Huc veniet Meffala meus, cui dulcia poma
Delia felectis detrahet arboribus:

Et tantum venerata virum, bunc fedula curet,
Huic paret, atque epulas ipfa miniftra gerat.
Stanhope fhall come and grace his humble friend,
Delia fhall wonder at her noble guest,

With blushing awe the riper fruit commend,

And for her husband's patron cull the best.

HAMMOND'S Elegies.

Nothing can equal the refpect which Tibullus had for
Mellala. He reprefents him as the greateft man of his time:
Te, Meffala, canam, quanquam me cognita virtus
Terret, ut infirma nequeant fubfiftere vires.

The fong be thine, tho' fear pursues the fong,
My feebler voice may do thy virtues wrong.

Horace in one of his odes, tells us that Meffala came to dine with him, and that excellent wine, and philofophical converfation made their entertainment extremely agreeable. Defcende, Corvino jubente, Promere languidiora vina;

Non ille, quanquam Socraticis madet
Sermonibus, te negliget horridus.
To-day Meffala deigns to dine;

O yield, my cafk, thy melloweft wine!
Tho' fage in mind, of manners free,
He joins philofophy with thee.

There is a humorous double meaning in the word madet, which, however, we cannot preferve in the translation.

It is to the Socratical converfations which were supported at thofe agreeable entertainments, that Horace alludes in the fatire wherein he mentions the fubjects of the difcourfe which paffed at his table.

Ergo

Sermo oritur, non de villis, domibufve alienis,

Nec male, necne Lepos faltet; fed quod magis ad nos
Pertinet, et nefcire malum eft, agitamus, utrumņe
Divitiis homines, an fint virtute beati,

Quidve ad amicitias, ufus necumve trabat nos,
Et quæ fit natura boni, fummumque quid ejus,
No trivial topics close the focial meal,
No Prætor's villa, and no dancer's heel.
To nobler objects our attentions go,
To know, what folly only fails to know,
The art to live-that laft and greatest art,
And all the home felt bufinefs of the heart.
If wealth or virtue happier days produce;
If friendship fprings of moral right or ufe;
Of good the nature and the truth explore,
The firft perfection feek, and, found, adore.

If the poem called Ciris was really written by Virgil, which Seneca, and many able critics (amongst the reft Jofeph Scaliger) have fuppofed, but which we verily believe was not, Virgil too must have been among Meffala's friends, for the poem is ad

dreffed to him.

• Meffala directed the ftudies of young Ovid; fo the poet himfelf tells us in an epiftle addreffed to Meffalinus the fon of that great man:

Nec tuus eft genitor nos inficiatus Amicos,

Hortator fludii, caufaque, faxque mei.

It is the fame Meflalinus whom Ovid elsewhere calls

Pieridum lumen præfidiumque fari.

Pliny fpeaks of him as an epicure, who had invented ragous, and died a fingular death. He applied lough-leaches. And, inftead of dropping off when they had fucked their fill, their heads ftuck in the wound. This brought on an infammation, whereof he died. "

It must be mortifying to that idea of immortality, with which Authors flatter themselves, to confider that the works of fuch a man as Meffala, which were admired in his time, are now totally loft.

་

He employed his pen on hiftory. We learn from Plutarch, in the life of Brutus, that he had written a narrative of the battle of Philippi, and of the laft moments of Caffius and Brutus. Pliny cites thofe books which Meffala had written De Familiis. In Quintilian we find that he had written a Differtation on the Alphabet, and he gives us an extract of what he had faid on the letter S.

But what he was principally famous for was his eloquence. We have already mentioned fome of those encomiums he had acquired; but the fuffrages of three men, whofe decifion was a law, must be added.

We shall firft introduce that of Cicero, who must be allowed to have been the ableft judge in this matter. In a letter to Brutus he thus fpeaks of Meffala, and certainly no finer elogium could poffibly be paffed upon him:

Cave enim exiflimes, Brute, (quamvis non neceffe eft ea me ad te que tibi nota funt, fcribere) fed tamen tantam omnium laudum excellentiam non queo præterire. Cave putes, probitate, conftantia, cura, fudio reipublicæ quidquam illi effe fimile. Ut, eloquentia, qua mirabiliter excellit, vix in eo locum ad laudandum habere videatur; quanquam in hac ipfa fapientia plus apparet: ita gravi judicio, multaque arte fe exercuit in veriffimo genere dicendi.

The elder Seneca fpeaks of him as one of the chastest writers of the age:

Fuit autem Meffala exactiffimi ingenii in omnes quidem ftudiorum partes; latini utique fermonis obfervator diligentiffimus,

• Seneca,

Seneca, the philofopher, calls him virum differtiffimum.
The laft years of Meffala exhibit a melancholy inftance of
that mifery which is annexed to the condition of humanity.
This celebrated man, who was univerfally efteemed one of the
greateft geniufes of his time, had the misfortune to lofe his
understanding and memory, two years before he died; and he,
who was once the moft eloquent man in Rome, could not put
two words together. This account we have in the chronicle of
Eufebius. Pliny adds, that he had even forgot his name. An
ulcer came upon him at laft, which made him take the resolu-
tion to end his days by refusing to eat. He died in the seventy
fecond year of his age.

This little memoir must be very acceptable to men of tafie
and genius, who enjoy the labours, and love the characters, of
the claffical ages.

The memoirs of literature contained in thefe volumes fhall
be attended to in our next Appendix.

WE

To our READERS.

E take a pleafure in announcing to our philofophical
Readers the completion of a curious work in 2 vols. 4to.
On the Barometer and Thermometer, and on the Nature and Pro-
perties of the Air in general, written by M. J. A. De Luc, a
citizen of Geneva; which has been at the prefs these eight
years paft, and is now entirely printed off. Some account of
the Author's defign was given by M. de la Lande in the Can-
noiffance des Mouvemens celefles for the year 1765; and ftill more
lately, in the Journal des Sçavans for the month of February 1771.
It has been thus long detained in the printer's hands, from a
very laudable defire in the Author, to give his work all poffible
perfection; and particularly thofe advantages which it might
derive from new experiments, and the reflections fuggefted by
them; as well as from the hints and obfervations of his philo
fophical friends, to whom he had communicated the difcoveries
he had made during the profecution of this undertaking.

In a profpectus publifhed by the Author, and from which we
derive the foregoing intelligence, the great outlines are given
of the improvements which he has made in the construction of
the barometer and thermometer, particularly in correcting the
defects of thefe inftruments; to which is added a general view
of the refult of his enquiries concerning the various modifica-
tions of the atmosphere. We fhall poftpone however, any fur-
ther obfervations on the fubject, till we have seen the work
itself; with regard to which it is neceflary to obferve, that it
is only to be had by fubfcription; no more than 600 copies
being caft off, not one of which is to be delivered till nearly
the intire number has been fubfcribed for.

To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this

VOLUME.

N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, fee the
Table of Contents, prefixed to the Volume..

1

For the remarkable Paffages in the Foreign Articles, fee the
Second Alphabet of this Index, in the latter Part of the Sheet.

A.

BSTEMIOUSNESS, wonderful

A inftance of, in the regimen

obferved by a miller at Billeri-
cay, 262.
ACTEMAD UL DowLA, his excel-
lent character, 453.
AGRICULTURE, in what refpects
to be made highly advantageous
to-commerce, 8;. How far
likely to be benefited by inland
* canals,.87. Harmonization of,
with manufactures, commerce,
&c. 188.

-AIR, FIXED, Curious experiments
relating to its combination with
water, 229. Medical applica-
tions of, 230.
AKENSIDE, Dr. his Pleasures of
Imagination character fed, 429.
Specimens of his improvements
and additions to that poem, 434.
Some account of the author's
life, 436.
ALLA, SEIF, his remarkable story,

and ill fate, 455.
ALLEGORY, critical obf, on, 219.
ALEXANDER, Dr. his account of
the recovery of a perfon feem-
ingly killed by a blow on the
breaft, 186.

AMERICA, advancement of fcien-
tific and useful knowledge in,
333. Society established for the
promotion of, 334 Rules and

orders of, ib. Philofophical
transactions published by, 355.
ANGELS, fallen, notion of, not a
**** fcriptural doctrine, 191.
-ANIMALS, mercy and tenderness
towards them recommended from
the pulpit, 491.

ANTILL, Mr. his remarks on the
culture of the vine in America,
343. His fober advice to his
children, ib.
.ARCHITECTURE, of the Romans,
grandeur and decline of, 372.
AURUNGZEBE, the Indian Empe-
ror, his cruelty to his brother
457.

B.

AKER, Dr. his cafes of extra.

BAKER

cures of the dropfy, 261.
His account of the wonderful
temperance of Thomas Wood,
262. His obf. on inoculation,
264. His farther obf. on the
poifon of lead, 265.
BARRINGTON, Lord, his Mifcel-
lanea Sacra republished, 441.
Additions te, 442. Character
of the author, 445.
BARTRAM; Mofes, his obf. on
the filk-worms of America, 344 •,
- Ifaac, his account

the diftillation of perfimons, ib.
BATHS, magnificent ones of the
Romans described, 3(6.

BEHMEN,