404 Defence of Birmingham and Dr. Parr. biographical narrative in question), I will venture to affert my opinion, that it is a molt flimfy and conceited performance, equally difguiting by a parade of philofophy, and by a hyperbolical expreffion of feeling. The death of Forster, the father, in his poft of profeffor in the University of Halle, has lately been announced in the periodical publications. Authentic memoirs of his life would be curious and valuable. Your's, &c. June 5. J. A. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, TH HE malevolent fatire of the author of the "Purfuits of Literature," has been pointed out too frequently to have efcaped the knowledge of even those who delpife his fpecies of wit, and confequently do not perute his work; but the unjust attacks of this cauftic critic are not confined to individual names, he fires grape and canister, and fweeps away whole columns, led only by affociation of ideas. What but the name of PARR drew down his infidious notice of my favourite town, more populous, and more diftinguished by the variety and perfection of mechanical improvements than any in the king dom? hear his words: Birmingham, renown'd afar At once for halfpence and for Doctor Parr." Are we known only by those frivolous appendages? Dr. PARR's fhining talents are unobferved where the active genius of mechanics produces a conftant fource of inventions, and the most useful improvements; at once giving honor to the artift, and extensive opulence and credit to the empire. Birmingham has been called the "Toyfhop of Europe," but Europe is well acquainted with comforts and elegancies which never could have been enjoyed with out the existence of machinery which fhortens labou, and enables the merchant to fend the product to the remoteft markets. The readers of your valuable Mifcellany are not ignorant of the commercial importance which the arts acquire in their progress, or of the value which philofophy will ever attach to the difcoveries arifing out of the industry of the mechanic genius: but the anonymous fatirift is ignorant of thefe comprehenfive effects, and estimates the human understanding according to its acquaintance with the s of Greek roots. Was he fatisfied, with Birmingham, when a few conventicles, and not a few private houses blazed in devotion to the Church and King? It is to be feared that an act of intemperance, which we fhall long deplore, is viewed by this critical bigot with complacency, or he would not have neglected to gratify. his malignant appetite with fo delicious a morfel." Here, fir, we love temperate liberty and focial harmony; and, with exception of the one inftance of infuriated mistaken zeal, we fupport both, careless of Dr. PARR, but preferring writings of that divine, to the crude effufions which dif play more acrimony, with the cowardice of not being owned by the a thor. I am, your's, &c. B. R. Birmingham, June 16, 1798. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, IN your Magazine for the month of May laft, I obferve a letter from Mr. RUPP, of Manchester, containing fome remarks on my method of making and ufing oxygenated muriate of lime, for the purpose of bleaching. In this letter Mr. RUPP attempts to prove that the liquor fo made, is more expensive than that prepared by the ufual method, with alkaline falts; and that both are inferior to the fimple oxygenated muriatic acid for the purpose of bleaching. In juftice to myself," and that the public may not be mifled by this gentleman's too hafty conclufions, I beg leave to make the following obfervations. Mr. RUPP very justly obferves, that in order to prove the fuperiority of this to the ufual liquor made with afhes, it must either be better in point of quality, or cheaper. In order to prove that it is not cheaper, he ftates, the quantity of pearl. afhes neceffary for fixing the oxygenated gas, produced from 30 lb. of common falt, at 71lb. Mr. RUPP cannot here mean faturation by the word fixing, for he furely knows that the pot afh in 7 lb. of pearl afhes is not fufficient to saturate the oxygenated acid that may be produced from 30 lb. of falt. Indeed he afferts in the fubfequent part of his letter, that-it will not faturate fuch a quantity of gas. The meaning therefore of the affertion must be, that such a portion of pearl afhes diffolved in a proper quantity of water, will fo far reprefs the volatility of the gas, that is producible from 30th of cominon falt, as to form an eligible, or perhaps the most eligible bleaching li quer Mr. Tennant's Defence of his Bleaching Liquor. quor prepared with afhes. Now, every chemift knows that this liquor will confit of the solution of the ufual falts, produced by receiving the oxygenated muriatic acid gas into a folution of pot afh, together with a quantity of oxygenated muriatic acid, in an uncombined ftate. It is likewife perfectly well known, that fuch liquor will deftroy dyed colours. This fiquor therefore with which Mr. RUPP compares that made of lime, is totally unfit for bleaching any kinds of goods into which dyed colours enter, and confequently, wherever thefe are to be bleached, his statement does not apply. The fact is, that where fuch goods are bleached, three times this quantity of afhes, or even more, is univerfally ufed." 405 Mr. RUPP next attempts to prove, that both this and the ufual liquor prepared with afhes, are inferior to the fimple oxygenated muriatic acid for the purpofes of bleaching. I have already ftated, that bleaching liquor, containing the ufual falts formed from the oxygenated muriatic acid gas and pot afh, together with uncombined oxygenated muriatic acid, was totally unfit for bleaching goods which contained dyed colours. The fimple oxygenated acid is confequently totally unfit for bleaching fuch goods. If, therefore, we fet afide the liquor made with a full proportion of afhes and alfo that made with lime, a great proportion of the cotton goods manufactured in Lancashire, and almoft the whole of the Glasgow fabrics will be deprived of this great improvement in the art of bleaching. It must be allowed, therefore, that even on the fuppofition of the inferiority of the power poffeffed by the alkaline and lime liquors, they must be retained for the purposes of bleaching goods containing dyed colours. kaline liquor, because it is cheaper, by the difference of price between the alkali and lime, and that this difference will be very confiderable, becaufe a very large proportion of afkes must be used, in order to preferve the dyed colours that enter the compofition of the goods. It till remains to determine, whether the fimple oxygenated muriatic acid is more applicable to the purposes of bleaching, where no dyed colours enter the fabric, than alkaline or lime liquor. Wherever, therefore, fuch coloured goods are to be bleached (and fuch goods conftitute a great proportion of the cotton manufactory in Britain), his statement will not apply. But befides this, it is to be obferved (as Mr. RUPP would have feen if he had read the specification, or applied for information to any of the refpectable bleachers in his own neigh-Alfo, that we mult prefer lime to the albourhood who use the procefs, and who keep their doing fo no fecret), that the introduction of common falt along with the lime in my procefs, was merely to increafe the specific gravity of the water, for the better fufpenfion of the lime; and as an addition, that afterwards might or might not be made, as experience should direct. The falt, therefore, is now regularly omitted; mere agitation being found perfectly fufficient to keep the lime in fufpenfion. With this correction, therefore, even with Mr. RUPP's proportion of athes, the comparative value of this part of the ingredients of the liquor made with athes, and that made with lime, will be as 3s. 9d. to 7d. and in all cafes, the faving brought about by ufing the lime liquor in preference to that made with afhes, will be equal to the difference of price between the afhes and lime, and even fome diminution of the quantity of lime may with fafety be admitted. With regard to the additional labour in preparing the liquor, it is a mere trifle. A workman mult attend while the liquor with afhes is preparing; when he makes the liquor with lime, he needs only to add to his usual attendance a very moderate portion of bodily labour, applied to agitate the liquer in the receiver. Several of the bleachers in this country have now even faved him this, by connecting their agitators with their plash-mill, or other moving machinery. In favour of the fimple oxygenated acid, Mr. RUPP quotes his experiments in the last vol. of the "Manchifter Memoirs." Where experiments are made only on a few grains, and where we have no better test of their relative differences or agreements, than a difference of colour induced by a few drops, as it appears to the eye of an experimenter, perhaps, from fome preconceived theory, inclined to fa-. vour a particular conclufion, I would build but little on fuch experiments; if we add to this, the great danger to the fabric, univerfally allowed by bleachers, in every attempt made with the fimple oxygenated acid, either in a fluid, or gazeous form; the impoffibility of workmen operating with it on account of its fuffocating vapours, and the doubtfulness of overcoming that, even by Mr. RUPP ingenious contrivance (for he cannot fuppofe, that a bleacher can calculate fo exactly, as to have exhausted the oxyge. nated 406 The Sacrament an Ancient Jewish Rite. nated aeid every time he finds it neceffary to remove the goods, from its action, and I fee no other way of preventing the efcape of the gas in Mr. RUPP's machine, whenever this operation becomes neceffary), we must conclude in favour of the liquor made with lime, and the more especially, as even the bleachers, who, operate on white goods, now, in general, find it neceffary to be at the expence of afhes in their bleaching liquor. Mr. RUPP has next drawn an objection to the liquor made with lime, from a very fertile fource of every kind of ar gument, viz. from chemical theory, and Jufpects that the lime, or muriate of lime, may become a mordant, and fo make the goods liable to become yellow after bleaching with this liquor; or unfit them for being used in printing. Befides the matter of fact, which totally contradicts this, as has been afcertained by the experience of feveral printfields, particu larly by that at Meffrs. FINLAY and Co's, in this neighbourhood, and at the field of Meffrs. ORR's, at Stratford, in Ireland, I am unacquainted with any proof, that lime, or any of its faline compounds, were ever found to poffefs any power in fixing colours in dying either cotton or linen, in as far as relates at least to the madder and weld coppers. These obfervations will, I hope, fatisfy the public, with regard to the force of Mr. RUPP's objections to my method of preparing bleaching liquor; and the approbation it has received from numerous and refpectable bleachers in England, Scotland, and Ireland, will still be allowed to establish the character of a fimple invention, which, in whatever manner it may benefit me, will, I have no doubt, foon appear a great national benefit. I have no doubt, if Mr. RUPP had known, that from the date of my letters patent, I have been ready to treat with all bleachers upon the most moderate terms, for the fale of licences to practile my invention; he would have taken the trouble to investigate a little more fully into its merits himself, and likewife to have heard the report of the very eminent bleachers who are employing my procefs in his own immediate neighbourhood, before he had condemned it in fo unqualified my bleaching works here. I am, fit, 13th June, 1798. Bleacher, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. AMONG the most curious topics of But the RITE ftill remains, although, in the bread and wine, we do not any more imagine we eat the real body, or drink the real blood of Jefus. I have long been defirous of discovering the origin of this extraordinary ceremony; but my inquiries have hitherto been baffled, among the learned. In a very eccentric work, lately published, among a mafs of other matter, there is a note on this curious topic, which, as I know not to deny, I would wish to offer it to your theological correfpondents, either to refute, or to explain. The note in queftion, is the following, literally tranfcribed. "Christianity is nothing but improved Judaifm. I will give one instance, which I have never obferved remarked. The SACRAMENT, for which fo many have fuffered, is a fimple rite, Now performed every fab bath night by the religious Jew. Wine and houfe; after a benediction, he hands the cup bread are placed before the mafter of the round, and breaking the bread, gives to each a portion. Jefus, amidst his difciples, was performing this rite, called XEIDUSH, and in the allegorical ftyle of a young Rabbin, faid of the bread and wine, "This is my blood, and this is my body;" which they certainly were, when affimilated in his perfon. To this fimple circumstance, we ewe all the idiocy and cruelty of transubstantiation !” VAURIEN, vol ij. p. 219: According to this account, the modern Jew, while he refuses to take the facrament, actually performs it hebdomadally; and the modern Chriftian, while he ima gines it a teft of his creed, in fact, only joins in a very ancient Jewish ceremony. I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, York, June 4, 1798. C. P. On the Perfonification of Abstract Ideas in Poetry. For the Monthly Magazine. 407 briefly elucidate them by well-known examples. The paffions of Le Brun, in An ESSAY on the PERSONIFICATION of which human faces are marked with the ABSTRACT IDEAS in POETRY. ftrongeft expreffions of anger, terror, AMONG the various artifices which defire, &c. are merely natural perfoni poets have employed in order to produce that novelty which is effential to a high degree of pleafure or furprife, none is more remarkable than the exhibition of new forms of animated beings, endowed with peculiar powers and qualities, by which they are rendered actors in the fcenes into which they are introduced. Of thefe, there are two principal fpecies; the one, comprising thofe fupernatural beings which derive their origin from popular fuperftition or philofophical doctrine, modified by the poet's imagination; the other, confifting of creatures merely of poetical invention, formed, by means of the process called perfonification, from abstract ideas of the mind. Of thefe laft, Addison, in one of his elegant papers "On the Pleafures of the Imagination" (Spectator, No. 420), fpeaks in the following manner: "There is another fort of imaginary beings, that we fometimes meet with in the poets, when the author reprefents any paffion, appetite, virtue, or vice, under a vifible shape, and makes it a perfon or an actor in his poem." To this enumeration, however, might have been added fome abftract ideas perfonified; fuch as nature, time, death, fleep, and the like, which equally come under this head of poetical creation. Of fuch, then, it is the purpose of the prefent Effay to treat; and it is the manner in which these fictitious perfonages are formed, rather than the propriety of their introduction into the poem, that I mean at prefent to confider; not excluding, however, fome remarks on their immediate agency; which, in fact, may be regarded as part of their description and character. On comparing a number of examples of this kind of perfonification, it prefently appears, that there are two general methods by which it is effected. Either a fimply human form is drawn, impreffed in a fuper-eminent degree with the quality or circumftance intended to be perfonified; or a creature of the fancy is exhibited, the character and defign of which is expreffed by certain typical adjuncts or emblems. The firft of thefe may be termed a natural, the second, an emblematical, figure. From the union of these two modes, a third, or mixed fpecies is produced. That thefe diftinctions may be immediately conceived, I fhall MONTHLY MAG. No, XXXII, fications. The common female figure of Juftice with her fword, fcales and bandage, is purely emblematical. That of Plenty, reprefented by a full-fed, cheerful figure, bearing a cornucopia, is of the mixed fpecies. These illuftrations are taken from painting; but the ideas may equally be conveyed by words. Under each of the preceding heads I fhall adduce a variety of examples from the poets, which will give fcope to fuch critical remarks, as may tend to establish clear and precife notions concerning the refpective excellence of the feveral kinds. The natural species of perfonification will first be confidered; then by an infenfible gradation we fhall flide into the mixed, and conclude with the purely emblematical. 1. It may be proper before entering upon the particulars of this fection, to anticipate a doubt which will readily fuggeft itself to a reflecting mind. In what, it may be asked, confifts the merit or advantage of a kind of fiction which approaches fo nearly to reality? If rage, for inftance, be depicted only by the figure of a man in a violent fit of fury, what are the inventive powers exerted by the poet, or what is gained by the perfonification? It is to be acknowledged, that in thefe cafes, the merit of invention, peculiarly fo termed, can scarcely be claimed. Yet fince every circumftançe must be accumulated by the poet which can give force and life to the piece, and a general character be formed out of the detached features of a number of individuals, to which muft frequently be added fcenery and accompaniments contrived to correfpond with, and enhance the effects of, the leading figure, the neceflity of fuperior defcriptive talents in order to fucceed in, fuch reprefentations cannot be difputed. Then, with respect to the ufe of fuch fictions, it is to be confidered, that thefe imaginary beings are not merely human agents, circumfcribed by known laws in their operations: they are a kind of genii, whofe fphere of action is only limited by a congruity dependent on their feyeral characters. But the truth of thefe obfervations will be fufficiently illuftrated during the investigation of each particular example. I fhall begin with the perfonified figure of FAMINE, or rather, HUNGER, as 3 G reprefented 408 On the Perfonification of Abstract Ideas in Poetry. reprefented by Ovid in his "Metamorphjes." Ceres, having vowed revenge against Erifthon for cutting down a facred tree, fends a meffenger for this ghaftly phantom, who is thus defcribed: Famem lapidofo videt in agro, Unguibus & raras vellentem dentibus herbas. Hirtus erat crinis; cava lumina; pallor in ore; Labra incana fitu; fcabra rubigine fauces: Dura cutis, per quam fpectari vifcera poffent; Offa fub incurvis inftabant arida lumbis ; Ventris erat pro ventre locus; pendere pu Thro' her harsh hide her inwards all were fhewn; The arid bones above her crooked loins Stood forth; a void the belly's place fupply'd; Pendant her breaft appear'd, and held alone By the bare wick'ry fpine; the wafting flesh Had fwell'd the joints; each knee, a rigid ball, Each ankle feem'd a monstrous bunch of bone. It is fcarcely poffible to conceive a more ftriking image of a famifhed perfon. The hard fkin, hanging breafts, crate or basket work of the ribs and spine, and joints apparently enlarged, are circumftances drawn from the life, and reprefented with wonderful force. At the fame time, the figure is merely natural. Here are no types or emblems, as, indeed, none were wanted; for fuch a fubject could not fail of being its own interpreter. The furrounding fcenery is equally real. Et locus extremis Scythiæ glacialis in oris, Trifte folum, fterilis, fine fruge, fine arbore tellus. In icy Scythia's fartheft bound, there lies The fanciful or preternatural part of the fiction is the manner in which the poet employs this phantom. He makes her take the opportunity of Erificthon's lying afleep, to inspire him with her herfef; and the poor man awakes poffeffed by a moft infatiable hunger, which compels ham, firft, according to the French phrate, manger fon bien, to eat up his eftate; and at last, abfolutely to devour himself. There is fomething ludicrous in this idea, which may ferve to fhew the difficulty of preferving strict propriety throughout an imaginary fcene; yet the agency of Famine cannot be faid to be unfuitable to her nature. This notion of infpiring a quality by touching or breathing on a perfon, may frequently he met with in the best poets to exprefs the action of thofe fictitious beings. Churchill's Prophecy of Famine" affords no addition to the defcriptive part of the perfonification, except fome strokes of fatirical humour, difgraced by national illiberality. The employment of the imaginary being to utter a prophecy, is agreeable enough to the general notion of a genius, and is rendered more characteristic by the local circumstance of the pretence to fecond fight. He The next figure I fhall prefent is that of SLEEP, as likewife drawn by the Though he is railed to the title and dig elegant and inventive pencil of Ovid. nity of the God Somnus, yet in form and attributes he is a mere drowfy mortal; and the poet's invention is chiefly displayed in the scenery and accompaniments. inhabits a gloomy cavern, into which the rays of the fun never penetrate, but where a kind of perpetual twilight reigns in the foggy air. From hence all thrill and enlivening founds are banished, and a dead filence eternally prevails, broken only by the foft murmurs of the waters of Lethe. Around the entrance grow all kinds of foporiferous herbs. The god himfelf lies faft afleep on an ebon couch raifed high with down. On the approach of Iris, who is fent to him with a meffage, with much ado he rouses himself. His painful reluctant efforts are very happily expreffed in the following lines: tarda Deus gravitate jacentes Vix oculos tollens, iterumque iterumque relabens, Summaque percutiens nutanti pectora mento, Out of himself, and on his elbow rais'd, Ovid acts judiciously in making the fubject of the request to fuch a power as eafy and brief as poffible. It is only that he would fend one of the dreams, which are reprefented as conftantly fitting, 1ke bats, about the cave of Sleep. -When |