1769.

Extract from the Adventures of an Atom.

He knew perfectly well how to exprefs the
fame ideas by words that literally implied op-
pofition:-for example, a valuable conqueft
or an invaluable conqueft; a fhameful rascal
or a fhameful villain; a hard head or a foft
head; a large confcience or no confcience;
immenfely great or immenfely little; damn-
ed high or damned low; damned bitter,
damned fweet; damned fevere, damned in-
fipid; and damned fulfome. He knew how
to invert the fenfe of words by changing the
manner of pronunciation: e. g. "You
are a very pretty féllow!" to fignify, "You
are a very dirty scoundrel."-You have al-
ways foke refpectfully of the higher
powers!" to exprefs, "You have often in-
fulted your betters, and even your fovereign!"
"You have never turned tail to the prin-
ciples you profeffed!", to declare, "You
have acted the part of an infamous apoftate."
He was well aware that words alter their fig-
nification according to the circumftances of
times, cuftoms, and the difference of opi-
tion. Thus the name of Jack, who used to
turn the fpit and pull off his mafter's boots,
was transferred to an iron machine and a
wooden inftrument now fubftituted for thefe
parpoles: thus a fand for the tea-kettle,
acquired the name of footman; and the
words Canon and Ordinance, fignifying ori-
ginally a rule or law, was extended to a piece
of artillery, which is counted the ultima lex,
or ultima ratio regum.-In the fame manner
the words infidel, herefy, good man, and po-
litical orthodoxy, imply very different fignifi-
cations, among different claffes of people.
A Muffulman is an infidel at Rome, and a
Christian is diftinguished as an unbeliever at
Conftantinople. A Papift by Proteftantifm
understands herefy; to a Turk, the fame
idea is conveyed by the fect of Ali. The
term good man, at Edinburgh, implies fana-
ticifm; upon the Exchange of London it
fignifies cath, and in the general acceptation,
benevolence. Political orthodoxy has diffe-
rent, pay oppofite definitions, at different
places in the fame kingdom; at O-- and
C--; at the Cocoa-tree in Pall-mall; and
at Garraway's in Exchange-alley. Our ora-
tor was well acquainted with all the legerde-
main of his own language, as well as with
the nature of the beast he had to rule. He
knew when to diftract its weak brain with
a tumult of incongruous and contradictory
ideas: he knew when to overwhelm its fee-
ble faculty of thinking, by pouring in a tor-
rent of words without any ideas annexed.
These throng in like city-milliners to a Mile-
end aflembly, while it happens to be under
the direction of a conductor without ftrength
and authority. Thofe that have ideas an-
nexed may be compared to the females pro-
vided with partners, which, though they

263

may croud the place, do not abfolutely deftroy all regulation and decorum. But thofe that are uncoupled, prefs in promifcuously with fach impetuofity and in fuch numbers, that the puny mafter of the ceremonies is unable to withstand the irruption; far lefs, to diftinguish their quality, or accommodate them with partners: thus they fall into the dance without order, and immediately anarchy ensues."

II. The Hiftory of Paraguay, containing, amonft many other new, curious, and interefting Particulars of that Country, a full and authentic Account of the Establishments found there by the Jesuits, from among the favage Natives in the very Centre of Barbarifm. 2 vol. 8vo. Davis.

This hiflory is a tranflation from the celebrated Father Charlevoix, and though we cannot affure the reader that it is tranflated with great elegance, we can nevertheless venture to promife him, not only much inftruction, but much entertainment.

Paraguay was first difcovered by the Spaniards in the reign of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who named it after a river in the country. The following extract from the natural history will we doubt not be highly acceptable to the public.

"Almost every foreft of this country abounds with bees, which make their hives in the hollows of trees. There are here ten different fpecies of thefe ufetul infects. That most esteemed for the whiteness of its wax, and the delicacy of its honey, is called Opemus, but is very fcarce. The Cotton-tree is a native of the country, and grows in thickets, like what I faw in Louisiana. It bears the very first year, but must be pruned like the vine. It flowers in December and January *, and its flower, which refembles the yellow tulip, fades and withers away three days after blowing. The pod contained in the flower is quite ripe in February, and yields a wool, which is not only very white, but very good in every other respect. The Indians I fpoke of, began to fow hempfeed; but having found it a troublefome talk to prepare it for fpinning, most of them abandoned the enterprife. The Spaniards have, on this occafion, thewed more confancy than the Indians, and make use of hemp in pretty large quantities.

Besides maiz, manioc, and potatoes, which thrive very well in feveral places, and in which the food of thofe Indians, who cultivated the earth, chiefly confifted, there are in this country many fruits and fimples, not known in Europe: I fhall name and defcribe fome of them, as occafion offers. There are fome fruits in particular, of which the Spaniards make excellent fweet-meats. Some have planted vines here, which do not thrive equally in every district; but a great

• It is proper the reader should attend to the great difference between the feafons in Paraguay and Europe, occafioned by their lying at different fides of the equinotival line,

deal

264

Extract from the Hiftory of Paraguay.

deal of wine is made at Rioja and Corduba, two towns of Tucuman. That of Corduba is greafy, ftrong and heady. That of Rioja has none of thee faults; but at Mendoza, a town in the government of Chili, and fituated in the Cordilliera, at about twentyfive leagues from Corduba, they make a wine very little inferior to that of Spain. Wheat has been fown in fome places; but it is feldom made use of but for cakes and other things of that kind. There are every-where venomous herbs, with which fome Indians poifon their arrows; but the antidotes are equally common; and among others the herb called Sparrow's berb, which forms pretty large bushes, and was difcovered, and obtained its name, in the following manner,

Among the different kinds of fparrows found in thefe provinces, moft of which are of the fize of our black-birds, there is a very pretty one, called macagua. This little creazure is very fond of the flesh of vipers, againft whom, for this reafon, he wages a continual war. As foon therefore as he fpies one of thefe reptiles, he whips his head under his wing, and gathers himself up into a round ball, without the leaft appearance of life or motion; he does not however cover his eyes fo entirely, but what he may peep through the feathers of his wing, and obferve the motions of his game, which he fuffers to approach without ftirring, until he finds it near enough to receive a ftroke of his bill, which he then fuddenly discharges at it. The viper immediately returns the compliment with another of his tongue; but the minute the sparrow finds himself wounded, he flies to his herb, eats fome of it, and is inftantly cured. He then returns to the charge, and has recourfe to his herb, every time the viper ftings him. This conflict lafts till the viper, deftitute of the fame refource, has loft all his blood. As foon as the reptile is dead, the fparrow falls to work upon the carcass, and concludes the feaft with a new dofe of his antidote.

There are few countries which breed fo great a number, and so many different fpecies of ferpents, and fuch other reptiles; but there are a great many of them no way poifonous, or whofe poifon is no way dangerous, The Indians know thefe innocent though frightful reptiles, take them up alive in their hands, and make girdles of them, without any bad confequence. There are fome of thefe creatures twenty-two feet long, and proportionably thick, that fwallow whole ftags, if we may believe fome Spaniards, who affure us they have been eye-witneffes to their feats this way. The Indians fay, that thefe monflers engender at the mouth, and that the young ones tear their way into the world thro' the fides of their mothers,

May

after which the strongest devour the weakeft. And were it not for this difpofition of Providence, Father Anthony Ruiz de Montoya, who feems to credit this account, obferves, that it would be impoffible to ftir out of doors without meeting with thefe terrible animals. Among those who are oviparous, there are fome that lay very large eggs, and make use of incubation to hatch them.

The rattle-fnake, fo common in feveral provinces of North America, is no-where perhaps more fo than in Paraguay. It has been obferved in this country, that this rep tile fuffers greatly when its gums are too much diftended with venom; and that, to get rid of this venom, it falls upon every thing in its ways, with two crooked fangs, pretty large at their root, but terminating in a point, and by means of a hollow in these fangs, pours into the wound it makes all the humour that tormented it. The effects of the bite of this, and many other fpecies of ferpents and fnakes, are very fudden: fometimes the blood iffues violently at the eyes, nofe, ears, gums, and roots of the nails; but there are antidotes to be found every where against this poifon. The moft successful are a ftone, to which they have given the name of St. Paul, bezoard, and a poultice of chewed garlick. The very head of the animal, and its liver, which is likewife eaten to purify the blood, are equally efficacious: the fureft method, however, is to begin by making an incifion directly in the part that has been ftung, and then apply brimflone to it. Nay, this drug alone has been often found to make a perfect cure.

There are here likewife fome hunting ferpents, which climb up the trees to dif cover their prey, and from thence dart upon it when within reach, fqueeze it fo tight, that it cannot ftir, and then devour it alive at their leisure. But when they have eat up whole carcaffes, they become fo heavy as not to be able to move, and, as they fometimes have not a fufficient degree of natural heat to digeft fuch enormous meals, would inevitably become the victims of their own voracity, did not nature fuggeft to them a remedy, which reafon certainly would never permit them to employ. On this occafion the monfter turns up his belly to the fun, whofe heat makes it put ify; the worms then breed in it, and the birds, coming to their affiftance, feed upon a fuperfluity, which otherwife would moft certainly kill him: the patient takes care not to let the birds go too great lengths, and in a short time, after this extraordinary operation, finds himself as well as ever. But it often happens, they fay, that the fkin of the ferpent clofes upon the branches of trees upon which he has been in too grest hafte to fia

* By this one would imagine the sparrow-berb als both as a ftyptic and as an antidote,

tion

1769.

Of the Influence of Languages on Opinions.

tion himself; this is a fcrape, out of which he must find it a much more difficult matter to extricate himself than the former.

265

to more valuable purpoíes, as every body is fenfible, that language and opinion must have their reciprocal influence on each other, without entering into a differration for the purpofe. However, as the prefent article has made much noife on the continent, and feems elegantly tranflated from its original German, we fall favour the author fo tar, as to give an extract from his performance to

our readers.

66

SECTION II.

Opinions.

HE proofs of the advantageous in

Many of thefe reptiles live upon fish; and Father Montoya, from whom I have taken almoft all thefe particulars,informs us, that he one day happened to fpy a huge tnake, whofe head was as big as a calf's, thing on the banks of a river: the first thing the monfter did, was to discharge by its mouth a great quantity of foam into the river; he then thruft his head into the water, and kept it Of the advantage.us Influence of Languages on very quiet, 'till a great many mail fishes, attracted by the foam, had gathered about it; when fuddenly opening his jaws, he laid about him, and fwallowed in great numbers al thofe that were unhappy enough to lie within his reach. Another time, the fame author affures us, he faw an Indian of the talleft fature, who happened to be fishing up to his middle in water, fwallowed alive by a huge fnake, which the next day vomited his prey afhore quite whole, all to the bones which were fmathed to pieces, as if they had been bruifed between two mill-ftones.

This monstrous fpecies of reptiles never quit the water; and in the rapids, which are pretty common in the Parana, they are often feen (wimming with a huge tail, and their head, which is likewife very large, above water. The Indians fay, that they engender in the fame manner with land-animals, and that the males often attack women, as it is pretended monkeys do in fome countries. One thing however is certain, and that is, that Father Montoya was one day called upon to hear the confeffion of an Indian woman, whom, while she was washing fome linen on the banks of a river, oue of these animais at. tacked, and, as the faid, offered violence to her: the miffionary found her firetched on the very spot, where the faid the thing had happened; he told him he was fure the had but a few minutes to live, and in fact expired, almoft as foon as the had finished her confeffion."

Not being able in this place to give a longer extract at prefent, we have inferted, in the more forward part of our Magazine, (fee Pages 229-232) two others..

III. Differtation on the Influence of Opinions on Language and of Language on Opimons; which gained the Pruthan Royal Academy's Prize on that Subject, together with an Enquiry into the Advantages and Practicability of an univerfal learned Language. By Mr. Michaelis, Court Counjeilur to bis Britan nic Majefty, and Director of the Royal Academy at Gottingen. 5s. Owen. 92 pages 4to.

Moft academical Questions prove exercifes for the ingenious, not matters of any great confequence to the public. The prefent is one of the performances which may be ranked under the titie of an elaborate bagatelle; it difplays much reading, without much utility, and gives us room to wifh, that the author's abilities had been directed May, 1769.

TH fluence of language on opinions i re

duce to a few ciaffes, the number of which unquestionably might be greatly augmented,' but i fhall not fo much as go about an enumeration of them, the fubject I well know is inexhaustible.

There are happy etymologies, they comprehend accurate defcriptions, real definitions, which unfold the meanings and difperfe that kind of mift in which they a.e to often involved. Thefe etymologies, befides preventing many errors and altercations about words, make known to him whofe happiness it is to meet with fuch in his language, I say they immediately make known to him truths of which, philofophers, lefs favoured by their language, purchafe the attainment by laborious study.

When we either pronounce, or hear the word glory, we all think fomething, and in fome meature the fame thing. We underftand the word but as to its etymology we are totally in the dark, it conveys no more inftruction to us than if we had made ufe of an algebraic character, for instance expreffing glory by Z. This word does not make known to us in what glory confifts, it rectifies no error, it does not undeceive either the hair-brained hero, infatuated with the phantom of glory, nor the faturnine moralift who affects a contempt of it. The very philofopher, misled by an arbitrary found which coftom has annexed to fo many confufed ideas, and often to very talfe ideas, will give us falfe definitions. This has been the cafe more than once. Glory has been confounded with the caufe productive of it, I mean with internal perfection; it has been defined the fum of all our perfections, and, in conformity to that notion, we have been taught that the glory of God does not depend on his creatures, nor the glory of the wife man on what others think of him. Thsfe

doctrines which, in the main, turn only on an ambiguity, are with many become fo facred and refpectable that their zeal would be extremely offended again any who should take it into their heads to conteft them. If this definition, however, be juft, either the philofopher from whom we received it, or our language must be without a word for expreffing the favourable opinion the world entertains of our good actions.

LI

The

266

Of the Influence of Languages on Opinions.

The Greek language has a great advantage in this point. The word Ağa, which fig nifies glory, is, at the fame time, a real definition of it, and a definition pregnant with confequences. This word properly means opinion, and is made ufe of to denote glory, as confifting in the good opinion the world has of us. Ev din divas is to be in the good opinion of others, and dox, is one of whom the public has a good opinion.

Thus, the Greeks could not but know in what glory confifts; this etymology was continually putting them in mind of it; and to imagine that there could be any fuch thing as glory independently of the high opinion entertained of our talents and virtues, they must have forgotten their very mother tongue. As for the metaphyfician, it was fcarce poffible for him to deviate from the common mode of thinking, fo far as to pretend, that God enjoys glory amidst the folitude of eternity; and if an affectation of paradox, or a want of attending to the language, had carried him to that abfurdity, there was no Greek fo void of fenfe, as not to fee that God's perfections could not be acknowledged, or celebrated, whilft God alone exifted.

This idea of glory which the Greek expreffion conveyed, farther fhewed, that it was not to be attained by guilt, violence, and devastation, but by virtues, by generofity and benevolence; this, in confequence, made glory to be a real good; for, if we confider how much our profperity or adverfity, our happiness or unhappiness, depend on others, their good or bad opinion certainly will not be a matter of indifference to us; and that mifanthropical doctor, who reprefents glory to us as an airy vapour, as a chimera, teaches a doctrine not le's diffonant from human nature, and to the fituation we are placed in here below, than as if he was to exhort us to be independant like the Deity, and, like him, to stand in no need of the affiftance and good offices of another. In this view the defire of glory, that defire fo vilified, becomes a commendable difpofition, tending to make of all mankind a fociety of brethren, prompting every one to feek the approbation of his fellow creatures, and to acquire it by a decent and virtuous behaviour. To give a clear notion of glory to the four bigot, who profeffes the moft fupercilious contempt is, I own, no eafy matter; and were it poffible to bring him to better thoughts, it would be effected in Greek fooner than in any other language. You are obliged, would I fay to him, to feek that glory which confists in a good reputation: the most natural punishment annexed to bad actions is the lofs of honour to make light of this, is fhaking off the only curb which, humanly fpeaking, can keep you to your duty: you will gradually become a profligate, hardened in gul, and then to be dealt with only by bodily punishment."

May

From the foregoing fpecimen the reader will be enabled to judge of our author's manner, as to the practicability of establishing an univerfal learned language, that is, as he himself expreffes it, a language in which each idea thould have its diftinct type_and character, he thinks it utterly impoffible, though he owns a friend of his has contrived an alphabet, by means of which he can perfectly reprefent on paper all the imaginable forms of all languages.

IV. Confiderations on the Dependencies of Great-Britain, with Obfervations on a Pamphlet entitled The Present State of the Nation. 28. 8vo. Almon.

"The ftate of Great-Britain, says our author, is this. The peace establishment, with a little reformation, may be re- £. duced to 3,300,000 141,000,000 4,500,000

The national debt
The intereft of which is

£ 7,800,000

This 7,800,000l. is the fum to be provided annually for the expences of England. To the accomplishment of which the author of the State of the Nation proposes, that Ireland fhould contribute 100,000 1. and the colonies 200,000l. making together 300,000l. which is juft the difference between 7,800,000l. and 7,500,0001. per en

num.

This extra-British contribution to the British establishment, is the principal objec which I propofe to confider.

First, then, as to Ireland, let us enquire, whether this would be reasonable or practicable; and examine how far the relative condition and abilities of Ireland have been juftly ftated by this author; even fuppofing this 100,000l. per annum an object of weight enough in the scale of British expence to demand fuch confideration, or juft:fy fuch an expedient.

I have this moment before me the national accounts of Ireland, which were laid before parliament the last feffion, and fhall from them ftate the annual fum raised on that kingdom in taxes; and then examine into its means, its refources, and the proportion it bears to Great Britain, in its ability and its exertion.

In the year ending Lady day 1766, the
produce of the
1.
3. ៨.
671,649 13 5
245,954

Hereditary revenue was
The additional duties
The loan and other ap-
propriated duties

73,141

8 111

990,745 4 3 The amount of the whole is nearly one million of money, actually raised every year on Ireland. And when I add to this, that on comparing the expences of government with this produce of the revenues, it was apprehended by the Irish parliament,

that

1769. Confiderations on the Dependencies of Great Britain. 267