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artificial graffes, he writes of burnet in the ftrain that would better have fuited the tafte of the times about a dozen years ago than at prefent; of clover he fays little; and rye-grafs seems to be scarce known to him, or the authors he has confulted. Had he examined the writings of Marfhall, and fome others, he would have been enabled to speak in a different ftrain. Succury he recommends to the notice of the British farmer from the memoir by M. Cretè de Palluel in the Memoirs of Agriculture in Paris. After what has happened respecting the root of scarcity, and fome other plants brought from France, we ought to receive the articles of this nature they recommend, with fome degree of diffidence. With that precaution we recommend this article to the experimental notice of the British cultivator.

In the effay on the culture and management of grafs lands, without taking notice of what has been faid on that fubject by others, he enumerates, on the authority of Mr. Curtis, feveral graffes, natives of Britain, as highly deferving to be cultivated by the farmer. Of thefe, the firft in order is the fweet-fcented vernal grafs; a plant that was first recommended to our notice by Mr. Anderfon. Our experiments on it fince that time concur with thofe of Mr. Anderfon; and we must beg leave to differ from Mr. Curtis and Mr. Adam on this head, as thinking it altogether undeferving of culture, on account of the very scanty produce it affords. Our author is alfo mistaken in saying that this is the only English grafs which is odoriferous; the theep's fefcue, but more particularly the purple fefcue, are much more odoriferous than this plant, and emit a much ftronger fcent, when growing in a field, than the vernal fweet grafs; though this laft communicates indeed a ftronger odour when it is touched by the fingers. Of the fix graffes recommended by Mr. Curtis, viz. 1. The fweet-fcented vernal (anthoxanthum odoratum); 2. Meadow fox-tail (alopecurus pratenfes); 3. Smooth-ftalked meadow grafs (poa pretenfes); 4. Rough-ftalked meadow grafs (poa trivialis); 5. Meadow felcue grais (feftuca pratenfis); and, 6. Crefted dog's-tail grafs (cynofurus cristatus); we have tried to cultivate the whole, along with many others, and give it as our opinion that there is not perhaps one of them that can be properly confidered by the farmer as deferving his particular care. The firft, fecond, and fixth are not worth cultivating; the third and fourth, especially the former, would make, indeed, an excellent pafture grafs could the feeds of them be obtained or feparated eafily from each other. But difficulties here occur much greater than our author feems to be fenfible of. It is therefore in vain to talk of propagating them till a practicable mode of doing it fhall be pointed out. The fifth is alone deferving of being cultivated, or capable of being reared with cafe; and

even this grafs is inferior to fome other English graffes, which our limits prevent us from enumerating.

Mr. Adam mentions the American grafs, in a very proper manner, as an object the value of which requires to be afcertained by experiment. We are forry to learn that complaints of the unprolific nature of the feeds of this grafs fold by Mr. Frazer, are but too general; fo that we fear the value of it will not be fo foon afcertained as we expected.

As a fpecimen of our author's ftyle and manner of writing, we beg leave to fubjoin the following extract, taken from the beginning of the twelfth effay, which treats of farms and farmhoufes :

• Befides the cheerfulness and falubrity of the fituation, there are three other things which fhould be particularly attended to in the choice of an eftate or farm; thefe are, the air, the water, and the foil. This laft is generally and defervedly a matter of very deliberate confideration; but interefting as the two former certainly ought to be, yet they are, for the most part, far lefs the objects of attention than their importance demands.

• The air fhould be elaftic, pure, and temperate; the water plentiful, wholesome, eafily attainable; and the foil fhould be dry and

fertile.

The knowledge of the healthinefs of the air is, as Lord Bacon obferves, discoverable rather by experiment, than by reafon or conjecture.

To examine the moisture of the air, before a house be built, wool, or a sponge, may be hung up in the place, and afterwards compared with fome of the fame, expofed in the fame manner, and at the fame time, in another place. According as they gain more or lefs in weight, the air is more or lefs humid.

• The air is liable to greater alterations from heat and cold in fome places than in others; and as that inequality is reckoned an enemy to health, the molt equal fhould be preferred. This is eafily determined by the thermometer, and by examining the fituation of the place; for the intermixture of hills and valleys, however pleasing to the eye, is certainly no promoter of longevity, because of the variations of the weather.

Open places, and champaign countries, are thought to be healthy, where the foil is dry, not parched or fandy, where wild thyme and other aromatic plants grow fpontaneously, and which is not naked, but interfperfed with trees and fhrubs for fhade. Yet the change of air in travelling, after being accuftomed to it, is healthy; whence many travellers have proved long-lived; as, indeed, have alfo many who have dwelt conftantly in the fame cottage. A ruddy complexion, clear white of the eye, quick hearing, and diftinct voice, are fet down by Palladius as marks of the healthfulness of the place, where these predominate among the inhabitants.

The ancients were particularly attentive to the quality of the water, and the ease of coming at it. They advifed bringing into

the

the farm-houfe, the water of a spring that never dries up; or, if there be no fuch spring within the farm, to bring the nearest running water into it; or to dig for well-water, not of a bitter or brackish talle. If neither of these were to be found, they directed large cisterns to be provided for men, and ponds for collecting and retaining rain-water for cattle. They esteemed that water to be beft for drinking which had its fource in a hill; fpring or well-water from a rifing ground was deemed the next beft; well water in the bottom of a valley was reckoned fufpicious; and marshy or fenny water, which creeps flowly on, was by them rightly looked upon as the worst of all.

That water is most wholesome which has no mineral in it, is perfectly clear, depofits no flimy fediment, leaves no fpots or incruftation when boiled in veffels of copper or brafs, and which boils pulfe in little time, which has no fmell, and, to use Palladio's expression, the best tafted water is that which has no tafte.'

Sir Thomas Elliot, in his Caftle of Health, obferves that rainwater is the moft fubtile and pure of any; the next, that which issues out of a fpring facing the eaft, and paffes fwiftly among great ftones / and rocks; and the third is that of a clear river, which runs over hard ftones and pebbles.

There are various means, fays he, of trying which water is best; for inftance, that which is of lightest weight; and also that which produces leaft fcuin or froth when boiled; that which will be fooneft hot. Or dip linen cloths in different waters, and lay them to dry, and the water which dries fooneft is the best and most fubtile.

As fprings and well-water pafs through beds of fand, gravel, or fmall ftones, thefe clear it of all impurities, unlefs where it is mixed in fubftances foluble in water. If any mineral be mixed with the water, it is unfit for the farmer's ufe. If it be hard, it is unfit for wafhing and many culinary ufes. This water gives the meal boiled in it a read colour; but the hardest water may be rendered foft, and fit for any ufe, by mixing with it a fmall proportion of pot afh, or other fixed alkaline falt, or for want of these, the ashes of burnt vegetables.

Animal and vegetable fubftances, mixed with ftagnating water, putrify and taint that water. This taint is most effectually carried off by boiling, during which the putrid particles evaporate; and whatever elfe remains in it will fubfide when cold. It may also be mended by having air forced through it by Dr. Hales's ventilators; or it may be corrected by mixing it with acids, fuch as vinegar, juice of four fruits, a little oil of vitriol, or by throwing over the furnace fome powdered allum, the vitriolic acid of which will correct the putrid volatile alkali therein, and its fine clay will carry down the other impurities.

When there is neither running water nor fpring water, artificial fprings may be made in the manner pointed out by Lord Bacon, who does not, indeed, fay he had tried them himself; but they have been repeatedly tried fince his t'me, and found to anfwer.'

Mr.

Mr. Adam proceeds to explain Lord Bacon's method of making artificial fprings; but our room prevents us from following him. Various other particulars refpecting the refining of water, modes of difcovering fprings, digging for wells, &c. &c. are enumerated at great length; but for thefe and other particulars we must refer to the work itself. This is one of those kind of philosophical difquifitions in which our author takes delight. The reader, however, will obferve from the above specimen that he is more defirous of collecting all that has been faid on the fubject by ancients and moderns than studious of confiftency. For example: he fays exprefsly, in one place, that if any mineral be mixed with the water it is unfit for the farmer's ufe,' and a few lines further he again fays, but the hardest water may be rendered perfectly foft, and fit for any ufe, by mixing with it a small proportion of potash, or other fixed • alkaline falt.' But water thus mixed has evidently a mineral impregnation. Many other inconfiftencies might be remarked, and inaccuracies pointed out, in thefe obfervations; but the invidious task we decline.

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On the whole, though thefe effays contain little new matter, they are, for the moft part, harmlefs, and may be fafely put into the hands of any perfon, except the young and inconfiderate tyro in rural economicks; for it is fuch perfons chiefly who would be apt to be mifled by the faulty parts of the performance.

ART. V. Mammuth; or, Human Nature difplayed on a grand Scale. In a Tour with the Tinkers into the inland Parts of Africa. By the Man in the Moon. 12mo. 2 vols. 6s. fewed. Murray. London, 1789.

MANKIND, it has been often and justly observed, are

very much governed by prejudices; and different nations frequently view the fame objects in different, and fometimes even oppofite lights. The men of the different ages and regions of the world, brought together by the fancy of ingenious fabulifts and poets, wonder at one another's ways of thinking, and furnish in their dialogues of the dead, one of the moft lively and agreeable species of entertainment that is to be found in the whole compafs of letters.

The author of the compofition before us, in the manner of Lucian, prefented, in a former little work, a concourfe of illuftrious fpirits who had figured at different times, and in different countries on earth; but with this difference, that whereas the Grecian romancer laid the fcenes of his converfations, agreeably to the mythology of Greece, in the fhades below,

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The MAN IN THE MOON carries the fouls of departed mortals to his own planet, where he introduces to their company, in the character of another MERCURY, the genius or representative of human nature, in the perfon of Charles Fox. The MAN IN THE MOON, encouraged probably by the reception which his former fancies met with among thofe who unite a turn for fpeculation with a love of laughter, has attempted a second flight, in which, though not a little bold and extravagant, he confines himfelf to earth, and the ways of men who have not yet put off the incumbrance of mortality. His declared object is to view human nature on a grand scale; and this he endeavours to do by bringing into clofe and lively comparison men and races of men, who, in local circumftances, in modes of life, and ways of thinking, differ from one another in a degree which, however furprifing at firft fight, he fhews to be not altogether unnatural. The conclufion to be drawn from all this is, that we ought to diftruft firft appearances, to be modeft, humane, and indulgent in our treatment of all nations, and very doubtful of our own perfections and attainments in knowledge. The difcoveries and the reflections,' he fays*, to < which his travels led, are, on the whole, united by this general ‹ maxim, that all objects ftrike the eye of the fpectator differently according to the medium through which they are feen, and the point from which they are furveyed: that confequently the true proportions and relations of things are to be difcerned only by viewing them in all poffible lights; and that the real nature of all fentiment and paflion is beft understood when magnified to extravagance by the microscope of enthufiafin. It was only by taking a furvey of all imaginable hypothefes that philofophy at laft difcovered the true fystem of the world; in contemplating which, the aftronomer quits his ftationary fituation upon our globe, tranfports himself to the centre, and obferves the heavenly bodies from a point that is to be reached only by the imagination. In like manner, it is only by leaving our native fhores, and by travelling night and day, by books, by fea and by land, that we can attain to any tolerable knowledge of human nature; which is most thoroughly difplayed when it is feen in various fituations, and when the peculiarities of every tribe and nation of men being fet afide, we view human kind from the centre of that which remains common to all.- -There is not in the universe a being endowed with the faculty of thought, nay even with that of fenfe, that does not regard itself as the common centre

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* Vol. II. p. 305.

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