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of imitating the most beautiful sculp tures, by means of old paper reduced to paste. To a wonderful lightness and solidity, this new species of ornament adds the requisite truth in the expression of the figures. These statues are as cheap as common painted paper, and have already been employed to decorate the public halls in Paris. The labours of M. Gardeur have met with the approbation of the French Government, and the National Institute.

It appears from the experiments of DESORMUS and CLEMENT, that 100 parts of ultramarine consists of silex 35.8 parts; alumine 34.8; soda, 23.2; sulphur 3.1; and carbonated lime 3.1. Its specific gravity is 2.360.

A simple odometer for measuring the ground passed over by a carriage, has been invented by R. LoVELL EDGEWORTH, Esq. For a description and drawing of the instrument, see Nicholson's Journal, No. 61, p. 81.

It appears from VAUQUELIN's experiments on human hair, that black

produced by age, seems to be owing to a deficient secretion of colouring matter.

PROFESSOR LAUGUIER has discovered, by a particular mode of analy. sis, that the five meteoric stones of Verona, Barbotain, Ensisheim, Aigle, and Apt, besides the principles already known to chemists, contain the metal called Chrome, in the pro. portion of about one hundredth part.

Hence he concludes, that all meteoric stones possess this ingredient, and recommends the stone when ana. lysed to be treated with both acids and alkalis.

Mr G. GILFIN has invented a new method of working the common chain in machinery, so as to exceed ropes in inflexibility and strength. The society of arts has awarded to the inventor their silver medal, and 30 guineas. See vol. XVIII. of their Transactions.

Mount Annan,
Nov. 19. 1806.

SIR,

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LAND.

To the Editor.

D. B.

hair consists of nine different substan- Valuation of ORKNEY and SHETces, viz. 1. An animal matter which constitutes the greater part. 2. A white concrete oil in a small quantity. 3. Another oil of a greyish green colour, more abundant than the former. 4. Iron, the state of which, in the hair, is uncertain. 5. A few particles of oxide of Manganese. 6. Phosphate of lime, 7 Carbonate of lime in a small quanti ty. 8. Silex in a conspicuous quantity. 9. Sulphur in a considerable quantity. The same experiments shew that red hair differs from black only in containing a red oil, instead of a blackish green oil, and that white hair differs from both these only in the oil being nearly colourless, and in containing phosphate of magnesia. The whiteness of hair

At

N the paragraph mentioning the valuation of Orkney and Shetland, in the Appendixito my Tour, &c. lately published, an important error of the press has escaped, which I should be happy to correct through the medium of your miscellany. page 174, it is stated that the valuation of Orkney is L.5,600, and of Zetland L.2,800: the former of these sums should have been L,56,000, and the latter L.28,000, Scots. I am, SIR,

Edinburgh,
Nov. 27. 1806.

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B. NEILE

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Character of the most eminent Scors WRITERS of the present day.

Translated from a French work entitled, "Londres les Anglais;" by Terri de St Constant. (Continued from p. 747-)

POETRY.

:

DR James Beattie, celebrated as a moral philosopher, was no less so as a poet. The most considerable of his poetical works is the poem entitled the Minstrel his object is to trace the progress of a poetical genius born in times of ignorance, from the first dawn of imagination and reason, till he is capable of appearing in the world as a Minstrel; that is to say, as an itinerant poet and musician; a character which, in the idea of the ancient Britons, was not only respectable, but sacred. Dr Beattie's taste is pure, his versification elegant, and in the choice of expressions and images he yields to none of his co-temporaries. The English regret that he has not, like Pope, cultivated the muses to his old age.

Mr Thomas Campbell has sung the" Pleasures of Hope." His poem wants a regular plan, but contains a number of images, full of force, imagination, and interest; and breathes throughout the enthusiasm of the most generous sentiments. Mr Campbell's first work has given ground to hope that he will one day rank among the most celebrated English poets.

Mr John Home, a Scotsman, is the author of five tragedies. The first, entitled Douglas, was first represented with much success at Edinburgh, and then, on the recommendation of the celebrated Hume, at London, where it was no less successful. It was considered as the best tragedy that had appeared in the English theatre since the time of Rowe. A Scotsman, who was in the pit at Drury Lane while Douglas was acting, cried out in a transport of national vanity, and in the accent of his country: "Whar's Nov. 1806.

your Wully Shakspur now?" Mr Home's other four tragedies, entitled Agis, the Siege of Aquileia, the Fatal Discovery, and Alonzo, are all inferior to his first play. Mr Home, being a minister of the Presbyterian church, was censured for writing a play, by the clergy, who affect in many points a puritanical rigour; he was even deprived of his church, but the Ministry indemnified him by a pension.

ROMANCE.

Mr Henry Mackenzie is one of the best writers whom Great Britain at present posseses. He is chiefly known on the continent by his romance entitled the "Man of Feeling." There is none who has not read this masterpiece in sentimental writing, and has not compared it to the most perfect productions of Sterne. The severest English critics acknowledge that its style is pure, free of Scotticisms, easy, dignified, and elegant, without pomp, and without study. They reproach him with sometimes using gallicisms, for which there may be some foundation, as Mr Mackenzie, like other celebrated Scotch writers, has studied very much the French authors. They affirm also, that the character of the Man of Feeling had been partly formed upon that of St Preux in the New Heloise. Mr Mackenzie afterwards published the Man of the World, which forms as it were the second part of the "Man of Feeling." In this last he had imagined a person who constantly obeys all the impulses of the moral sense, and is indebted to it for all the pleasures and pains of life. In the Man of the World, he represents a man abandoning himself to every kind ́of disorder, spreading misfortune, and rendering himself unhappy, by pursuing a happiness which he hopes to obtain, although he never follows the moral sense. Mr Mackenzie has also introduced the system of Shaftsbury, of Hutcheson, and of Smith, their

pupil.

pupil. This second work was well received by the public, though not with the same enthusiasm as the first. The latter offered a new character; the Man of the World had been already drawn with more depth and energy. Mr Mackenzie's third romance, intitled" Julia de Roubigne," is in the form of letters. It is written, like the others, with an elegant simplicity, and is very interesting: but the characters are not very natural, nor the incidents very probable. Mr Mackenzie published also a poem entitled "The Pursuit of Happiness;" two tragedies, "The Prince of Tunis," and "The Fatal Curiosity;" and a comedy entitled "the Hypocrite." These works have not met with the same success as his romances and moral essays.

CRITICISM.

Dr Blair is no less celebrated in England as a critic, than as an ora He was twenty years professor of rhetoric and belles lettres in the

tor.

University of Edinburgh, and published an abridgement of his lectures in three volumes. His work is far from being original throughout, as he himself allows in his preface.-He has borrowed much from the French writers, but discovers much taste and critical method, and a style as much embellished as didactic writing admits of. This work, the manuscript of which was sold for 1500l. sterling, is extremely well fitted to give correct ideas of literary composition and delicate criticism. Blair's dissertation on Ossian's poems, though not so useful as the preceding, does him still more honour. It is perhaps the best critical work which exists in the English lan. guage.

Dr

The English reckon among their good critical works, Mr Alison's Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste," in 4to, 1790, and Mr Ogilvie's Critical and Historical Observations on Composition, in 2

vols. 8vo. 1774. They contain some new views, ingenious reflections, and a spirit of analysis; but the national taste has a great influence on the judgment, and even on the principles of these writers.

Dr James Beattie, in his "Essay on Poetry and Music," considered in relation to the affections of the soul, has done little more than unfold the ideas of writers who have treated these subjects. It is observed that he af fects to quote none, because most of them are French.

CHEMISTRY.

able chemists, among whom we may Edinburgh, as well as London, has mention Messrs. Hope, Thomson, Kennedy, Hall, &c. A learned man has called Dr Kennedy the Vauque. lin of Edinburgh, that is to say, with the greatest talents for demonstrating, he unites that of making discoveries. Sir Hall, the disciple of Hut. ton, author of a theory of the earth in part adopted the theory of his founded on the igneous system, has master, and made new experiments to support it.

MEDICINE.

Dr Alexander Monro, son to the celebrated anatomist of that name, has supplied his place in the chair of medicine and anatomy at Edin burgh, and supports the celebrity of his name. He has published several esteemed works: "Observations upon the structure and functions of the nervous system," in one volume folio, with plates: "The structure and physiology of fishes, explained and compared with that of men and other animals." The "Description of all the Bursa Mucose of the human body," &c. Dr Donald Monro, brother of the preceding, enjoys also much reputation. He has published a "Treatise on medical and pharmaceutical chemistry :" "Observations on the means of preserving the health of soldiers", in 2 vols. 8vo, and a

Treatise

"Treatise on Materia Medica," in 4 the university of Edinburgh. It is at

vols. 8vo.

Messrs Baillie and John Bell, are also ranked among the most esteem. ed anatomists. The former has published the "Anatomy of the most delicate parts of the human body, in 8vo." To the second we are indebtted for "The Anatomy of the human body," in 3 vols Svo. with plates well engraved, and a volume

of discourses on the nature and treatment of wounds.

Though the British school of surgery is not so celebrated as that of medicine, yet it contains many esteemed surgeons; of this number is Mr Benjamin Bell, who has published "A complete System of Surgery," in 6 vols. 8vo. a "Treatise on Ulcers," in 1 vol. 8vo. a " Treatise on the Venereal Disease," in 2 vols. 8vo..

AGRICULTURL.

Sir John Sinclair is known as one of the best informed men on the subject of political economy which Britain has produced. He is not comparable, as a writer, to the Smiths, the Stewarts, &c. but he has been no less useful to his country. His "History of the Public Revenue of the British empire," contains a number of unknown or forgotten facts, and a great many useful views, which have been turned to account. “Statistical account of Scotland" will henceforth be a model for those who write on such subjects. The rules he has given, while they facilitate this labour, secure its exact

ness

Scotland, less favoured by nature than England, needs more the assistance of art to enrich its soil. Accordingly agriculture is very careful ly studied, and receives every kind of encouragement. It has been thought necessary above all, to enlighten the cultivators, and even the proprietors; and, in this view, a professorship of agriculture has been established in

em.

present filled by Dr Coventry, whose lectures are attended by a great number of students. His course braces, not only agriculture properly so called, that is to say, the art of multiplying and improving the productions of the soil; but also the art of planting and preserving forests, and embellishing the country: lastly, political agriculture, that is, the rela tion between the mode of cultivating the soil, the state of cultivation, and the progress of luxury and of divers branches of industry,

The Farmer's Magazine," a journal which appears in Edinburgh, tends also to prove how much agriculture is studied in Scotland. It is chiefly compiled by practical far

mers.

IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES IN EDU

CATION.

(Concluded from p. 739.) ON my arrival at the town of

where there are several universities, and many academies, and other polite seminaries of education, my patron did not immediately launch me, as the phrase is. On the contrary, he carried me every where with him in his carriage, introduced me to the magistrates, professors, and most respectable inhabitants, and recommended me as a man of prodigious literary acquisitions, who had made my fortune by teaching, and retired from business. That it was a national loss, for such prodigious abilities as mine to lie dormant, &c. &c. In about three months, in consequence of the pressing solicitations of my patron, and the most respecta ble inhabitants of the place, I agreed to devote six hours of the day to the private assistance of young gentlemen attending the universities, provided they attended me at my own lodgings. In a few days I had thirty

at

at one guinea per month; and might have had double that number, but positively refused to admit more, as I was teaching for amusement rather than emolument, and wished to act a conscientious part to my constitu.

ents.

Such was my ignorance of the world, that I fancied my present si tuation would be both easy and agreeable; nor did it ever enter into my head, that boys attending the university could need much assistance, or indeed any assistance at all. In this, however, I was completely mistaken, as you will see by the sequel.

I found my pupils in general, from ten to twelve years old, smart, polite, little fellows, who could hand a tea kettle, make a bow, enter or quit a room, &c. as gracefully as any man in the kingdom. Their effrontery and assurance might have done credit to Bonaparte himself, and their fluency of speech was really astonishing. So expert and docile were they, that most of them had been brought forward to the university in two years, and the most tardy of them in three. But the only loss was, that these great efforts had been made by their teach. ers, and not by themselves. The teacher had done every thing, and the pupil nothing. They had merely a smattering, which served to render them ridiculous in the eyes of any real judge, or (to give the thought an allegorical turn) they had only as much light as tended to render their darkness more conspicuous.

The reason of an assistant at the university now became self-evident. The judicious parent had stuck at no expence to make his boy a blockhead, by hurrying him through the forms of a classical education, in less than half the time necessary to make a tailor or a shoemaker; and the farce having been thus begun, must be correspondently conducted, or dropt at once, by sending the young gentleman back to school, which is cer

tainly the most judicious step that could be taken. In a word, the infatuated father, having hired a man to think and act for his boy while at school, must do the same for him at the university, or let him stick; and it is ten to one if the unfortunate youth do not need some person to render him the same friendly offices for life.

You may well imagine it cost me many a pang to bring my mind to relish this new situation, and in fact so it did. I did not know whether most to admire the address of my friend, in introducing me to business

as

an independant man who undertook it solely for amusement, and the benefit of mankind, or the stupidity and credulity of those who believed him. In less than three days after my arrival, the whole town knew the exact amount of my fortune, viz, L.20,000. It was in vain for me to deny, for the more I denied the more firmly it was believed. I never got at the bottom of this secret till lately. My friend, it seems, had digested the whole plan, unknown to me; and on first taking me into his charge, had got L.20,000 of his own bankstock transferred to me, merely to create an imaginary fortune, and justify what he had said about the state of my finances. The very day of our arrival, the mayor of the town wrote to his friend Abraham Newlands to know what bank-stock stood in my name, and received for answer, L.20,000. Knowing nothing of this matter, my denial confirmed the opinion that I was a good sort of modest man.

I mentioned the above circumstance, merely to shew of what immense service this device was to me, for the very first week I commenced business, two accidents happened which must have proved fatal to me; had I not been a man of independent fortune. 1st, Billy Daisy stumbled on a hole in my carpet, and sprained

his

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