is a matter of indifference, whether the bucket comes in contact with the bottom or fides of the electrified well or not. On drawing it out from thence, it is found not to have contracted any fenfible degree of electricity *: though had it touched any part of the outfide, it would undoubtedly have acquired pofitive electricity. He now repeats the experiment, but takes care that the bucket fhall not touch the bottom or fides of the well; and, while it continues there, he brings the knob of a brass rod near the bucket. A spark is now feen to pass between them. This fpark does not proceed from any electricity communicated by the electric well to the bucket; but is evidently the native fire belonging to the latter, driven out of it, through the rod, into the earth, by the electric matter in the ftratum of air contiguous to the inner furface of the well, acting through the cylindrical plate of air interpofed between it and the bucket: for though the well is charged with positive electricity, the bucket, on being drawn out, is found to be negatively electrified. We need not make any comment on this experiment; which the Author afterwards diverfifies. Several corrollaries follow, which are deduced from thefe experiments. We fhall mention only one, drawn from that which we have now related, and which is, at leaft, fanciful and ingenious. Confidering the minute and evanefcent pores of natural bodies as fo many electric wells, a plaufible reafon may be hence affigned, why the quantity of electrical fluid thrown upon bodies, in our experiments, is found to be proportionable to their furfaces only, and not to their bulks or maffes. The pores of bodies, like the cavity of the well, appear to be devoid of electric matter; while the furface of the intire body is analogous to the outfide of the well; and, like it, for the reasons above fuggested, can receive and communicate electricity. In the 17th article Capt. J. L. Winn gives Dr. Franklin an account of the appearance of lightning, during a ftorm in the night, on a conductor (formed of a chain of copper wire extended from the top of the mainmast of his ship down to the water) one of the links of which had been broke; as he accidentally difcovered by means of the ftream and fparks of electric fire, which appeared in the place of the interruption. He publifhes this obfervation, in expectation that it may have greater weight with fome feamen, whofe neglect of this easy prefervative he justly condemns, than all the reafonings of the electricians. Dr. Franklin firft difcovered this fingular property in an elec trified cup. Dr. Priefley's experiments and obfervations upon it may be feen in the Hiftory of Electricity, page 731, 1st edition. In the 46th article Mr. Swinton defcribes the phenomena attending a very remarkable meteor, of the Aurora borealis kind, feen at Oxford on October 24, 1769; and which, we fhall add, was obferved by us, with nearly the fame appearances, in a diftant part of the island. Article 14 contains obfervations on the ftate of the air, winds, and weather, in Hudfon's Bay, in the years 1768 and 1769, by Meffrs. Dymond and Wales: and in articles 20 and 21 are contained meteorological obfervations, made in 1769 at Bridgewater and Ludgvan, by Dr. Jeremiah Milles, and Dr. Borlafe. MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES. Difficulties in the Newtonian Theory of Light, confidered and removed. By the Rev. S. Horfley, LL. B. F. R. S. The difficulties here referred to are thofe proposed by Dr. Franklin, in one of the letters contained in his collection of Papers on Philofophical Subjects, published in 1768. On a fuppofition that our fenfations of the folar light are not caused by the preffure or undulations of a fluid diffused throughout the universe, but are excited by a matter continually emitted from the furface of the fun, with a prodigious velocity, and in all directions; the Doctor afks, whether the fmalleft conceiveable. particle of light must not, with fo rapid a motion, acquire a momentum or force exceeding that of a twenty-four pounder difcharged from a cannon? Must not the fun, he adds, diminish exceedingly by fuch a waste of matter, and the planets recede to greater diftances, in confequence of the leffened attraction? And yet these particles, fuppofed to move with this immense velocity, are found incapable, as be obferves, of driving before them, or even of giving the leaft fenfible motion to, the lightest duft: the fun too, there is reafon to believe, continues of his original dimenfions, and his attendants move in their ancient orbits. Mr. Horfley, in a former publication, had occafion to inquire what the force of motion in the particles of light, fuppofing them to be actually emitted from the fun, could poffibly amount to, if calculated at the utmoft. Suppofing, for reasons which we omit, that the particles of light are of so small a fize, that the diameter of each fpherule does not exceed one millionth of one millionth of an inch; and allowing the denfity or fpecific gravity of each particle to be even three times greater than that of iron, and its velocity to be fuch as has been generally fuppofed, he arrives at this general conclufion, that the force of motion in each fingle particle emitted from the fun, is less than that in an iron ball of a quarter of an inch diameter, moving at the rate of less than an inch in 12,000 millions of millions of Egyptian years ;'-in fhort, that it is a force much inferior inferior to any that art can create. He afterwards' fhews that the stroke which the retina of the eye fuftains, by the direct impulfe of a cylinder of the fun's rays tranfmitted through the pupil, (fuppofing its diameter to be '% of an inch, and the emiffion to be at its maximum) does not exceed that, which would be given by an iron fhot of the fame dimenfions, moving at the rate of little more than 16 inches in a year. This question has been agitated formerly, but no where, we believe, in fo complete and accurate a manner. Muffchenbroek, in particular, has curforily difcuffed this fubject [in his Introductio ad Philofophiam Naturalem] on data different from those of this Author. From the refult of his calculations he is led to question whether all the globules conftituting a ray of light, extending from the fun to the earth, that is, a string of sphe rules 24,000 femi-diameters of the earth in length, would weigh a fingle grain. The Author next proceeds to confider the lofs of substance which the fun may be supposed to have fuftained, in confequence of the continued or rather fucceffive emanation of fuch particles. He fhews that, fuppofing 951,100 emissions were to be made every fecond, of all the luminous particles, of the magnitude above affumed, that would have room to lye upon his furface at once; this emanation would not be attended with any fuch waste of his fubftance, as would vifibly contract his diameter, or fenfibly enlarge the orbits of the planets, in many millions of years, According to his calculations, the space of 385,130,000 Egyptian years would be required to produce, in confequence of fuch wafte, a diminution of the fun's apparent diameter, equal to the 1900th part of a fecond. These are fome of the principal refults of the Author's fuppofitions and calculations, which are equally ingenious and elaborate, and appear more than fufficient to obviate the objections that have been made to the actual emiffion of light, founded on an apprehenfion of the enormous lofs of substance supposed to attend it in the luminous body. Of the three remaining articles of this volume, though deferving of a more particular notice, our limits at present oblige us to give only a very curfory account. The 8th contains a well authenticated and pleasing relation, by the honourable Mr. Barrington, of the early and uncommon display of talents, in the cafe of young Mozart; who, when he was little more than four years old, was not only capable of executing leffons on the harpfichord, but likewife compofed fome in an eafy style and tafte, which were much approved of." At the age of eight, he was heard with astonishment in this kingdom; and, as we are informed by a late traveller, in a work published after this pa per per was written, his premature performances have fince excited the admiration even of Italy; where they have procured him the honour of the order of the Golden Spur, conferred upon him by the present Pope. The 10th Article contains an account of fome improvements made by Mr. Fitzgerald, in the new wheel barometer invented by him, and defcribed in the 52d volume of the Tranfactions. This inftrument not only diftinctly fhews a rife or fall of the mercury equal to the 600th part of an inch; but likewife, by means of regifters placed close to the index, marks the greatest variations in the motion of the quickfilver, which happen during the absence of the obferver, or in the night. In the 28th, or remaining article, Dr. Watson, late Chemical Profeffor at Cambridge, relates feveral curious experiments made by him, on the various phenomena attending the folution of faits in water; particularly with a view to inquire into the truth of the commonly received opinion that, in the process of diffolution, faline fubftances are abforbed or received into the pores of the folvent, without augmenting its bulk. The Author's experiments however seem fully to justify a contrary conclufion. AKT. IX. The Hiftory of the famous Preacher Friar Gerund, &c. concluded. N the clofe of the firft volume, of which we gave an account in our laft Review, Friar Gerund commences what is called Sabatine Preacher, and is engaged to pronounce a difciplinant exhortation on account of a proceffion for rain, in the town where the convent ftood. Notwithstanding the friendly and judicious admonitions he had received, he determined to pursue his own views, aided by the profound and learned counfels of the Predicador Mayor. We have a humorous account of the compofition of this discourse, with a copy of the discourse itfelf; concerning which, we hall only obferve, that it produced fome warm, animated, and honeft reproofs from the Father Mafter Prudentio. The fecond volume begins with informing us, that Anthony Zotes, the father of our hero, who was now constituted majordomo of the facrament (after having heard the exhortation abovementioned) appointed his fon to preach the fermon on this occafion at Campazas; to which requeft the fuperior of the convent unwillingly yielded affent. This was the young Friar's first fermon, as the difciplinant-exhortation was not to be dignified with that name. He had fome debates with himfelf about the forming of this difcourfe; for he had not forgotten Dr. Burney's Prefent State of Mufic, page 228. the the judicious reflections he had fo lately heard from Father Prudentio; and at the fame time the reafonings of Friar Bias were deeply imprinted on his mind: among other things he is faid to have paid particular attention to an apophthegm selected from Machiavel, and imparted to Gerund by the faid Friar, Sentire cum paucis, vivere cum multis; Think with the few, act with the many;' and also to a saying attributed to the poet Lopez de Vega, who having been taxed with the defects of his comedies, is reported to have excufed himfelf by anfwering, That he knew and confeffed their defects; but that, notwithstanding, he composed them thus, because good plays are hiffed, and bad ones celebrated. Our Sabatine preacher therefore concluded in favour of his former method, and proposed minutely to regard, as he had before. done, all the circumflances (so they are called) attending the difcourfe. By thefe circumftances are to be understood, the person by whom he was afked to preach, the place in which the fermon was to be delivered, the mufic, the bull-feat, or other entertainments fometimes accompanying their religious festivals in Spain; together with a variety of fuch particulars, against the noticing of which Father Prudentio had inveighed. 6 After this determination, Gerund had yet a farther doubt, viz. whether he fhould fly for fuccour to mythology, or to fome texts and paffages of holy fcripture: he was rather inclined. to the former; but the late exhortation of the Father Master had at present so much weight with him, that, for this time, without prejudice to another, he agreed to feek in fcripture only, a decent accommodation for all the circumstances.' After this deliberation, he proceeds to lay the plan of his difcourfe. But while he was engaged in thefe profound meditations, he was interrupted by a vifit from the fuperior of the convent, who came into his cell with fome papers and fermons of a deceased father, which, in a very friendly manner, he delivered to our friar, and strongly recommended them to his perufal and imitation. Among thefe papers, the firft which ftruck his eye was a manufcript with this title, Remarks upon the Faults of Style; the whole of which is here laid before the reader, and it contains many learned and judicious obfervations. This paper Gerund read with care; and scarce had he finished it, fays the Author, when, fufpended in his mind, he fhut his eyes, fixed his right elbow on the arm of the chair, and leaned his head upon his hand, holding in his left the paper he had read. He remained a good while in this pofture very thoughtful; but at laft, jumping impetuously from his feat, he takes the paper between his hands, tears it, gnashing his teeth the while, into a thousand pieces, throws it with indignation out of the window, and taking two turns across the room, accompanied with fix ftamps on the floor, exclaimed, The devil take thee for a rafcally |