menced, amputation feems the only refource, when a colliqua tive fever and other dangerous fymptoms threaten a speedy diffolution. The different methods of performing this operation are described, and a few general remarks on the neceffity of having recourse to it, conclude the prefent volume: which, we underftand, is to be followed by another on the subject of ulcers.

Dr. K. hath prefixed to this volume a defence of fome doctrines contained in the first, against the objections of certain critics, among whom, the Monthly Reviewers are duly noticed; but for the particulars, we muft refer to his book: abiding, as we respectfully do, the decifion of that tribunal to which the Doctor hath appealed-with that candour and modefty which at once evince his regard to decency, and his love of truth..

ART. XV. The Hiftory of Henry VII. of England, written in the Year 1616. By Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, &c. Now first new written, 1786. 8vo. 6s. bound. Murray.

TH

HE ftyle of Lord Bacon has, without doubt, fometimes that quaintnefs which was prevalent when he wrote: pedantry and punning were esteemed the criterion of learning, and a neceffary ornament in the writers of thofe days.

Bacon's Hiftory of the Reign of Henry the Seventh has nevertheless been looked upon as a pattern for hiftorical compofition; the true fublimity of which confifts more in the greatness of thinking than in the pomp of expreffion ;-in tracing circumftances with judgment,-in relating them with clearness and connexion, and in making every part of the ftory inftructive, rather than in fprinkling it over with the falfe ornaments of a brilliant diction, which too frequently divert the reader's attention from the intrinfic matter of the work.

That native fimplicity and genuine dignity, which are the greateft ornaments of Bacon's writings, is totally deftroyed by the prefent Editor, who hath, in the publication before us, given ample proof how well he is qualified " to marr a curious tale in the telling."

To fhew our Readers that our obfervations are not without foundation, we have felected the following, from the inftances where this modernifer has debased the fterling worth of the va luable original. We have chofen part of a speech (which the pretender, Perkin, made to the Scotch King on being introduced to him), fince the Editor fcruples not to fay, in his Preface, that the fpeeches and ftate papers are given as in the original, unaltered-his [the Editor's] defign not being to new write the hiftory, but to fmooth the old language, and render it rather more pleasant to the ear.'

Bacon,

In this manner hath the prefent Editor altered even thofe paffages which he profeffes to have left unaltered; in other places he hath taken greater liberties, where both the fenfe and the facts are misreprefented, as,

Bacon.

And thereupon he [the King] took a fit occafion to fend the Lord Treasurer and Mafter Bray, whom he used as counfellor, to the Lord Mayor of London, requiring of the city a preft of fix thoufand marks; but after many parleys he could obtain but two thousand pounds.' Bacon's Works, vol. iii. p. 13.

Modernifer.

Upon this occafion he fent the Lord Treasurer and Mr. Bray to the Lord Mayor of London requiring of the city a loan of 6000 marks, but could obtain only 2000. New Edition, p. 19.

The following fhall clofe our fpecimens of the Modernifer's abilities:

Bacon.

This law did ordain, That no perfon that did affift, in arms, or otherwife, the King for the time being, should after be impeached therefore, or attainted, either by the courfe of the law or by Act of of Parliament. Bacon's Works, vol. iii. p. 69.

с

Modernifer.

This law ordained that no perfon affifting in arms or otherwife the King for the time being, fhould be afterwards impeached or attainted either by the courfe of law or by Act of Parliament.? New Edition, p. 170.

By leaving out the word therefore, which the Author ufes to fignify on that account, the fenfe is totally perverted. Thus it is that valuable authors may be mangled, and injured, by ignorant or careless editors!

ART. XVI. An Effay on the Inveftigation of the First Principles of Nature; together with the Application thereof to folve the Phenomena of the Phyfical Syftem. Part II. By Felix O'Gallagher. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Murray. 1786.

HAVI

AVING, in our Review for September 1786, given the general outlines of this work, and defcribed the Author's method, we fhall refume the task of laying before our Readers the contents of this fecond Part.

The eighth Lecture is occupied with confidering the nature of the Sun, and its pabulum. The Author fhews, from what he had advanced in the fourth and feventh lectures, that the Sun muft neceffarily have a perpetual fupply of alimental matter flowing into him, for the prefervation of his magnitude, and the replenishment of thofe immenfe and unremitting effufions, which he is ever pouring forth into the furrounding fpace, to warm and illuminate the planets.' He then proceeds to invefti

gate the nature and quality of the Sun's alimentary matter; and Thews that comets are not the fuel of the Sun, nor were ever defigned by the Creator for that purpose; after farther confidering the fubject, he concludes, that the Sun and Stars are bodies of fame or compacted light, embofomed in the immenfe fphere of celeftial matter, which conftitutes the firmament of the heavens and the fuel of the ftars, and conftantly fupported by the double action of their own emanations and the infufions of the firmament. Thefe infufions are gradually elaborated into a fimilitude with the folar fubftance; and when perfectly affimilated, are again expended in effufions of light, which these luminaries, by an expanfive property effential to all fiery bodies, fend forth anew into the vaft fpherical (paces which they respectively illuminate, as the Sun does this, wherein the Sun and planets move round him, and which is bounded by that concave furface of the firmament, or celeftial canopy, we behold over and around us bespangled with ftars.

In the ninth Lecture, Mr. O'Gallagher takes a philofophical tour throughout the firmament and fixed flars' We will not pretend to follow this eccentric philofopher in his journey through the sphere of the univerfe; fuffice it to fay, that he at last arrives at his ne plus ultra, or, as he expreffes it, the bounding frame which inclofes the univerfe. Having in this tour experienced the various viciffitudes of heat and cold (for after traversing the cold regions of Saturn, he spends a few days in the Dog-ftar), he confiders the nature of cold and darkness; both of which are, according to his affertions, real and pofitive fubftances.

The tenth Lecture is appropriated to aftronomical enquiries. The cause of the motion of comets, the direction of their motion, their compofition, and the nature of their tails, are inveftigated. Here we find abundant new philofophy. Comets do not move in elypfes *, or any other conic section, but in straight lines, between the Sun and the polished jetty frame or shell of the world, like a fhuttle-cock ftruck by a battledore, with equal force.' We are apprehensive, that we should infult our Readers, by entering into a minute detail of Mr. O'G.'s doctrine of comets, and the arguments with which he fupports it.

Our Author, in the next Lecture, proceeds with explaining the planetary motions, and attraction. In treating this fubject he attempts to explain the cause of attraction; but here he is led into fuch a labyrinth of metaphyfics, and is fo confused in his ideas, that it requires no fmall fhare of penetration to conceive what are the objects of his inquiries. He fuppofes the Sun to be, like a great kitchen fire, in continual need of fupply, that the celeftial matter, its fuel, is continually flowing in from all fides;

* Page 165. There are eclypfes alfo in this page.
Y 4

and

and that this is the cause of attraction, or of the mutual tendency which all bodies have towards the Sun.

The twelfth and laft Lecture confiders the phenomena of electricity, and the motions of the Moon, with their effects on the tides, and fome confiderations on the attraction of cohefion. This lecture, from blending together fuch unconnected fubjects, becomes the moft confufed of any in the whole book.

It is with pain that we fee a performance like the prefent, where time is mifemployed by the Author for the production of a work which indicates much want of mathematical knowledge, and which can only tend to expose the author of it to infults and ridicule.

ART. XVII. Chefs. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Robinsons. 1787.

FEW

EW publications bave given us more anecdotes concerning chefs, and chefs players, than the prefent. The Author (Mr. Twifs) has compiled, from various writers, every thing that he found relative to chefs; the number of books he has examined, appears, if we may judge from the quotations he has here made, to have been very confiderable; and the original anecdotes that he has introduced feem to be the refult of a thorough acquaintance with the best players.

We are prefented with a complete hiftory of the game; in which it is fuppofed to have been invented in India, about the 6th century, and to have come from Perfia into Arabia, whence it paffed into Spain. It is faid to have been brought into England about the reign of William the Conqueror.

A review is given of all the books on the game at chefs which the Author has feen. They are in number 31, and in various languages. This part of the work is a literary curiofity; but it would have been more valuable, if the accounts of some of the books had been more ample. We fhall mention, particularly, one of the books in this catalogue, as being an extraordinary performance. It is a folio, of 623 pages; and is titled Offervazioni Teorico-pratiche fopra il Giuoco delgi Scacchi. Da Giambatista Lelli. 1763.

Befide this review, a catalogue of the books on chefs which the Author has not feen, is fubjoined, and these amount to 15. In neither of thefe lifts do we find any mention of the elegant English tranflation of Vida's poem by Mr. Murphy +.

Mr. Twifs then adds an explanation of fome of the principal terms used by chefs players, and gives, in a copper-plate, three

Hyde, in his book, De Ludis Orientalibus, clearly fhews that it was known before the year of Christ 576.

+ See M. Review, vol. lxxv. p. 372, and feq.

methods