and many deficiencies of plot and condu&t, Mr. Cumberland ftill writes good fenfe, and invents fituations that are interefting. Three of his comedies have been noticed in the course of this half year; The Jew, The Wheel of Fortunet, and First Love. All of thefe have originality, though not much comic liveliness; and, without applying to them a rigour of examination, which the dramatic habits of the age are totally unfitted to bear, are not unworthy of a man long practifed in the art of writing. The Mountaineers of Mr. Colmans, may be confidered as the careless effufion of a man of genius, capable of doing greater things, if they were demanded of him; but content to produce, like others fimilarly fituated, what he knows will fatisfy his auditors. The Drama of Philoctetes, though it has never been tried on the ftage, and is not perhaps, in all respects, calculated for it, is written with more care than many that fucceed in representation. NOVELS. We have seen lately but few productions, under this title, poffeffed of qualities to refcue them from that oblivion to which the majority of their species is daily haftening. The Democrat ¶, attributed to Mr. Pye, fmall as it is, belongs undoubtedly to the excepted few. Its fcanty pages, and thin, fmall volumes, contain more real humour, and just satire, than are found in wading through many fheets of the ordinary manufacture. It is a pity that the writer abridged our amufement, by becoming fo foon weary of his own. Among the rest of the novels which are men tioned in this volume, if we feel an inclination to dif tinguifh any one, it is the Cypriots**, written by the author of the Minstrel, and poffeffing, in many refpects, an equal claim to praife. The writer certainly difplays, in no inconfiderable number, the qualities that lead to eminence in this branch of compofition. No. 1. p. 11. No. VI. p. 633. NATURAL NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. Taking this title in the most extenfive fenfe, we fhall be able to arrange under it several important. publications. As giving a general and introductory view of the whole fubject, there cannot easily be produced a work of more utility and merit than one, in fpeaking of which we muft unite our juft commendations, with regret for the lofs of its author. This is the Lectures on natural and experimental Philofophy by the late Mr. George Adams, who had fcarcely deli vered to the world thofe volumes, in which he had most laudably connected the praise of the Creator, with a furvey of the general laws obfervable in his vifible works; when, as if he had been exactly permitted to finifh an appointed tafkt, he was bid to ceafe from his labours, and admitted to a world of purer fcience. Our commendations, we truft, foothed fome moment of fickness before the ear grew dull: they are now of no importance to him; but we renew them, because they are gratifying to ourselves, and may be ufeful to others. The praife of one is often the incitement to many. Τα μέν τε κλέος ἐυρὺ διὰ ξεῖνοι Φορέστι dè Πάντας επ' ἀνθρώπες, πολλοὶ δὲ μιν ἐσθλὸν ἔαπου. The value of Euler's Letters to a German Princess, as an introductory. book of science, has long been admitted and known; to publifh a tranflation of them was therefore to enrich our language with a very welcome acceffion; and the labours of Dr. Hunter will, doubtlefs, be rewarded by the public patronage. -In Natural History, a moft fplendid work has ap peared, entitled Aranei, or, A natural Hiftory of No. 1. p. 17.. it Mr. Adams had purposed to republifh his Effays on the Microscope, in the fame fize with the work here mentioned, to which, he fays, will be a proper fupplement, manifefting the wifdom of God in the minute parts of the creation." Lect, xxiii, p. 538, note.-The work, however, is complete without that addition, ‡ No. VI. p. 628. I Spiders, Spiders, published by Mr. Thomas Martyn, and eminently confpicuous for the beauty of its delineations, of objects not ufually confidered as beautiful. The Naturalift's Calendar, by the late Mr. White of Selborne, contains an arrangement of obfervations, which will be agreeable to every lover of Natural History, and ufeful to the ftudent in it. The progrefs of Dr. Shaw's entertaining Naturalift's Mifcellany, is fuch as is confiftent with its former reputation; were additional praife wanting, it might be given without impropriety. Of Mineralogy, Mr. Schmeiffer has produced a System, in two volumes, which, though it may not be the beft, when that of Mr. Kirwan fhall be completed, will always fill a refpectable place, till the change of fyftem fhall perhaps render both works obfolete. The tract of Mr. Wales, on the Method of finding the Longitude at Sea by Time-keepers¶, is a most useful practical work for navigators. It is also elementary, and will be reforted to, with advantage, by the ftudent in that science. TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. Our account of the Tranfactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. V.*, being as yet incomplete, we shall forbear to characterize them here. The Royal Humane Society, twenty years after its inftitution, has published a volume of Tranfactions, which proves fatisfactorily how well it has been employed in that interval. The Society of Arts, in its twelfth Volume of Tranfactions, exhibits fome ufeful plans, and imparts fome interefting information. MEDICINE. There is little in this branch that is important. 'The first work that occurs to us is, the defcriptive ilLuftration of the late Dr. Hunter's fplendid and valualole publication on the Gravid Uterus§§, completed by + No. IV. + No. I. p. 75. No. IV. p. 413. 11 No. IV. p. 402. No. VI. p. 658. Dr. Dr. Baillie. The Medical Hiflories and Refletins, by Dr. Ferriar, Vol. II. form an able continuation of a work commenced with credit; nor can a fimilar praise be denied to the third Volume of Mr. Howard on the Venereal Difeafe¶. We mentioned, with commendation, Dr. Chisholm's Effay on the Malignant Pestilential Fever of the Weft-Indies**; and, as the fubject requires much attention, we again recommend it to the faculty. What Dr. Gordon has offered on the melancholy fubject of the Puerperal Fevertt, if not conclufive, may yet be ufeful: and, though we did not in all points adopt the opinions of Mr. Adams, in his Obfervations on Morbid Poifons, we would by no means deny him the praise of refearch and ingenuity. GREEK LITERATURE. We could not suffer the fecond edition of Mr. Parkhurft's Greek Lexicons, improved and augmented as it is, to pafs by us unnoticed, nor can we here omit it. As particularly fubfidiary to the ftudy of the facred writings in the New Tellament, it might perhaps have been claffed as properly with books of divinity; "but fince it was not there fpoken of, we introduce it now, and recommend it cordially to all who want affiftance in that important exercife. The Hypothesis of Dr. Vincent, concerning the Greek Verb, is conceived with fo much ingenuity, and fupported by fo much learning and acutenefs, that it must be regarded as a curious matter of fpeculation, even by those who are not willing to adopt it. The extent of application, which his principle appears to have, is certainly a circumftance of weight. The Greek Verfion of Pope's Meffiah, by Mr. Plumptre¶¶, as one of thofe literary 'exercises, in which the writer contends with the rea-der for the palm of claffical knowledge and elegance, and with the original author, in the expreffion of his No. VI. p. 654. ++ No.III, p. 240. No. I., p. 630. I No. I. p. 15. It No. IV. p. 386. 11 No. IV. P 353 ** No. 11. p. 133. §§ No. I. p. 6. Own own thoughts, has much merit. The public in ge neral, perhaps, has little defire to fee our own poets interpreted in Greek. MISCELLANIES. Of the useful kind are, the Account of the Management the Poor in Hamburghs, and Dr. Lettfom's Hints refpecting their condition here. Of the interesting kind are, Mr. Beloe's Mifcellanies, in which, to gratify a variety of taftes, there is a volume of poetry, a vo. lume of extracts from various Greek and Latin authors, and a volume of Oriental tales. Mr. Norgate's Elays** are of the fame mixed kind, but do not extend beyond a fingle volume. The Effay of Mr. D'Ifraeli, on the Literary Character††, is a pleasing, if not a profound work, and enlivened, occafionally, from the author's ample store of anecdotes. We shall bere conclude our recapitulation, and dismiss our readers to the mixed repofitory they will find in the volume itself. Here they have feen only commendation; there they will find, on the one hand praise, on the other cenfure; diftributed, we hope, according to the real merits of each cafe. Hic locus eft partes ubi se via fcindit in ambas→→→ No. III. No. Ill. p. 281. I No. III. p. 295: ¶ No. II. p. 104. |