bits forty characters with an explanation in Portuguese and Latin; each having one of the forty rectangles allotted to them. There is not a fingle page* blank; only here and there one or two, and very feldom three of the forty rectangles are left vacant, when a new found or tone begins; yet, by faying that this fecond vo lume contains 14,000 characters, as the Index, the fame ample allowance is made for blanks of 2800 characters.

Thus, Mr. Editor, I can affure the public by my own experience, that this invaluable MS. contains every imaginable various forms of the most familiar characters, all written in a large and legible fize both in the Index and in the body of the work; and that by this means the European ftudent is never difapp inted, as he must often be in all the other dictionaries above defcrib-d. It contains, befides many characters not introduced nor tranflated in all the other dictionaries feen by me.

The Chinese have selected a determined number of characters to express the names of their families, which they call Pe-kiafim; and it is highly important to be*; come acquainted with thefe characteis, fince the imperial names, and fome of the geographical nouns are expreffed with them. The fecond volume of Mr. Raper's dictionary never fails to point out fuch characters by the Portuguese word Alcunbia, meaning family. But I have two Chinefe editions of a fort of compofition, embracing all the fe Family Names, fo that I could easily publish them in a feparate page. The precite number of fuch characters are 439; but fome of them are three or four times repeated in the compofition juft mentioned; hence the above number rifes to 476 exactly.

Another fingularity of the Coinefe language is that of joining, in the enumeration of any thing, a particular auxiliary character, befides thofe of the numerals, specifying what kind of things they reck

on.

cham, and say, One bed, ye-cham-choam. To flowers they put the particle to, and fay, One flower, ye-to-hoa, &c. &c.— F. Varo, in his Grammar, printed at Canton, 1703, gives a lift of no less than 50 of thefe auxiliary characters. In Sir William Jones's Dictionary the list of them amounts to eighty-four. I have al-, ready copied it, and it could be published with Mr. Raper's Dictionary.

You fee, then, Mr. Editor, what a degree of fuperiority my materials for publihing a Chinese Dictionary are entitled to. The Dictionary itself will contain at leaft three thoufand characters more than any of the MSS. above delcribed; while all other very important Vocabularies, Dialogues, and Tracts, annexed to it, will render it quite unique and invaluable.

I hope you will deem thefe obfervations as deferving a room in your invaluable Mifcellany, and by inferting them in it, you will greatly oblige, Sir, your's, &c. ANTONIO MONTUCCI. Pancras, March 12, 1804.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

I

SIR,

AM very ready to ask pardon of the manes of Mr. Robinfon if I have miftaken in my affertion concerning his charge against King James I. It is true, as the writer of the Cantabrigiana (upposes, that I quoted from memory; but I know not whence I could have got the notion but from actually reading fuch a paffage. Has your correspondent feen the earliest edition of the work in question? I believe there have been feveral. I am fure I was not incorrect in faying, that the performance is ftrongly tinctured with pa ty virulence and credulity. Oldmixon (lay the Monthly Reviewers) is his pole tar. Be it as it may, I am not forry that I took the opportunity of demonftrating the falsehood of a charge againit James, which, having been repeated by different writers, may perhaps till obtain a degree of credit with incautious readers. Nor fhall I hefitate ftill to maintain the character of a moderate man by occafionally expofing party bigotry and falsehood on either file.

Your Coliana, Sir, frems likely enough to afford matter for fuch expofure; for it is evident, that the writer of the fcraps fo entitled, had a plentiful fhare of credulity and illiberality. A more pregnant example of both cannot easily be met with, than what appears in p. 34, of your prefent volume, under the article The Monument. Mr. Cole fays, fpeaking of the fire of London, "It has always been a part of my political creed, that a fet of people diametrically oppofite to the papifts, were the incendiaries." He adds, that Ff2

this

this is a fecret he rarely trufts with any but his real friends; and, indeed, it may be prefumed, that he had few correfpondents in whofe opinion he would not be leffened by fuch a notion. Addifon, in his admirably humorous portrait of the country-fquire in the Freeholder, makes this belief one of the frongeft inftances of vulgar party-credulity. On defcending from the Monument, fays he, "oblerving an English infeription upon the bafis, he read it over feveral times, and told me he could fcarce believe his eyes, for that he had often heard from an old attorney, who lived near him in the country, that it was the Prefbyterians who burned down the city." Mr. Cole, had he not been led away by oppofite prejudices, would, probably, as a staunch antiquarian, have paid the fame credit to an infcription cut in flone, that this honeft gentleman is reprefented as doing; but while his partiality to the Papifts induced him to exonerate them from the charge, he was refolved to lay it elsewhere, rather than admit the fire to be accidental. It is probable that, at that period, the Prefbyterians and Independents poffeffed more than half of the property of the city of London; and to imagine that they would burn their own houfes and goods out of fpite to the Church and King, requires a faith large enough to fwallow the Monument itfeif! N N.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

OF

opinions generally received, it is defirable that their truth fhould be established, or their fallacy detected; but credulity or prejudice too often lead reafon aftray, and bewilder it in idle fpeculation. I was much furprized to find your correfpondent in the February Magazine, p. 16, deny the irrefragable proofs we have of toads being found in ftones and trees; but I fhould not have troubled you with thefe ftrictures, had not a cafe of this nature come under my obfervation*. As fome men were fawing a large elm tree into planks, they cut through fome subftance to which they were ftrangers, and having called their mafter and myself, who happened to be with him, we found it was a toad, which must have been killed by the fw, as appeared by the brightness of its fparkling eyes, and the general moisture of its body. From the number of annual circles from its hole to the extremity of the wood, it must have been there at least thirty-five years; for, I fuppofe, the animal muft have got into a cavity of this

*For further proofs, fee Monthly Maga zine, Vols. iv. and v.

tree for his winter refidence, and that, in fpring, the wood grew over him, where he remained till difcovered by us. If toads, then, can live fo long without the neceflary aliment of other animals, I fee no reason to doubt the authenticity of their being found in freeftone, flate, and even blocks of marble.

Ray, the naturalift, mentions reports of fuch phenomena being prevalent in his time, but to which he gave little credit. I have heard it afferted they will live in vacuo below a certain temperature; but with how much truth, I know not.

The fame correfpondent mentions the Agnus Scythicus or Tartarian lamb; but had he known what that fuppofed zoophyte really is, he would not have been much aftonished at the credulity of the learned, and the wonders attached to it by the vulgar. It is now well known to be the polypodium barometz of Lin. a fpecies of fern, whofe inferior roots push up the foliage of the plant in an horizontal direction, oftentimes affuming the figure and Bructure of a lamb, from whence it takes its name barometz, fignifying lamb. With the alfiance of a little art, it has been shown in the mufeums of the learned as a moft

onderful natural production, and Sir Hans Sloane poffeffed many of them, which he defcribed in Phil. Tranf. No. 287. Abr. vol. ii. p. 646. Its noxious qualities deftroy the furrounding herbage, whence arofe the idea of their eating it, and the fap has very much the appearance of blood. In India the yellow down with which it is covered, is externally used to ftanch blood. Dr. Hunter, in his Evelyn's Sylva, has given the figure of one very much refembling a fheep, and in Dr. De la Croix's Connubia Florum we have the following fimple and elegant lines: Eft ubi præterea tingit fua purpura fuccos, Itque cruor noftro fimilis: Qui Cafpia fulcant Sive pétant Afiam velis, et Colchica regna, Aquora, five legant fpumofa Borifthenis ora, Hinc atq: inde ftupent vifu mirabile monftrum.

Surgit humo Borames. Præcelfo in ftipite fructus

Stat quadrupes. Olli vellus. fronte

Duo cornua

both thermometers were noted, the fpirits ftood the highest: it was only in 6 in. ftances that the variations either way exceeded 3, in general they were much lefs. 4th. At the hour of 6.—17 times the two thermometers coincided; 22 times the mercury flood the higheft, and in all the remaining 213 obfervations of both thermometers at this hour, the fpirits flood the higheft; on the 19th Sept. and 5th October, this difference amounted to on the 3d April to 33°; on 8th May, and 16th Sept. to 31°; on 21ft June, 28th Auguft, 13th October to 3°; on 23d May, 15th Auguft, and 5th September to 24; on 4th, 27th and 28th April, 11th and 26th May, 17th June, 31ft July, 9th and 15th September to 24°, &c. 5th. At the hour of 9 P. M.-11 times the two thermometers coincided; 8 times the mercury ftood the higheft (feldom more than 10) and in all the remaining 116 obfervations, in which both thermometers were no ed, the fpirits ftood the higheft; this difference amounted on the 20th June to 44, on the 26th June to 44°; on 19th May to 4°; on 15th July to 3; on 17th June to 3°; on 19th June, and 17th July to 34; on 20th May, 27th June, and 13th July to 3°, &c.

6th. The 12th December, was the only day in my journal, wherein the mercury always flood higher than the fpirits, which with the 8th September, and 2d, 5th and 21st January were the only days, in which the fpirits were not, at fome hour of obfervation, higher than the mercury; during 19 days, the fpirits were higher at every hour of obfervation than the mercury; and in 21 other days, they coincided in the first part of the day, and the fpirits were afterwards the highest the two thermometers did not coincide during any one day.

7th. The greatest height of the mercury, which was noted during the above interval, was 85; on the 28th June, 1801, at 9h A. M. and the loweft was 12, on the 12th January 1802, at 12 o'clock P. M.

From the above it muft I think be evident, that fpirit thermometers are unfit for meteorological obfervations, or any other where the heat is liable to fudden variations. It would, however, be of ufe to have a fpirit thermometer attached to the fame plate with the mercurial thermometer intended for ufe, and having lines drawn across from each degree on one thermometer to the correfponding degree on the other thermometer, for readily noting whenever the mercury was ob ferved, whether the fpirits flood higher or lower, and how many degrees; which would indicate any recent and confiderable variation, which had taken place in

the temperature

The convexity of the top of the mercury in a barometer tube, fhews when the mercury therein is rifing, and its concavity when it is falling; and it is defirable that those who regularly note the ftate of the barometer at certain hours, would by the fign+ and -, or fome other marks after each obfervation, denote this rifing or falling ftate of the mercury: and in like manner, by the help of an attached fpirit thermometer, denoting the rifing or falling ftate of the mercury in the thermometer, this also might be fet down; and it might have its ufe alfo, to ftate all the confiderable differences between the mercury and the fpirits, as I have done above. Yours, &c. 12 Crown freet, Weftminster, 15 February, 1804.

JOHN FAREY.

thorough fatisfaction in regard to the authenticity of Chaucer's portrait, that, did I not think an additional remark or two might ftrengthen his teftimony to thofe who may fill be fcrupulous, I would certainly withhold my obfervations.

The great difficulty feems to be, whether this portrait painted in oil, could have been produced during the Life of Chaucer, fince, according to the most generally received opinions, the art was not difcovered till nine years fubfequent to the poet's death, by John ab Eyck, in a search for varnish.

But Mr. Rafpe, in his Critical Effay on Oil-painting, publifhed in 1781, has proved its existence long before the pretended difcovery of Van Eyck; and even ci ed a German writer upon painting, of the ninth or tenth century, (whofe manufcript yet exifts in this country,) who mentions the ufe of coals for the purpose of heating the oil-preparations.

Governor Pownal, in the ninth volume of the Archaologia, has produced, from the facrifty of Elv, fome accounts that are as explicit as poffible, that oil was used in the mixture of colours both in the reign of Edward II. and Edward III. The first fays-" In tres lagenis et dimid. olei pro ymagnibus fuper columnas depingend.". The next, "In 31 lagenis et dimid. olei empt. pro color. temperand:" and the third, "In oleo empt. pro picture faciend. in capella." Could oil-painting, fays Lord Orford, be more exactly defcribed at this day. Oil for painting images on columns.-2. Oil for mixing colours, (which is distinguishing it from varnish.) Oil for making pictures in the cha. The firft of thefe entries is dated in

pel.

3.

... •

the last in the reign of Edward TIT

Lord Orford, however, in the improved edition of his Works, has cited a precept of an earlier date, which, though not fo immediately in point as the inftances already quoted, implies the ufe of oil-colours in a manner too strong to be miftaken. It is dated in 1239, in the twenty-third year of Henry III. and runs in thefe words :-"Rex thefaurario et camerariis fuis falutem. Liberate de thefauro noftro Odoni aurifabro et Edwardo filio fuo centum et feptemdecim folidos et decem denarios pro oleo, vernici, et coloribus emptis, et picturis factis in camerâ reginæ noftræ apud Weftm. ab octavis fanctæ trinitatis anno regni noftri xxiii. ufque ad feftum fancti Barnabæ apoftoli eodem anno, fcilicet per xv. dies."

It has been fuggefted to me, Sir, that the figure of the knave upon our common playing-cards wears a fimilar habit with the portrait in queftion. On this, how ever, I fhall not lay confiderable stress, as I think authorities of a more decifive kind may be brought to bear. Of cards, however, it may be proper to fay thus much, that Mr. Anfis has produced a paffage from the wardrobe-rolls of Edward I. which certainly implies their ufe as early as 1277. It mentions a game entitled The Four Kings. That the early fpecimens of playing-cards which have come down, differ very little in their form from thofe now used, need hardly be added; although the figures and devices that conftituted the different fuits, feem anciently to have depended very much upon the talte and invention of the card-makers.

But it is not on cards alone that the drefs of the period I am now fpeaking of is preferved. Mr. Strutt, in his View of the Drefs and Habits of the English (pl. cxxiv.) has copied an illumination from a very fine Manufcript of the Roman de la Rofe, in the British Museum, (Harl. MS. 4425,) unquestionably painted at no great diftance from the time of Chaucer, which has precifely the drefs alluded to.

Having thus eftablished the ufe of painting in oil, even in this country, long previous to the time of Chaucer, and pointed out a drefs precifely fimilar in a Manufcript of contemporary age, what difficulty can poffibly remain to hinder our decision on the Portrait of Chaucer being more than probably authentic. FABIUS.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

N the last number of the Edinburgh Review, the first article is a notice of the "Account of the Life of Dr. Reid," fome time fince published " by Mr. Du gald Stewart."

In this article, (at p. 274) the writer ftrangely afferts, "that it is almost exclu fively to experiment," as diftinguished from obfervation," that Lord Bacon has directed the attention of his followers." But, in the 10th aphorifm of the Novum Organum, Lord Bacon expressly ranks a Natural History, the refult of fimple obfervation, with and before an experimental hif tory of things, as indifpenfably requifite to lay the foundation of that grand instâuration of the fciences which he had propofed. In the example of his method of analysis and induction, which he exhibits, in an Enquiry into the Nature or effential Form of Heat, and which is comprehended under the eleventh aphorifm, are five tables of inftances or facts. Of thefe tables, the first contains twenty-feven inftances; the fecond, thirty-two; the third, fortyone; the fourth, fourteen; the fifth, more than twenty. Had Lord Bacon been defirous to exclude fimple obfervation, in all poffible cafes, from the fervice of philofophy, he would undoubtedly have been careful to appeal to nothing but experiment, in this primary example of his mode of inveltigation. Yet, in all thefe 134, or even more, fpecifications of facts, fome of them, in the progress of the induction, repeating former facts, there is not one that appeals to experiment exclufively, or makes light of obfervation; there is fcarcely one in which the fact is not quoted by Lord Bacon from obfervation chiefly; there are but an inconfiderable number, in regard to which, fo far as they can be applied to illuftrate the nature of heat, experiments can inform us better, than plain and accurate obfervation. Throughout the whole fubfequent tenor of the Novum Organum, efpecially in his ample detail of thofe which he diftinguishes as Prerogative Inftances," his Lordship conftantly appeals to obfervations as much as to experiments, and takes the teftimony of faithful and difcerning observation, as of unexceptionable authority in philofophy. Throughout all his other writings on matters of fcience, as in the hiftories of denfe and rare, of found and hearing, &c. &c. he continually ufes facts of obfervation, just as freely as facts of experiment. And it is well 'known, that the logic of his Novum Organum having been the invention of his early ftudies, he employed it himself in all his fubfequent inveftigations, and intended the works he left behind him to be infpected, as examples of the use of it. Neither he, nor any of his worthy fol lowers, ever pretended to teach; that we ought to withdraw our fenfes from all knowledge of the undisturbed appearances of Nature, if we would commence philo

fophers ;