two

feemed anxious to appçar under some language : and it would be doing inother character, than that of a mere justice to reprefent them as mere details prcacher by profeflion. Hence it was, of religious ceremonies, or of opinionists that as he very foon commenced an au- in theology. These

works are thor, 1o, in laiter life, he became a proofs, that he possessed a, considerable farmer and coal-merchant. How far knowledge of ancient and modern lanhis finances were improved by these oi- guages; an extraordinary insight into the cupations, it is un cocflary to enquire. nature and principles of different governHe was, at leadt, infuenced by gene- ments; a clear knowledge of the true rous motives. He never liked to press interests of man in civil society ; of the too hard upon his congregation, and was depraved state of most political institunever entirely supported by liis falary. tions; and of the only means of amelioHe thought ii lawful for a paitor toivork, rating and reforming them.

He reas well as to pray ; and his religion fomc- folved government into the most simple times consisted in doing those things principles, and thought that form the which many preachers think it profane best which leaves men in poffeffion of the to perforin.

means to govern themselves. He lived As a divine, he possessed great pe- to see the commencement of the French culiarities : he had studied all ivitems of revolution : he wished it success; but theology, but even at that time of life hc had a tender heart, and the thedding when his writings were moft circum- of blood made no part of his system, fcribed by doctrinal strictness, they are either as a divine or a politician. throughout marked with the liveliest Such was the late industrious and fallies of genius, and the most beautiful learned Mr. Robert Robinson : there are, sentiments on liberty and benevolencc. however, but the rude outlines of a chaIndeed, love of liberty, and a boundless raéter that deserves to be delineated by philanthr py, were the strong features a better pen than mine : his character of his chara&er ; and though he uniform- deserves the attention of the philosopher ly and rigorously opposed luch fydenis as and scholar; and, for this reason, as are at variance with those principles, he nothing of the kind has yet appeared in lived in friendship with many who, from the Monthly Magazine, the preceding miftakun notions of the nature of truth, attempt will not, I hope, prove unacand the best interests of society, fup. ceptable. ported them. His theological writings,

Your well-wisher, therefore, are a fund of cntertainment Sept. 2, 1796.

CANDIDUS. to many, who revolt at thein as a syfiem of inftrüfiinn : and whether a man le a

For the Monthly Magazine. churchmun or a ditenter, an orthodox or

SIMILES OF HOMER, VIRGIL, AND an hetciidox man, he may glean fome

MILTON (CONTINUED). thing from Robinson's literary producties, that cannot fail to render hima THE other atmospherical appearances

of wiler and a better inan. It is remarka. ble, thai, though he was a conscientious

SNOW, HAIL, MIST, AND DEW, ppofer of religious citablishments, fome may furnish the next division. of their most zealous advocates ranked

lluil and snow, though fo fimilar in a among his admirers: and, indaid, lo philosophical view, yet differ fufficiently amiable were bis manners, and fo fupe

in their appcarance and manner of derier his talents, that many dignitatiesscent, to luggest different images of of ihe church would have been happy to comparison. Both, indeed, fall to thick have been the means of his advancement.

as to afford an inage of number and freHis writings are

numcrous, and quency; but the descent of snow is genhis political works much, and very de- tle, and its consistence remarkably loft ; Tersediv, admired, He had thoroughly whereas bail is firm and hard, and falls examin d those questions that relate to rapidly. We shall see how far their apgovernment, and could well illuftrate plication in fimile has been conformable them by his extensive knowledge of hif.

to those diftinétions. tory and antiquity. It is not saying too

Homer thus describes a flight of mis

fie mucli, to affert, ihat his two admirable weapons : works, entitled tko Hjorg of Bartom, Like flakes of snow they fell, that stormy winds, and Ecclefiaflical Researches, poffefs as Diiving the dusky clouds, thick scatter down much elaborare inveftigation, and origi- Upon the foodful earth : thus from their hands pal information, as any hikorics in our

Fk W thow'rs of darts.

Il. xii. 156.

la

ar.

1796.] Similes of Homer, Virgil, and Milton.

713 In another passage, he dilates this

Exercere diem: sic obrutu undique telis, fimple comparison, after his manner, to a Æneas, nubem belli, du... de unat, omne minute picture of a fall of snow.

Sufitnet,

Æn, x. 802, As on a wintrr's day the frequent flakes

The Trojan chief
Fall thick; when Jove, his weapons to display, On his Vulcanian orb suitain'd the
Sends frow on mortals ; lulling every sale

As when thick hail comes rattling in the wind, He pours incessant, till each mountain's head, The ploughman, palen er, and lab’ringhind, High cliff, and grassy mead, and all the wealth

For Thelter to the nighb'ing co ert fly, Of human toil, lies hid bencath the walte ;

Or hous’d, or safe in hollow (averns lie: Nor less on hoary Ocean’s bays and shores

Bu, that o'erblown, when heav'n above them The fi fit dricends, but here the rolling wave

(miles, Beats back encroachment; all besides is whelm'd

Return to travel, and renew their toils : Deep by the snower of Jove: thus frequent

Eneas, thus o'erwhelm’d, on every side, flew

The form of darts, undaunted, did abide. The stones from cithar höft. IL, xii. 278.

DRÝDEN, Theintrinsic beauty and accuracy of this

In the former of these similes we have winter landscape is luch, that we should

not only the mulitude of darts, but their mot censure its digreisive nature and lax

clattering against the arınour, and the application, were it not bith deficient force of their fall, paralleled in the hailin se leading point of resemblance, and storm. The latter is extended in Homer's discordant in its general effects on the

manner; but the picture exhibited sufmind, with the scene in which it is in- ficiently harmonizes with the primary troduced. The only resemblance is this;

scene. Virg. I again just touches on the “ the stones fell as thick as snow :" but fame image, where he compares the the substance falling, and the effects pro

blows given by Entellus to Dares, in the dused by the fall, are as dissimilar as can boxi.g-match, to hail rattling on the yvell be cnceived. And in the whole

roofs. scenery of the fimile, there is an air of

Homer has one fimile, in which the stillpe's and tranquillity, whiich forms an

brightneli, as well as the thick-falling of absolute contrast to the noise and tumult

snow, seems to be intended as a part of of the real action.

the resemblance : With fuperior judgment Virgil has As when from heav’n the frequent snows de. made a buil-form the object of fimilitude fcend, to a light of darts and the rage of battle, Driv'n by the 'wet py tempest of the north ; in the two following passages :

So thick, the holms bright-gleaming, bossy

Thields, Sternitur omne folum telis ; tum 'cuta cavæque Breaf-plates of proof, and ashen spears, were Dant fonitum Actu gal:x; pugaspera furgit :

borne Quantus ab occafu veniens pluvialibus hædis From out the ships. Verberat imber humum ; quani multa grandine nimbi

There are tivo other fimiles in this In 'vada præcipitant, cum Jupiter horridus poet in which snow is introduced more Auttris

happily, perhaps, tan in any of his Torquet aquofan hyemem, & cælo cava nubila former ones. One is the celebrated comrumpit.

Æv. ix. 666. parison illustrative of the eloquence of Heaps of spent arrows fall, and strew th“ground; Ulysses whose words, he says, were And helms, and thields, and rattling arms reia

“ like wintry snoivs." Here both the found.

Softness and copiousness of fakes of snow The combat thickens, like the storm that flies suggest themselves to our imagination, From westward. when the huwery Kids arise : and render the application equally inOr patı’ring hail çomes posing on the main, genious and striking. The other inWhen Jupiter descends in harden'd rain ; stance is still more beautiful. He is deOr bellowing cloud; burst with a stormy found, scribing the lamentation of Penelope for And with an armed win er strew the ground.

Ulysses :
DRYDEN.

As snow, by Zephyr shed on mountain tops,
Furit Æneas, tectusque tenet se. Beneath the brath of Eurus melts away,
Ac velut, eitura li quando grandine nimbi

IL. xix. 357

these northern regions, and fo perpetually

To the Editor of the Montbly Magazine. recurring as an object of description or

SIR, fimilitude,in the supposed poems of Osian,

THE

HE ftatues, busts, and vases, cut is only once made the subject of a simile

by the hands of ancient Greek sculpin Homer. He is describing the filent tors, which once adorned the free cities march of the Greeks towards the enemy: of Athens, Corinth, and Argos, were

formerly transferred to Rome, and, along As on the mountain-top when Notus spreads A mist, the shepherd's bane ; but, mure than with the most celebrated master-pieces of night

the modern painters, have of låte been Friend to the thief; a stone's cast bounds the ordered to be removed to Paris. It is, fight :

no doubt, the intention of the directory, - So ro'e beneath their feet the dusty cloud, to indemnify France for the expences of As on they march’d.

IL. iii. 1o. of the

war, by collecting the chef

d'autres of the fine arts, in a central It cannot be doubted, that, in this pas

situation, fage, not only the obvious resemblance of

and levying contributions a cloud of duft to a mitt was intended,

on the curiosity and taste of all Eubut a farther correspondence between the rope: filence with which the Greeks advanced,

Buonaparte's zcal, on this occasion, has and the concealed approach of a robber.

not escaped the notice and arimadversion Nor is the apparent degradation of his of his contemporaries; but the full scope countrymen, by such a comparison, any bien fuily developed; it, indeed, in

of the original plan, has never, hitherto, objection to Horner was by no means nice in his cludes all that can either embellish' life,

or render existence agreeable, as it excomparisons, as many instances fußciently show.--The image of " a thief

tends not only to the elegant, but useful coming by night" is used on a much arts, and has even the sciences them

felves in its train. more folemn occasion, by another writer, as all may recollect.

The following letter, which never apMilton has a simile of uncommon

peared before in an English dress, will beauty derived from the saine natural the Sambre and Meuíc, procu: ed a con

Thow, that the victories of the army of cbject :

fiderable accelion to the national muAll in bright array feum, library, und botanic garden, of the The Cherubim defcended; on the ground republic, which its furyanis were pruGliding mrionous : as evening mist

dent enough to securc before the recent Rio'n froni a river o'er the marih glides,

reverie of fortune occurred. And gathers grounci fast at the lab’r.r's heel Homeward returning. PAR. L. xii. 629. with literature and policy, I doubt not

As the subject is intimately connected The airy form and smooth motion of but you will give this a speedy insertion these celestial beings are finely imaged in your very useful and instructing Mifby the comparison here suggested; and cellany ; and, in the mean time, I beg the Homeric prolongation of the fimile leave to subscribe myself, sir, your very is highly picturesque.

humble and obedient servant, The lame poet gives a short, but very

London, Oct. 1, 1796. poetical fimile taken from the dire, which Letter from FAUJAS and THOUIN, mem, will close our examples on this hcad :

bers of the Commission of Arts and Sciences, Innumerable as the star's of night,

with the Army of the Sarbre and Mouse, Or itars of morning, dew-drops, which the sun to the temporary Commision of Aris, at In pearls on every leaf and every tower.

Paris.
PAR. L. V. 745.

CITIZENS,
The subject of this comparison is the
host of fallen angels ; and the point of

AFTER tranfmitting our last package resemblance is not only their number, but from Liege, on the 28ih laft Vindemaire, their brancy. Yet it may, perhaps, be (Sept. --- October - 1795—1796) under thought that the resembliny Ob; cét is of the care of citizen Bonnet, we visited rco gay and pleasing a nature for a pa- and Aix-la-Chapelle, in succession, and

the cities and villages of Derviers, Spa, ralli ivith an internal troop, agitated by also the mines, manufactures, and prin the blackelt emotions.

J.A.

cipal farms in the neighbourhood of To be continued.]

those places. These visits have produced

VIATOR.

a convoy

DENIXG.

1796.] Letter of the French Commissioners of Arts, &c. 715 a convoy of more than twenty waggons. has offered to throw open his cabinet, for Here follow some details on this subject : the inspection of his fellow citizens; ard BOTANY, RUEAL Economy, GAR- in vellum, cotemposary with Charles

has presented the republic with a MS.

magne, besides an ancient Greek basIn the city of Cologne, we examined relief, in marble, of a Hercules. The seven botanic gardens, small, in point of representatives of the people, Hefcine extent, indeed, and poilelling but few and Jombert, deeming it worthy of the rare plants : we have, however, selected French republic to testify to the proa few. Some, which are indigenous to prictor the interest which it takes in the warm climates, and in full vegetation, iciences, and those that cultivate them, cannot at preicnt be removed, but we even in the conquered countries, have have put them in requifition, for a more presented one of the magnificent hotels of convenient opportunity.

the emigrants to citizen Hupch, and The list will be found in No. I. The awarded him a gratification besides, in bulbous-rooted plants (plantes à oignons) order to enable him to remove his colshall be fent immediately ; a lift is fub- lection to a place more worthy of it. As joined. See No. II.

he is a friend to the poor, inipects their The charming plains of Cologne, and complaints, and furnishes them daily the woods that crown the neighbouring with remedies, the adjoining garden will mountains, have furnished us with leve- enable him to cultivate the plants usually ral interesting remarks, relative to agri- reared for the hospitals. culture, the luccellion and valuc of crops, An able mechanic having made a vaand also the management of woods.--. riety of experiments before the reprcWhenever the instruments or utensils' fentative of the people, with an improvhave appeared superior to our own, cd microscope, fuperior even to Deliceither from the simplicity, facility, or bare's, and far more fimple, one was celerity of make or execution, we have instantly ordered for the republic; it cither fent drawings of, or the instru- will serve as a model to the opticians of ments themselves. Sec No. III.

Paris, who will be eager to introduce it In addition to the bortus ficcus, for in- as an object of cominerce ; and in the Atruction in the national schools, we have mean time it may be placed in the Naalso procured a considerable number of tional Museum of Natural H story. fpecimens of rare woods, curious incrul- By way of rendering our journey more tations, and singular impressions, made instructive, we have given directions for by vegetables, &c. Lift, No. VI. perspective views, and geometrical plans,

We have collected on the spot a of the principal places where the armies complete assortment of all the various of the republic have prformed prodigies kinds of umber (la terre d' mbre, ou torre of valour. See No. VI. - Cologne). It would not, indeed, be

BIBLIOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES. difficult to demonstrate, that the mine Rear Cologne owes its existence to an Our success, in refpect to these objects, enormous mass of wood, as it is to be has been extraordinary. Artillery, anmet with every where within a circle of cient monuments, medals, prints, dcfour leagues, has been dug into, to the signs, manuscripts, editions of the fifdepth of eighty feet, and is not inter- teenth century, rare and valuable books mixed with any heterogeneous substance on the arts, sciences, and history, have whatever. It is also not a little remark- all been procured in this city, in order to able, that this wood grows no where at enrich the collection of the republic. present except within the torrid zone. The culverin (la couleuvrine) cast in See No V.

1400, engravings by Montegna and AlNATURAL HISTORY.

bert Durer, and a great varicty of works,

printed about the micidle of the fifteenth We have visited several cabinets of century, present the lovers of these three natural history; among others, that of the arts with a view of them in their infant Barin de Hupch, which is much admired state. We have noticed some of the mott by travelers. The manners of this na- remarkablc MSS. in No.VII, and books turaliit are at once simple and agrecable ;' in No. VIII. The antiquitics confift of fix Lis whole fortune has been employed in packets of medals, containing a 1mall lefor ning a vast collection, not only of ries of the coulular families, in silver ;. I!tural history, but of every thing con- another of the imperial families, all in aceted with the arts and sciences. He the same metal, except two, which are MONTHLY MAG. No. IX.

#X

of

D. M.

HONESTE SIC MISSIONIS EX. B. F.

BENEFICIO COS.
LEGIONIS XXXXIV.ULPÆ VICTRICIS

TUTALINO HILARIONE LIBERTO

of gold; a sinall series of ditto, in large Id. spinis albis. bra's; a' ditto, in middle brass; and allo Agave Americana, var. foliis intus al. a few medals of the cities and kings, be- bis, limbis viridibus. fides ancient and modern medallions, &c. Euphorbia beptagona, d. In addition to these, you will find a charm- Id. cerei formis. ing ancient glass vase, and a lachrymatory; Mesembryanibemum Romanum. fome antique lamps, in baked earth; two Ricinus ruberrimus. small malaic works; three beautiful Spiræa chamedrifolia, Pullas. Greek maiks, two in bronze, and one in Laurus Campbora, L. Two fine plants opaque glass. (pále de verre); several proper for the southern departments, small Egyptian and Greck figures; a where they thay be naturalsed. variety of styles, fibulæ, &c. A large No. II.-Lift of Bulbous, Tuberous, and case contains a sarcophagus, with bas

other Flowers, &C. reliefs in front, of Apollo playing on his

26 Narcisuses, with a single flower ; lyre, Hercules supporting a tripod on his

a new variety. shoulder, &c. The following is the in

36 ditto white, odorous, and with the fcription :

flowers in bouquets or bunches.

15 bulbs of the ornithogalum ; large C. SEVERINI VITEALI VETERANO

flowers, in white pyramids, and said to be odorous.

12 ditto of the Iris xyphium latifolium

floribus variegasis. A fine variety. SEVERINA SEVERIN

600 clarus of different fine varieties of PATRI KARISSIMO ADSERENTE

the ranunculus. FACIUNDUM CURAVIT.

3 packets of foreign kidney beans,

(burriots) which rise from eight to ten The bas relief on the left, represents, feet above the surface, fructify abun. Hercules armed, with his club, with an dantly, and produce pods gen (French) apple in his hand ; at his feet is a mon- inches long, and fixteen broad ; may be ster (the dragon of the Hesperides) and eaten green in summer, or salted, lo as at his feet a girl bound to a rock. to keep during winter.

This is a variation of the fable of Per. Two packets of another kind, nearly seus and Andromeda, always explicable round, which grow in bunches of from on the principles of astronomical mytho- three to fix on the same sțem. logy:

Pamphlets, tracts on agriculture, caThe two extremities of the farcopha- talogucs of plants, flowers, kitchen gus are also adorned with bas reliefs. herbs, &c. That on the right, represents the com- No. III.- List of Instruments of Agricul. bat of Theseus and the Minotaur ; the monster has a bull's head, and a human

A spade, of a different form from our's. body, as in the picture discovered in the

A pitch-fork for digging potatoes. Herculaneum, and on a charming me. N.B. The handles of these are bent in dallion of Crete.

such a manner as to 'afford much facility Such, citizens, is the present state of

to labour. our labours.

FAUJAS. An instrument, with three blades, for
THOUIN.

cutting cabbage, of which four crout is No. 1.- List of plants placed in a state of made.

requisition by the commissaries of the aris A mechanical bed, for the sick, and sciences, in order to be transported to wounded, and infirm. Paris :

No. IV. In the HOT-HOUSE of BARON DE 41 different species of fruits and GEYER, at Cologne.

grains, mostly exotic. Euphorbia fpinis in apice- frugiferis. 2 In- 61 specimens of different woods. This divid.

collection will serve for public instruction. Euphorbia clava Herculis.

2 Ind.

A drawing of the natural size of the Mesembryantbemum caninum.

l'uica Alvefolia. Aloë minimu.

A ditto, of the Daphne Indica.
I: the HOT-HOUSE of the ELECTOR of

Curious incrustations, &c. &c:
COLOGNE, at Brühl,

No. V.
Cuftus morift, uosus, Ip. novus.

This is a catalogue of various pieces of Cattks mamilaris, spinis nigris. terre de Cologne, and of the wood which

is

turp, cc.