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MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. XLIV.]

MAY 1, 1799.

[No. 4. of VOL. VII.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

WAS concerned to fee in your last Number an unfavourable reprefentation given of that eminently good man Bishop KEN, more efpecially as it is exceedingly unjuft. Your correfpondent fays, " that the Bishop had a very lively tafte for mu. fic and poetry, and fang a hymn every morning to his lute, which he had compofed the preceding evening. It feems that this chaunting of hymns was lefs an expreffion of his piety, than an exhalation of his bile, and a foother of his political disappointment." He thus alludes to his cuftom:

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"Eas'd of my facred load, I live content, "In hymns, not in difputes my paffion vent.' The writer fhould in juftice have quoted the two preceding lines:

"I gladly wars ecclefiaftic fly, "Where'er contentious fpirits I defcry." No man was of a more pacific, or lefs discontented spirit, than Bishop Ken; and though he could not bring his confcience to transfer his allegiance from his Sovereign, yet he took care to avoid giving any countenance to the warm non-jurors, and was held in fuch efteem by Queen Anne for his exemplary humility and piety, that she settled a pension of 2001. a year upon him.

stition about him. In early life, he was at the Hague as Chaplain to the Princefs of Orange, whose esteem he obtained; but he loft that of her husband (afterwards King William), by a piece of conduct which, in my opinion, redounds to his honour. One of the Prince's particular favourites had feduced a lady in the train of the Princefs under the pretext of a promife of marriage, which he afterwards refused to perform. Ken by his labours brought the feducer to fulfil his engagement, which fo difpleafed the Prince that he threatened to difcharge him from the fervice. Our divine, not brooking fuch ufage, gave in his refignation, and certainly would have gone had not the Prince condefcended to requeft him to continue.

The little poetical expreffion paffion, feems to have put the notion into the head of your correfpondent, that the Bishop felt his disappointment and lofs; but when the good man adopted it, I am fenfible he never formed the idea which is here attached to it. His meaning is, that while other divines are engaged in all the fury of religious and political controverfy, he feels himfelf happier in his privacy and obfcurity, amufing himself with facred poefy. The hymn which the Bishop conftantly made ufe of in the morning, is that beau

-tiful one,

"&c.

"Awake my foul, and, with the fun, "Thy daily ftage of duty run,' to which he added that elegant doxology, "Praife God from whom all bleffings flow,"

&C.

Bishop Ken was a man of truly primitive principles and piety, and though a genuine afcetic, had no portion of fuperMONTHLY MAG, No. XLIV,

On another occafion, his integrity was remarkable. While he was prebend of Winchester, the famous Nell Gwyn being at that City with King Charles II. the Doctor's prebendal houfe was pitched upon for her refidence; but he refufed her admittance, and the was obliged to procure other lodgings. The good-humoured Monarch was not at all difpleafed with his Chaplain's conduct, as he was convinced of his fincerity; and without any folicitation appointed him to the bishopric of Bath

and Wells. The Doctor's behaviour in the laft illness of the King is univerfally known. Bishop Ken, though a firm advocate for epifcopacy, was yet very favourable and friendly to diflenters; and the pious and ingenious Mrs. Rowe in particular was on terms of great intimacy with him. I am, Sir, yours,

I

London, April 10, 1799. J. WATKINS.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

CANNOT exprefs how much I admire your Monthly Magazine; and I am glad to find that the fale is fo confiderable. You have obliged me by the infertion of the article I formerly fent you. With this I fend a continuation of my difcuffion of the doctrine of phlogifton. The papers are to be printed in the Medical Repo tory, publifhed at New York; but this work goes into few hands compared with the great number of your readers. LI Withing

Wishing the continuance of the fuccefs you fo well deferve, I am, Sir,

Yours fincerely, J. PRIESTLEY. Northumberland, Dec. 22, 1798.

AS I have no other view in this difcuffion, than to difcover the truth with refpect to the question which I have brought before the Public, I shall communicate with the fame freedom any thing that occurs to me in favour of the new fyftem, as well as facts that feem to make against it. I therefore frankly acknowledge, that I have laid too much ftrefs on the argument from finery cinder not dephlogisticating (or only in the flightest degree) marine acid; having thought this a proof of its contain ing little or no oxygen. For this effect is not always produced by red precipitate, which is known to contain a large quantity of oxygen, or pure air, nor by flowers of zinc, which is always taken for granted

to contain much of it.

On the first pouring of spirit of falt on the red precipitate fresh made, I have had an evident smell of dephlogisticated marine acid, but not afterwards. Alfo the black powder of mercury and lead, which gives pure air by heat, does not dephlogifticate marine acid, though it makes it give an offenfive fmell. But then there is other evidence of thefe fubftances containing oxygen, not only when expofed to heat; but, with respect to the red precipitate, when it is even diffolved in the marine acid; and no evidence of any kind that finery cinder contains this principle. For this folution of the red precipitate, heated with a burning lens in atmospherical air, causes an addition to its quantity, from the dephlogisticated air expelled from it; whereas, when the folution of finery cinder is treated in the fame manner, the contrary effect is produced. The quantity of air is diminished, and it is lefs pure than before. The fame was alfo the confequence of heating a folution of iron in the fame acid in thefe circumftances. I had the fame refult with a folution of finery cinder precipitated by caustic volatile alkali. This was alfo the confequence of heating a folution of iron in marine acid, treated in the fame manner. Since, therefore, finery cinder, both in this folution, and without it, has the fame effect on the atmospherical air in which it is heated that iron has; I conclude that they both contain the fame principle, viz. phlogifton, though the fiery cinder has much lefs of

it than the iron.

Another proof of a calx containing pure air, or oxygen, is that, when it is revived in inflammable air, a quantity of fixed air

is produced. But this is not the cafe when finery cinder is revived in these circumftances, though I purpofely prepared fome by melting iron in the open air, in which cafe I imagined that fome pure air would be attached to it. In making this finery cinder, I obferved that fteel gained no fenfible addition of weight in the procefs, and iron much lefs than when it is made by means of fteam; fomething, no doubt, being thrown off from it when it is heated in the open air, which cannot efcape when it is furrounded by steam in a clofe veffel. When it was prepared in a clofe glafs veffel with water in it, by means of a burning lens, it gained weight; but when it was done over mercury, the addition to its weight was little or nothing.

Since an iron tube is diffolved by heating manganefe in it, I thought it very poffible that the fame dephlogisticated air from this fubftance might unite with the iron, and that the finery cinder made in this manner might be found to contain fome. But when I lately heated iron affected in this manner in inflammable air, I did not find any fixed air in the refi duum; fo that it appeared to have got nothing but water from the manganese; being the very fame thing with the finery cinder which is made by means of fteam.

Though, therefore, finery cinder not dephlogifticating marine acid, is no proof of its not containing oxygen, no politive evidence has yet been produced that it does; and there is every prefumption that it does not. And fo important a thing as an entire new fyftem of chemistry cannot be admitted on mere poffibilities.

Whenever inflammable air is procured by. means of a metal, fince water is always prefent, Antiphlogistians fay, that it comes from a decompofition of this water. But fince they fay that water confifts of 85 parts in weight of oxygen to i 5 of hydrogen, there ought to be fome evidence of the produc tion of this proportion of oxygen at the fame time; and yet this has not been done by any proper evidence, which is the pro duction either of fome acid, of dephlogifticated air, or of some substance into which it is acknowledged to enter.

The only reply of the Antiphlogistians has been, that whenever inflammable air is procured by means of a metal, that metal is reduced to a calx, and this calx weighing more than the metal, must contain the oxygen required. And because the calx of mercury yields dephlogisticated air, and its additional weight is owing to it, they prefume that all metallic calces derive their additional weight from the fame principle, and therefore they do not hesi

tate,

tate, in their nomenclature, to denominate of air, in all the methods that I can think thein all, without exception, oxydes. Thus they call finery cinder a black oxyde of iron, though they produce no direct evidence of its containing any oxygen at all. But it by no means follows, that because one calx of a metal owes its additional weight to oxygen, all the reft do fo.

Indeed the calces of the fame metal are in this, and in other respects, different from one another. Finery cinder, for example, is a very different thing from the common ruft of iron, confifting of different principles. From finery cinder nothing can be got by mere heat; but from ruft of iron a quantity of fixed air may be extracted. From 1277 grains of the common ruft of iron, I got 45 ounce measures of air, of which only about one 30th part was not fixed air, the remainder (of the ftandard of 1, 6) was flightly inflammable, probably from the gun barrel in which the experiment was made.

The addition that is made to iron by rufting in the open air, I do not find to be more than 30 or 40 grains to an ounce; whereas the addition made to iron, when it is converted into finery cinder, is near one half of its original weight. I find, however, much variety in this refpect. When the finery cinder is made by a burn ing lens in the open air, the addition to its weight is the leaft, and when it is made in clofe veffels with steam, it is the greate ft. Notwithstanding this very great difference between finery cinder and the common ruft of iron, the Antiphlogistians fcruple not to fay, but without any examination, that finery cinder is an imperfect oxyde of iron, and the common ruft a more perfect one. But if finery cinder ever be converted into ruft, which I have never found to be the cafe, it muft, by fome procefs or other, natural or artificial, be first converted into iron, in which cafe it will lofe much of its weight.

The only circumftance that gives any plaufibility to the finery cinder being an oxyde of iron, is the addition that is gained to the weight of the iron. But when zinc is treated in the fame manner, fteam being fent over it in a red heat, though inflam. mable air is procured, the zinc gains no addition of weight; fo that, in this cafe, there is no colour for faying that the wa ter is decompofed. The fubftance that is produced in these circumftances I have called flowers of zinc, because it is a calx of zinc; and at that time I prefumed that it must have all the properties of the common flowers of zinc, which may con. tain oxygen. But I have treated this peculiar calx of zinc, made without accefs

of, without being able to find any fign of oxygen in it,any more than in finery cinder. When I treated it in common air, the air was not increased, but diminished; the fame effect that is produced by heating finery cinder.

As I could find no oxygen in the precipitate of iron diffolved in acids, I have not been able to find any in those of zinc. The most unexceptionable that I could think of, is that by cauftic volatile alkali. This fubitance I heated in atmospherical air both when moist and dry, left exposure to the atmosphere fhould make fome difference in it; but with the fame refult. The air in which it was treated was rendered much worfe than common air, though in one cafe the quantity was increased from 6 to 8 ounce measures. Half an ounce measure was fixed air, and the rest of the ftandard of 1, 8, extinguishing a candle; fo that it was almost wholly phlogifticated. It therefore feemed to have imbibed part of the pure air, and to have given out phlogifticated air.

Filings of zinc yield much inflammable air in pure water, though I do not find that they can by this means be reduced to a complete calx, at least in a moderate time. But the imperfect calx to which this metal is by this means reduced, does not appear to contain any oxygen. When it was heated in common air, the quantity of air was not increased, about one twentieth part of it was fixed air, and the remainder of the ftandard of 1, 5. The water in which the filings of zinc had been immerfed, gave out air much worse than common air, and it was perfectly free from acidity. Iron filings will yield alfo inflammable air in water, and this water gives out air that is worse than common air, as does the water over which tin and other metals are calcined.

That the calces of metals do in general contain oxygen, I have no doubt; because the dephlogifticated part of atmospherical air difappears when they are calcined in it. But there is reafon to think that a great part of the addition of weight which they thereby acquire is mere water, while the oxygen will attach itself to other fubftances in preference to the calx, if they be prefent. One evidence of this is, that when they are calcined over lime water, the lime is precipitated; whereas, if the calx had imbibed all the dephlogisticated air that difappeared, the lime water would not have been affected by the process; this precipitation of the lime coming, no doubt, from fixed air, which I have fufficiently proved, confifts of dephlogisticated

air

air and phlogifton, or the base of inflammable air. I had this refult when I calcined iron, zinc, tin, lead, bifmuth, and regulus of antimony, in thofe circumftances. But when the process was made over mercury, I could not always find any, and therefore prefume that all the oxygen was imbibed by the calx, though it may be impoffible, in fome cafes, to extract it again in that form. For, when the quantity is finall, it may be fo united to the phlogifton remaining in the calx, as to form the bafis of phlogisticated air, which I have proved to confift of dephlogisticated and inflammable air,

Lead furnishes an example of this. No oxygen can, I believe, by any means be got from malicot, though it has imbibed fome; but when this calx is fuperfaturated with it, and becomes minium, it will yield the pureft dephlogisticated air by heat only, and will likewife dephlogifticate marine acid; and fince flowers of zinc will not dephlogisticate marine acid, I prefume that this calx alfo is nearly in the fame ftate with mafficot in this respect, and that in any ftate it contains but little oxygen, or fo united to phlogiston, as not to be obtained either in the form of acid, or of dephlogisticated air.

Though the flowers of zinc may contain fome oxygen, I have not been able to difcover any in them, by any process that I have made ufe of for the purpose. As this fubftance is made in a confiderable degree of heat, I was not surprised to find that heat would not expel any thing from it; but I thought that when it was mixed with iron filings, it might with them give fome fixed air, as red precipitate does. But this I found not to be the cafe-I got nothing in this procefs befides inflammable air, as I should have done with finery cinder: Alfo when mixed with perfectly made charcoal, fuch as giyes no air by heat, a great quantity of both fixed and inflammable air is produced; which fhews that, like this fubftance, flowers of zinc contain little or nothing befides water, which will have juft the fame effect.

To make this experiment with fairness, the iron filings must be heated till they give no air. They must then be well wafhed till the water put on them be quite clear, and they be again found to give no fixed air by heat. For foreign fubitances are very apt to be mixed with iron filings, which this procefs will feparate. With iron filings thus prepared, red precipitate gave fixed air; but flowers of zinc none at all.

There is a grey calc of zine, fimilar to that of lead, which Mr. Chaptal calls a

perfect oxide. This I found to be only zinc partially calcined, for, in heating it in atmospherical air, it became white. The air was diminished, was without fixed air, and confiderably phlogisticated. The perfect flowers of zinc treated in the fame manner made no fenfible change in the quantity of air. But, as in the former cafe, there was no fixed air in it, and it was confiderably phlogisticated.

The melting of mafficot in these circumftances made no change of any kind in the air, which fhews that it contains lefs phlogifton than flowers of zinc.

Oxygen in a calx is perhaps most easily detected by its forming fixed air, when it is heated in inflammable air. But I did not find this to be the refult of an attempt to revive flowers of zinc in thofe circumftances. Owing to the whiteness, of this fubftance, which difpofes it to reflect, and not to abforb, the light that is thrown upon it, I could not revive any part of this calx completely. A black spot only was made in a part of it, and about an ounce measure of the inflammable air was imbibed; but I found no fixed air in what remained, any more than I did when I revived finery cinder in that process.

(The continuation of these interesting papers fhall appear in our fucceeding Number.)

The following Paper on a curious Etymological Subject has been tranfmitted to us by Dr. BEDDOES, to whom it had been communicated by an intelligent Friend.

For the Monthly Magazine. HAVING fome reafons for believing

time is originally the word tyde, used at prefent to denote the rife and fall of the fea-I wish them to be fubmitted to thẹ curious in language.

I am aware of the illufions of fancy, to which the ftudent of words is perpetually liable;-but as I defire nothing more than "to difabufe myself from error," on all occafions, my reafons, I hope, will be thoroughly examined;-for in what I now offer, the hiftorian of mankind feems to have a concern; for an art or contrivance is attempted to be demonftrated as having an exiftence prior to the remoteft antiquity which tradition can inform us of-1 mean the ufe of the tyde, to reckon the progress of the common affairs of life among north. ern nations.

The word tyde is ufed with a little variation at prefent in the north of our island

Vide, Grafe's Gloffary, words tider

and

and aftite, "tider up caw;" let him that is up first, call the reft.-North.

The word tyde is used very generally over the island in fome words, and means time, as Shrove-tyde, Whitfun-tyde, &c.

Chaucer ufes the word tyde, for time, more frequently than our writers do at prefent.

"And by day in every tyde, "Ben all the dores open wyde " Third Book of Fame. Again, in Thyfbe of Babiloyne, "And, for the feldes ben fo brode & wyde, "For to mete in o place at o tyde, "They fet markes,"

and not always for the purpose of a rhyme, for the following is from a profe tranfla

tion"Thou devydeft the fwyfte tydes of the nyght, whan the hote fommer is comen." Firf Book of Boecius. The Saxon word tid, Mr. Grose says, means, in English, time.

The words tyde and time, have fimilar meaning the difference between them in the fpelling, is an objection to their having the fame original derivation-and here is a want of proof, which might deter me from going further into this enquiry; but for reasons derived from the ftate of the people and the country, to whom I fufpect the word belongs, I fhall venture further. The word tid is northern-the northern countries of Europe, next Britain, have much coaft, and the inhabitants (perhaps originally in moft countries fixed next the fea and great rivers) perpetually faw ocean rolling his tyde up and down their fhores, and along their great rivers. Thus fituated, they beheld the progrefs of the fall and rife of the fea-they fifhed for fubfiftence the fuccefs and other conveniences of fuch an occupation, were influenced by a proper choice of the tyde-the choice of tyde regulated, and was extended to other occupations of life-regularity was introduced, and a proper tyde or time chofen-Life was improved; and the true fcavoir vivre (not the brutal prostitution of appetite and fenfe of modern days) was thus begun.

It would be easy to mark the tide in its progrefs. At Chepstow, for example, the tyde rifes generally about 60 feet; that is, 10 feet an hour; by an upright poft then, marked with foot divifions, I could find 21 feet washed by the tyde every houra divifion of time, or tyde, exact enough to regulate the commencement and duration of most of the common occupations of life in earlier ages.

Art has fuperfeded nature-and the tyde no longer used to mark the fleeting courfe of things the word time is now trans

ferred to mean other motions than the waters of the ocean, as the diffolution of king Alfred's three candles, each of which burned 8 hours-the motion of the fun, marked by the fhadow on the dial plate, and the motion of fand through an hour glass, and of the hands of a watch over a graduated circle ;-but the end of all is the fame, and muft all coincide with the never ceafing retrograde and progreffive motions of the tydes.-It is agreeable to the admirers of Nature, to find, if Art has fuperfeded Nature, fhe is still founded on her inftitutions.

The frequent use of the word betyde in Chaucer, is in favour of the above conjecture.

Bath, 29, Rivers fireet.

M.D.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

AS Mr. Hume retains a great reputation for the excellence of his ftyle, and his political propenfities would probably lead him to particular exertion in his character of Charles II. perhaps it may not be unentertaining to fome of your readers, if I give a flight examination of the compofition in his delineation of that monarch, in this and fome future numbers. What is liable to no specific exception in point of impropriety, but is merely infipid, inelegant, and flovenly, I shall distinguish by the Italic letter.

"If we furvey the character of Charles II. in the different lights, that it will admit of, it will appear various, and give rise to different and even oppofite fentiments."

Survey is an improper term in this application. Accurate writers employ it with reference to large and extended objects, not to the niceties of minute infpection. And is the reader much enlightened, who learns, that a character, that admits of different lights, appears various? How flat the fentiment! how meagre_the compofition!

"When confidered as a companion, he appears the most amiable and engaging and indeed, in this view, his deportment must be allowed altogether unexceptionable."

of men ;

Appears, recurs too foon after it's ufe in the former paragraph; but carelessness of this kind is abundant in this hiftorian.

"His love of raillery was fo tempered with good breeding, that it was never offenfive."

This inharmonious claufe proves the writer unacquainted with thofe charms of rythmical cadence, that give exquifite delight to readers of fenfibility, and are the criterion of true taste in compofition.

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