ELEGY ON SEEING A SCULL. THIS preacher, filent, yet severe, And here were fixt the orbs of light; Affrights the yet-perceiving eye, That fed the foul with fenfe by found; Here the loquacious tongue; and here The nose on this diftorted wound! Thefe all had converfe with the foul, Myfterious work of heavenly skill! Clay join'd to fpirit form'd a whole, And quicken'd duft obey'd the will. The duft return'd to whence it came; And Death diffolv'd the wondrous frame. Be witty, mortal, bold, and free; Yet own thy knowledge centers there! Ere long thy fcalp like this shall be Not worth the fordid fexton's care, This once, perhaps, a statesman's schemes Of guilty wealth and pow'r contain'd: Where now are all his flatt'ring dreams? And whofe the mighty fums he gain'd? Perhaps fome former Garrick bore This fcalp aloft with graceful pride: Alas! his action charms no more, That once new force to wit fupply'd. Perhaps, with cunning quibbles fill'd, Twas once a lawyer's-arch and dry: To obviate ev'ry claim, though skill'd, He paid one debt, decreed to die. Perhaps fome haughty beauty's charms Adorn'd this bone with white and red: No more the nymph the world alarms, The beggar tramples on the proud. Of tranfient knowledge, wealth, and pow'r? The fummons comes: we give the ghoit, And all are nothing in an hour. All, all must pass this dreary road To duft and filence, cold and gloom; All rett in one obfcure abode, The dwelling of the world, the tomb! For then 'tis thine alone to fave; ON LOVE. LOVE'S no irregular defire, And in a moment cools again: That fings of darts, defpair, and And by whofe dismal verfe 'tis clear Who fighs by rule, in order dies; And want of wit by dress supplies. No-love is fomething fo divine, Defcription would but make it lefs; 'Tis what I feel, but can't define, 'Tis what I know, but can't exprefs. X. Y. Z. June 1, 1804. 621 MODERN DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS IN ARTS, SCIENCES, AND LITERATURE; With Notices refpecting Men of Letters. Patent to Mr. Medhurst for a condenfing Wind Engine to ferve the purpojes of a Steam Engine, Wind Mill, Water Mill, or Mill turned by Horfes. AIR is condenfed into a strong veffel, called the magazine, by means of a wind mill, into ten or twenty times its natural denfity; and this denfe air is conducted from the magazine through a pipe to the top of a cylinder, where it acts upon a pifton, and keeps the machine in motion, for a time proportioned to the capacity of the magazine. The contrivance for procuring a uniform motion is exceedingly ingenious, but cannot be explained without reference to plates. The magazine is fpherical, or cylindrical with femifpherical ends, made of course of the strongeft materials, and fometimes, for greater fecurity, is placed under ground. Patent to Mr. Thomfon for Improvements in hanging Bells, Window Curtains, Blinds, &c. THIS improvement, and, if it anfwers in practice as well as in theory, a very great one it is, confifts in the fubftitution of a lever for fprings. The difadvantages of fprings are well known, and the nicety in fixing them makes it a peculiar branch in business. By this contrivance any common workman is competent to the task, and may give the proper power to whatever work may be required to be done. Several times are requifite to thew the exact mode in which the lever is applied for various purposes, and they who are fitting up a new houfe will be led to investigate the peculiar advantage of this new principle. Patent to Mr. Rowntree for a Machine on an improved construction for agitating and feparating certain Mixtures. IN making butter, whether with an upright or a barrel churn, there is from the nature of the churn a continual danger that the butter will not be perfectly fweet. This arifes from the difficulty there is in airing thefe veffels; and to obviate it the patentee has de vifed a plan, by which there may be a free circulation of air in them. It confifts of a tube or tubes, either bent or straight, for the reception of the cream, but open at both ends, and in which are inferted breakers, with two caps at their outer extremities, made in fuch a manner as to fit closely to each end of the tube; or thefe caps may be loofe, and fitted on or taken off at pleasure, as occafion may require. AMONG other circumftances attending the King's illness, the delay in the royal fignature, if greater regrets for his majefty's fituation did not engross the mind, would be a fufficient ground for the general with, that a plan might be devifed to relieve the royal mind from fo great a preffure of public bulinefs. In the month of April no patents were paffed. ANOTHER ftone has fallen from the clouds. On the fifth of last April fome workmen were alarmed by a confiderable noise lasting for about two minutes, and proceeding from fouth-eaft to north-west, and this was noticed by men in a quarry as well as those above ground. At last fomething was feen to ftrike the ground with great force, and a boy who faw it represents a great fmoke to have attended it. A man ran to the place, where was a drain; he ran his hand and arm into the water, and at bottom felt something hard, which he could not move with his hand. Expecting to find a cannon ball, they cleared out the hole with a fhovel and mattock, and took up two pieces of ftone that had penetrated a few inches into the rock, one about two inches long, the other about fix inches long, four inches broad, and four inches thick, and thefe ftones differed from all in the quarry. The tone fell in the grounds of Mr. Craufurd, about three miles from Glasgow, who, with fome gentlemen of the univerfity, has made a variety of enquiries refpecting the cir cumftance, all of which concur in confirming the above account; and by tracing the path of the found as it was heard at different places, fome conjectures may be formed on the progrefs of the itones. THE life of Leo the Tenth, by Mr. Rofcoe, is now in the prefs, and will be contained in four volumes quarto. A SOCIETY has been formed in London under the title of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to promote the circulation of the fcriptures without reference to party spirit, and the petty divifions which at prefent fo much difgrace the profeffors of chriftianity. The object of this fociety cannot be too much commended; at the fame time we fhall obferve, that a strong obligation is impofed upon them to be careful what they diftribute as the holy fcriptures; and before they diftribute any bibles in the English language, they fhould confider with attention what Selden in his Table Talk has with fo much propriety obferved on the vulgar in King James's bible. THE Royal Society at Goettingen has propofed the following prize queftion for November 1805: "Quum phyfiologi de vafculofo vegetabilium contextu diverla prorfus ftatuant, aliis, iifque antiquioribus, illum adferentibus, recentioribus contra in alia omnia cuntibus; novis experimentis, ope microfcopii compoliti curate inftituendis, alici probarique cupit Societas: utrum omnino à Malpighii, Grewii, du Hamelii, Muttelii, Hedwigiique obfervationibus ac placitis ftandum fit, an vegetabilium natura ab animali fabrica prorfus differat, omnino que vel fibrarum fibrillarumque, quæ Medici eft fententia, vel cellularum ac tubulorum contextu ac ftructura contineatur." MR. Cadet has made an ingenious conjecture on the ice in the cavern of Gracedieu, about fix or feven leagues from Besançon, and near Beaume, whofe entrance is fixty feet wide and about eighty feet high, the greatest breadth within being a hundred and thirty-five feet. In fummer the ice is confiantly formed in it in large quanuities, which diminish at the approach of winter. About eighty years ago the entrance was walled up to the height of twenty feet, to prevent the ice being carried away, but the ice perceptibly diminishing, the wall was removed. Mr. Cadet conjectures that the ice is formed in the fame manner as it is in jars in hot countries, by permitting part of the fluid to tranfude through its porous fides. MR. Wilkinson, of Sunderland, recommended the bark of the falix latifolia as fuperior to the Peruvian bark, and he is convinced, from experiments, that it contains a greater quantity of the tanning principle than the oak.Tormentil only is fuperior to it. He has tried this broad leaf willow bark in quartans and tertians, general debility, leuhorrhea and menorrhea. The preparation is an ounce and a half of the bark dried and reduced to powder, which is macerated for fix hours in two pounds of water, and then boiled for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Three or four large fpoonfuls are to be taken three or four times a day. In confequence of this recommen dation, feveral persons in London were induced to examine the new bark, and received, instead of the bark recom mended, the bark of the common wil low ufed by the bafket-makers. Specimens of the bark thus received were fent in franks to Mr. Wilkinfon, who, to obviate fimilar deception in future, has fent to various medical gentlemen in London and Edinburgh fpecimens of the real cortex falicis latifoliæ, which, he obferves, he found when in London at only one place-Gordon's herb-fhop, Newgate-market. THE art of printing is beginning to make a progrefs in Conftantinople. An edition of the Muffulinan catechism, in 8vo, eighty-fix pages, has been publithed under the infpection of Abderrahman Effendi, director of the royal printing-office. The annals of the reign of Abdul Hamet are in the prefs, and, from the rapidity with which the catechifin fells, and the printed a'manacks are difpoled of, it is evident that the number of writers must yearly decreate, and knowledge will be gradually diffused throughout the Turkish empire. A NEAT edition of Goldfinith's Effavs with a portrait by Mackenzie, has juft been publifhed. The typographical part is very neatly executed; and, upon the whole, it may be regarded as an acceptable prefent to the public.— Prefixed are a Life of the Author, and a Critique on his Writings and Genius; by Mr. Mudford, author of the "Crtical Inquiry into the Writings of Dr. Johnson." THE Life of Dr. Priestley is under taken, we understand, by Mr. Belham, who has in his poffettion the Doctor's Memoirs as low as 1794, and is expecting from America various documents which will make this publication interefting to the philofopher, as well as to all who have a respect for the Doctor's theological and political creed. MR. Core's Hiftory of the Houfe of Auftria, in two volumes, quarto, is now in the prefs. The maps and other illuftrations will make this a splendid work. A NEW edition of the Monks' Bible is in the prefs for diftribution in the Ile of Man, by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. THERE was a conteft in the Univerfity of Cambridge for the lately vacant arabic profefforfhip, which we underftood at the time to have been decided in favour of Dr. Clarke; but a different arrangement was made, which, however it might difappoint the withes and expectations of many perfons, prevented this poft from falling into the mere routine of high patron age. There were feveral candidates; but on the declining of Mr. Marth and Dr. Clarke, the conteft lay between Mr. Palmer, of St. John's, and a gentleman of Caius College. The former was fuccefsful, and the talents he has difplayed in the University afford every Encouragement to our expectations that he will perform the duties of his new fituation with equal affiduity and fkill, He intends, we hear, to make an expedition into the east, and we truft that he will not be content with the means afforded him of studying arabic in letter Alia, but purface it to its fource, and return home laden with the treatures to be acquired in the neighbourhoods of Mecca and Medina. The high eflimation in which the English name is now held will facilitate his progrefs; and it will be a fatisfaction to know that there is an Englithman in Arabia capable of appreciating the literature in that country, with which at prefent there is fcarcely any intercourfe but for fome inconfiderable objects of commerce. We mentioned in our laft magazine the fuppofed difcovery of a new planet by Dr. Olbers, with our doubts on the truth of the report. Since that time no farther information has been communicated to the public, and it does not appear that the aftronomers of England have received any advices on the fubject. Some idle perfon may have taken this opportunity of railing a falfe report, in which he has affuredly difplayed neither wit nor ingenuity. After the late difcoveries in the heavens, there is no improbability that other planets thould be found in the immenfe fpace between the orbit of Herichell and the fixed ftars; and the individual who can declare that one has been difcovered, when it is not the cafe, man fells only to the world that he is a liar without talents. MR. Perkins, of Durham, has invented a thrathing mill, which thrashes twenty buthels of oats in an hour, and twelve fheaves of wheat in less than four minutes. Twelve feet in the barn are fufficient for its management, and it may be worked with one horfe, though provifion is always made for two. The horle track is twenty feet in diameter, THE French have made experiments on the fteatites, for the purposes of engraving. The stone is worked in its natural ftate, then put into a crucible covered with a tile, luted on with clay; and the whole, covered with charcoal, is put into a furnace, where it is expofed to a flow fire, and kept at a white heat for two or three hours; after which it is taken from the fire, and fuffered to cool gradually. The tone becomes very hard, ftrikes fire with feel, and wears the best files. THE Rev. Mr. Cartwright has invented and ufed a three-furrow plough, of which he has fent a model to the Society of Arts. It promises to be of ufe in light lands. DR. Winterbottom, of Newbury, Berkshire, has received a filver medal from the Society of Arts, for a machine for clearing great roads of muds, which performs the work with great expedition, and is a great faving of human labour. THE Rev. Mr. Graves, author of the Spiritual Quixote, and now upwards of ninety years of age, has written a feries of effays on the means of preferv ing health, and attaining old age, which will be received, we doubt not, by the public with the fame pleasure as has accompanied every production of this refpectable author. MR. Wright, of Wifbeach, propofes to publish, by fubfeription, The AntSatisfactionift; or, the Salvation of Sinners by the Grace of God, in one volume, 8vo. It is not uncommon for perfons in the Weft-Indies to receive from England prefents of meat, which endures the voyage very well, and might be equally well preferved for occafional change of food on a long voyage. The preparation is as follows: The meat, when freth killed, is hung up till perfectly cold, and then cut up in quarters. Each is laid on a block, quarter and fprinkled over with the following ingredients: Lignum vitæ, fine chips, one pound-coinmon falt, four ounces -coarfe fugar, four ounces-falt prunella, half an ounce; after these ingredients have been well sprinkled in, the whole is clofed in fheet lead, and laid in a cheft, and over each lot, as it is placed in the cheft, fresh faw-duft is thrown and well rammed down, so that the whole is covered close. The meat when taken out is wiped and fcraped clean, and put down to the fire as quick as poffible. DR. Thornton recommends the following fumigation powder, which was tried at Mofcow in 1770 with ten malefactors, who, though confined in a place filled with infection, never caught it. Nitre, four pounds fulphur, two pounds-fouthernwood, juniper berries, of each three pounds-tar and myrrh, a pound and a half, MR. Willis, of Lime-street, London, has difcovered, that the common blue bell contains a mucilaginous matter, which may be, and has been at Manchefter, ufed with great fuccefs as a fubftitute for gum arabic, in fixing the calico printers' colours. The committee of the Society of Arts, from trials made with this powder, have given it their approbation. MAJOR Lambton has measured an arc of the meridian 1° 34' 5'6,43 in the Myfore country, which gives for a degree in lat. 12° 32', fathoms 60,494. A LADY who died at Madras in the year 1797, at the age of 96, uled to ay, that in her remembrance the fea had encroached upon the land three miles, and that a row of cocoa nuts food at a place where thips now ride at anchor. An officer, who left this place in 1794, and returned thither in 1799, remarks that the encroachinents continue, and they have caufed the beach-houfe, which stood at the fouth end of the fort, to be removed three miles to the north of it. THE proces for dying Turkey red is now laid open to the public. This was first used at Glasgow fome years ago by a Mr. Papillon, of whom the commiffioners and trustees for manufactures in Scotland bought the secret in the year 1790, on a condition that it fhould not be divulged during a cer tain number of years, for which time the fole benefit of it was to be enjoyed by the communicator. The fecret was then communicated to Dr. Black, the profeffor of chemistry at Edinburgh, and the account of the process, and the number of veffels requifite in it, is given in Mr. Tilloch's Philofophical Magazine for February. MR. Knapping, of Shoebury in EL fex, has obtained a prize from the Society of Arts for gaining 234 acres of faltings, or broken ground, from the fea, by means of a fea wall, whose base is 32 feet, height feven feet, width at top five feet, and length 304 rods, the coft of this embankment being about eleven hundred pounds. To ftrengthen the wall, couch grafs is fown on it, which is fed off clofely by theep. MR. Bofwell, who has procured patent for his mode of conftructing hips, has given the public an oppor tunity of judging of his fuccefs, by mooring the hip Oeconomy, of 200 tons, built upon his plan, oppofite the Union Stairs, for the inspection of shipbuilders. A BRIDGE is now constructing at Paris, over the Scine, of iron, but only for foot paffengers, which is to confiit of nine arches, the length between the abutments being 516 feet, and width between the railings 30 feet. The weight of metal to be employed is cal culated at 600,000lbs. MR. Blackman has received a prize from the Society for encouraging Arts for laying open his procefs for preparing fuperfine oil colour cakes, which poffefs the great advantage of drying without a ikin on the furface, and are peculiarly convenient to travellers, as they are always fit for immediate use. GARLICK is faid to have the peculiar property of diuiting moles, who will be got rid of by placing a few heads of it in their walks; and it has the fame effect on grubs and fails. MR. Deyeur filters water by a very fimple contrivance: a large tin funnel having a few pieces of glafs at bottom, to prevent the pipe from being choaked, and over this glafs charcoal is placed, broken into fmall pieces, to occupy two thirds of the funnel. The |