that it ftrikes us as rather inconsistent, that this author who argues from the expreffion the Son of God, that Chrift is God, fhould yet tell us that he is not the Son of God ill he becomes man. The argument that may be drawn from the paffage in the Nicene Creed" begotten before all worlds," Mr. H. invalidates fufficiently, both by fhowing that it was not in the creed of the Council, and by a mode of interpreting it which he propofes. (Pref. xii.) We have thus given the opinion as it ftands, induced greatly by the modefty and piety of the author; fhould any ferious Chriftian undertake to refute it, to his arguments we shall attend with the utmost care.

We are forry to object careless typography to a work of this confequence. Many errors we corrected as we read, fome of greater, fome of lefs confequence; but in p. 121 is one of the moft extraordinary we remember to have feen. In l. 14. for Polytheism is printed holy Theifm, which ftrangely alters the fenfe, and yet may be overlooked by a moderately attentive reader. There is no table of errata.

ART. XIII. Tranfactions of the Society inftituted in Londen for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, with the Premiums offered in the Year 1794. Vol. XII. 8vo. 400 pp. 5. Rubfon. 1794.

M

UCH as we approve of the principles and conduct of the Society, when the publication of their volume comes before us, our duty compels us to complain that it is accompanied with too much extraneous matter. Almost a hundred pages are employed in defcribing the names and rank of their officers and members. Their premiums offered and bestowed, and the prefents received, occupy more than one hundred more, fo that stripped of the external fhell, the subftance is compreffed in fomewhat less than two hundred pages. We think that this defervesthe confideration of the gentlemen to whom the conduct of the publication is confided. The papers themselves, as may naturally be fuppofed, are of confiderable importance; thofe on agriculture feem this year to be principally confined to the mode of fuccefsfully cultivating the plantation of trees of various kinds. The culture of wheat yet continues to divide our most fagacious and skilful farmers, and probably will, till fome fortunate difcovery shall bring the ex ences of fowing it bread caft, and drilling it, more upon a level. Mr. Smith's paper given at p. 219 of this vo

lume,

lume, gives the advantage in favour of drilling in equidistant rows in the proportion of 11. 13s. 11d. per acre.

The papers in chemistry are neither very numerous nor very important. The communication from Mr. Batfon relave to the dry rot in timber will probably lead to experiment which may eventually produce the most ferious advantages, The attempt to obtain and preferve practical standards for adjusting the weights and meafures of the kingdom, appears highly to merit attention. This article cornes from the Secretary to the Society. He begins by confidering firft, a practical standard for weights, and proceeds afterwards to the confideration of meafures of length, and measures of capacity. We doubt not that our readers will be pleased with the good fense apparent in the following extract:

"Many learned and ingenious perfons have employed themselves in attempting to difcover an univerfal Standard of Weights and Measures, renewable (in case of its being loft) in any climate, and under any circumstances; and fome papers on this subject have been fubmitted to the public, within thefe few years, by Mr. Hatton (fee Vol. I. p. 239) and Mr. Whitehurst; but, after paying every attention to this matter in my power, I am induced, with due deference to fuch authorities, to conclude, that fuch a standard may rather be confidered as a thing defirable, than likely to be obtained, at least so as to ferve practically the ufes in common life. I fhall, therefore, beg leave to fubmit my thoughts on this head, confidering that what may be hereafter faid, is intended folely as an afy method of forming and preferving a Standard of Weights and Measures for the use of thefe kingdoms, or any other that may think proper to adopt it; and which, it is prefumed, will answer all that is wished for in obtaining a Practical Standard for adjufting in future the weights and measures of this country.

For this purpose I advife, that a certain weight be affumed, and called a pound; and, to avoid as much as poffible any innovation or confufion, let this affumed weight be adjufted by the prefent ftandard pound weight at his Majesty's Exchequer, or the Guildhall of London. This weight may be made of brafs; but, as all metals are fubject to decay and lofs by corrofion, by the air, friction, &c. let a piece of agate, or other hard ftone, be cut into the form of an egg; and when brought exactly to the weight of the brafs ftandard by carefully grinding and polishing, let it be preferved in a proper cafe lined with foft cloth or velvet, to be reforted to whenever there may be occafion. A piece of agate of this form feems fo unlikely to be injured by any means, except fuch a degree of violence as may break it, that there can be little doubt of its remaining of the fame weight for ages; more especially as it will be effectually guarded from the action of the air, and all motion in its cafe, and never expofed, but on occafion of comparing the brass standard with it; which, to prevent error, fhould be done at ftated times, as once in twelve months, on a day specifically

appointed for the purpose, in the prefence of fuch officers as may be nominated, and with as much form and precifion as is used in the trial of the Pix to determine the standard of the coin.

"I have hitherto only mentioned the pound weight; but it is obvious that all the parts of the pound, as the half, the quarter, the ounce, &c. fhould be provided for in the fame manner. Let it be understood, that the pound hitherto fpoken of, is fuppofed to be what is generally called the Avoirdupois pound, and divided into fixteen ounces, each ounce fubdivided into fixteen drachms. As this is the weight by which all large commodities are weighed, it does not appear to have been thought neceffary that weights fmaller than the half-drachm, or the thirty-fecond part of the ounce, fhould be introduced; but, as that weight is nearly equal to thirteen grains and one half Troy, it may be further divided, if judged proper, fo as to weigh fmall matters, as very fine thread, or other fuch like valuable commodities, more accurately than is generally practifed; and, if the drachm is fubdivided into eight parts, each of them will be equal nearly to three grains and a half Troy. To avoid confufion, all weights for this purpose, when fold, fhould differ in form from the grains ufed as Troy weight, and be called by fome other name.

"As it has been always customary to have weights of different de nominations used in thefe kingdoms, and no fufficient reafon has appeared to juftify an alteration in the practice; and as the Avoirdupois weight has been conftantly used for large quantities of goods, and the Troy weight for fmaller quantities and the more valuable commodities; let a Troy pound be prepared as has been already advised for the Avoirdupois, with its equal in agate, to be referved and used in all cafes as the other; and let this pound be divided, as has been the ufage, for the goldsmith, into ounces, penny-weights, and grains; and, for the apothecary, into ounces, drachms, fcruples, and grains; each of them being adjusted in the moft accurate manner poffible, fo that all the aliquot parts fhall bear a due proportion to the whole; and to this the molt fcrupulous exactnefs is neceffary; for, from a defect in this inftance, most of the complaints on the want of a due standard feem to have originated." P. 292.

The whole of this paper is very valuable. The fubject is very important to all ranks of fociety, and we feriously recommend it to the examination of thofe whofe influence may accomplish the execution of this or a fimilar project.

The Gold Medal of the Society, offered for carrying the Bread-fruit Tree to the Weft-Indies, is honourably afligned to Capt. Bligh; whofe letter and teftimonies, concerning the number of plants he delivered at each illand, form an interesting part of the volume. The total number of various plants delivered at St. Helena, St. Vincent's, and Jamaica, amount to 1217, and 700 of different kinds were landed here, for his Majefty's garden at Kew.

ART. XIV. Aranei; or, A Natural Hiftory of Spiders, including the principal Parts of the well known Work on English Spiders, by Eleazar Albin. As alfo the whole of the celebrated Publi cation on Swedish Spiders, by Charles Clerk. Revifed, enlarged, and defigned anew, by Thomas Martyn, Author of the Univerfal Conchologift, &c. Royal 4to. 51. 5s. Handfomely bound. White, &c. 1795.

THE

HE animals of this tribe, though abounding with innumerable particulars of the highest curiofity, as to their history, anatomy, modes of life, &c. have had the fate to be lefs attended to than moft other infects. This, indeed, all circumstances confidered, cannot be thought wonderful; fince many of them, instead of being viewed in the light of pleafing animals, are, on the contrary, furveyed with disgust by common fpectators; and, though all the minor fpecies of the genus are incapable of inflicting any diftinguishable wound, or of conveying any poifon by their bite, fufficient to justify the leaft dread, yet the popular ideas of their venom, the idle and not yet exploded tales of the tarantula, and other circumftances, have contributed to keep them in a manner unknown to all but the more curious and zealous obfervers of nature'; or, at least, to prevent a general examination of their manners. To thefe confiderations must be added, the difficulty of preferving these infects in any other way than in fpirits; in which, of course, they muft be liable to lofe their natural colours. It therefore became ar, object worthy of attention, to the more curious naturalifts of Europe, to poffefs good figures and faithful defcriptions of animals, undoubtedly paffeffing many extraordinary qualities. This object, however, (except in the old involved narratives of Gefner, Mouffet, and Aldrovandus, together with the ftill more obfcure and uninveftigable hints of the ancient writers on this fubject) was scarce purfued to any purpose till the time of the celebrated Dr. Lifter, a name which every naturalift ought to esteem and venerate; fince, to all the literature of a claffic fcholar, he united all the affiduity and powers of research requifite to the fuccefs of a natural historian. He had the merit (great in his day) of refuting and exploding many abfurd and erroneous doctrines, relative to the hiftory and transformations of infects, and of adding to the stock of real knowledge, the most profound and judicious observations.

To the name of Lifter we must add that of Ray, to whose researches and writings Linnæus himself was indebted for a

large

large fhare of his own celebrity. To Lifter then and Ray, we owe the first real and well-digested obfervations on the animals which form the subject of the work announced under the prefent article; and of which we now proceed to give a more particula account.

About the year 1720, Mr. Eleazar Albin, by profeffion a painter, undertook to give a kind of history of English infects, in which, though by no means a perfon of Icience, he was enabled to fucceed tolerab'y well, by accompanying his plain and unpretending defcriptions by pre ty good figures, expreffive of the infects theinf Ives in their feveral ftates. The original edition was alfo accompanied with notes and obfervations by the celebrated and learned Dr. Derhamn, which contributed much to the value of the book. This work (which principally relates to the 1 epidopterous infects) being well received, Albin turned his attention to a lef confpicuous clafs of infects, namely, fpiders; and, by collecting and drawing fuch as he could conveniently procure, was enabled to give a confiderable importance to the work which he published. It is to be obferved, however, that he owed by far the greater part of his figures of thefe infects to the drawings of a Mr. Dandridge, an eminent collector, and well known to the principal naturalifts of his time, as Sloane, Edwards, &c. &c.

In a work like Albin's, conducted by himfeit, and contitting of mere reprefentations and defcriptions, it is not to be expected that any fcien ific or deep refearches into the nature of the fubjects fhould appear. It is fufficient that he has enabled men of more fcience to avail themselves of his figures, in order to facilitate their own enquiries into the various species. Dr. Lifter's work, before-mentioned, though learned, was defective in this refpect, and is to be valued on account of its learning, and not for its embellifhments.

In this ftate remained the hiftory of fpiders till the year 1739, when Charles Clerk, a native of Sweden, infpired by his attendance on Linnæus's lectures on natural history, was determined to turn his attention to this branch of entomology: in which he fucceeded fo well as to be able to produce a fet of obfervations which met the approbation of the Academy of Sciences of Sweder. This work, which is entitled Aranei Suecici, and which relates entirely to the fpecies found in Sweden, is, in a great degree, philofophical, and contains many very inter fting and important obfervations on the animals of which it treats, The figures with which it is illuftrated ale numer us and often exprellive, but at the fame time are itiff and harth, and want that elegance which a proper knowledge of the principles of picturesque beauty might