THE

AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

HE sudden variation of the weather from dry to wet, and the long continuance of the latter, has produced several changes, particularly on the low grounds, which must continue exceedingly prejudicial for some time. On the other hand, the discontinuance of the dry weather has been particularly favourable for sowing on the clover layers and fallows.

The lands intended for spring crops have been laid up in the most husband-like manner. Turnips which had suffered from former drought, have been much improved by the late showers. Many of the wheats lately sown have been brought up by the late rains. All kinds of grain rise well from the flail and the machine. Hops and horses have been upon the advance; and lean stock continues dear. Peas also continue to look up.

Price of meat in Smithfield Market:-Beef, 4s. Od. to 5s. Od ;-Mutton, 4s. 9d. to 5s. 9d.;-Veal, 5s. 8d. to 6s. 8d.;-Pork, 6s. Od. to 7s. 6d.

Middlesex, Nov. 25.

AVERAGE PRICES OF CORN,

By the WinchesterQuarter of 8 Bushels, and of OATMEAL per Boll of 140lbs. Averdupois, from the Returns received in the Week ended Nov. 17, 1810.

INLAND COUNTIES.

Wheat Rye Barley | Oats
3. d. s. d. s. d S.

Middsx. 99 Surrey 105 Hertford 90 Bedford 91 Huntin. 88

4 53
249

MARITIME COUNTIES.

0 34 2 Kent

Wheat Rye | Barley Oats.
S. d. s. ds. d.

3. d

96 49

0 44 082 6

5 40 10

42 0 32 10 Essex

8 50 0 47

0 45 0 31

6 43 6 30

0Sus ex
6Suffolk

32 0

231 11

4

43 5 26

4 Cambridge

86 7

0 43

1 23 0 Norfolk

88

2 42

Rutland 89

Ex

Leicest

Notting 93

Salop

Derby 90 8

Stafford 103 109

45 S43

0 29 2 Durham

1Cumberland

9 25 6 Lincoln

88

9142 10 41

823 1

1 York

224 9

026 2

0 Northumberland 77

5 60 0 38

327 8

Herefor 114

Wor'st. 120

Warwic111

27224346695

365

4 Westmorland

329 1

44

9 29 5

7 64

44 6 32

Oxford 109

Bucks 98 6

41

Brecon 121

8

57

Montgo. 112

Radnor. 122 S

Wilts 108 4

0 48 6 31 11 Lancaster

47 8 $6 4 Chester

49 4 34

4.30 8

....

4 Flint

103 2

Denbigh 9Anglesea

4 Carnarvon

5 31 10 Merioneth

8 28 10 Cardigan 43 9 28 6 Pembroke 50 1 30

4 Carmarthen.

...

101 0

93 0

052

627 10

0 14 8

.... 85 11

97 6

Glamorgan

120 10

Gloucester

122 У

46 10

Somerset..

46s. 1d.;

Hants

Average of England and Wales.

Wheat 100s.9d.; Rye 52s.1d.; Barley Devon. Oats 28s. 6d.; Beans Cornwall. 52. 11d.; Pease 54s. Od.; Oatmeal Dorset... bls. 1d.

BILL of MORTALITY, from OCT. 24, to NOV. 20, 1810.

Monmouth

122 9

96 5

112 10

45

THE

UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.

N° LXXXV.-VOL. XIV.] For DECEMBER, 1810.

[NEW SERIES. "We shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if we can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth."-DR. JOHNSON.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

SCHINES' DIALOGUE on VIRTUE; Whether it can be taught? Translated by Dr. TOULMIN.

[Continued from 267.]

Socrates and a Friend.

SOCRATES. Is virtue to be taught, or is it not to be attained by instruction? Do men become good by nature; or by any other means?

Fr. I can not answer this question, Socrates, at present.

Soc. Come, let us consider the matter. If any one wishes to excel in any quality; for instance, in what makes good cooks: what must he do?

Fr. He must, certainly, receive instructions from those who are nice cooks.

Soc. Or if he would become a skilful physician; to whom must he apply to learn the healing art?

Fr. Undoubtedly, to one of the best physicians.

Soc. Or if he be desirous of emninence in those talents, which constitute an architect of judgment and

taste?

Fr. In that case he must place himself under an architect.

Soc. But if he prefer surpassing in the dispositions, which constitute a wise and good man: to whom must be go to acquire them?

Fr. I suppose, that these dispositions, if they can be learnt, are to be

Soc. Can you name the master whom each of these men had?

Fr. No for their names have not been transmitted to us.

Soc. Can you then mention any disciple of either of them, whether foreigner or fellow citizen, freeman, or slave, who became wise and good by his intimacy and conversation with them?

Fr. No such a one is spoken of.

Soc. Did jealousy, then, restrain them from imparting some portion of their virtue to other men?

Fr. Perhaps so.

Soc. Do cooks, physicians, and architects act on this principle; lest they should be opposed by rivals in their respective arts? For, it would be against their interest to have many rival artists, or to live among many in the like occupation. But is it against the interest of good men to dwell among those who are like to them? Fr. It may be.

Soc. Are not good men also just ?
Fr. Yes.

Soc. Is it, then, for the advantage of any one to reside, not among the good, but the bad?

Fr. I can not say.

Soc. What! Can you not say, whether it is the province of the good to hurt, and of the wicked to benefit, others; or the contrary.

Fr. Oh, the contrary is the fact. Soc. The good, then, are profitable learnt from the wise and good: for to others, and the wicked injurious. how are they to be otherwise at

tained?

Soc. Let us think what good men we have had in Athens; that we may judge whether they form men to goodness.

Fr. There are Thycidides, Themistocles, Aristides, and Pericles.

UNIVERSAL MAG, VOL. XIV.

Fr. Yes.

Soc. Is there any man who would rather be injured than have good services done him?

Fr. No one.

Soc. No one, then, would prefer a residence among the wicked to living among the good? ̧

3 K

Fr. No, certainly. Soc. No good man, then, can be so jealous of another, as to be averse from his becoming good and like to himself.

Fr. It seems so from your reasoning.

Soc. Have you heard, that Themistocles had a son, who was called Cleophantus?

Fr. I have heard so.

Soc Themistocles, certainly, was not jealous of his son, on account of his excelling in goodness; nor, being himself a virtuous man, as we have said, would be envy any other man's

virtue.

Fr. Granted.

Soc. You know, also, that Pericles gave an education to Paralus and Xanthippus, for the one or the other of whom you appeared to me to have a great affection. These, you are aware, were instructed in horsemanship and music, and the agonistic exercises, in a manner not inferior to that in which any other Athenian was taught these arts. Did not he, then, wish to make them superior men?

Fr And they would, perhaps, have been so, if they had not died young.

Soc. You are, very properly, an advocate for your favourite youths. But if virtue could be taught, and Pericles had it in his power to make his sons good men, he would rather Soc. You know, that Themistocles have formed them to be skilful in that taught his son to be a skilful and good kind of virtue, in which he himself horseman: for, when he mounted a excelled, than in music and the agoborse, he stood erect on it; and in nistic exercises. But it can not be this upright posture threw darts, and taught. For Thucydides brought up did many other wonderful feats. He two sons, Milesias and Stephanas, for had him instructed also in other arts, whom you can not allege the plea and formed to skill in every thing which his masters taught him. Have you not heard this from old persons? Fr. I have.

you have made for the sons of Pericles. One of them you knew, when he had reached to an advanced age, the other much longer. Their father had them as well instructed as any Athenians were, especially in wrestling: for he placed one under Xanthias, and the other under Eudorus. They appear to have been excellent wrestlers.

Fr. They were.

Soc. Truly; therefore, in which points he must be at a great expence in the education of his sons, he had them taught; but where the expence was not necessary to make them superior men, if the attainment could be taught, he had them not instructed in it.

Fr. That is not probable

Soc. But, perhaps, Thucydides was a poor man, and bad but few friends or relations at Athens; but he was a man of rank, and a person of great influence among the other Greeks: so that it was easy for him to find, among his fellow citizens or foreigners, some ready to instruct his sons, and train them up to excellence in what could be taught, if, on account of his direction of the republic, he was not himself at leisure to do it. But virtue, my friend, can not be taught.

Fr. It may be so.

Soc. But, if virtue can not be attained by instruction, are men good by nature? Let us investigate this point, we shall, probably, come to some conclusion on it. To begin, are there not horses which are naturally good and excellent.

Fr. There are.

Soc. Are there not some men who have the art of discriminating the natural qualities of horses, as to formation, pace, and spirit; whether they be full of fire, or dull and heavy?

Fr. There are such men.

ness in men, so as to enable you to
decide upon them?
Fr. I can not.

Soc. But they who possessed such an art, would deserve to be held in high account, inasmuch as they would be able to pronounce, even from their childhood, what youths would become good men whom, selected from others, we might keep in the public citidal; as we would lay up silver, and even more carefully, that they might not be exposed to be corrupted in war, or by any perilous circum

Soc. What name do you give to Stances; but be preserved to become,

this art?

Soc What is it called?
Fr. The art of training dogs.

Sac. Are there not those who try gold and silver, to ascertain the purity of metal, or the alioy in them?

Fr. There are such.

Soc What name do you give them? Fr. That of the assayers of gold and silver.

Soc. The instructors of youth, also, observing the diversity of the human body, in the constitutions, of different men, of young and old, and their fitness or unfituess for respective exertions, can judge what actions will be performed by them worthy to be recorded; and what hope can be entertained, that their athletical exercises will be executed with ability and per

fection.

when they attained to full age, the saviours and benefactors of the state. The danger is, that men become virtuous neither by nature or education,

Tr. If men appear to you, Socrates, to be formed to goodness neither by nature or by discipline: by what other means are they to be trained to it?

Soc. I do not think that this can be easily shewn. I conjecture, indeed, that virtue is a possession derived from the divinity: and that men become good as they attain the character of prophets and oracles. For these become such, not by nature or art, but by the inspiration of the gods. Thus there have been good men who have, under a divine aflatus, predicted future events, and the fates of particular cities, with more clearness and certainty than the soothsayers. For women sometimes exclaim, "Such a man is divine." The Lacedæmonians, when they would bestow a high encomium on a person, say that man is divine." Homer and other poets often use this language. When God also is disposed to bless a state, he raiseth up good men; but when a state is to suffer adversity, he removes them from it. So it seems to me, that virtue, which is neither from nature, nor can be taught, is attained and possessed by a divine destiny.

Remarks on the preceding Dialogue,

selected from LE CLERC's Notes.

Although the word virtue is,.generally, used by philosophers to denote moral habits, yet, in this conversation, it must be taken in a more extensive sense, as comprehending the arts of