Art. 35. Elegiac Tears, or Plaintive Epifles; being a poetical Tranflation of the Rev. Mr. Cotton's Elegiace Lachrymæ, five . Querelæ Epiftolares. By the Rev. George Itchener, L. L.B. Vicar of Great Baddow in Effex, and late of St. John's College, in Oxford. 4to. Is. 6d. Buckland.

This performance, which, following the Latin, is uncouthly called Elegiac Tears, is a tranflation of the foregoing article, and is executed with different merit, being in fome places agreeable enough, and in others very indifferent. The verfion of the Latin paffages we have quoted will ferve as a specimen :

My Cath'rine's dear idea I furvey,

Dear, but ah! doom'd to bear my peace away!
Her form I fee, and nice proportions trace,
Her youthful bloom, and polish of her face.
On her mind's charms, her love and honour dwell,
And all the wife's endearments ravish'd tell.

Oft vernal lawns and fields forlorn I tread,
Or wind fome rill, as its meanders lead;
But lawns and rills no lefs increase my smart,
And paft delights but yield new grief of heart,
Cathrine, to these with thee I oft retir'd,
Link'd hand in hand, admiring and admir'd,
Oft have we slept fatigued beneath this fhade,
While my
fond arms about thy neck were laid.

Oft to these ftreams, in filence, have we stole,
While panting bofoms mark'd our flow of foul!
The whole tranflation is conceived in much the fame kind of verse as
the above paffages.

RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL.

Art. 36. A fhort Effay on Man's original State, and Fall in the first Adam; and of his Recovery by Jefus Chrift, the fecond Adams With fome Obfervations on the Gospel-call: as alfo fome Reflections en the Chriftian Life. 8vo. 1's. Keith.

An excellent Narcotic!

Art. 37. A Letter to the fociety of Proteftant Diffenters, at the Octagon in Liverpool. 8vo. 6d. Keith.

A republication of fome controverfial letters that have lately appeared in the News-papers, relating to the Chriftian rite of baptifm; and which were occafioned by a late difcourfe of Dr. Gill's. They are introduced, by the prefent Editor, with a very refpectful addrefs to the proteftant fociety instituted a few years ago at Liverpool, by fome filed The Genitemen of the Olagon, from the figure of the building in which they ftatedly affemble, for divine worship.

Art. 38. Sermons and other practical Works of the late reverend and learned Mr. Ralph Erskine, Minister of the Gospel in Dumferling. Folio. 2 Vols. 21. 25. Glasgow, printed for Urie, and fold in London by Knox.

When we have mentioned that the Author of thefe two folios is the

identical

identical Mr. Ralph Erfkine, who wrote the famous Gofpel-fonnets, (which
are re-printed in this edition) any farther information will, perhaps, be
deemed needlefs.-But fome, peradventure, will fay that they are un-
acquainted with thofe fonnets: for the fatisfaction of fuch, therefore, we
fhall here give a specimen of them, from the Believer's Efpoufals.
From the defcription of the fituation of CHRIST's intended BRIDE, while
under the workings of the Spirit:

She, with a hell-deferving confcious breaft,
Flees for atonement to the worthy priest.
She, as a flave to Sin and Satan, wings
Her flight for help, unto the King of Kings.
She all her maladies and plagues brings forth,
To this phyfician of eternal worth.

She spreads before his throne her filthy fore,
And lays her broken bones down at his door.

Notwithstanding this unfavourable picture of the fpoufe, we find it was a match, at laft; and thus the fonnet on the nuptials begins: Thus doth the Husband, by his father's will,

The Italics, in this laft extract, are printed exactly from the book. We offer no comment on these verses, as it would fcarce be decent tọ fuppofe our Readers would require any.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 39. The Life and Opinions of Triftram Shandy, Gentleman. Vol. IX. Small 8vo. 2s. 6d. Durham, &c.

Not genuine; but not fo ill counterfeited, as were fome of the former imitations of Mr. Sterne's truly original manner. On the whole, it fhould feem that Triftram's hobby-horse will carry nobody fo freely and eafily as he carries his mafter.

Art. 40. The Doctrine of Gold and Silver Computations; in which is included, that of the Par of Money; the Proportion in Value between Gold and Silver; and the Valuation of Gold, Silver, Parting, Alfays: With ufeful Tables and Copper-plates. By Thomas Snelling. 8vo. 4s. few'd. Snelling.

The curious and ufeful fubjects above-mentioned feem to be treated with great accuracy, by Mr. Snelling; who is allowed to be very converfant in them: fee alfo his Hiftory of the Silver Coinage, mentioned in the Review for March, 1762; and his View of the Gold Coinage, Rev. Vol. XXVIII. p. 402.

SERMON S.

I. The Neceffity of immediate Attention to the CALLS of GOD.On New-year's-day, 1766, at Wareham in Dorsetshire. By Š. Reader. Dilly. II. The Blefjednefs of thefe who die in the Lord.-At Hammersmith, on the Death of Richard Coope, Efq; By George Turnbull. Dilly. N. B. Some other Sermons have been published this month; for which we must refer to a future lift: one or two of them will deferve peculiar notice.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For MARCH, 1766.

Commercium Philofophico-Technicum; or the Philofophical Commerce of Arts: defigned as an Attempt to improve Arts, Trades, and Manufactures. By W. Lewis, M. B. and F. R. S. Parts 2, 3, and 4*. 4to. Willock.

T is particularly effential to the health, well-being, and vi

nufactures flourish, that the various springs and movements of our internal traffic be eafy and commodious, and that the great circulation of our foreign commerce be free, full, and uninterrupted, even in its remote branches.-Every scheme therefore which is judiciously defigned and happily executed, fo as to accomplish any of these important ends, will at the fame time enrich the individual, and add ftrength and power to the ftate.

The Commercium Philofophico-Technicum of Dr. Lewis is a very valuable work; calculated to afcertain the principles and elements of the feveral arts; to make them more compleatly, univerfally, and practically understood; and to open a wide field, for the entertainment and improvement both of the philofopher and the artist. It is evident, that many arts are naturally and ftrongly connected: the properties of one fet of materials, or the production of one effect, frequently influences a number of arts a colour, which may easily be fixed in animal and vegetable fibres, is equally advantageous to the woollen-dyer, the filk-dyer, the dyer of linnen and cotton thread, and the callico printer; and a colour which will bear fire, and unite with vi treous bodies in fufion, equally interefts the glafs-maker, the enameller, and the painter on porcelain.-To examine therefore the chemical properties of any one fubject; to confider its many ufes and applications; experimentally to inquire into the different means of producing one effect; and to trace fuch effect through the feveral arts in which it is required; is to prosecute the most useful and rational plan for establishing the folid prinSee our account of the first part, Review, Vol. XXIX. N

VOL. XXXIV.

ciples

ciples of arts.-The artist is hence enabled to supply his defects, to multiply his refources, to fimplify and forward many complex proceffes, to enrich one branch with the practices, materials, and fometimes even the refufe matters of another, and thus to form a happy intercourse, and Philofophical Commerce of Arts,

The French Academy, with the advantage of experienced artists in the different departments, and honoured with the encouragement of the fovereign, have long been engaged in compiling materials for a hiftory of arts: fome of these materials have lately been digefted, and published in the following mannereach hiftory forms a feparate and independent work, containing a minute detail of the whole feries of operations relative to one art, with defcriptions and plates of all the inftru ments made use of in fuch art. - A work executed upon this plan, is very obviously different from that of Dr. Lewis; and the hiftorian of the academy, in giving notice of their publication, bears a fenfible and honourable teftimony to the advantages which are peculiar to the Plan of the Commercium PhilofophiceTechnicum. An inconvenience to be feared, fays he, is the want of that knowlege, and of thofe general principles, which bind arts as it were together, and establish between them a reciprocal communication of light. All the arts, for example, that employ iron, have common principles, but it would be in vain to expect the knowlege thereof from thofe who exercise thefe arts, each of whom knows only the application of those principles to his own art. The farrier, the locksmith, the cutler, know how to work iron; but each of them knows only the manner of working which he has learnt, and is perfectly igno rant that the art of working iron has general principles, which would be infinitely useful to him in a great number of unforeseen cafes, to which his common practice cannot be applied.-It is only by bringing the arts as it were to approach one another, that we can make advances towards their perfection: we shall thus put them in a condition of mutually illuftrating each other, and perhaps of producing a great number of useful difcoveries it is only by this means that we can know effectually their true principles, and enable them to receive affistance from theory.'

In profecution of this excellent defign, Dr. Lewis now enters upon the Hiftory of Colours-Black is the fubject of his prefent inquiries; and, after fome general obfervations on black colours, he proceeds to the chemical hiftory of thofe fubjects, which are fitted to produce this effect in the different arts. The order is as follows:

1. Native black colours :-these are, black chalk, pitcoal, black fands, black vegetable juices, cuttle-fifh ink.

2. Blacks

2. Blacks the Product of the fire :-under this head come, charcoal blacks, foot blacks, black metallic calces.

3. Blacks obtained by mixture:-of which kind are, black from iron, black from filver, and black from lead and fulphur.

Our Author's experiments, obfervations, and conclufions, relative to the above particulars, are curious, accurate, and ufeful.-To enter into a detail of these, would fwell this ar ticle to an undue bulk; we shall confine ourselves therefore to what he says

Of Black produced from Iran,

The infufions of certain vegetable aftringents, mixed with green vitriol, which is a folution of iron in the vitriolic acid, produce a deep black liquor, of most extenfive ufe for dying and ftaining black.The aftringent fubftances chiefly employed are the excrefcences of the oak-tree, called galls, and of thefe the Aleppo galls are deemed the beft; all the parts of the oaktree, the leaves, acorns, and more particularly the bark and wood; other vegetable fubftances likewife, the leaves, fmall branches, and flowery clusters of the fumach-tree; balauftine flowers, pomgranate peel, alder bark, biftort root; and in ge neral all those which are auftere, aftringent, or corrugating to the taste, are poffeffed of the fame virtue with galls: the power by which thefe fubftances ftrike black with vitriol, and their aftringency, are proportional to one another, and feem to depend upon one and the fame principle. Of the other properties of this aftringent and colouring matter, little more is known, than that it is diffolved and extracted both by water and spirit of wine, and that it does not exhale on the evaporation of the menftruum.

• When a decoction, fays Dr. Lewis, or infufion of the galls, is dropt into a folution of the vitriol largely diluted with water, the firft drops produce bluish or purplish red clouds, which foon mingling with the liquor, tinge it uniformly of their own bluish or reddish colour. It seems to be on the quality of the water that this difference in the colour depends. With diftilled water, or the common fpring waters, the mixture is always blue. If we previously diffolve in the water the most minute quantity of any alkaline falt, too fmall to be discoverable by any of the common means by which waters are examined, or if the water is in the leaft degree putrid, the colour of the mixture proves purple or reddish. Rain-water caught as it falls from the clouds in an open field, in clean veffels, gives a blue, but fuch as is collected from the tops of houses, grows purple with the vitriol and gals; from whence it may be prefumed, that this last has contracted a putrid tendency, or received an alkaline impreg

N 2

nation,