on his death, published by his brother, the Rev. Timothy Priestley, I find an account of a conference, held at Warrington, between the writer and the tutor in Divinity at the academy there. The only tutor in divinity at Warrington, during Dr. Priestley's refidence at the academy, and for many years after, was the Rev. Dr. Aikin, to whom, therefore, the anecdote must be referred. Mr. Priestley's narrative is as follows:

"One time, when he was at Warrington, the tutor in divinity, my brother, and me, spent an afternoon together. The converfation turned upon thofe furprising changes we had known in feveral, who had been, like his uncle, brought to embrace religion in the space of a few hours; and how thofe lived happily, and at death triumphed over the king of terrors.

"The tutor was remarkably affected, and, turning to my brother, faid-If thefe things are true, this is fomething more than philofophy.' My brother an· fwered—' True: if ever God had a people under the heavens, the perfons alluded to were men of God.' My brother being called over the way to meet fome gentlemen, defied me to stay with the tutor till he came again. By the time he had got out of the room, the tutor wifhed me to answer any question he chofe. I anfwered, the more freedom, the more pleafing to me. After answering feveral questions, asked him,

'S

his were calculated to help a man to face a holy God? He burit into a flood of tears, and, croffing the room, lay his head on my right knee, (for he fat on a boffet): he wept exceedingly. After fome time he recovered himself, and faid- Chrift God! Chrift God! I cannot believe it, and fear I fhall never die like a Chrif tian."

Regard to my father's memory will not fuffer me to leave unnoticed fuch an afperfion on his character, although conveyed in a veh cle of vulgarity and inMONTHLY Mac. No. 116.

coherence. Many are living who have been his pupils, and who were intimately acquainted with his manners and sentiments; and I appeal to them all, whether

be not totally repugnant to every idea they have formed of him. My father was a man of found judgment, of compofed feelings, of ftrict propriety of behaviour, a fincere and fedulous inquirer after truth, and most fair and candid in the statement of his opinions. He never, to the clofe of his life, gave the leaft indication of compunction or regret for the doctrines which his reafon had perfuaded him to believe, and his office had led him to teach; and few men had lefs cause to fear "to face a holy God." I do not hesitate, therefore, to pronounce Mr. Priefiley's account of his converfation with the Divinity-tutor at Warrington, either altogether a fiction, or at least a grofs mifreprefentation. It has all the marks of one of those mifcalled pious frauds, which men of more zeal than honefty have in all ages been too apt to employ in fupport of their tenets. I have a diftinct recol lection of his vifit to his brother at Warrington, and of the impreffion he left behind him there, which was that of wonder that fuch a man could be the brother of D.. Priestley. I am, Sir,

Your's, &c. J. AIKIN. Stoke Newington, June 15, 1804.

the annotator indeed conjectures, that this extraordinary luminary might have been appointed to predict the nativity of Chrift. His words are thefe :

"Porro cometes ille Chrifti Servatoris noftri natalem prænunciaffe multo melius creditur."

But, with all deference to fo learned an authority, this opinion, I think, is scarcely tenable; for Julius Cæfar was affaffinated forty years before the nativity of Chrift; and Suetonius informs us, that the Julian Star appeared at the funeral games, which were intituted by Auguf. tus to his memory foon after his death; a period of time, although not remote, yet too distant to fuppofe that it bore any aspect to that important event; moreover, the Evangelifts do not take any notice of it, which they would not fail to have done, had it been connected with the advent of their Lord and Master.

Probably, therefore, after all, the "Julium Sidus" was no other than a regular comet, the critical appearance of which, the authority and influence of Auguftus, combined with the ignorance of thofe ages in aftronomy, might easily convert into a divine teftimony of the deification of his uncle; for, befides the honour of his family, Auguftus had motives of policy fufficiently powerful to induce him to propagate this belief. I am, Sir, Hanslope, Your's, &c. May 15, 1804.

W. SINGLETON.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

SHOULD be much obliged to any of correfpondents, who would inform me, through the medium of your valuable Magazine, at what time the laft edition of Eufebius was published in the original Greek. It is much to be regretted, that fo few copies of fome of the beft ancient authors in that language are extant, particularly in a country where literature is cultivated, and where the ancients are fo much admired. It would not be an indifferent fpeculation to reprint many of them ; nor would it be a inall fervice rendered to thofe whofe literary hours are partially engaged in claffical ftudies. April 7, 1804.

UPSILON.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

FRIEND of mine, in the North of

A Germany, a great amateur of mi

neralogy, expreffes to me a defire to form a connection with fome gentlemen in this

country, who might be willing to fupply him with the mineral products of England, Scotland, and Ireland, on barter for felect ores of German mines, or who are in the habit of importing fuch ores which the German mountains yield, whom he could provide with excellent fpecimens on the most favourable terms. As I have not the pleasure to be acquainted with any gentleman of this defcription, and yet am anxious to ferve my friend if posfible, I take the liberty to addrefs myfelf to you, and beg you will do me the favour to infert this in your Monthly Magazine, which I conceive to be the molt eligible place for that purpose. I fhould be happy if any gentleman fhould feel inclined to enter into fuch a connection; and any letter on this fubject forwarded to Mr. Henry Holmes, bookfeller, Leeds, for J. W. (poft paid) will be duly attended to. I am, &c.

J. W.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

N the third book of the Æneid, Æne

IN

as relating to Queen Dido the events of his voyage, previously to his landing on the Carthaginian Coaft, after defcribing his departure from the Ceraunian Mountains, and the distant view of Italy, fays"Templumque apparet in arce Minervæ.

Now it may be asked, how could Æneas poffefs any topographical knowledge of Italy, fince he had not then reached it? It is obfervable too, that the poet brings forward no fupernatural machinery (to which he fo often reforts) for enabling his hero to poffefs this knowledge. There is no mention of the Temple of Minerva in the prophecy of Helenus; it feems, therefore, that Virgil muft here be guilty of the crime of nodding, however reluctant his admirers may be to impute it to him. Lynn,

May 7, 1804.

T. G.

For the Monthly Magazine. CASE of a CHILD blind and speechless, apparently from the OPERATION of the

INOCULATED SMALL-POX.

encouraged, the moft gratifying to my feelings, and the most dimulating to my hopes, is the notoriety of that relief which, in confequence of fuch attention, I have been enabled to extend to perfons afflicted with the moft calamitous impediments; and even to those from whom the apparent caprices of nature have with-held fonie of the effential organs of enunciation. Till the cafe in queftion, indeed, any individual inftance has not occurred, to which the principles of my fcience would not practically apply and I began to periuade myself that, by a fimple and cafily communicable procefs, every human being, who had the gift of hearing, night readily be enabled to fpeak with

connected with important inferences, or with fubjects of philofophical inquiry, feem always to be acceptable in your Mifcellany, I tranfmit to you a cafe which his lately prefented itself within the fphere of my particular obfervation. I cannot, indeed, fay, that it is pregnant with any fatisfactory conclufions, either of a practical or of a theoretical nature; or, that it furnishes any immediate proofs of the triumphs of thofe fcientific prin ciples which I am labouring to inculcate: but it may, at least, afford materials for a very interefting fpeculation on the in citements and fources of that fpecies of imitative action, by which certain definable organs of the human frame are enabled to convey, with tolerable precifin and accuracy, the impreffions of one mind to the apprehenfions of another. I allude, of courfe, to the actions of the organs of fpeech: actions, in their ultimate phenomena, fufficiently familiar to almoft every human being; but the laws and operations of which have not, hitherto, attracted that degree of philofophical cb. fervation to which, from the importance of their objects, they are, perhaps, entitled.

The phyfiology of thofe organs, by which the functions of elocution are carried on, has, for fome years, been the object of my particular attention; and I am free to acknowledge, that, among the fources of that fuccefs with which my public Lectures on the Science and Practice of Elocution have been fo generally

By a mistake in the arrangement of the paragraphs of the Literary Varieties, in the Monthly Magazine for April laft, the notice of Mr. Thelwall's intended publication on the Phyfiology of the Organs of Speech, was fo inferted, as apparently to align the preparation of that work to Mr. John Bell.

with elegance and harmony. But the cafe in question, feems to present an exception to my conclufions; and, appa rently, it defeats all theory. It is not, fo ftrictly speaking, a cafe either of defect or of impediment; as an inftance of the imperfect developement, or non-application of the organ. It approximates more, in its phenomen3, to the cafe of Peter the wild Boy, or that of the unfortunate Savage of Aveyron, than to any of thofe examples either of defective construction, or of irregular action, to which my principles have been hitherto applied. It is an inftance, indeed, even more anomalous than either of thofe I have mentioned; inafinuch as the child in queftion has been brought up in the bofom of civilized fociety, and yet exhibits all the negative phenomena of enunciative privation and ineptitude, which, in the former inftances, are only accounted for from the want of human affociation.

The early history of this cafe (as far as I have been able to afcertain the circumftances) is as follows: Augufta (one of the daughters of a very refpectable gentleman in the neighbourhood of Glasgow) was inoculated for the mall-pox when the was only three months old. The difeafe, however, made its appearance with none of the mitigated fymptoms which inoculation is intended to inlure. It aged, on the contrary, with the utmost virulence; and disfigurement and blindness were the confequences. One of the eye-balls feems to have been fo completely obliterated by the difeale, that the clofed and deepl funken lids, far retiring into the focket, only mark the pofition where the vifual the organ fhould be. The lower part other orb (which is fufficiently obtrusive) appears to retain fome fmall degree of fenfibity to the prefence of light; and through the medium of this organ, it

appears,