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at length. In justice to the labours of
antiquity, we must not forget to acknow.
ledge the great affiftance derived from Ar-
chimedes and fexagefimal fractions, by our
contemporary Napier and Brigges, for to
the Adyar apibus, and Ara divifions of
the former, we owe the logarithms, difms,
centefms, and millefms of the latter.
—Moreover, (in imitation of the Greeks,
&c.), we ftill apply the fexagefms of in-
tegers, to angles, motion, time, and alfo
to the different portions of a circle.-
This fubject, Mr. Editor, is in no
wife novel; and as I have pointed out,
that the ancients used their literal no-
tation fuccessfully in abftrufe mathe-
matical pursuits, perhaps your corre-
fpondent Z, will be content to fearch for
examples and illuftrations in the au-
thors referred to above; or in Dr. Wal-
lis's edition of the "Arenarius” alfo in the
fecond book of "Pappus's collection" or
in " Dr. Wallis's hiftorical Treatife of Al-
gebra."-Whilft we are thus comparing
the analogy of ancient and modern learn-
ing, permit me to ask, through the medium
of your useful mifcellany, how far the
much talked of Platina, is a new difco-
very? For Cic. Tuf. iv. 14. giving an
account of the skill of the artificers of
Corinth, particularly notices their mak-
ing a metal (by mixing copper with a
fmall quantity of gold and filver) remark-
ably brilliant, and almost proof against
ruft, called ÆS Corinthium.
Hull Academy.

W. ASHTON.

For the Monthly Magazine.

from the mythology of different nations. This arrangement, he apprehends, will lefs encumber the poems, and be more useful and agreeable to thofe perfons for whofe fervice this volume is intended. Such perfons, however, as are not pleased with this arrangement may have their fubfcription-money returned, if they will have the goodness to apply to the bookfeller where any fubfcription has been paid, or to the author himself, if the money was paid to him. Such other perfons as choose to favour this work with their encouragement, are informed, that names are ftill received by the booksellers announced in his advertisement.

Clifford's Inn, May 20, 1799.

For the Monthly Magazine. OBSERVATIONS ON THE LAOCOON, By M. Goethe, author of the Sorrows of Werter. [With a plate.]

TRUE work of art will always

A have fomething of infinity in it to

our minds, as well as a work of nature; we contemplate it, we perceive and relish its beauties, it makes an impression, but it cannot be thoroughly understood, nor its effence nor its merit be clearly defined by words. In the observations we are

about to make on the Laocoon, we do not

pretend to exhauft this fertile fubject; what we have to say is rather on occafion of this excellent monument than upon it. May it foon be again exposed to the public eye, fo that every amateur may have an opportunity of fatisfying himself concerning it, and of fpeaking of it accord

G.DYER prefents refpects to the fub- ing to his own ideas!

fcribers to his poems, and informs them, with great concern, that the publication is delayed till the winter feafon. All the reafons of this delay could not with propriety be announced here, but fhall be fully detailed in the preface to his poems. For the prefent, he must content himself with faying, that by unforeseen engagements, and by extending his plan beyond his original intention, he cannot get out the first volume, till the greater part of his fubfcribers will have left town for the fummer; a time very inaufpicious to publications of this nature. After mature deliberation, therefore, he thinks it most adviseable to print his two volumes at the fame time; and his criticisms, extended as they are to an unexpected length, will form a distinct volume, comprehending free remarks on every fpecies of poetry, and illuftrations German Journal, entitled the Propylaa.

When we would treat of an excellent work of art, we are almoft obliged as it were to speak of art in general, for the whole art is contained in it, and every one may, as far as his abilities allow, by means of fuch a monument, develope whatever relates to art in general. For this reason we will begin here with some generalities.

All the beautiful monuments of art, reprefent human nature; the arts of defign have a particular relation to the body of man; it is only of these last that we are now fpeaking. Art has many degrees or steps, on each of which may appear artists of distinction; but a perfect work of art unites all the qualities, which we only meet elsewhere dispersed.

*Thefe obfervations are taken from the

The

The most beautiful monuments of art which we are acquainted with, present to

us :

Nature to the life, and of an elevated organization.

Above all things we expect to find in it a knowledge of the human body in all its parts, dimenfions, interior and exterior, in its forms and its movements in general.

Characters. A knowledge of the difference of these parts, as to form and effect. Qualities are feparated and prefent themselves ifolated, from thence arife characters, and it is by this means that we can trace a fignificative reciprocal relation between the different monuments of art; jutt as the parts of a compound work, may have a fignificant relation between themielves. The object is:

In repofe or in motion. A work and its parts may be prefented either fubfifting of themselves, and only indicating their exiftence in a tranquil manner, or as very animated, acting, impaffioned, and full of expreffion.

The Ideal. To attain this, a profound, folid fenfe, endowed with patience, is required in the artift; to which fhould be joined an elevated fenfe to be able to embrace the fubject in its whole extent, to And the highest degree of action which it means to reprefent, and confequently to make it exceed the bounds of its limited reality, and give it in an ideal world, measure, limits, reality, and dignity.

Grace. But the fubject and manner of reprefenting it, are fubmitted to the fenAble laws of art, that is to fay, to order, perfpicuity, fymmetry, oppofition, &c. which renders it to the eye, beautiful, that is to lay, graceful, agreeable.

Beauty. It is moreover fubmitted to the law of intellectual beauty, which refults from the meature, to which man formed to figure and produce the beautiful, knows how to fubmit every thing,

even extremes.

After having firft indicated the conditions which we require in a work of elevated art, I may fay much in a few words, when I maintain that our groupe contains them almost all, and that we can even develop them, by the obfervation of this groupe alone.

It will not be expected of me to prove that the artift has fhewn a profound knowledge of the human body, that which characterizes it, together with the expreffion and the paffion. It will appear, from what I fhall fay in the fequel, how the fubject is conceived in an ideal and

elevated manner; no one will doubt that we ought to give the epithet of beautiful to this monument, that can conceive how the artist has been able to represent the extreme of phyfical and intellectual fufferings. But fome may think it perhaps paradoxieal, that I dare advance, that this groupe is at the fame time full of grace. I fhall fay a few words on this head.

Every work of art must announce itself as fuch; which can only be done by what we call fenfual beauty or grace. The antients, far enough in this refpect from the modern opinion, that a monument of art fhould become again to appearance, a monument of nature, would characterize their works of art as such, by a felect order of the parts: they affifted the eye to investigate the relations by fymmetry, and thus an embarraffed work became easy to comprehend. From fymmetry and oppositions refulted the poffibility of ftriking out the greatest contrafts by differences hardly fenfible. The care of the antient artists to oppofe varied maffes to each other, to give efpecially a regular and reciprocal pofition to the extremities of bodies in groupes, is very happy and very well imagined, in order that each work of art may appear to the eye like an ornament, and abstraction made from the fubje& which it reprefents, and by feeing the most general contours only at a distance. The antique vafes furnish ́us with a number of examples of fimilar groupes, very graceful; and it would be poffible to propole a feries of the most beautiful examples of a compofition fymmetrical and agreeable, beginning with the groupe of the moft tranquil vafe to the extremely animated groupe of Laccoon. I think, therefore, I must repeat that the groupe of Laocoon, befides its other acknowledged merits, is moreover a model of fymmetry and of variety, of repose and of motion, of oppofition and of gradation, which prefent themfelves together, to him who contemplates it in a fenfible or intellectual manner; that thefe qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic diffused over the reprefentation, excite an agreeable fenfation, and moderate the violence of the paffions, and of the fufferings, by grace and beauty.

It is a great advantage in a work of art, to fubfift by itself, to be abfolutely terminated. A tranquil object only fhews itfelf by its exiftence, it is terminated by and in itself. A Jupiter with a thunderbolt placed on his knees, a Juno who repofes with majefty, a Minerva abforpt in reflection, are fubjects which have not, fo to speak, any relation to what is out of

them;

them; they repofe upon and in themfelves, and they are the firft and deareft objects of fculpture. But in the beautiful mythic circle of art, in which thefe ifolated and felf-fubfifting natures are placed and in repofe, there are fmaller circles, where the different figures are conceived and executed in relation with others: each of the Muses, for example, with their conductor Apollo, is conceived and executed feparately, but it becomes yet much more interesting in the complete and varied choir of the nine fifters. When art paffes to the impaffioned fignificative, it may moreover act in the fame manner; or it prefents to us a circle of figures which paffion puts into a mutual relation, as Niobe with her children, perfécuted by Apollo and Diana; or it fhews us the fame work, the movement at the fame time with its caufe. We need only mention here the young man full of grace, who is drawing a thorn from his foot, the wrestlers, two groups of fawns and nymphs at Drefden, and the animated group of Laocoon.

It is with reason that fo great ftrefs is laid on fculpture, because it ftrips man of every thing which is not effential to him. It is thus, that in this admirable groupe, Laocoon is only a fimple name; the artift have taken froin him his priesthood, all that is national and Trojan in him, all the poetical and mythological acceffories; all in fact that mythology has made of him is done away; he is only now a father with his two fons, menaced with death by the bite of two ferpents. Neither are these animals fent by the gods, but only natural ferpents, potent enough to be the deftruction of many men; neither their form nor their action fhew that they are extraordinary creatures fent by the gods, to exercife the divine vengeance. Conformably to their nature, they ap proach by fliding on the furface of the earth, they inlace and fold round their victims, and one of them only bites after having been irritated. If I had to explain this groupe, and if I were unacquainted with every other explication, I fhould call it a tragic idyll.` A father sleeps at the fide of his two fons, they are inlaced by two ferpents, and at the inftant of waking, they ftrive to extricate themfelves from this living cord.

This work of art is, above all, extremely important by the reprefentation of the moment of the action. When in fact a work ought to move before the eyes, a fugitive moment fhould be pitched upon; no part of the whole ought to

be found before in this pofition; and, in a little time after, every part fhould be obliged to quit that pofition; it is by this means that the work will be always animated for millions of fpectators.

To feize well the attention of the Laocoon, let us place ourselves before the groupe with our eyes fhut, and at the neceffary distance; let us open and fhut them alternately, and we fhall fee all the marble in motion; we fhall be afraid to find the groupe changed, when we open our eyes again. I would readily fay, as the groupe is now expofed, it is a flath of lightning fixed, a wave petrified at the inftant when it is approaching the shore. We fee the fame effect when we fee the groupe at night, by the light of flambeaux.

The artist has very wifely reprefented the three figures in graduated fituations, and which differ from each other. The eldeft fon is only interlaced at his extremities, the other is more fo; it is efpepecially the cheft, that the ferpent has already interlaced; he endeavotirs to deliver himself by the motion of his right arm; with his left hand, he foftly removes the head of the ferpent, to prevent it from clafping his breaft once more; the ferpent is on the point of fliding underneath his hand; but it does not bite. The father, on the contrary, would employ force to deliver himself, as well as his two children, from the embraces; he gripes one of the two ferpents, who being now irritated, bites him in the haunch.

The fer

To explain the pofition of the father, both in general, and according to all the parts of the body, it appears to me reafonable to fuppofe that the momentaneous fenfation of the wouud is the principal caufe of the whole movement. pent has not bit, but he bites, and he bites in the foft and delicate parts of the body, above, and a little behind the haunch. The pofition of the restored head has never well expreffed the true bite; happily, the traces of the jaws have been preferved in the pofterior part of the ftatue, if thefe very important traces have not been loft in the actual transportation of this monument.

The ferpent inflicts a wound on the unhappy Laocoon, precifely in the part in which man is very fenfible to every irritation, and, even where the flightet tickling, caufes that motion which we fee produced here by the wound: the body flies towards the oppofite fide, and retires; the fhoulder preffes downwards, the cheft is thruft forward, and the headinclines on the fide which has been touch

ed

ed. As afterwards in the feet, which are enfolded by the ferpent, and in the arms which struggle, we yet fee the remains of the fituation or preceding action, there refults combined action of efforts and of flight, of fuffering and of activity, of tenfion and of relaxation, which perhaps would not be poffible under any other condition. We are loft in admiration at the wisdom of the artift, when we try to apply the bite to any other place; the whole gefture, the whole movement would be changed, and nevertheless we cannot imagine it more proper; it is therefore a principal merit in the artift to have prefented us with a fenfible effect, and also to have fhewn us the fenfible caufe of it. I repeat it, the point of the bite determines the actual movement of the members; the flight of the inferior part of the body, its contraction, the cheft which advances, the fhoulder which defcends, the movement of the head, and even all the features of the countenance, are, in my opinion, decided by this momentaneous, painful, and unexpected irritation.

But, far be it from me to wish to divide the unity of human nature, to wish to deny the action of the intellectual force of this man of a form fo excellent, to overlook the sufferings and the efforts of a great nature. Methinks I alfo fee the inquietude, the fear, the terror, the paternal affection, moving in thofe veins, fwelling in that heart, wrinkling that front. I readily admit that the artift has reprefented, at the fame time, the most elevated degree, both of corporal fufferings, and of intellectual fufferings; but I would not have us to be transported too feelingly at the monument itself, at the impreffions which the monument makes upon us, especially, as we do not fee the effect of the poifon, in a body which has just been feized by the teeth of the ferpent, as w edo not fee the agony in a found, beautiful body, which makes efforts, and which is but juft hurt. Let me be permitted to make an obfervation here, which is of confiderable importance for the arts of defign; the greatest pathetic expreffion which they can reprefent, depends on the paffage from one ftage to another. Let us view a lively infant, who runs, leaps, and amuses himself, with all the pleafure and energy poffible, who afterwards has been fuddenly ftruck hard by one of his comrades, or who has been wounded either phyfically or morally: this new fenfation is communicated to all his members like an electrical fhock:

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and a fimilar, fudden, and pathetic paffage in the most elevated fenfe, is an oppofition of which we have no idea, if we have not feen it. In this cafe, it is therefore evident that the intellectual man acts as well as the phyfical man. When in a like paffage there ftill remain evident traces of the preceding state, there reíults a fubject the most elegant for the arts of defign; this is the cafe of the Laocoon, where the efforts and the fufferings are united at the fane moment. It is thus that Eurydice, who is bitten in the heel by a ferpent on which fhe has trod, at the inftant when fhe is croffing a meadow, and is returning, fatisfied with the flowers fhe has gathered, would be a very pathetic ftatue, if the artift could exprefs the double ftate of fatisfaction with which the walked, and of the pain which arrefts her steps; not only by the flowers which are falling, but further by the direction of all her members, and the undulation of the folds.

When we have feized, in this fenfe, the principal figure, we may caft a free and fure glance on the proportions, the gradations, and the oppofition of all the parts of the entire work.

The subject chosen is one of the happielt that can be imagined. Men ftruggling with dangerous animals, and moreover with animals which act, not as powerful maffes, but as divided forces, which do not menace on one fide alone, which do not require a concentrated refiftance, but which, according to their extended orga mization, are capable of paralyfing more or lefs, three men without wounding them. This mode of paralyfing, joined to the great movement, already spreads over the enfemble, a certain degree of repofe and unity. The artift has been able to indicate, by degrees, the effects of the ferpents; one only infolds, the other is irritated, and wounds his adversary. The three perfonages are also chofen with much wifdom: a robust and well-made man, who has already paffed the age of the greatest energy, and who is lefs capable of fupporting grief and fuffering. Let us fubftitute for him, in imagination, a young man, lively and robust, and the groupe will lofe all its value! With him suffer two young perfons, who, in proportion to him, are very small. They are, moreover, two beings fufceptible of the fentiment of pain.

[For the conclufion of this admirable article, fee page 399-1

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

M been made ufe of to phlogisticate

OST of the fubftances which have

air, gain an addition of weight in the procefs; in confequence of which, it has been taken for granted by the antiphlogiftians, that nothing is emitted from them; but that they only imbibe the dephlogisticated air, which is one conftituent part of the atmosphere, leaving the other part, which they call azote, unaltered. It was, therefore, desirable to find some substance which would not gain any weight in the procefs, and yet have the fame effect in phlogifticating air; for, the dephlogifticated air, not uniting with the fubftance exposed to it, must neceffarily form some other combination.

This end was, in fome measure, anfwered by feel, which containing, according to the common hypothefis, more phlogiston than iron, would, I thought, part with more by the application of heat, and receive less addition; and this I found to be the cafe. But it, was more completely answered by black bones, which, without gaining any thing by the application of heat in any circumftances, become white in the procefs. If this be done in common air, as it cannot imbibe the dephlogifticated air, which difappears, this air is difpofed of two different ways: for, one part of it contributes to form fixed air, and another part forms an union with fomething emitted from the bones, and makes an addition to the phlogisticated air; and accordingly there is more of it found after this procefs with the black bones than with iron, and many other fubftances which receive an addition of weight in the process. Whence, I ask, can come this addition of phlogisticated air, but from an union of phlogifton emitted from the bones and the dephlogisticated air in the atmof pherical air expofed to them? Confequently, phlogisticated air, or azote, is not a fimple fubftance, as the antiphlogiftians maintain, but a compound. Alfo, whence can come the fixed air procured in the fame procefs, but from a different combination of the fame principles, and not, as they fay, from carbone, which is a fubftance of vegetable origin, and has no place here.

That the thing which conftitutes the blackness of the bones is the fame with that which has always been called phlogifton, is evident from its forming inflammable air, if there be water to fupply it with a bafis. For I now find, that if they be heated in phlogisticated air, which cannot by parting with any thing contribute MONTHLY MAG. No. XLV.

to their whiteness, they nevertheless become white, the air is increased in quantity, and this increase is inflammable air.

For thefe experiments I find ivory-black, which is the coal of ivory, used by painters, more convenient than the bones I made ufe of before. To prepare this fubftance for the experiments, I fill an earthen tube with it, and clofing it with clay, expofe it a confiderable time, at least a quarter of an hour, to the greatest heat of a fmith's fire, which will expel from it every thing that is volatile; fo that no heat that I can apply to it afterwards will affect it, except by means of fome other fubftance, with which that which conftitutes its blacknefs has an affinity, and with which it can combine.

Heating a quantity of ivory-black prepared in this manner, in 6 ounce meafures, of atmospherical air, there was no fenfible change produced in its quantity; but, on examining it, I found in it one ounce measure of fixed air, and the remainder completely phlogifticated, which is in the proportion of 84 parts in 100; whereas the antiphlogistians fay, that a portion of atmospherical air contains only 73 parts of phlogifticated air. It is evident, alfo, that both these substances, viz. fixed air and phlogisticated air confift of the fame principles, viz. dephlogisticated air and phlogifton.

The very different proportions in which atmospherical air is diminished in different proceffes, is a proof that in fome of them there must be a generation of phlogifticated air. When air is diminished by iron filings and fulphur, moiftened with water, the proportion of phlogisticated air is that which Mr. Lavoifier ftates, viz. 73 parts in 100. But when I made the mixture without any water, I found that 110 measures were in fix days reduced only to 90, completely phl gifticated, which is in the proportion of 81.8 in 100. Again, 140 ounce meafures were, by the fame dry iron filings and fulphur, reduced to 113, which is in the proportion of 80.6 in 100. But fome moilture getting to this mixture the third time that it was used, 155 ounce meafures of air were reduced by it to 116, which is in the proportion of 74 in 100.

By the flow burning of phosphorus, 60 ounce measures of atmospherical air were reduced to 48, at another time to 481; and 50 ounce measures were reduced to 40, which is in the proportion of 80.8 of phlogifticated air in 100. But by repeatedly firing the phofphorus with a burning lens, 100 ounce measures were reduced to 89, completely phlogisticated.

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