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EULOGY ON BOXING AND COCK FIGHTING.

might have been displayed by the victims of superstition, as well as by those of justice or injustice; they must, nevertheless, have been very flat and insipid, compared with those which shone forth in the varied and animated contests of the amphitheatre, where the contention was equal, and life and honour the prize contended for.

Boxing matches are contests of the same kind upon a lower scale; and the frequenters of them would probably feel as much horror and disgust as any other persons, were they to see men deprived of the power of resistance, or opposed to very unequal force, beaten as the several combatants beat each other: but the display of manly intrepidity, firmness, gallantry, activity, strength, and presence of mind, which these contests call forth, is an honour to the English nation, and such as no man needs be ashamed of viewing with interest, pride, and delight and we may safely predict, that if the magistrates, through a mistaken notion of preserving the public peace, succeed in suppressing them, there will be an end of that sense of honour and spirit of gallantry, which distinguishes the common people of that country from that of all others; and which is not only the best guardian of their morals, but perhaps the only security now left either for their civil liberty or political independence.

If men are restrained from fighting occasionally for prizes and honorary distinctions, they will soon cease to fight at all, and decide their private quarrels with daggers instead of blows; in which case, the lower order will become a base rabble of cowards and assassins, ready at any time to sacrifice the higher to the avarice and ambition of a foreign tyrant.

For the Literary Magazine.

ARTIFICIAL TASTE.

BY habit and mental association, a degree of skill and a power of discri

VOL. VI. NO. XXXVII.

mination are acquired in the exer-
cise of the organs of sense, which do
not appear to belong to their first
anu untutored efforts. This acquir
ed faculty may be called artificial or
improved perception; and all refine-
ment of taste in the liberal arts ari-
ses in the first instance from this fa-
culty.

Though the mind depend on the
senses for all communications, and
though their report be, in a certain
degree, necessary, yet, when by ex-
perience its perceptions are improv-
ed, it requires less assistance from
A musician,
the organs of sense.
whose hearing is become defective,
will tune an instrument with more
accuracy than a person with the ni-
cest ear who has not been accustom-
ed to discriminate sounds; and a
vintner, even when his palate is vi-
tiated, will be able to distinguish be-
tween the flavours and qualities of
different wines, with more precision
than an unexperienced person whose
organs of taste are unimpaired. In
these instances, the mind displays
its superiority; and, by an observ.
ance of others, we may perceive the
manner in which sensual gratifica-
tion becomes amalgamated with and
lost in that which is mental.

The pleasure derived from the arts is at first the simple effect of imitation, exciting novelty and surprise; by degrees, however, men look in the imitative arts for some. thing of character and expression, which leads to the immediate study of mind, requiring a knowledge of science, and displaying peculiar skill and execution. A taste for these higher productions of the arts is thus certainly acquired, in which the vulgar do not participate, and which affords the most exquisite satisfaction.

No person unacquainted with music, ever preferred the tone of a violoncello to that of a flute: yet, when it is perceived to be so much more copious, and so much better adapted to all the scientific as well as expressive compositions in music, which require a more extensive scale of harmony, and a more refin

4

ed display of chromatic variation, the understanding so far influences the ear, that we frequently meet with persons, who have learned to think even the tones of it pleasanter. On the same principle, no person unacquainted with the art of painting ever preferred the colouring of Titian to that of Denner or Vander Werf: but, nevertheless, when it is discovered how much better adapted it is to fulfil all the great purposes of the art, the eye by degrees assents to the testimony of the mind, and learns to feel it more pleasant.

For the Literary Magazine.

WHY ARE WE PLEASED WITH DISGUSTING OBJECTS, WHEN PAINTED?

IN many of the objects of our mixt sensations, there must necessarily occur a mixture of pleasing and displeasing qualities; or of such as please one sense, and displease another; or please the senses, and of fend the understanding or the imagination. These painting separates; and in its imitations of objects, which are pleasing to the eye but otherwise offensive, exhibits the pleasing quali ties only; so that we are delighted with the copy, when we should, perhaps, turn away with disgust and ab. horrence from the original.

Decayed pollard trees, rotten thatch, crumbling masses of perished brick and plaster, tattered worn out dirty garments, a fish or a flesh market, may all exhibit the most harmonious and brilliant combinations of tints to the eye; and harmo. nious and brilliant combinations of tints are certainly beautiful in whatsoever they are seen: but, nevertheless, these objects contain so many properties that are offensive to other senses, or to the imagination, that in nature we are not pleased with them, nor ever consider them as beautiful. Yet in the pictures of Rembrandt, Ostade, Teniers, and Fyt, the imitations of them are un

questionably beautiful and pleasing to all mankind; and as these painters are remarkable for the fidelity of their imitations, whatever visible qualities existed in the objects must appear in their copies of them; but, in these copies, the mind perceives only the visible qualities; whereas, in the originals, it perceived others less agreeable united with them.

For the Literary Magazine.

SATURN'S RING.

By Professor Robison.

THE most singular phenomenon exhibited in the solar system, is the vast arch or ring which surrounds the planet Saturn, and turns round its axis with the most astonishing rapidity. It is above 200,000 miles in diameter, and makes a complete rotation in ten hours and thirty-two minutes. A point on its surface moves at the rate of 1000 1-2 miles in a minute, or nearly seventeen miles in one beat of the clock, which is fifty-eight times as swift as the earth's equator.

La Piace has made the mechanism of this motion a subject of his examination, and has prosecuted it with great zeal and much ingenuity. He thinks that the permanent state of the ring, in its period of rotation, may be explained, on the supposition that its parts are without connexion, revolving round the planet like so many satellites, so that it may be considered as a vapour. It appears to me that this is not all probable. He says that the observed inequali. ties in the circle of the ring are necessary for keeping it from coalescing with the planet. Such inequalities seem incompatible with its own constitution, being inconsistent with the equilibrium of forces among incoherent bodies. Besides, as he supposes no cohesion in it, any inequalities in the constitution of its different parts cannot influence the general motion of the whole in the man

SATURN'S RING.

her he supposes, but merely by an inequality of gravitation. The effect of this, it is apprehended, would be to destroy the permanency of its construction, without securing, as he imagines, the steadiness of its position. But this seems to be the point which he is eager to establish; and he finds, in the numerous list of pos sibilities, conditions which bring things within his general equation for the equilibrium of revolving spheroids; but the equation is so very general, and the conditions are so many, and so implicated, that there is reason to fear that, in some circumstances, the equilibrium is of that kind that has no stability, but, if disturbed in the smallest degrees, is destroyed altogether, being like the equilibrium of a needle poised upright on its point.

It is a much more probable supposition (for we can only suppose) that the ring consists of coherent matter. It has been represented as supporting itself like an arch; but this is less admissible than La Place's opinion. The rapidity of rotation is such as would immediately scatter the arch, as water is flirted about from a mop. The ring must cohere, and even cohere with considerable force in order to counteract the centrifugal force, which considerably exceeds its weight. If this be admitted, and surely it is the most obvious and natural opinion, there will be no difficulty arising from the velocity of rotation, or their regularity of its parts. La Place might easily please his fancy by contriving a mechanism for its motion. We may suppose that it is a viscid substance like melted glass. If matter of this constitution, covering the equator of a planet, turn round its axis too swiftly, the viscid matter will be thrown off, retaining its velocity of rotation. It will therefore expand into a ring, and will remove from the planet, till the velocity of its equatoreal motion correspond with its diameter and its curvature. However small we suppose the cohesive or viscid force, it will cause this ring to stop at a dimension smaller than

the orbit of a planet moving with
the same velocity. These seem to
be legitimate consequences of what
we know of coherent matter, and
they greatly resemble what we see
in Saturn's ring. This constitution
of the ring is also well fitted for ad-
mitting those irregularities which
are indicated by the spots on the
ring, and which La Place employs
with so much ingenuity for keeping
the ring in such a position that the
planet always occupies its centre.—
This is a very curious circumstance,
when considered attentively, and its
importance is far from being obvi-
ous. The planet and the ring are
quite separate. The planet is mov-
ing in an orbit round the sun.
ring accompanies the planet in all
the irregularities of its motion, and
has it always in the middle. This
ingenious mathematician gives strong
reasons for thinking that, if the ring
were perfectly circular and uniform,
although it is possible to place Sa-
turn exactly in its centre, yet the
smallest disturbance by a satellite
or passing comet would be the be-
ginning of a derangement, which
would rapidly increase, and, after a
very short time, Saturn would be in
contact with the inner edge of the
ring, never more to separate from
it.

The

But if the ring is not uniform, but more massive on the one side of the centre than on the other, then the planet and the ring may revolve round a common centre, very near, but not coinciding with the centre of the ring. He also maintains that the oblate form of the planet is another circumstance absolutely necessary for the stability of the ring. The redundancy of the equator, and flatness of the ring, fit these two bodies for acting on each other like two magnets, so as to adjust each other's motions.

The whole of this analysis of the mechanism of Saturn's ring is of the most intricate kind, and is carried on by the author by calculus alone, so as not to be instructive to any but very learned and expert analysts.Several points of it however might have been treated more familiarly.

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But, after all, it must rest entirely on the truth of the conjectures or assumptions made for procuring the possible application of the fundamental equations.

For the Literary Magazine.

THE ARBOR-UNICUS.

LESCALLIER, who is at once a great traveller and a great botanist, during his various voyages to foreign countries, has never let slip any opportunity to make interesting observations relative to the progress of natural history and agriculture. These have been regularly communicated by him either to the French Institute or to other learned societies. He at the same time has enriched the Museum of Natural History at Paris with several valuable specimens, and embraced every occasion to elucidate whatever is interesting in the arts and sciences.

Lately he has favoured the public with the history of a very singular tree, of which but one individual, which has existed from time immemorial at Tolucca, a city of Mexico, was formerly known. This account is extracted from a work in the Spanish language, printed in Mexico, and to it he has added two coloured plates, one of which represents a branch, and the other the flower and the fruit of this superb vegetable production.

The name of chiranthodendron, which he has bestowed on it, is composed of three Greek words, one of which signifies the hand, the other the flower, and the third the tree; it exactly answers to the Mexican appellation of macpalxochiquauhit, according to Hernandez, which signifies "the tree, the fruit of which resembles a hand." In the different stages of its progress, the flower, which is a deep red, and extremely brilliant, appears first like a shut hand, and then an open one; but the resemblance has a closer affinity to the hand of a monkey

than of a man. We are informed that the inhabitants of the country where it is produced are eager to obtain it, and travel from a very great distance expressly for this purpose. As their eagerness renders the fruit very scarce, sentinels have been actually placed around the tree; some of the seeds have thus been procured, but notwithstanding all possible care, they could never hitherto be brought to germinate.

The botanists employed in the expedition to New Spain repaired, in 1787, to Tolucca, merely for the purpose of viewing, describing, and sketching this famous tree. They succeeded, at length, in obtaining a very fine specimen, which was placed in the garden of the royal palace of Mexico, and is now fortyfive feet high. It is supposed that it will be possible to multiply this scarce production, so as to introduce it into the hot-houses of the north, and the pleasure gardens of the south of Europe.

For the Literary Magazine.

MADAME GENLIS'S LAST WORK.

AMIDST the good qualities for which madame de Genlis is distinguished, her perseverance ought not to be forgotten. Since she first consecrated her pen to the important duties of instruction, she has never once wavered in her opinion, like many others. The same principles have ever been uppermost in her thoughts and writings, and her harmonious and correct style has not failed to ornament them. In her last work, "Alphonsina or the Tender Mother," she illustrates the following positions, that a reasonable woman ought not to be in love with any one, and, above all things, she is to be careful not to have any affection for her husband.

That it is, however, necessary, on the other hand, that ladies, at once so dignified and discreet, should be

passionately beloved, because by means of this they obtain an increase of their authority; for

Il faut toujours que la femme commande.

That it is sufficient, on the part of the fair sex, to have no repugnance, and that, above all, every thing should be made to contribute to the propagation of the faith.

That this faith, the only source of happiness, requires that children should be imbued with the least possible portion of physical and moral knowledge, because they will then be more blindly devoted, and thus young women will prove more obedient to their mothers.

Such is the doctrine which our celebrated author enforces anew, in three volumes, the first of which is unhappily very strange, and the last very feeble: the second however possesses many real beauties. It is here intended to present a model or an example of a sensative education (education sensative), an expression which is neither very clear, nor perhaps very good and perfect French and in the opinion of madame de Genlis, this education would have been more sensitive, if the pupil possessed but one sense less.

Not wishing, however, to borrow any thing from the abbe Sicard or M. Hauy, who make use of all the advantages resulting from the other senses, in order to supply what nature has refused to their scholars, this illustrious instructress has thought fit artificially to deprive her Alphonsina of sight, by making her live till she had attained the age of thirteen in a cavern, during which period a tender mother was accustomed to place a bandage over her eyes, whenever she lighted a lamp for her own particular use. Accordingly, the poor child is utterly ignorant of the existence of any other living creature than herself, her mother, and a little dog. She is acquainted with her cavern alone, and even in respect to that she is entirely ignorant, save what can

be obtained by groping her way through it. It being necessary to bring her mother into this unhappy situation, and to bring her thither also while big with child, this event alone employs a whole volume.

For the Literary Magazine.

LATE REVOLUTIONS IN INDIA.

IN 1765, there was a nabob of Bengal, who held the Nizamut by the same title which gave the British the Dewanne of that opulent kingdom. He and his family are extinguished. There was a raja of Benares, and a rich domain called Ghazipore. He is gone, and his country melted into British. There was a nabob of Oude, vizier of the empire, and the greatest of all the Mahomedan princes in that part of India. If any of his family survive, they are mere cyphers, subsisting, in disgrace and obscurity, on such pensions as the British think fit to allow them. His country also is annexed to theirs. There was a nabob of Ferrokabad, whose name is now hardly known, though once an eminent person among the princes of India. He and his country have shared the same fate. Beyond him, the Rohillas were a considerable independent nation. They are extirpated, and the whole of Rohilcund is English. This last possession carried the frontier and the armies of Britain to a situation considerably north of the latitude of Delhi. In that direction, the next step must have been into Tartary. Returning to the sea, the whole line of coasts from Bengal to Cape Comorin, with only one little interruption which has since been filled up, is possessed by the English. The northern Circars have been theirs for many years. The lawful nabob of the Carnatic was their old and faithful ally, as long as he could pay for it. He once had many friends in England, and even in parliament. All that we know of him

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