does not make his annual income exceed eighty pounds. For the funeral of a governor dying in neceffitous circumftances, a fum not exceeding fifteen pounds. For the funeral of an ordinary or compounding member, as above, five pounds. For the widow of a governor, thirty pounds per annum, if it does not make her income exceed eighty pounds per annum. To the widow of an ordinary or compounding member as above, ten pounds per annum, if it does not make her income exceed fifty pounds. For each child of a deceased governor under seven years of age, eighteen pounds per annum. For each child of a deceased member, five pounds per annum, until it fhall arrive at fourteen years of age. For each child of a governor from feven to fourteen years of age, twenty-five pounds per annum; and, if a female, to continue to twenty-one years of age, if not married. For each male child of a governor from fourteen to twentyone years of age, ten pounds per To an ordinary or compounding member, as aforefaid, thirty pounds per annum, if it does not make his income exceed eighty pounds per annum. To the widow of a governor, fixty pounds per annum, if it does not make her income exceed one hundred pounds per annum. To the widow of an ordinary or compounding member, as aforefaid, twelve pounds per annum, provided it does not make her income exceed fifty pounds per annum. For each child of a deceased governor under feven years of age, twenty-five pounds per annum; and from feven to fourteen years of age, forty pounds per annum; and for each male child from fourteen to twenty-one years of age, twelve pounds per annum. N.B. The provifion in this case made for the children of ordinary members not being specified, is fuppofed to be contained in the following claufe; and if the writer of this abstract understands it properly, the annual income allowed by the fociety to each child of an ordinary or compounding member will amount to fomething less than seven pounds per annum, until they shall arrive at fourteen years of age. And fo in proportion, as the money laid out in fecurities shall increase, according to the above mentioned ratio, the penfions of the members of the fociety, their widows, and children, fhall increafe. The fociety fhall not be diffolved without the approbation of five-sixths of the then exifting members of the fociety; and alfo of all perfons then receiving or entitled to receive benefits from the faid fociety, either on account of age, infirmity, or fickness; to be teftified under their respective hands. -N.B. Since the publication of the Jaws from which the above abftract is taken, the governors of the fociety have themselves published an abftract of their own laws, which contains the following new regulations or laws. No governor elected after the first year of the inftitution of the fociety will be capable of giving a vote, until he or she fhall have delivered his or her subscription plate or plates. A fourth order of members is added to the fociety, called affociates, out of which the governors only can be chofen. An affociate is to pay three guineas annual fubfcription, and may compound for yearly payments by advancing thirty guineas over and above his admiffion-fee, and may be elected a governor in the manner of the ordinary member as before stated, On having fubfcribed ten years, or having compounded for the fame, and the fociety fhall have amaffed ten thoufand pounds, he fhall receive in fickness or imbecility thirty pounds per annum, if it does not make his yearly income exceed eighty pounds; and at his decease his relatives fhall demand feven pounds ten fhillings for his funeral expences, if he dies in neceffitous circumftances; and his widow may claim fifteen pounds per annum, if it does not make her yearly income exceed fifty pounds; and his children fhall be allowed feven pounds ten fhillings, until they arrive at fourteen years of age. This A prelate of the environs of Bafle extended in his garden a piece of iron wire of a confiderable length, to which he faftened a moveable mark in order to fire at it. He observed that, according to the variations of the atmofphere, this wire gave a found more or lefs acute in proportion to the changes which had taken place. He communicated this difcovery to Haas, who was on a vifit to him, and who, when he returned to Bafle, tried the fame experiment, and obferved the fame phenomenon. Some time afterwards, the celebrated Volta called upon Haas, and faw this new fpecies of barometer. philofopher, in order to be thoroughly convinced of this meteoric harmony, placed wires of different metals in different directions, and perceived that the vibration takes place only with iron wire placed in the direction of the meridian. Volta then attributed it to an animating fluid, and spoke of it as fuch in his writings; but I know not whether this new refult of a fluid fo univerfally to be found has been fufficiently inveftigated; and I am not without hope, that, should you publifh this letter, it may occafion fome interefting obfervations from other of your correfpondents more qualified to decide on this fubject. M. Haas, jun. afferts, that the wires were at least a hundred feet in length, and that they were ftretched extremely tight: they did not emit the founds until they had been thus expofed to the air for a number of weeks. The elder Haas has placed fourteen wires of differ To the Editor of the Univerfal Mag. ent fizes, which produced fomeSIR, times very harmonious tones. I remain, &c. 0. WHOEVER has read Thomfon's beautiful poem of the Caftle of Indolence, must remember his fafcinating defcription of the Harp of Eolus; but of those who admire the defcription, few perhaps know the origin of the thing itself. Feb. 10. 1804. In reply to the above letter, the Editor is enabled to offer the following obfervations from a work now little known, entitled, "Ar Enquiry into the principal Phenomena of Sound and Mufical Strings, by Matthew Young, B.D., Trinity College, Dublin." The work is an octavo, and was printed in 1784. Its confined circulation neceffarily renders it the more interefting. "THIS pleafing inftrument, which has been related by fome to be a modern discovery, was, in truth, the invention of Kircher, who has treated largely of it in his Phonurgia. It is an inftrument fo univerfally known, that it may well be prefumed unneceffary to give an account either of its conftruction or the manner of ufing it. "To remove all uncertainty in the order of the notes in the lyre, I took off all the firings but one; and, on placing the inftrument in a due pofition, was furprised to hear a great variety of notes, and frequently fuch as were not produced by any aliquot part of the ftring; often too I heard a chord of two or three notes from this fingle ftring. From obferving these phenomena, they appeared to me fo very complex and extraordinary, that I defpaired of being able to account for them on the principle of aliquot parts. However, on a more minute enquiry, they all appeared to flow from it naturally, and with ease. "But before we proceed to examine the phenomena, let us confider what will be the effect of a cur rent of air rushing against a stretched elaftic fibre. The particles which ftrike against the middle point of the fring will move the whole ftring from its rectilineal pofition; and as no blaft continues exactly of the fame ftrength for any confiderable time, although it be able to remove the ftring from its rectilineal pofition, yet, unless it be too rapid and violent, it will not be able to keep it bent; the fibre will, therefore, by its elafticity, return to its former pofition, and by its acquired velocity pass it on the other fide, and fo continue to vibrate and excite pulfes in the air, which will produce the tone of the entire ftring. But if the current of air be, too ftrong and rapid when the string is bent from the rectilineal pofition, it will not be able to recover it, but will continue bent and bellying like the cordage of a fhip in a brisk gale. However, though the whole ftring cannot perform its vibrations, the fubordinate aliquot parts may, which will be of different lengths in different cafes, according to the rapidity of the blaft. Thus, when the velocity of the current of air increafes fo as to prevent the vibration of the whole firing, thofe particles which firike against the middle points of the halves of the string agitate thofe halves, as in the cafe of fympathetic and fecondary tones; and as thefe halves vibrate in half the time of the whole ftring, though the blaft may be too rapid to admit, of the vibration of the whole, yet it can have no more effect in preventing the motion of the halves than it would have on the whole ftring, were its tenfion quadruple; for the times of vibrations in firings in different lengths, and agreeing in other circumstances, are directly as the lengths; and in ftrings differing in tension and agreeing in other cir cumftances, inverfely as the fquare roots of the tensions (See Smith or Malcolm): and, therefore, their vibrations may become strong enough to excite fuch pulfes as will affect the drum of the ear: and the like may be faid of other aliquot divifions of the ftring. In the fame manner as standing corn is bent by a blast of wind, and if the wind be fufficiently rapid, it will have repeated its blaft before the ftem of corn can recover its perpendicular pofition, and therefore will keep it bent; but if it decays in rapidity or ftrength, the ftem of corn will have time to perform a vibration before it is again impelled; and thus it will ap pear to wave backwards and for wards by the impulfe of the wind. Thofe particles which strike against fuch points of the ftring as are not in the middle of aliquot parts will interrupt and counteract each o ther's vibrations, as in the cafe of fympathetic and fecondary tones, and therefore will not produce a fenfible effect. That we may be more fully perfuaded of the truth of thefe principles, I fhall here fet down the order of the Eolian notes as accurately as a good ear could difcover. "Obfervation I. The original note of the ftring being the grave fifteenth to low F on the violin, the Eolian notes were diftinctly perceived, and nearly in the fame order in which they are fet down.* "From the table of proportions in Smith's Harmonics, p. 10, we may fee that these notes were produced by fuch aliquot parts of the ftring as are denoted by the fractional indexes, which are written over them agreeable to the theory laid down. "Obf. II. While fome of thefe notes were founding, I applied an obftacle indifferently to any point, which divided the ftring into fuch aliquot parts as would produce thefe notes, and the Eolian note was not interrupted: but if I placed it in any other part, the tone was inftantly extinguished. This evidently fhews that the entire ftring is, in fact, refolved into fuch parts, as, from the The engraved Table of notes consists of three sets of lines, with the cliff G on the 2d line from the bottom. In these the rotes are written, and above cach note the fraction which expresses the division of the string. As all these fractions have 1 for their numerator, we here give the letters expressing the notes, and the denominator or number denoting the subdivision. Middle C 6; lower F 4; mid. A 5; upper E, flat, 7, early; mid. C6, aid. A 5; up. D 7, early; up. F 8; up. D 7, nearly; mid. Co; md A 5; up. D 7, nearly; up. F 8; up. F 8, with up. D 7, nearly; mid. C 6; up. D 7, Bearly; up. E, fiat, 7, nearly; up. E 7, nearly; up. F 8; up. A 10; up. G9; up. F 8; mid. 6, with up. E, Sat, 7, nearly; min. C 6; low F 4, with mid. A 5; mid. A 5, up. E, flat, 7, nearly; mid. A 5; ap. E, fiat, 7, nearly; mid. C 6; up. F 8; up. G 9: up. F 8; op. E sliding to up. E, fiat, 7, nearly, and to up. D; mid. C 6; up. F 8; up. E, Har, 7, with mid. C 6, mid. C6; up. E, flat, 7, nearly; mid. A 5, with mid. C6, and up. E, fat, 7, nearly; up. E, fat, 7, with up. F 8; up. F 8; up. B 11, nearly; up. A 10; up. F 8, with up. G 9, up. E, fat, sliding to up. D'; up. C6; up. D 7, with up. F 8, &c. &c. VOL. I. preceding chain of reafoning, we should have been induced to prescribe for it. "Obf. III. I applied an obstacle flightly against the string, so as that its diftance from the extremity fhould be an aliquot part of the whole, and the Eolian note was that which would be produced by fuch an aliquot part; thus we may in general predetermine what note the harp fhall found. But this effect will not invariably take place, because, though the obstacle may determine the string to refolve itself into fuch aliquot parts rather than any others, yet the blaft may be too ftrong or too weak to admit of fuch a part vibrating with fufficient ftrength to produce a found: however, if any note be produced in this cafe, it muft either be that of this very aliquot part, or of fome of its own aliquot divifions; for the obftacle muft neceffarily determine one of the interfections of the equal indentures. "Obf. IV. When the blaft rifes or falls, we find the tone alfo gradually rife or fall; because, as the blast rifes, it grows too ftrong to admit of the vibrations of the longer aliquot parts: the vibrations of the fhort aliquot parts, therefore, will predominate, and will gradually fhorten as the blaft rifes in ftrength. But in cafes of fudden variations in the ftrength of the blaft, there will be alfo fudden tranfitions in the tones. "Obf. V. We fometimes hear a chord confifting of two or three Eolian notes; because the blaft, which is of fuch a degree of strength as to admit of the vibrations of certain aliquot parts, may alfo admit of the vibrations of other parts, if they be not very different in length; for their vibrations will be performed in times not very different. But if the length of these parts, and confequently their times of vibration, be very different, the blatt that admits of the vibration of the one will prevent that of the other. Accordingly, in looking S over the foregoing table, we find that the chords confift of thofe notes which are produced by fuch different aliquot parts as are leaft unequal: thus, one chord confifts of C and E, which notes are produced by one-, fixth and one-feventh of the firing. Another chord confifts of F and A, which are produced by one-fourth and one-fifth of the ftring, Another confifts of A, C, and E, which notes are produced by one-fifth, one-fixth and one-feventh parts of the ftring. "It is alfo worthy of obfervation, that in long ftrings we never hear the original note and its octave at the fame time; becaufe, though they are the next aliquot parts, yet their difference is fo great, that the blast which admits of the vibration of one of them will obftruct and prevent the other. It is only in the higher divifions of the ftring that the chords are heard at all; and the flacker the note, the more frequent are the chords, for the reafons affigned above, namely, because the different aliquot parts, in fuch cafes, approach nearer to equality. Obf. VI. Eolian tones are often heard, which are not produced by any exact fub-multiple of the firing; but fuch notes are very tranfitory, and immediately vary their pitch, gradually falling or rifing to the notes next below or above them, which are produced by exact aliquot parts of the whole ftring. 66 This arifes from the transition of the divifions of the ftring from one number to another; for, during this transition, the parts of the ftring, whofe vibrations produce the note, are gradually lengthening or fhortening. Thus, fuppofe the Eolian tone was produced by one-third of a ftring, and that the breeze fo varies as to caufe this tone to fall into the octave of the original note; the points of quiefcence will gradually run along the ftrings, and by fo doing will produce a more gradually flattening, until it terminates in the octave to the whole ftring. "Difcords are alfo often heard from the unifon ftrings of this inftrument; the caufe of this is alfo evident from the manner in which the notes are generated; for the aliquot parts of a string contain in themselves an infinite variety of difcords. Kircher in his Phonurgia, p. 148, has attempted to account for thefe phenomena of the Eolian lyre, by fuppofing the current of air to strike on different portions of the ftring. But this is abfolutely overturned by experience: for, fuppofe the Eolian note to be one-fifth above the original note of the firing, that is, one-third of the whole; then, according to Kircher, the remaining part would be at reft, which is false; for an obftacle applied to any other point than the quiefcent points of divifion will deftroy the Eolian tone. Befides, the chords that would arife on this theory are not fuch as really take place in nature; thus, where the chord confifts of the note F and A, the first note Fis produced, according to Kircher, by the blafts ftriking on one-fourth of the ftring: now, in this cafe, the remaining part of the string must be at reft, according to Kircher, but contrary to experience, or, if it be agitated as one ftring, it must produce the note of three-fourths of the whole ftring, that is, a fourth above the bafs note; whereas the note really produced is the double octave to the third above the bass note, as may be feen in the table of the Eolian tones." To the Editor of the Univerfal Mag. SIR, BOILEAU, in his tranflation of Longinus, obferves, that the Greek critic, in the whole of his Effay on the Sublime, has no where given a definition of the fublime itfelf; the reafon of which was, because he wrote after Cecilius, who, it appears, employed all his book in fhewing and defining what the sublime is. 66 But," continues Boi |