contemptible blockheads,' charges us with ridiculous malevolence,' and obferves that even the fuggestions of policy cannot bridle our intemperate refentment.' What is worse than all this, he accufes us of being formerly among his greatest flatterers.' This is indeed a ferious charge; and if we at any time have been liberal in our encomiums on Anthony Pafquin's productions, of which we recollect nothing, they were either of a very different nature from those which have lately appeared, or we muft indeed have flattered him. Should their ungenerous labours (he adds) ever awaken anger in my bofom, I will affert the rights of truth, and hurl fuch impoftors from the feat of judgment.' This is a very terrible denunciation, and we congratulate Anthony on his prefent tranquility of mind. As it is not difcomposed by any thing we have faid, fo we hope that nothing we shall say will have any effect in awakening his ferious difpleasure. We should not indeed be greatly flattered at entering the lifts with fuch an antagonist. The profpect of a combat, in which victory would afford no honour, can yield but little fatisfaction. As we are arraigned before the public by Anthony for injuftice and malevolence, we truft we shall be excused for producing fome evidence on our fide of the question; fuch as may tend to show that nothing but the utmoft partiality or perverfion of juftice could induce a literary tribunal to speak in approbation of his works, and recommend them to public fa vour: As o'er the haunts of Innocency spread External sweetness to the good within: The fear of God rules Fashion's gay beheft; For her the thunders fleep amid the skies. Like Britain's Charlotte, who fublimes command, Reduce thefe lines, gentle reader, to common fenfe ; the fifth, fixth, and the fix concluding ones, to any thing like sense, if thou canft, et eris mihi magnus Apollo !—We will intrude but one quotation more upon his patience; it is taken from Correggio Candid's letter to the celebrated Mr. Daniel of Bath, and entitled the Portrait Painter's Golden Rules.' It will ferve to show that this author is fcarcely less Hh 2 per perplexing and abftrufe in his lively than in his ferious com pofitions. As you're not vain or arrogantly nice, Go mentally transcribe this apt advice : The envied attributes inhabit thus: Blythe in the eye difport the wanton loves And bathe in fluids warm from the fpring of joy. Abafes or gives dignity to all. The other lineaments combin'd together, Are but mere fungus-pith or biped's leather.' Keep all the projections in happy relief, Let the foft clear-obfcure fmooth the edge of each feature, Be the keeping accordant with joy, wit, or grief, And let the repofe of the whole be in Nature. Make all the fons of Mars look fierce and big, And give phyficians plenitude of wig, L'argent enough to purchafe Louis' ranfom. Some faces, like the progrefs of the day, Are fombrous, luminous, and black, and grey; When those present themfelves, be this your ftudy, They fee truth jaundic'd, and their will's their own.' The golden rules which follow, for we have not, in pity to the reader, tranfcribed one half of this epiftle, are much in the fame manner, and will be perufed with equal advantage and amufement by the pictorial amateur. Let us, however, do this author the juftice to fay, that he discovers, in the delineation of low characters, fome kind of humour. His Margery Cockney and Phalim O'Shaughneffy are not unentertaining, though their jokes are not always very delicate or very new. The following character in one of Congreve's comedies is not perhaps altogether inapplicable to Anthony Pafquin. Petulant's a very pretty fellow, and a wery honeft fellow, and has a fmattering-faith and troth a pretty deal of an odd fort of a small wit; and if he had any judgment in the world, he would not be altogether contemptible.' The Natural Hiftory of Eaft Tartary; traced through the three Kingdoms of Nature. Tranflated from the French. By William Radcliffe, A. B. 8vo. 45. ferved. Richardfon. TH HE volume before us is a tranflation of the Description Phyfique de la Contrée de Tauride, which we examined at fome length in our LXVIIth volume, p. 373. We were pleafed to fee it in an English drefs, for we think it a work in many refpects curious, and in fome important. It was tranflated from the Ruffian into French, and this tranflation is taken from the French verfion. ་ As it is, therefore, our chief bufinefs to examine the tranflation, it will not detain us long. The French tranflator difclaimed every pretenfion to beauty of style, and Mr. Radcliffe, on this account, hopes, that he will not be held folely refponfible for any inelegancies that may appear in the following work. In our comparison, therefore, we have chiefly confined ourselves to the accuracy of the verfion, and in this respect we perceive marks of häfte rather than of ignorance, and of inattention rather than want of ability. If Mr. Radcliffe had examined his tranflation with care, he would probably have avoided the little errors we have met with; the inconfiderable faults which deform rather than detract from the real merit of his work. We fhall point out a few of these in the order in which they occur. In the first defcription of the flat country, which our author with fome inaccuracy calls level,' though levels may occur in very high grounds, he feems to have committed a fault of fome importance. This bead (partie) comprises thofe vaft plains fituated between the Black Sea and the feas of Azow and Sivache (or Putrid) which, ftretching towards the North, spread from the Dnieper as far as Perecop, and beyond the neighbouring rivers of Salghir and the Western Boulghanak.' The original fays, as far as Perecop,' and from thence as far as the rivers of Salghir, &c. ( & de la jufqu'aux rivieres,' &c.) The foil, a few lines afterwards, is defcribed to be a free, yellow, argillaceous earth.' Again, the calcareous earth is faid in the fame page to be of a quality so porous as to prove clearly the attrition of water.' This is at leaft an inelegant, we think an improper, tranflation of mais poreuse, qu'il eft vifible qu'elle a été rougée par l'eau.' At Hh 3 the the end of the third and beginning of the fourth page, the fteep banks of the falt lakes are faid to follow the order of the foil which furrounds them.' The original fays, that their foil is the fame as that in the neighbourhood. The minute faftidious criticism, which a farther examination would occafion, can neither be pleafing to our readers or ourfelves. The errors frequently confift of words, which seem to have been rendered in hafte, of an inverted and less simple phrafeology, and in a few inftances, particularly in the mineralogical part, they appear to have arifen from our author not being fufficiently acquainted with that fcience. A ftriking inftance of that kind occurs near the end of his eighteenth page. As a fpecimen of the general freedom and eafe of Mr. Radcliffe's language, we fhall tranfcribe the following note: All the countries in which volcanos exist, or are known to have existed, contain large tracts of a red argillaceous earth; a circumftance which has hitherto efcaped the observation of the many able writers by whom thefe countries have been described. Volcanic mountains are alfo often met with, containing no lava or bafaltes. Such is that called Sbhönberg, by the baths of Geifmar in Heffe. It is of a conical form, and the crater which exifts at prefent is rent from top to bottom, and is without any trace of lava or bafaltes. The foil is every where red, and in the fides we meet with not shelves, but real gutters of a deep red Spathic fchiftus. If it fhould be doubted whether this mountain was ever a volcano, we should remember, ift. its conical form; 2dly. its crater; 3dly. that it is fituated in a country indubitably volcanic, and within a league of the mountain Grebenstein, which is admitted to be an extinguished volcano; and 4thly, that large and infulated fragments of well preferved bafaltes are difperfed over its fides, evidently without the asfiftance of man. All these circumftances feem to prove that this is an extinguished volcano, whofe lava and bafaltes have, in a long course of time, been entirely decompofed, and converted into a red potters-carth, which appears in great abundance in its neighbourhood, and even upon the fides of the mountain itself.' We have felected this note for many different reasons, as it affords fome foundation for thinking that the more trifling mistakes may be owing to errors of the prefs*, and as it contains more instances of inverted phrafes, which in fome degree injure the force of the author's manner, than any other paffage of equal extent. Mountains, the author fays, in the French verfion, are often met with, which have all the voicanic appearances, except lavas or bafaltes, of which they are entirely deprived. Inftead of real gutters,' our author fays real ftreams,' (coulées). Evidently without the affiftance Thefe we have corrected in tranfcribing. of of man,' would have been rendered more clofely, which could not be carried there by man; for what purpose would this defign have answered? Instead of red potters earth, it should have been red clay, for not all kinds of clay are fit for the potter, and the terms are not fynonymous: the French word is argile. We had, however, other reasons for our felection : the observations are perfectly just and accurate, so far as concerns the general appearance of volcanic mountains, but the appearance of argillaceous earth in volcanic countries, particularly in volcanic mountains long fince extinct, has been noticed by fir William Hamilton in his account of the Poncia Infulæ in the Philofophical Tranfactions. He afcribes the change to vitriolic acid vapours. Mr. Radcliffe's language may not appear ftrong enough to warrant this obfervation; but the original fays exprefly- this remark has never yet been made.' We do not indeed recollect it in any work except the papers juft quoted; but the appearance of clay in volcanic countries is fo obvious, the change of the less compact porous lavas on the surface is so evident to the eye of even a fuperficial obferver, that we wonder more at its having been fo often overlooked, than its being now particularly noticed. A View of the Prefent State of Derbyshire; with an Account of its most remarkable Antiquities. By James Pilkington. (Concluded, from p. 143.) THIS HIS fecond volume is of a more local nature, and of less general intereft than the first; to which we may add, ́ that it appears to us in many refpects more imperfect: it will not, therefore, detain us long. While the tribes from the continent preffed on the aboriginal inhabitants of Britain, it is natural to conclude that they were collected on the western fide of the kingdom, as the most remote from their conquerors, till they found an afylum in the mountains of Wales, fome parts of Ireland, and the ifles of the Irish fea. Druidifm fhared the fate of its profeffors, and the remote fituation of fome parts of Derbyfhire were, probably, during the first attack on this barbarous fuperftition, temporary retreats. Many Druidical, or apparently Druidical monuments, occur in this county; for we are not willing to allow every regular arrangement of stones to have been the work of these ambitious priests. In the fubfequent period, that of the Romans, this county received the conquering legions, and thared in the benefit of their labours: but our author has been able to add nothing to Mr. Pegge's Perambulation of the greater and leffer Roman roads of Derbyshire.' H h 4 |