In the Notes to this work there occur occafionally fhort claffical remarks, from which may be gleaned fome amufement and fome inftruction. At page 186, Dr. V. tells us, “that the 'H, or halfdecked veffels of Nearchus, are exactly the vefiels of Homer's age, the fore-part and waift open for the rowers, with a deck raised over the hinder part. This in Homer is called giov, and formed an elevation on which the fteerfman stood. On this deck, or under it, the perfons on board fometimes flept: which the Poet calls fleeping παρὰ πρυμνήσια νηος. Od. M. 32. For thefe, perhaps, the ca

bles were coiled; but when a whole crew was to fleep on board, this was impoffible, and the fuffering was in proportion to the confinement. This makes Ulyffes complain, that reftraint on fhip-board rendered his limbs rigid, and unfit for gymnaftic exercife. "He therefore," fays Dr. V. in another place (page 298), never flept in the after-part of the ship, when he could find another bed. Πρυμνήσια

are properly the cables at the ftern, but perhaps the after part of the vessel likewife; whether, when they flept on board, παρα πρυμνήσια they fept on the ικριον, or under it, their lodging must have been very incommodious.'

Our readers are not to conclude, from thefe specimens of Dr. V.'s work, which we have felected for their entertainment, that it is in general either critical or b.ftorical. It is in strictness a minute geographical difquifition; and all the remarks that relate not to that fubject are occafional only, and incidental. Thofe, and those only, who are interested in knowing to what extent and with what accuracy the geographical sciences were poffeffed by the ancients, will be much gratified by these lucubrations. Even fuch perfons can derive no delight from them, but in proportion as they fhall appear to be founded in good fenfe, in oppofition to fable, hypothesis, and conjec

ture.

R. R.

THIS volume, with small pretenfions to novelty, contains much useful information and inftruction. This Mr. G. will undoubtedly confider as the best praife. Still it must be admitted, that a book can only be useful in proportion as it is read. We with, therefore, that our Author had adopted the fame method which he obferved in his "Enquiry into the Duties of Men," and illuftrated his moral theory by facts and experiments. We recollect hardly more than one inftance of this in the pages we are examining. The ftile too of this work, though flowing, elegant, and accurate, is deficient in energy and terfeness. Thefe laft are qualities in which Dr. Paley's ethical compofitions excel. Without them, or fomething which, like them, firikes frongly on the imagination, few works of a didactic character can have an extenfive circulation.'

Thefe obfervations arife from a fincere refpect for Mr. G.'s abilities and intentions. We wish, as we are fure he withes, them to be universally beneficial; and he knows, as well as we, that this can only be accomplished by the skilful admixture of the dulce with the utile. However arduous the task, Mr.G. muft defire to have it faid, for a far better motive than a reputation among mortals,

Hic meret æra liber Sofiis, bic et marg

tranfit,

Et longum noto fcriptori prorogat ærum.

In treating on Female Education, Mr. G. difapproves of the employment of emulation to excite his fair pupils to diligence and exertion. He remarks, that whatever may be thought, by different obfervers, as to the degrees in which it enlarges the fum of intellectual attainments, yet among thofe who judge from experience, there can be but one opinion as to the refult of its operation on the difpotions of the heart. Of all the principles of action he accounts it as one of the most dangerous; ftimulating and nourishing fome of the darkeft paffions of the human mind, and fubverting thofe raotives which it is one main purpofe of Chriftianity to inculcate and enforce. Self-conceit, a fupercilious contempt of perfons fuppofed, and often falicly fuppofed, of inferior attainments; proneness to fufpect teachers of being prejudiced and partial, and endeavours to conciliate their favour by finesse ; a secret wish to retard the progrefs of fuccessful competitors; an envicus defire to detract from their merits; and an averfion to their fociety, with an indifference to their welfare, are among its ufi! effects.

He acknowledges that a tendency to thefe malignant feelings and artful manoeuvres is inherent in human nature, and not to be attributed to emulation alone. But still he afferts, that emulation is the agent which, perhaps at every period of life, and undoubtedly in childhood and youth, fans them into a flame.

But mult we not then, in the process of inftruction, employ the influence of comparison and example? Is it not lawful to apply to children a fiimulus, which is applied with vifible advantage to kindle ardour, and to confirm good conduct, in maturer years? Mr. G. in reply to thefe questions observes, judicioufly, that to compare our own conduct and attainments with thofe of others, that we may more clearly fee our defects, and be incited to imitate a meritorious example, is a practice in many cafes both juftifiable and ufeful. It is therefore to be recommended on fuitable occafions, and with proper explanation, to thofe to whom we impart inftruction. But to compare that we may imitate, is not the fame thing as to compare that we may rival: and emulation includes, not in name only, but in reality, the spirit of rivalShip.

There is, undoubtedly, much good fenfe and moral wifdom in thefe remarks; yet we queftion whether excellence in any talent will without rivalfhip be ever acquired. How far our happiness or our utility may be increafed by excellence, is an enquiry of deeper research; but excellence prefents itfelf as a glittering prize, which mortals will always pant to obtain.

In the Chapter on Female Converfation and Epiflolary Correspondence, Mr. G. reprehends the levity of difcourfe in which women, even of improved underftandings, occafionally indulge.

Take his cenfure in his own words, which feem the refult of actual and acute obiervation:

"It is not only to women of moderate capacity that hours of trifling and flippant converfation are found acceptable. To thofe of fuperior talents they are not unfrequently known to give a degree of entertainment, greater than on flight confideration we might have expected. The matter, however, may easily be explained. Many women who are endowed with ftrong mental powers are little inclined to the trouble of exerting them. They love to indulge a fupine vacuity of thought; liften to nonfenfe without diffatisfaction, becaufe to listen to it re

quires no effort; neither search nor prompt others to fearch, deeper than the furface of the paffing topic of discourse: and were it not for an occafional remark that indicates difcernment, or a look of intelligence which gleams through the liftlefinets of floth, would fcarcely be fufpected of judgment and penetration. While thefe perfons rarely teem, in the common intercourie of life, to turn their abilities to the advantage either of themfelves or of their friends, others, gifted with equal talents, are tempted to mifapply them by the coniciouinets of poffeffing them. Vain of their powers, and of their dexterity in the use of them, they cannot refift the impulfe which they feel to lead a pert and coxcomical young man, whenever he falls in their way, to expole himself. The prattle which they defpife they encourage, because it amules them by rendering the speaker ridiculous. They lead him on, untufpicious of their defign, and fecretly pluming himself on the notice which he attracts, and on his own happy talents of rendering himself agreeable, and delighted the most when he is moft the object of derifion, from one ftep of folly to another. By degrees they contract an habitual relifh for the ftile of converfation which enables them at once to display their own wit, and to gratify their paffion for mirth and their tafte for the ludicrous. They become inwardly impatient when it flags, and more impatient when it meets with interruption. And if a man of grave aípect, and more wakeful reflection, prefumes to ftep within the circle, they affail the unwelcome in. truder with a volley of brilliant raillery and fparkling repartee which bears down knowledge and learning before it, and convulie the delighted auditors with peals of laughter, while he labours in his heavy accoutrements after his light-armed antagonift, and receives at every turn a fhower of arrows, which he can neither parry nor withstand."

He

In the Chapter (the IXth) on Amuse◄ ments, Mr. G. lays fo many restraints on the enjoyment of Dramatic entertainments as amounts to a prohibition. permits it, feemingly, only in the cafe" in which its fuperintendance is committed to legal authority, which would prevent the Stage from being rendered an inftrument of political machinations and of perfonal calumny; and alfo purify it from incidents, expreffions, and allufions, offenfive to modefty and injurious to morals."

Plaufible

Plaufible as this opinion may be in theory, we doubt whether the power cr influence of a Court, or even the taste and learning of a Lord Chamberlain, will ever operate anyvery important improvement in the province of the Drama; and if Majefly ittelt, as he wishes, were to interfere, the Theatre is too flight a fubject for its permanent cognizance. It must be directed in its controul of the Stage by eyes and ears, fometimes not better informed, and feldom leis corrupt, than the writers and actors they would correct.

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In Mr. G.'s reprobation of Sunday Concerts, we very heartily concur with him. Our Author in fpeaking of the employment of time, recommends a practice not often attended to, but not on that account lefs uiciul and ornamental; the committing to memory select and ample portions of fortic compofitions. "The mind is thus ftcred with a treasure of fentiments and ideas, combined by writers of tranfcendant genius and vigorous imagination, clothed in appropriate and glowing language, and imprefied by the powers of harmony. The poetry, however, fhould be select. It fhould be fuch as may clevate the heart with devotion; add energy and grace to precepts rality; kindle benevolence by pathetic narrative; or prefent vivid pictutes of the grand and beautiful in the fcenery of nature. Such," fays Mr. G. "are the works of Milton, of Themfon, of Gray, of Mafen, and of Cowper. By thefe means the fcenery of nature will be contemplated with new pleafure; the tafle will be called forth, exercised, and corrected; and the judgment strengthened and informed."

of mo

cally virtuous. It must be acknowledged that there is fuch an improbable folly as this to be found in many novels and plays. It is alio true, that men can only be eftimated with any degree of certainty by their babits. On the other hand, there is generally fome foundation for popular apoibrgms and conclufions. Reformation does certainly fometimes take place in fome. Thefe furely will be indulgent to fmall tranfgreffions, when they know themielves to have committed tar greater; and muft receive with gratitude marks of affection, which they have felt only by their return to virtue.

It is in the application of this rule to practice, as in other cafes, that the difficulty lies. For how fhall we diftinguish the penitent from the bypocrite? And when is the danger paft of a relapje to Vice?

In the Chapter on the Duties of Matrimonial Life, Mr. G. ceniures, with becoming fpirit, the artifice recommended by fome pfeudo-moralifts, of concealing from the bufband a fuperiority of underftanding, left there fhould feem a disposition to rivalfhip. He remarks very tru ly, that in general it is not the fenfe in woman that offends; it is rather fome quality or difpofition which has no natural connection with it. Either it is arrogance, or impatience of contradiction, or reluctance to difcern and acknowledge error, which render the manners of women overbearing, their temper irritable, and their prejudices obitinate. If female talents be graced with fimplicity, poodbumour, and modefly, there is fcarcely a husband's heart which they will not warm with delight.

In a fubfequent part of the fame head of inftruction, the circumftances are difcuffed of female relations of the mafier or of the mistress of the house, "who, though admitted to live in the parlour, are in truth bumble dependents, received either from motives of charity, cr for the fake of being made useful in the conduct of domeftic affairs, or of being companions to their protectress when the latter is not otherwile engaged or amuted."

We have not room for the quotation at length on this topic ;-we can only infert the two concluding paffages.

"Is it the part of friendship, of liberal protection, to harrafs her with difficulties, to enfnare her fincerity, to establish her in the petty arts of cunning and adulation? Rather difmifs her with fome fmall pittance of bounty to fearch in ob

fcurity

curity for an honeft maintenance, than to retain her to learn hypocrify and to teach you arrogance, to be corrupted and to corrupt."

Thefe fentiments are no lefs fpirited than juft, and are well worthy the confideration of females in the higher claffes, who are often very capricious and tyrannical rulers of their unfortunate provegées. The last fentence is a happy application of a strong and brilliant remark of Tacitus.

Our Author is, for the most part, grave and folemn; he relaxes, however, fometimes into ridicule and bumour. Thus, for inftance, he defcribes a female fashionable morning.

"What is called the morning is fwallowed up in driving from street to street, from fquare to fquare, in purfuit of perfons whom the is afraid of discovering, in knocking at doors where the dreads being admitted. Time is frittered away in a fort of fmall intercourfe with numbers for whom the feels little regard, and whom fhe knows to feel as little for herself. Yet every thing breathes the fpirit of cordiality and attachment. The pleature expreffed at meeting is fo warm, the enquiries after each other's health fo minute, the folicitude if either party has caught a cold at the laft Opera fo extreme, that a ftranger to the ways of high life, and to the true value of words in the modern dictionaries of compliment, would be in aftonishment at fuch effufions of difinterefted benevolence. Invitation fucceeds invitation; engagement preffes on engage

ment: etiquette offers, form accepts, and indifference affumes the air of gratitude and rapture."

Mr. G. afferts in a note, what we fhould hope is not often true, that the wives of hopkeepers in London will ask more than the real price of an article from ready money cuftomers, with the view of pocketing the excefs themfelves; and if detected in the fraud plead ignorance of the value. It is difficult to lay whether fuch conduct be more injurious to the individual or to the public.

There is a remark in the Chapter on Parental Duties, taken from Dr. Henry's Hiftory of England, which explains the attitude of Margaret Roper in the very curious ancient picture of Sir Thomas More's Family by Holbein. Daughters, though women, were not anciently permitted to fit or repofe themfelves, other wife than by kneeling on a cushion, until their mother departed.

From the above account of Mr. G.'s book it evidently appears well worthy the attention of all, and the diligent pa ruial of the gentler jex. As the ladies, however, ftill more perhaps than men, delight to blend amusement with their weightier concerns, we must repeat our with that the theory laid down had been more frequently enlivened by facts, and illuftrated by examples. The moralift might not, indeed, in that cafe have deferved more fuccefs, but we are fure he would have obtained it.

R. R.

favourite mulatto, whom they alfo de fired him to take with him to the Hope. This propofal he moft joyfully complied with, and immediately fet his flaves to work to build a houfe of Manicole trees for her reception.

In the mean time he wrote a letter to Meirs. Paflalage and Son, to say, that being under great obligations to one of their mulatto flaves, named Joanna, for having attended him during fickness, he

requafted

requested that they would permit him to purchafe her liberty without delay, and he would immediately remit to them the

money.

In fix days his new dwelling was completed. It confifted of a parlour, which alfo ferved for a dining-room; a bedchamber, where alfo the baggage was ftowed; a piazza or fhed to fit under before the door; a fmall kitchen detached from the route, and a poultry-house; the whole fituated on a pot by itself, commanding an enchanting profpect on every fide, and furrounded with paling to keep off the cattle. The tables, tools, and benches, were all compofed of Manicole boards, the doors and windows were guarded with ingenious wooden locks and keys, that were the work of a negro. His houfe being thus far finished and furnished, the next care was to lay in a ftock of provifions, which confifted of a barrel of flour, another of falted mackarel, which in that country are delicious, hams, pickled fautages, Jamaica rum, tea, fugar, fpermaceti candles, two foreign theep, and a hog, befides two dozen of fine fowls and ducks, prefented to him by Lucretia, Joanna's aunt.

The Manicole Tree, the wood of which he employed for his habitation, he thus defcribes, with its uses in building and furniture, in another part of his work:

"The Manicole, which is of the Palm Tree fpecies, is about the thickness of a man's thigh, very ftrait, and growing to the height of forty or fifty feet from the ground: the trunk, which is jointed at the diftance of two or three feet, is of a light brown colour, hard externally for the thicknefs of half an inch, but pithy like the English Elder. On the top the tree fpreads its beautiful green boughs, with leaves hanging ftrait downwards like filk ribbons, which form a kind of umbrella.

"The manner of using it for building huts or cottages, is by cutting the trunk in pieces of as many feet long as you with to have the partition high; which pieces are next fplit into finall boards, the breadth of a man's hand, and diverted of their pithy fubftance, and then they are fit for immediate ufe. Having cut and prepared as many of thefe laths as you want to furround the dwelling, you lah them in a perpendicular pofition, and clofe to each other, to two crofs bars of the fame tree fixed to the corner pofts; and the whole is cut and fhaped by the billhook alone, and tied together by nebees. These last are a kind of ligneous ropes of

all fizes, both as to length and thickness, which grow in the woods, and climb up the trees in all directions; they are fo plentiful and wonderfully difperfed, that they make the foreft appear like a large fleet at anchor, and kill many of the trees by mere compreffion.

"With refpect to the roofing of these flender habitations, it is done by the green branches of the fame Manicole that made the wails; each branch, which can be compared to nothing fo well as to the fhape of a feather, and which is as large as a man, must be split from the top to the bottom in two equal parts, as you would fplit a pen. When a number of thefe half boughs are tied together by their own verdure, and form a bunch, you take thefe bunches, and tie them with nebees one above another, on the roof of the cottage, as thick as you please, and in fuch a manner that the verdure, which looks like the mane of a horse, hangs downwards. This covering, which at firft is green, but foon takes the colourof the English reed-thatching, is very beautiful, lafting, and clofe, and finishes the dwelling without the help of a hammer, or nails; doors, windows, tables, feats, &c. are made in the fame manner; fo are the inclofures for gardens, and the places for keeping cattle.”

Having completed his houfe, Captain Stedman thus defcribes his fituation in it with his beloved companion.

On the ft of April 1774 Joanna came down the river in the Fauconberg tent-boat, rowed by eight negroes, and arrived at the Hope. I communicated to her immediately the contents of my letter to Holland, which the received with that gratitude and modefty in her looks which fpoke more forcibly than any reply. I introduced her to her new habitation, where the plantation flaves, in token of respect, immediately brought her prefents of cafada, yams, bananas, and plantains, and never two people were more completely happy. Free like the roes in the foreft, and difencumbered of every care and ceremony, we breathed the pureft æther in our walks, and refreshed our limbs in the limpid stream: health and good fpirits were now again my portion, while my partner flourished in youth and beauty, the envy and admi, ration of all the colony."

The happinefs cur author enjoyed in this Elyfian plantation was fuddenly blafted by the fatal news of the death of Mr. Paffalage at Amfterdam, the gentleman to whom he had written to obtain his

mulatto's

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