• Handy. You'd not be so lost to feeling, as to take his mea fure before he's dead?

--

Coffin. Cuftom makes it familiar us. As for lofing my feeling, fir, ha! ha! not that I fay it, there's not a man in the city of Bath, that has a finer feeling than I have. Why, fir, I had intelligence the other day of a dying nabob, whom our good friends, the faculty, had turned over to our management, by declaring that he had not above five hours to live.-This intelligence made it neceffary for me to go poft to his lodging to fecure his conveyance; but unfortunately could not get fight of the body; a Mr. Shroud, a little trifling infignificant fellow, having got poffeffion of the house before me, was promifed the job. However mortifying the circumftance, I did not think it prudent to withdraw from the premifes; fo hiding myfelf for two days and two nights in a coal-hole, on the morning after the fecond night's watch, I heard a great confufion in the house: fo I ventured out of my hiding-place-whipped into the bedroom, and found my object in a very good way.

Handy. What do you mean by a good way, Mr. Coffin? Coffin. A dying, a dying, fir; and as I faid before, having a very fine feeling, with this finger and thumb I felt a pulfe in his throat rather quick-I concluded he must be in great pain; and fo out of pure humanity, I fcientifically prefied it a little, and the poor gentleman gave it up very quietly:-I then whipped this rule out of my pocket, (I never move about without my pocket companion) took his dimenfions, and fecured the job; and it turned out a very profitable one indeed.

Handy. Had not your feelings been fo very fine, the nabob might not have wanted your affiftance quite fo foon.

Coffin. O! poor gentleman! as for that matter, when the faculty have pronounced fentence that a patient cannot live fix hours from that time-I think if a patient might by chance out-live the judgment of the faculty three or four days, 'tis of very little confequence to a man, when it comes to that, you know, whether he lives four days or four minutes. 'Handy. Indeed!

Coffin. Certainly. And for my part, when a fellow-creature is in pain, or troubled with a bad confcience, as thefe nabobs in general are, I think one cou'd not do a more humane action than to give them a lift, as we call it in the way of business. And if you please, Mr. Handy, to give me a fight of your mafter, I'll foon determine the number of hours he has to live, only by grafping his pipe a little.'

In our opinions, The Mode' and The Generous Counterfeit' are the best plays in this collection. The plot of the former is unravelled with very great addrefs; and the conduct of the latter, though intricate, is never improbable. We think Mr. Davies, with a little more attention in the line. which we have endeavoured to point out, may become a fuc

cefsful

cefsful writer for the ftage. His tafte feems, on the whole, too faftidious: if we attempt to refine or analyfe our pleasure too nicely, we may lofe its poignancy, or find the ingredients infipid or unwholefome, while the compound is pleasant and falutary.

Sylva; or, a Difcourfe of Forest Trees. By J. Evelyn, Efq. F. R. S. With Notes by A. Hunter, M. D. F. R. S. 4to. 21. 155. in Boards. Cadell.

THE

"HE numerous editions of Mr. Evelyn's work are fufficient evidences of its merit. The author was one of the first members of the Royal Society: eager in the purfuit of learning, he collected vaft ftores of fcience both from England and Italy; and, in his retirement, which, from the political state of his own country, and his peculiar connections, became a measure of prudent precaution, he matured his various acquifitions, and improved them. The forests of England were its ornament and its defence: we have reafon to fuppofe, on good authority, that, when the famous Spanish armada was defined to invade, to conquer England, its commanders were inftructed not to leave the kingdom till at least they had deftroyed the foreft of Dean. The neceffity of fuel, the demands of a numerous and a bulky navy, had began, in our author's time, to lessen the number of the monarchs of the wood :' he complains that the plantations were not fufficiently numerous to fupply the wafte; and, for near eighty years afterwards, the complaint would have had a much better foundation. It has been the great object of the Society of Arts to encourage plantations; and yet we have reafon to think that the next age will find the oak, proper for fhip-building, ftill more scarce than it is at prefent. It would indeed require very large fupplies to be equal to the demand of a nation which trades to fo great an extent as England does at prefent, and which preferves the navigation act fo inviolate.

The Sylva contains a defcription of the trees which adorn our forefts and plantations; the method of propagating them. is explained; their properties, both mechanical and medical, in general afcertained. The feveral accounts are enlivened by, entertaining anecdotes, the different applications of the tree itfelf, or its wood, and various quotations from ancient au-, thors. The concluding chapters treat of the difeafes of trees, their decay, and the various accidents to which they are fre-, quently expofed. Indeed, in every part of the work Mr. Evelyn difplays very extenfive information, accurate philofophical views, and a confiderable share of polite literature; the

Sylva

Sylva is debased only by a credulity fomewhat too eager. The author does not always appear to be fuperior to a belief in magic. The language, to a polished ear, may appear harsh and antiquated; but it has a rugged energy, more captivating than polished periods, and better adapted to its fubject. It is terfe, expreffive, and fometimes fublime.

We could not avoid faying fo much of a work, which, before it received the fostering affiftance of Dr. Hunter, began to fink into the vale of oblivion. The philofophy had affumed an antiquated form; for chemistry had, in many respects, elucidated the phyfiology of vegetables, had analyfed their food, and inveftigated their fucceffive progrefs, almost from the period of their animation. Many of the facts were, in Mr. Evelyn's time, very little understood; he often doubts, and fometimes errs. In all these refpects he is corrected by his very able and accurate editor; whofe notes are numerous, extenfive, and generally fatisfactory. He has fupplied the new discoveries refpecting vegetation, has added accurate references to the fyftem of Linnæus, as well as the modern improvements in the propagation of the different trees. On the whole, as the work now appears, it comprehends every kind of useful information on the subject. Experience has corrected fome of Mr. Evelyn's accounts of the ufes to which different woods may be most commodiously applied, which Dr. Hunter has not fubjoined. In this inftance only he seems not to have been fufficiently careful. The plates, in Dr. Hunter's edition, are numerous, and executed with accuracy and neatness.

As the work is not modern, and of a miscellaneous kind, it would be neither proper nor easy to select an adequate fpecimen. The notes chiefly relate to the text, except when the editor explains the modern fyftems of vegetation. Independent, however, of these corrections, there are many improvements in the management of trees and gardens: fome of these were published in the Georgical Effays of the editor, and fome now first appear. They are however, in general, too long to be transcribed.

To this edition, the Terra of Mr. Evelyn is annexed: this work has already been the fubject of our remarks, in our Forty-fixth Volume, p. 130. It was then published by Dr. Hunter, who had elucidated and explained it in the fame manner as the Sylva. They are proper companions to each other; and we owe our thanks to Dr. Hunter for the very advantageous form in which he has fent them into the world.

Travels

Travels in North America, in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782. By the Marquis de Chaftellux. Tranflated from the French. In Two Volumes. 8vo. 14s. Robinfons.

THESE Travels will excite, in different minds, various and oppofite fentiments. By the Englishman they will be read with indignation and disguft, as they contain numerous mifreprefentations of the conduct of his countrymen, with encomiums, equally exaggerated, on their foes; by the natural historian, with a cool contempt of the academician's' remarks; by the politician, with eager expectation; and, by the more indifferent enquirer, with pleasure and with interest. If we diveft ourselves of either of the former characters, the work will appear highly entertaining: it gives a lively picture of a state of society with which we have been hitherto little acquainted: it paints the appearances of nature in her favage wildness, and delineates the ftruggles of art in rendering the country habitable, with its gradual fuccefs in the conteft. The marquis travels through America as a friend and an ally: he fees a great and rifing kingdom in every step; fimplicity and innocence dance before him with playful gambols; and, captivated with the nnrefined manners to which he is every where a witness, he does not perceive that, with the luxuries of Europe, the Americans have every where imported its vices. They do not form a nation, in that early ftate of infancy, which has been reprefented: every page of their boafted panegyric shows that their exceffes are only prevented by want of means to fupply them; that the infection is deeply rooted, and only requires a proper foil, with a genial funfhine, to expand and come to maturity.

The marquis's partiality is eafily accounted for. We have formerly obferved that, in France, liberty was the darling theme; and American liberty, it was fuppofed, might be fecurely wished for. With this ardor the marquis went to America; and his Travels were tranfmitted to France in the heat of the war, when it was of confequence to support the ardor of the friends to America in Europe. Nothing discouraging, nothing unfavourable, could then be expected to escape; and, to a fanguine young Frenchman, neither might probably have appeared. Yet there is one leffon apparent, through both thefe volumes, viz. that, even in the best circumftances, the comforts of fociety must be far beyond the reach of the present inhabitants; that the induftrious European, who attempts to emigrate, muft experience greater hardhips in America than he would encounter in Europe; and, in return, will probably be condemned in general to folitude,

infecurity, and almoft conftant anxiety. America is, in many respects, a new world: it must be established by the war of elements' which has not yet ceased: the inhabitants are furrounded by the native fierce tyrants of the woods; they are furrounded by men, who can at least claim the rights of prior poffeffion, and who will not eafily yield. But what can we fay of the tranflator, who, probably born under the protection of England, difplays not a fair and open enmity, but a rooted virulence; and bears not the sword of the warrior, but the knife of the affaffin? We fpeak not too ftrongly. If there is a circumstance which can make the English name odious, it is difplayed in open daylight; if there is a fact that can make the meanest Englishman contemptible, it is affiduously enlarged on, and the odium applied to his country. Yet this man was in England during the war; was, he tells us, in our camps and hofpitably received in our houses. Can we be surprised then that our national affairs did not fucceed? is it not more furprifing, if this should appear not a folitary instance, that we exist as a nation ? To finish his character, we shall remark that the marquis praises colonel Wadsworth; and the translator adds, that he cannot forbear adding his teftimony to this brilliant, but exaggerated eulogium.' (Vol. I. p. 31.) We can only obferve, that if it be exaggerated it cannot be juft; and, though confeffedly not juft, yet the tranflator will confirm it. Perhaps every reader will recollect Dr. Johnson's account of the obfequious Frenchman, in his fpirited imitation of one of Juvenal's Satires.

*

The marquis lands at Rhode Island, and fets out from Newport for Philadelphia: he then goes to Stoney Point, to Welt Point, to Albany, and to the fatal Saratoga: he returns, through the back country, to the centre of North America, which Penn destined for its capital. In this country he thinks himself tranfported to the wilds of Thrace; and indulges his, fancy with images which could have no exiftence, or with which he was perfonally unacquainted. He furveys the great cataract called Totohaw-fall, which precipitates itfelf from a height of seventy-feet. This defcription is magnificent; but the marquis treads in air, and fees nothing of common dimenfons. In the defcription of general Washington, where we hear in one page of Cæfar, Trajan, Alexander, and even of Apollo; where we are entertained with majestic height and great talents, we are not informed of one thing which he faid or did to advantage, except eating hickery-nuts, and toafting

1 had feen all the camps in England; from many of which drawings and engravings had been taken.” Translator, vol. i. p. 117.