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CHARACTER of HANDEL as a COMPOSER,

[From Dr. BURNEY'S Sketch of his Life. ]

HAT Handel was fuperior in the strength and boldness of his style, the richness of his harmony, and complication of parts, to every compofer who has been most admired for fuch excellencies, cannot be difputed. And, while fugue, contrivance, and a full fcore, were more generally reverenced than at prefent, he remained wholly unrivalled.

"I know it has been faid that Handel was not the original and immediate inventor of feveral fpecies of mufic, for which his name has been celebrated; but, with refpect to originality, it is a term to which proper limits fhould be fet, before it is applied to the productions of any artift. Every invention is clumfy in its beginning, and Shakspeare was not the firft writer of plays, or Corelli the firft compofer of violin folos, fonatas, and concertos, though thofe which he produced are the best of his time; nor was Milton the inventor of epic poetry. The fcale, harmony, and cadence of mufic, being fettled, it is impoffible for any compofer to invent a genus of compofition that is wholly and rigoroutly new, any more than for a poet to form a language, idiom, and phrafeology, for himfelf. All that the greatest and boldest musical inventor can do, is to avail himself of the best effufions, combinations, and effects, of his predeceffors; to arrange and apply them in a new manner; and to add, from his own fource, what ever he can draw, that is grand, graceful, gay, pathetic, or, in any other way, pleating. This Handel did, in a moft ample and fuperior

manner; being poffeffed, in his mid-
dle age and full vigour, of every
refinement and perfection of his
time: uniting the depth and elabo-
rate contrivance of his own coun-
try, with Italian elegance and faci-
lity; as he feems, while he refided
fouth of the Alps, to have listened
attentively in the church, theatre,
and chamber, to the most exquifite
compofitions, and performers, of
every kind, that were then exifting.

"And though we had cantatas
by Cariffimi, Aleffandro Scarlatti,
Gafparini, and Marcello; ducts by
Steffani and Clari; vocal choruffes,
without inftrumental accompani-
ments, by Palestrina, and our own
Tallis, Bird, and Purcell; and,
with accompaniments, by Cariffimi
as well as Paolo Colonna; with
violin fonatas and concertos by Co-
relli and Geminiani; yet it may
with the utmost truth be afferted,
that Handel added confiderable
beauties to whatever style or species
of compofition he adopted, which,
in a larger work, it would not be
difficult to demonftrate, by exam-
ples. At prefent, I fhall only ven-
ture to give it as part of my mufi
cal profeffion de foi, that his air or
melody is greatly fuperior to any
that can be found in the otherwife
charming cantatas which Cariffimi
feems to have invented; that he is
more natural in his voice-parts, and
has given more movements to his
bafes than Alef. Scarlatti; that he
has more force and originality than
Gafparini or Marcello; that his
chamber duets are, at least, equal
to thofe of Steffani and Clari, who
were remarkable for no other fpe-
cies of compofition; and though

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young ones is very good eating, but fometimes has a strong flavour of a certain fhrub, which is fuppofed to be a fpecies of mimofa. The Hottentots are particularly fond of the marrow, and chiefly

for the fake of this hunt the beast, and kill it with their poisoned arrows. Of the skin they make vel-, fels, in which they keep water and other liquors."

An ACCOUNT of an ARTIFICIAL SPRING of WATER. By ERASMUS DARWIN, M. D. F. R. S.

[From the Seventy-fifth Volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions.]

"CO

Onfident that every atom which may contribute to increafe the treasury of ufeful knowledge, which you are fo fuccefsfully endeavouring to accumulate, will be agreeable and interefting to the Society, I fend you an account of an artificial fpring of water, which I produced last fummer near the fide of the river Darwent, in Derby.

"Near my houfe was an old well, about one hundred yards from the river, and about four yards deep, which had been many years difufed on account of the badnefs of the water, which I found to contain much vitriolic acid, with, at the fame time, a light fulphureous fell and taile; but did not carefully analyse it. The mouth of this well was about four feet above the furface of the river; and the ground, through which it was funk, confifted of a black, loofe, moift earth, which appeared to have been very lately a morafs, and is now covered with houses built upon pikes. At the botom was found a bed of red marl, and the fpring, which was fo ftrong as to give up many hogfheads in a day, oozed from between the morafs and the marl it lay about eight feet beneath the furface of the river, and

the water rofe within two feet of the top of the well.

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Having obferved that a very copious fpring, called St. Alkmund's well, rofe out of the ground about half a mile higher on the fame fide of the Darwent, the level of which I knew by the height of the intervening wier to be about four or five feet above the ground about my well; and having obferved, that the higher lands, at the distance of a mile or two behind thefe wells, confifted of red marl like that in the well, I concluded, that, if I fhould bore through this ftratum of marl, I might probably gain a water fimilar to that of St. Alkmund's well, and hoped that at the fame time it might rise above the surface of my old well to the level of St. Alkmund's.

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about two yards from the bottom of the well, and being furrounded with well rammed clay, the new water afcended in a small stream through the wooden pipe.

"Our next operation was to build a wall of clay against the moraffy fides of the well, with a wall of well-bricks internally, up to the top of it. This completely stopped out every drop of the old water; and, on taking out the plug which had been put in the wooden pipe, the new water in two or three days rofe up to the top, and flowed over the edges of the well.

"Afterwards, to gratify my cu riofity in feeing how high the new fpring would rife, and for the agreeable purpose of procuring the water at all times quite cold and fresh, I directed a pipe of lead, about eight yards long, and three-quarters of an inch diameter, to be introduced through the wooden pipe defcribed above, into the ftratum of marl at the bottom of the well, fo as to stand about three feet above the furface of the ground. Near the bottom of this leaden pipe was fewed, between two leaden rings or flanches, an inverted cone of ftiff leather, into which fome wool was stuffed to stretch it out, fo that, after having paffed through the wooden pipe, it might completely fill up the perforation of the clay. Another leaden ring or flanch was foldered round the leaden pipe, about two yards below the furface of the ground, which, with fome doubles of flannel placed under it, was nailed on the top of the wooden pipe, by which means the water was perfectly precluded from rifing between the wooden and the leaden pipes.

"This being accomplished, the bottom of the well remained quite dry, and the new water quickly

rofe about a foot above the top of the well in the leaden pipe; and, on bending the mouth of this pipe to the level of the furface of the ground, about two hogfheads of water flowed from it in twenty-four hours, which had fimilar proper ties with the water of St. A'kmund's well, as on comparifon both thefe waters curdled a folution of foap in fpirit of wine, and abounded with calcareous earth, which was copiously precipitated by a folution of fixed alkali; but the new water was found to poffefs a greater abun dance of it, together with numerous small bubbles of aerial acid or calcareous gas.

"The new water has now flowed about twelve months, and, as far as I can judge, is already in creafed to almoft double the quantity in a given time; and from the rude experiments I made, I think it is now lefs replete with calcareous earth, approaching gradually to an exact correfpondence with St. Alkmund's well, as it probably has its origin between the fame itrata of earth.

"As many mountains bear inconteftable marks of their having been forcibly raised up by fome power beneath them; and other mountains, and even iflands, have been lifted up by fubterraneous fires in our own times, we may fafely reafon on the fame fuppofition in refpect to all other great elevations of ground. Proots of these circumstances are to be seen on both fides of this part of the country. Whoever will infpect, with the eye of a philofopher, the lime-mountain at Breedon, on the edge of Leicestershire, will not hefitate a moment in pronouncing, that it has been forcibly elevated by fome power beneath it; for it is of a conical form, with the apex

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cut off, and the ftrata, which compofe the central parts of it, and which are found nearly horizontal in the plain, are raised almost perpendicularly, and placed upon their edges, while thofe on each fide de cline like the furface of the hill; fo that this mountain may well be represented by a bur made by forc ing a bodkin through feveral parallel fhcets of paper. At Router, or Eagle-flone, in the Peak, feveral large maffes of grit-ftone are feen on the fides and bottom of the mountain, which by their form evince from what parts of the fummit they were broken off at the time it was elevated; and the numerous loofe ftones fcattered about the plains in its vicinity, and half buried in the earth, muft have been thrown out by explofions, and prove the volcanic origin of the mountain. Add to this the vast beds of toad-ftone or lava in many parts of this county, fo accurately defcribed, and fo well explained, by Mr. Whitehurit, in his Theory of the Formation of the Earth.

"Now as all great elevations of ground have been thus raifed by fubterraneous fires, and in a long courfe of time their fummits have been worn away, it happens that fome of the more interior ftrata of the earth are expofed naked on the tops of mountains; and that, in general, thofe ftrata, which lie uppermoft, or nearest to the fummit of the mountain, are the loweft in the contiguous plains. This will be readily conceived, if the bur, made by thrufting a bodkin through feveral parallel sheets of paper, had a part of its apex cut off by a penknife, and is well explained by Mr. Michell, in an ingenious paper on the Phænomena of Earthquakes, publifhed a few years ago in the Philofophical Tranfactions.

"And as the more elevated parts of a country are fo much colder than the vallies, owing perhaps to a concurrence of two or three caufes, but particularly to the lefs condenfed ftate of the air upon hills, which thence becomes a better conductor of heat, as well as of electricity, and permits it to efcape the fafter; it is from the water condenfed on thefe cold furfaces of mountains, that our common cold fprings have their origin; and which, fliding between two of the ftrata above defcribed, defcend till they find or make themselves an outlet, and will in confequence rife to a level with the part of the mountain where they originated. And hence, if by piercing the earth you gain a fpring between the fe cond and third, or third and fourth ftratum, it must generally happen that the water from the lowest tra tum will rife the highest, if confined in pipes, because it comes originally from a higher part of the country in its vicinity.

"The increafing quantity of this new fpring, and its increafing purity, I fuppofe to be owing to its continually diffolving a part of the earth it paffes through, and hence making itfelf a wider channel, and that through materials of lefs folubility. Hence it is probable, that the older and ftronger fprings are generally the purer; and that all fprings were originally loaded with the foluble impurities of the ftrata, through which they tranfuded.

"Since the above-related expe riment was made, I have read with pleasure the ingenious account of the King's wells at Sheerness, in the last volume of the Tranfactions, by fir Thomes Hyde Page, in which the water rofe three hundred feet above its fource in the well; and

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"One would fuppofe, that the roaring of the lion would prove ferviceable to the other animals, as being a warning for them to betake themselves to fight but as when he roars, according to all report, he puts his mouth to the ground, fo that the found is diffused equally all over the place, without, as we have already mentioned, its being poffible to hear from what quarter it comes, the animals are intimidated and feared to fuch a degree, as to fly about backwards and forwards in the dark to every fide; in confequence of which, fome of them may easily chance to run on to the very fpot from whence the tremendous found actually proceeds, and which they meant molt to avoid.

"A writer, in other refpects extremely rational, who ftyles himself Officier du Roi, afferts, in his Voyage à l'Ile de France, &c. p. 63, that in Africa there are found whole armies of lions; a fact of which, he fays, he was informed, by three perfons of confequence in the government, whofe names he mentions.

"This author, as well as his informers, and those, if fuch there be, who have given any credit to him, may be easily made to conceive the palpable abfurdity of the idea by this fingle confideration, that to fupport armies of lions, it would require a greater quantity of quadrupeds and game, as it is called, than is to be found not only in Africa, but in all the world befides. In order to confirm this affertion, we may appeal to a witty obfervation made by the Indians, and reported by Lafitau." It is a very fortu nate circumstance, faid they, that the Portuguefe are as few in number as they are cruel in their difpofit ons; just as it is with the tigers and lions with refpect to the reit of

the animal creation, or otherwise there would foon be an end of us

men."

"With regard to the teftimonies of the perfons of confequence here appealed to, I must beg leave to obferve, that we may at any time, without the leaft hesitation, call in question any polition which militates against common fenfe.. Befides, in the Eaft Indies, knowledge and the appearance of truth are not always abfolutely infeparable from authority. I myself have heard a man belonging to the council at the Cape, relate to ftrangers the most ridiculous abfurdities concerning the country in which he lived. Stories of this kind often originate from the farmers and yeomen, who come from a great distance, and who often find their account in amufing their rulers with pleafing tales; which, the more wonderful they are, with the greater avidity they are fwallowed. Another fource of thefe falfe reports is in the depraved difpofition of mankind, who are very prone to impofe as much as they can on the credulity of the weak and fimple. Admitting it to be true, that the Romans introduced into their public fpectacles a great number of lions, which, indeed, they might eafily collect from the extenfive tracts of country they pof felfed in Africa and Afia, yet it never can be confonant either with truth or probability, that armies of lions fhould be found in thefe quarters of the globe, where only, according to the very probable pofition of M. de Button, they exist. So that when a later writer, the abbé de Manet, in his defcription of the northern part of Africa, affirms, that the fame kind of lion is likewife found in America, we may fafely confider this merely as a hafty affertion, which is not warranted 14

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