language of natural hiftory; particularly in the fcience of botany; but most of them have loft fight of the great end intended by a tranflation, viz. the adapting the terms to the capacity of unlearned and female ftudents, either by adhering too clofely to the original Linnæan obfcure language, or by deviating too far from it, in introducing terms not reprefenting the ideas they should convey. Subjected to the former error are ProfefforMARTYN's and the Litchfield Society's anglicized terms; while under the latter error Dr.WITHERING's very crude language particularly falls. If an af femblage of experienced naturalifts were to convene, for the purpose of eftablishing a standard language, the interchange of their different ideas upon the fubject, would certainly accelerate fuch a design,

* It will be easily conceived, that this cenfure more particularly ftrikes at Dr. WITHERING's terms, in the 2d edition of his "Botanical Arrangement," he having in his laft edition of that valuable work, much improved upon his language, though ftill very imperfect.

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and whatever the refult of their commu nication fhould be, at least produce an uniform language. This would be effected by laying down certain fixed principles or data, according to which all the Latin terms fhould be tranflated; and if even this should not be a perfect tranflation, it would nevertheless lessen the confufion and difficulties with which the elementary principles of natural hiftory are incumbered, by annihilating the diverfity of English terms now ufed by different writers to reprefent the fame Latin one. Another difficulty attending the ftudy of natural history arifes from the obfcurity of the terms used, which are frequently the most obfolete and barbarous that could be collected. I fee no reafon myself, why the fcience of natural history, in all or any of its departments, may not, like others, be as effectually studied and clearly underftood in language purely indigenous, as in foreign or naturalized terms. the productions of nature may be as fully illuftrated as any other more popular fubject, in the common way, and yet at the fame time in a scientific manner, is evident from a very elegant and inftructive publication, intituled, "The Naturalift's Mifcellany," in which, to the accuracy of a complete naturalist, the learned author (Dr. SHAW) unites the perfpicuity of a chafte and claffical writer; --and that his work may be more extenfively'ufeful in foreign countries, correfponding Latin defcriptions - are annexed to the English ones, which may be held forth as fpecimens of Latinity not often equalled by modern writers of the higheft claffical reputation, and certainly unrivalled by any cotemporary naturalift. To a perfon habituated to the perufal of the Roman authors, nothing can be more grating than the unharmonious language of Linnæus, and thofe writers who have followed his juftly admired system; and I muft candidly acknowledge, that I derive greater fatisfaction from the language of Bauhin or Ray, than from the most favourite productions of the illuf trious Swede; and often regret, that while he fo fuccessfully laboured in eftablishing the lucidus ordo in the fcience of natural hiftory, he should have introduced a language to highly repugnant to that purity and energy which pervade the productions of the beft claffical writers. Surely the dignity or the excellence of a science cannot confift in being clothed in a phrafeology foreign to every language, and confequently to the exclufion

of

Remarks on Engraving on Wood.

of every one who has not time and abilities to ftudy and comprehend fo heterogeneous a jargon.

Whilft the prefent rage for systematic reform through the regions of nature lafts, I could with the numerous and intelligent reformifts would direct their attention awhile from the claffification to the language of natural history. Here an ample field is open for their exertions, and I am confident that their well-directed labours would be crowned with the happiest fuccefs, both in clearing the path to the study of nature of its greateft incumbrance, and in enfuring their fame by the gratitude of all who now groan under the weight of the barbarous phrafeology with which the fublime and important science of natural history in all its departments is embarraffed.

Yours, &c.

R. H. N.

Feb. 6, 1798.
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

BEWICK's Birds lately published,
EWICK's Birds lately published,

the fubject of engraving on wood, which
I beg leave to fubmit to your confidera-
tion. If you fhall think them deserving a
place in your useful Magazine, they are
entirely at your service.

The mode of engraving on wood, as practifed by the first discoverers of that art, was extremely different from that, which is now followed by the BEWICKS, and fome other artifts in Britain. The excellence of the old engravings confifted in the general correctness of the drawing, and the fpirited boldnefs of fome rough touches, which gave energy to the defign, but the manner was hard and dry; nor does it seem to have been even fufpected at that time, that it was poffible to produce a full deep and mellow fhade on a wood-cut, though it is now found that this can be better effected by an engraving on wood than by any other mode of engraving that has hitherto been adopted. Whether it is equally capable of producing that mellow foftnefs in the lighter tints, which can easily be effected on copper, is ftill a matter of doubt, though, if I were to judge from fome fpecimens I have feen, of the performance of a young artist, whose name is not yet known to the public, I should be inclined to believe that it might, even in this respect alfo, be brought to rival that on copper itself, But of this I wish to speak at prefent with diffidence, being confcious that the pubLic muft doubt in regard to those things they have never feen,

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Hitherto the only fpecimens of modern engravings on wood that have been offered to the public, have been upon a finall fcale; probably, because of the difficulty of finding wood of a large enough fize fit for the purpose, for I am informed, our modern artists use only box-wood. But from what I have feen of wood engravings of late, I should fuppofe, t at, confidered as a fine art, it was much better adapted for producing a grand effect in large works than in small things, because it admits of a rich fullness of fhade, a mellow foftness in their gradations, and a great strength of touch, which can be effected in no other mode that hath ever yet been attempted. But, as I am no artift myself, I throw out this hint merely for the confideration of others, without pretending to decide.

It is, however, as an ufeful rather than a fine art, that I think the chief value of this invention confifts. It is well known, that where many copies of a book with prints are fold, the expence of taking off the impreffions on copper greatly enhances the price; and engravings on copper are fo quickly effaced, that the beauty of every delicate touch is fenfibly diminished almost by every impreffion that is taken of it: and even the strongest engravings that can be made upon copper, are' foon worn down; fo as to require to be retouched feveral times, before a numerous impreffion can be worked off. I need not add, that after every fuch retouching, the impreffions are much inferior to what they were before the former engraving was worn down. In this way, the value of different copies of the fame impreflion of the books must be greatly altered, though all must be fold at the fame price. In regard to engravings on wood, the cafe is very different. I have been affured, on the best authority, that a wood-cut, strongly engraved, if it gets common juftice done to it, will not be fenfibly worfe after an hundred thousand impreffions have been taken from it, aud perhaps ten times that quantity may be taken before it has received fuch injury as to bring it to the ftate of a common copper-plate, that requires to be retouched. Add to this, that the expence of taking off the impreffions will not be, I have good reafon to believe, one fiftieth part of that of copper-plate engravings of the fame fize; and it is obvious, that the diminution of expence, by adopting this mode of engraving, in regard to works of extenfive fale, will be amazing, even if the original engraving hould have coft the fame fum as if done upon copper. I have been affured,

by

1121

Engraving on Wood....Similes from Homer.

by a gentleman who has made the calculation, and on whofe accuracy I can confidently rely, that, if the plates for the "Encyclopædia Britannica" had been engraven on wood inftead of copper, (and they could have been done much better than thofe are) and allowing the fame fum for originally engraving the one as the other, the faving on each plate, for one impreffion only of that work, would have exceeded ten guineas, fo that the total gain to the proprietors of that work, arifing from this circumftance alone, would have exceeded four thousand guineas on one impreffion only.

From these confiderations, it is obvious that every work which can command an extenfive fale, and which requires to be illuftrated by engravings, will afford a much greater profit to the undertaker if thefe are executed on wood than on copper. And, as the plates can remain equally good for a fecond, a third, or a fourth impreffion, as for the first, it will, in fome measure, fecure a copyright in the book, because no one, who has to pay for new engravings, could afford to fell an impreffion fo cheap as he could do who has the plates for nothing.

The queftion then comes to be, What kind of works of general utility admit of being illuftrated by engravings on wood equally well as if they were done upon copper? I here put works of tafte entirely out of the queftion, and confider utility enly.

In this point of view, the first place in regard to importance ought, perhaps, to be affigned to anatomy. From the fpecimens I have already feen, I am perfectly fatisfied that anatomical plates can be executed on wood with all the precifion poffible on copper, and, in fome particulars, (especially thofe where the mufcles are reprefented) with much greater ele gance and beauty. A fet of fuch plates, if executed from accurate defigns, by having the whole civilized globe for a market, (the explanations being eafily printed in different languages) could be afforded at a very low price, fo as to bring them within the reach of every student of phyfic; while the undertaker would be infured in a moft abundant profit.

The next fubject of general importance is architecture. Wood-engraving is peculiarly fitted to produce beautiful works of this clafs, at a very finall expence.

Heraldry is another fubject that admits of being illuftrated by wood-engravings with fingular propriety, as I am fatisfied of from fome fpecimens of this fort I have lately feen.

Mathematical diagrams and machinery of every fort, may thus be executed with the greatest accuracy and neatness.

In natural history, the fpecimens that BEWICK has given in his beafts and birds, fhew what it is capable of. For delineating infects, thells, and minerals, it is perhaps yet better calculated to produce a fine effect than in thofe fpecimens that have been already exhibited.

I will not take up more of your paper by enumerating a greater number of particulars. What I have faid will, I think, be fufficient to prove, that the art of engraving on wood promifes to be of much utility to mankind in general, by diminifhing the price of fome works of primary importance to fociety, on which account it deferves to be encouraged and cultivated with affiduity. Jan. 1, 1798.

N. M.

For the Monthly Magazine. SIMILES OF HOMER, VIRGIL, AND MILTON, (CONTINUED.)

From Wild Beafts.

OMER abounds in fimiles taken

HOMER abounds of the various

actions and characters of the ferocious animals, which, in the ruder states and paftoral occupations of mankind, must he objects of capital importance. Their encounters with each other, the devaftations they occafion among the domestic kinds, and the mutual warfare carried on between them and the human fpecies, cannot fail to imprefs the mind with a variety of striking ideas. The application of images, borrowed from this fource, to the circumstances of military tranfactions, is fo obvious, that little ingenuity is to be looked for in the dif covery either of general or particular points of refemblance; and the merit of comparifons, from this fource, muft chiefly confift in the force and accuracy of defcription. The Grecian bard, in thefe refpects, is certainly unrivalled: every line in his defcriptive pieces is a proof that he copied from nature herself; and his fucceffors in epic poetry_haye done little more in their happiest efforts, than judiciously felecting, and adorning with the beauties of diction, the various circumftances with which he had furnifhed them.

Amidft the fimiles of this clafs, thofe in which the Lion forms the principal figure are by much the most frequent in the works of Homer. The generous courage and terrific force of this noble

animal

Similes of Homer, Virgil and Milton.

The Lion thus

113

Whom, leaping at the fold, fome fhepherd fwain,

wound,

His flocks defence, has ftruck with feeble
Now urg'd to mighty rage, no more re-
puls'd,
He clears the fence, and 'mid the crowd for-

lorn

animal rendered him peculiarly proper for comparison with the warriors of an age of heroes; when, from the artificial modes of combat, the strength and prowefs of a fingle individual became eminently confpicuous, and were of great moment in deciding the event of a battle. To confider every example in which the fimile of a lion is introduced, would prove tedious and uninterefting, on account of the frequent famenefs, both of Then proudly fprings again the lofty mound: the original and refembling scene. I So fprung Tydides on the Trojan hoft. fhall therefore select a few, the most vaII. v. 136. rious in their circumstances and application, and of the greatest value as natural representations.

The common occurrence in countries infefted by wild beafts, of a nightly at tack upon the folds or ftalls, by a lion, has given occafion to three striking fimilies in Homer, each diftinguished by fome variation in the circumstances. In the first I fhall adduce, the affault is effe&tually repelled--

As from the folded ftalls a nightly guard Of dogs and ruftics all the rage repel Of fome fierce Lion, greedy for the flesh Of fatted kine: in vain he rushes on;

So thick the javelins hurl'd by vent'rous hands,

And flaming torches fly, that held in awe,
Though much defiring, at the morning's dawn
Sad he retires. The mighty Ajax thus,
With fwelling breaft indignant quits the
field.
Il. xi. 547.

This is a characteristical and wellpainted picture, but not perfectly exact in the application; fince Ajax is not making an attack on the enemy, like the lion, but is ftanding upon the defenfive.

In the next inftance, the powers of the affailant and defenders are almost equally balanced, and this equality takes place both in the real and the refembling fcene. Sarpedon's fpirited attempt to break through the Grecian rampart, is thus imaged--

So, when a Lion, 'mid the mountains bred,

Long hung'ring, feels th' adventurous im

pulfe urge

To try the well-barr'd circuit of the fold;
If chance he find the guardian-fwains around,
With dogs and fpears in watch, he yet dif-

dains

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Spreads dire difmay; in heaps they ftrew the

foil;

The impetuous courage of Diomed is with peculiar propriety resembled to that of the Lion, and the circumftance of his receiving a flight wound from the arrow of Pandarus, is exactly paralleled in the fimile.

The retreat of the Lion, reprefented in the first of these paffages, is defcribed in a fimile by Virgil, but lefs cireumftantially, and without the accompanyment of the nightly attack.

-Ceu fævum turba leonem Cum telis premit infenfis; at territus ille, Afper, acerba tuens, retro redit; & neque terga

Ira dare aut virtus patitur; nec tendere con tra,

Ille quidem hoc cupiens potis eft per tela virofque :

Haud aliter retro dubius veftigia Turnus
Improperata refert, & mens exæftuat ira.
Æn. ix. 792.

As when with tilted fpears the clam'rous
train

Invade the brindled monarch of the plain,
The lordly favage from the fhouting foe
Retires, majestically ftern and flow,
Tho' fingly impotent the croud to dare,
Grim he looks back; he rolls his glaring eye,
Repel or ftand their whole collected war;
Defpairs to conquer; and difdains to fly.
So Turnus paus d; and by degrees retired;
While fhame, difdain, and rage, the hero
fir'd,

Pitt.

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114

Similes, &c.....English Verfification.

tory animals) is reprefented by Homer in a moft animated manner in the paffage, of which the following is a tranflation:

The dreadful Lion thus,

his paffage aerofs the Grecian rampart; and is therefore, like one of the former, defective in comparing an action of affault to one of defence.

Whom all th' affembled country round pur- has applied it with more exactness to HeVirgil, in a concife copy of this fimile,

fue, Intent to kill, at firft moves careless on, Till, by the fpear of fome bold hunter ftruck, He writhing yawns, he foams, his generous breaft

Indignant groans, with bufy tail his fides And loins he lafhes, roufing to the fight; Then fternly fcouling, ruthes headlong on, Refolved on flaughter, or a glorious death. Il. xx. 164.

As a fimile, this noble picture feems ftrangely misplaced, or thrown away, fince it is only introductory to the fingle combat in which Achilles, not wounded, or particularly irritated, engages with Eneas, an unequal adverfary.

Virgil has given a fpirited imitation of this paffage, applying it, as loofely as Homer had done, to Turnus, inflamed to fury by the public outcry against him, after the unfuccefsful beginnings of the war against Æneas.

Panorum qualis in arvis Saucius ille gravi venantum vulnere pectus, Tum demum movet arma leo; gaudetque

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lenor encompaffed by affailing enemies.

Ut fera, quæ denfa venantum fepta corona Contra tela furit, fefeque haud nescia morti Injicit, & faltu fuper venabula fertur: Haud aliter juvenis medios moriturus in hoftes

Irruit: & qua tela vidit denfiffima, tendit. Æn. ix. 551.

As the ftern favage, whom the train fur

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To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine:

SIR,

IN answer to your correfpondent, L

in NUMBER TWENTY-FIFTH of the MONTHLY MAGAZINE, I fent a few general obfervations on English verfification. With your permiffion I will now purfue the fubject a little further.

Ariftotle, who has called poetry imitation, calls mufic ομοιωματα της οργής και πραότητος, the likenefes of anger and gentleness, &c. this correfpondence he makes to depend on rhyme and melody σε τοις Ρυθμοις και Μελεσι. In this point of view poetry and mufic are kindred arts: and the analogy with respect to rhyme, expreffion, and effect, is much clofer than many imagine.

Sound has an influence on paffion; an influence not connected with an affociation of ideas, but with the tendency of certain tones to excite particular movements in the nerves. This is true of mufical founds; it is also true of metrical. These movements, however, are not always produced in verfe, by caufes uniformly the fame; fometimes it is by a particular movement of the verse, as that of Homer,

Ήτοι ο μεν σκηριπτόμενος χεςσιντε ποσιντε Λααν άνω ώθεσκε, &ς.

Or

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