On they advance with folemn steps and flow,
That speak devotion, and betoken woe.
Next them the drum and trumpet take the place,
Sound the dead march, and regulate their pace.
Preceded by a band of weeping friends,
Aloft her course a beauteous female bends;
An high-bred fteed fupports her lovely weight,
Who bows his creft, as confcious of her fate:
No more he heeds the warlike notes, the throng-
But ftalks in fad folemnity along!

Not thou, fam'd Dido! canft a rival prove
To her who death-devotes herself for love.
To perjur'd vows was facrific'd thy life-
Here, with her conftant husband, burns the wife:
Thy tragic end was haften'd by despair;
But calm and steady dies this widow'd fair.
Ah! what feniations in his bofom rise,
As this bright form encounters LYCON's eyes:
His heart forebodes fome agonizing scene,
But yet conceives not what those wonders mean.
When to the right he views, yet undefcry'd,
A lofty pyramid's capacious fide:

Thither he goes-at once the truth appears!
The cruel cuftom oft had reach'd his ears:
A tear he drops, to virtuous error due!
And filent waits the melancholy view.

The heroine's reply to her mother, mentioned in the dedica tion, is poctically expreffed, and might be affecting, did not the force of cuftom urge the abfurdity of a facrifice, which opinion prevents, therefore, from touching our paffions. For the fame reafon the moral of the piece, we conceive, will operate but little on the minds of European readers.

A well defigned, and very prettily engraved reprefentation of the fcene defcribed in the fecond canto, is prefixed to this performance, delineated by Ward, and engraved by Collier.

The Devil, a poetical Effay. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Dodfley. Don't be frightened, reader! He won't hurt you.-This is no naughty devil with fhort horns and long claws; but a decent kind of a dainty devil, whom the poet introduces, by telling us, that, give him his due, he is not fo black as he is painted. But, why fo decent and civil a gentleman fhould be called the devil, we cannot find out; nor do we imagine the author himself can give a better reason, than that he was at a lofs what other name to give it. For our part, we can fafely declare, we have read the whole attentively through, without being able to discover what the devil the writer was about, or what the devil he meant to inculcate. The pamphlet contains, indeed, above two dozen pages of eafy flowing verfes, tagged with tolerable rhimes; but what about, heaven knows; except, indeed, that the last line tells us,

"That heav'n's best gift's a patriot king.”

CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON REVIEW.

SIR,

Though nothing can be more laudable in profeffed Cenfors, than to encourage ingenuity whenever it is exerted for the public fervice, yet, it should be remembered, that the fanction of men of science, if given without mature confideration, and deliberate conviction, may lead the unfkilful into great expence, and much lofs.--Dr. Falck has published a scheme for a new fire engine, which you have highly commended in your Review for Auguft, 1776, and as I apprehend, that upon a more leisurely revifal yon will retract part of your eulo gium; I beg leave to point out a few of the errors in the Doctor's pamphlet.

I fhall first take notice of what he observes about other engines, and then confider what he fays of his own.-Page the 3d, he affirms, "that the original author of this great invention of railing water by

fteam, was indifputably the Marquis of Worcester, &c. in 1668." -I have now before me Les Elemens de L'Artillerie, 2d edition, published in 1608, in which this difcovery is more clearly mentioned, than in the Marquis of Worcester's century of inventions. Page the 5th, in the note "This fire-mill (monfieur Amonton's) perhaps was upon the fame principle as that of Mr. Watt."Monfieur Amonton has described his fire (or rather air) wheel, at large in the Journal des Scavans, and it does not in the least resemble Mr. Watt's engine.

Page the 8th, Dr. Falck fays, "The pifton of the common engine is made of a small depth in order that it may move eafily up "and down."-cæteris paribus, the deeper the piston the easier would be the motion. The piston is made shallow to fave room in the cylinder.

Page the 20th, he talks of Mr. Watt's lever engine, as a scheme upon paper; whereas, every body in England, who is converfant in mechanics, knows that several of his machines have been executed, and applied to work in a manner much more advantageous than Mr. Watt's diffidence will permit him to declare.

Page the 24th, he apprehends "a metaline pifton cannot be made to move freely, and yet be air tight."-If he reads the act of parliament granted to Mr. Watt, he will find that the folid piston is to float in fluid metal, by which means it may be rendered fteam tight, this engine alfo has been executed in large, and is as Dr. Falck terms it," a beautiful invention'"

I have but a few words to fay about the Doctor's engine. In the first place, I believe, that a fire engine with two cylinders is defcribed in Les Machines approuvées par L'Acadèmie des Sciences a Parisand fuppofing that it were his own invention, can he be serious in fay ing page, 1 and 2, that it will do more than double work with the fame fire, merely from having two cylinders instead of one.-By the fame reafoning, if it had 100 cylinders, we muft conclude, that his engine, would do a hundred times as much work, as a common engine with the fame fire. This would I acknowledge be a capital discovery.

Take his own words, page 40, "It is demonstratively plain that two cylinders must have double the ftrokes, confequently double the intrinfic force"---very confequentially argued indeed!

I will

I will do Dr. Falck the justice to believe that he did not intend his pamphlet for those who make, but for those who purchase, fire engines.-Phyficians write for men of science-there are OTHERS who write profeffedly for the ignorant.

I muft apologize for taking up your time upon a fubject which would never have attracted my attention, had it not been honoured by your notice-And, as I am perfuaded that either lenity or hafte, was the caufe of your favourable mention of this futile fcheme, I hope you will give this letter a place in your Review for November, And am your conftant reader, and obedient fervant,

Nov. 22, 1776.

E. L. R.

TO THE AUTHORS OF THE LONDON REVIEW.

GENTLEMEN,

In the fupplement to the laft volume of your valuable repofitory of critical knowledge, is a letter from Cambridge figned P. R. in which the writer accules you of negligence in omitting a due reprimand to Mr. Mickle, the tranflator of the Lufiad, for his mifreprefentation of a fentence in the old liturgy. Mr. Mickle obferves, in defence of the delicacy of his author, that grofs imagery, two centuries ago, was common in the best writers, and that it was esteemed no indelicacy in the old liturgy to enjoin the wife to be buxom in bed and at board. This in fo ingenious a writer, fays Mr. R.requires particular animadverfion, and he hints, that only the neceffary hurry attending a periodical publication, could have made you overlook it. For my part, Gentlemen, I will pay you my compliments on another ground for I am convinced you faw that Mr. Mickle was perfectly right. Your correspondent is at great pains to prove from Milton, and Johníon's Dictionay, that the word buxom conveys no indelicate idea. This is all very true, and Mr. Mickle, the author of the Concubine, one of the beft imitations of Spenfer in our language, can hardly be fuppofed to be ignorant of the just import of that old word. The truth is, the idea raised by the fentence, is by no means confined to the import of buxom; but we will attempt no wanton wit upon a bride in bed, and only defire Mr. P. R. to look a little farther than the first word of a fentence, the next time he commences critic.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

The misfortune we met with foon after the commencement of our Review, in the deceafe of one of our affociates, having, hitherto, prevented our giving fo copious an account of foreign publications, as we at firft intended: we are happy to inform our readers, that we have received an offer from a gentleman, equally well fituated as qualified, to affiit us in that department: which we the more readily embrace, as we have received repeated folicitations from our corre fpondents to enlarge on that fubject. In conformity to the plan, therefore, which we first projected, and executed many years ago, in the May Review; we mean for the future to devote our Apfendix chiefly to the giving an account of Foreign books: beftowing alfo, oc ionally, fuch early notice of the most popular publications of the Continent, as may ferve to gratify the curiofity of the Engle reader,

I

THE

LONDON REVIEW,

FOR DECEMBER, 1776,

Memoirs of the Kings of France, of the Race of Valois. Interfperfed with interefting Anecdotes. To which is added, a Tour through the Western, Southern, and interior Provinces of France, in a Series of Letters. By Nathaniel Wraxall, junior, Efq; 2 vols. 8vo. 12s. Dilly.

It is obferved by our author, that History, from its earliest commencement to the prefent century, exhibits only a frightful picture of maffacres, perfidies, and crimes, at which humanity recoils.. Nor is this obfervation peculiar to this ingenious writer: it has been made by many others of great celebrity, who have appeared, nevertheless, to take a delight in delineating thofe frightful pictures, and heightening them with all the glowing colours of rhetorical defcription. Shall we charge our numerous Hiftorians with want of humanity? Or to what motives fhall we impute the voluntary and unneceflary exercife of the pen, to describe characters fo often exhibited, and relate facts fo often told? To, what shall we impute a fondness for that kind of knowledge, at which humanity profeffedly recoils? To what principle attribute that amusement and entertainment, which the Hiftorian flatters himself his work will afford the reader? Can we take a delight in contemplating the calamities of human life, or do we feek only the gratification of that curiofity which Nature hath implanted in the mind, and hath no other object than mere information? It is, probably, to this infatiable appetite for knowledge that we owe the multiplicity of Hiftories, Narratives, Novels, and Romances, with which the prefs fo prolificly teems, and which are fo eagerly devoured the moment they are born. The gratification of this appetite, however, confined ufually to the mere relation of matters of fact, or the fimple exhibition of perfonal and profeffional characters, is of as little improvement to the mind, as the fatisfying a falfe appetite for food is of nourishment to the body. It is like the frivolous repaft of nuts and fweetmeats, that is rather injurious than falutary, and ferves only to pall the real appetite, and país away the time. We have heard, indeed, much of late of the philofophy of Vol. IV. Hiftory;

3 G

Hiftory; but till Hiftory be written with a more fcrupulous regard to truth, we are apprehensive the philofophical conclufions, to be deduced from it, will be in a great measure chimerical and erroneous. It is notorious, that not only the characters of History, but even the narrative of facts, take a different colouring from the prejudices and partiality of the Hiftorian. If to this confideration, which bears hard against the best-informed and moft original writer, be added the difficulties the Hiftorian of Hiftorians, the fubfequent copyift of various originals, labours under; the philofopher will be very cautious what conclufrons either moral or political he deduces from the reports of paft ages. Philofophical hiftorians may form fyftems, but they will be by fo much the more vifionary than other systems, as the principles on which they are built are more perplexed and precarious. Hence we cannot help regarding fuch reflections as the following, to be unphilofophical and injurious to that system of truth and justice, which, in fpite of the criminality of individuals, has prevailed in the general difpenfations of Providence, throughout all ages of the world. "We find," fays Mr. Wraxall, "ambition and fubtlety almoft always triumphant, while innocence, and the moft amiable qualities, unless accompanied with vigour and capacity, ufually conduct their unhappy poffeffors to violent or ignominious exits." If proverbs be the wisdom of ages, Honefty is the best Policy, and Virtue is its own Reward. If the firft fages of antiquity, and the greatest moralifts among the moderns, alfo, have not been moft egregiously mistaken, the paths of virtue have led to honour and happiness, and those of vice to fhame and mifery. Whence have thofe fages and moralifts deduced these maxims, unless from actual obfervation and experience? And are we at this time of day to be told, that all Hiftory contradicts them? Better were it that History were neither written nor read, if fuch were its actual tendency. True indeed it is, that the worthier part of mankind pafs unobferved through life. Their influence, like that of the placid fhower and refreshing breeze, operates unnoticed; while the tempeft and the hurricane diffuse astonishment and terror around, and leave behind the dreadful marks of defolation. It is alfo, in fome degree, the fault of Hiftorians, that virtuous characters and fortunate events are hardly ever placed in fo ftriking a point of view as the vicious and the unfortunate. It is the conduct of the Great, and not of the Good, that is in general the object of the Hiftorian; fo that, as the Great are so often proportionally bad, it is no wonder the Hiftory of mankind hould exhibit fcenes of wickednefs difgraceful to humanity.

If