His coat, an usurer's velvet pall, Thus furnished out, he sent his train To take a house in Warwick-lane: The faculty," his humble friends, A complimental message sends : Their president in scarlet gown Harangu'd, and welcom'd him to town. But Death had business to dispatch; His mind was running on his match, And, hearing much of Daphne's fame, His majesty of terrors" came, Fine as a colonel of the guards, To visit where she sate at cards: She, as he came into the room, 'Fhought him Adonis in his bloom. And now her heart with pleasure jumps She scarce remembers what is trumps; For such a shape of skin and bone Was never seen, except her own: Charm'd with his eyes, and chin, and snout, Her pocket-glass drew slily out; And grew enamour'd with her phiz, As just the counterpart of his. She darted many a private glance, Nothing she thought could sooner gain him, (The ladies there must needs be rooks; What pride a female heart inflames! Thy hand as dry and cold as lead, PARALLELS. How beautiful is night! NOW came still evening on, and twilight gray MILTON. As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night! O'er heav'n's clear azure spreads her sacred light, When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene; Around her throne the vivid planets roll, And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole, O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, And tip with silver ev'ry mountain's head; Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, A flood of glory bursts from all the skies: The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight, Eye the blue vauit, and bless the useful light. POPE'S HOMER. • Ut ftudiis fperem, aut aufim par effe querelis, Te fterili functum cura, vocumque falebris Alme voco, impatiens noctis metuensque diei. Res angufta domi, et macræ penuria mentis. Non rationis opes animus, nunc parta recenfens Confpicit aggeftas, et fe miratur in illis, Nec fibi de gaza præfans quod poftulat ufus Summus adeffe jubet celfa dominator ab arce; Non operum ferie feriem dum computat ævi, Præteritis fruitur, lætos aut fumit honores Ipfe fui judex, a&tæ bene munera vitæ ; Sed fua regna videns, loca nocte filentia late Horret, ubi vanæ fpecies, umbræque fugaces, Et rerum volitant raræ per inane figuræ. Quid faciam tenebrifne pigram damnare se. nectam Reftat? an accingar ftudiis gravioribus audax? Aut hoc, fi nimium eft, tandem nova lexica pofcam? The drudgery of words the damn'd would know, Doom'd to write Lexicons in endless woe.* Yes, you had cause, great Genius, to repent ; "You loft good days that might be better spent ; You well might grudge the hours of ling'ring pain, And view your learned labours with disdain. To you were giv'n the large expanded mind, The flame of genius, and the tafte refin'd. 'Twas yours on eagle wings aloft to foar, And amidit rolling worlds the Great Firft Caufe explore; To fix the æras of recorded time, And live in ev'ry age, in ev'ry clime; Record the chiefs, who propt their country's caufe ; Who founded empires, and establish'd laws; And the world's ample volume was your own. Yet warn'd by me, ye pigmy wits, beware, Nor with immortal Scaliger compare. For me, though his example ftrike my view, Oh! not for me his footfleps to pursue. Whether firit nature, unpropitious, cold, This clay compounded in a ruder mould; Or the flow current, loitʼring at my heart, No gleam of wit or fancy can impart ; Whate'er the cause, from me no numbers flow, No vifions warm me, and no raptures glow. A mind like Scaliger's, fuperiour ftill, My task perform'd, and all my labours o'er, I feek at midnight clubs, the foctal band; But midnight clubs, where wit with noife confpires, Where Comus revels, and where wine infpires, If science open not her richest vein, Without materials all our toil is vain. A form to rugged ftone when Phidias gives, . Beneath his touch a new creation lives. Remove his marble, and his genius dies; With nature then no breathing ftatue vies. 197 THE BOSTON REVIEW, FOR APRIL, 1806. Librum tuam legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, quæ eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur quam qui maxime laudari merentur.-Pliny. ARTICLE 1. [Concluded.] Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Vol. I. 1805. 4to. pp. 564. PART II. PHYSICAL PAPERS. I. Observations upon an hypothesis for solving the phenomena of light, with incidental observations, tending to shew the heterogeneous ness of light, and of the electrick fluid, by their intermixture, or union, with each other. By James Bowdoin, Esquire, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The celebrated Dr. Franklin observed, that he was much in the dark about light. And it must be acknowledged, that, notwithstanding the great progress we have made in opticks, many difficulties still remain relative to the nature of light, or the manner in which vis ion is produced. It is well known, that modern philosophers have proposed two hypotheses for the purpose of explaining this point. In one, adopted by Huygens, Euler, and some others, an extremely subtile, elastick fluid is supposed to penetrate all bodies, and to fill all space; and vibrations,being excited in it by the action of luminous bodies, are propagated to the eye, and produce in that organ the sensation of vision in the same manner, as pulsations of air produce in the organ of hearing the sensation of sound. According to the other hypothesis, maintained by Sir Isaac Newton and others, light consists of particles of matter, extremely minute, which being projected or thrown off from luminous bodies in every direction by a repulsive force, and reflected by opaque bodies, produce the sensation of vision by impulse on the eye. The hypothesis, on which the author of this Memoir remarks, is contained in some queries, proposed by Dr Franklin, and is in substance the same as the former of the two preceding; to which the observations may be considered as objections, or arguments in favor of the other. In one part of the reasoning in form of queries relative to the production of light in various instances by motion, on supposition that the hypothesis of vibration is true, more seems to be assumed than is granted in the hypothesis. It does not appear to be inferable from Dr. Franklin's statement, nor from any other, that we recollect to have seen, that every kind and degree of motion in the elastick fluid is supposed or admitted to be productive of the sensation of vision; nor does this seem to be a necessary consequence. In the theory of sound, though the vibratory agency of the air is clearly ascertained, yet it is not supposed that every kind and degree of motion in the air produces the sensation of sound. The author's ideas respecting the heterogeneousness of light and of the electrick fluid may be well learned from the following extract, it being noted, that he uses fire in it as synomimous with light. "Electricity and fire differ in many respects, and in some they agree; as hath been shewn in Dr. Franklin's letters on electricity. So far as they agree in their effects, their nature may be presumed to be alike or rather, from that agreement and similitude of effects, I think it may be inferred, that they are mixt with, and generally do accompany each other; and that each produces its own effect at the time of their joint operation. The effects of electricity, similar to those of fire, being produced by the fire mixt with it; and the effects of fire, resembling those of electricity, being produced by the clectricity mixt with that: the compound taking its name from the predominant principle." Is it not more probable that one fluid, operating in different modes and circumstances, produces those different effects? II. Observations on light, and the waste of matter in the sun and fixt stars, occasioned by the constant efflux of light from them; with a conjecture, proposed by way of query, and suggesi, ing a mean, by which their several systems might be preserved from the disorder and final ruin, to which they seem liable by that evaste of matter, and by the law of gravitation. By James Bow doin, Esquire, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Franklin had made some objections to the Newtonian doctrine of light on the ground, that there most consequently be a momentum or force in the particles of light, and a waste in the matter of the sun, which do not accord with experience and observation. Mr. Bowdoin endeavours to remove these chjections. Accordingly the " Observations on Light" in the former part are calculated to show, that the inference relative to the motion or momentum of light is not just, and of course the objection, raised on it, unfounded. In the other part, after some good observations on the waste of matter in the sun by emission of light, the hypothesis is introduced, which is announced with so much modesty and caution in the title. The author,apparently well apprized of the difficulty of supporting it with evidence, merely proposes it as a query, or subject of consideration. That wonderful phenomenon, the ring of Saturn, which appears to the planet like a vast, surrounding, luminous arch, suggested the idea of conjecturing that a hollow sphere or orb might encompass the several systems, which compose the visible heavens. This surrounding orb is supposed to be fitted by its structure, and the properties of gravity, repulsion of light, &c. with which it is furnished to stop the rays of light, reflect them to the source, whence they emanated, and thus prevent loss or waste of any matter within it, and preserve the magnitude of the sun and stars; and also to serve as a counterbalance to the mutual gravities of the systems and bodies, inclosed by it, thus contributing to the preservation of their relative distances, and the prolongation of their regular motions. The following remark shows, that the author was not insensible to the weight of objections. "To this hypothesis objections may be made, and such as might prove it to be, like many an one which has |