with a more calm and better diffembled malice: he has charged his inftrument of revenge with a fort of white powder, that does the fame bafe action, though with lefs noife. It is cruci thus to interrupt the peace of the dead; and Luther's fpirit has reafon to expoftulate with this man, as once the fpirit of Samuel did with Saul Why haft thou difquieted me, to bring me up." He knows the fequel of the ftory: the answer that was given was no very pleating one; it only afforded the enquirer an account of his own difcomfiture. Let us fee whether this disturber of Luther's afhes will have any better fortune.

66

The method of the pamphlet is every way infufficient : and let the Spirit of Martin Luther be as evil as it is fuppofed to be, yet the proof this would not blaft any one fingle truth of that Religion he profetied. But to take off all feeming objections, and fop the mouths of the most unreafonable gainfayers, I have examined even this little pretence too; and find, upon a faithful enquiry, that Luther's life was led up to thofe doctrines he preached, and his death was the death of the righteous. Were I not confined by the character of an aufwer to wipe off the afperfions that are brought, I could fwell this book to twice the bulk, by fetting out that beft fide of Luther which our author, in the picture he has given us of him, has, contrary to the method of painters, thrown into shade, that he might place a fuppofed deformity or two the more in view. He was a man certainly of high endowments of mind, and great virtues he had a vaft understanding, which raifed him up to a pitch of learning unknown to the age in which he lived; his knowledge in Scripture was admirable, his clocution manly, and his way of reafoning with all the fubtilty that thofe honeft plain truths he delivered would bear: bis thoughts were bent always on great defigns, and he had a refolution fitted to go through with them the affurance of his mind was not to be shaken or furprized; and that wasia of his (for 1 know not what clie to call it) before the Diet at Worms, was fuch as might have become the days of the Apoftles. His life was holy; and, when he had leifure for retirement, fevere: his virtues active chiefly, and homilitical, not thofe lazy fullen ones of the cloyfter. He had ambition but in the fervice of God: for other things, neither his enjoyment nor wishes ever went higher than the bare conveniences of living. He was of a temper particularly averfe to covetoufuefs, or any bafe fin; and charitable even to a fault, without refpect to his own occafions. If among this crowd of virtues a failing crept in, we must remember that an Apoftle himself has not been irreprovable: if in the body of his doctrine one flaw is to be feen; yet the greatest lights of the church, and in the pureft times of it, were, we know, not exact in all their opinions. Upon the whole, we have certainly great reafon to break out in the phrafe of the prophet, and fay- "How beautiful upon the "mountains are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings!"

no

To this volume are fubjoined additions and corrections for this, as well as the two preceding ones. Some of thefe will appear interefting only to the very curious antiquarian.

H 4

But

But the Duke of Wharton's poems on the banishment of Cicero, and on the Bishop of Rochefter's preaching, eminently characterized by a liveliness of wit, fublimity of imagination, and a pleasing felicity of expreffion, must afford a very delightful entertainment to all who have a tafte for poetical compofition. Our limits will not admit of extracts from there pieces. We shall only mention, for the fatisfaction of our Readers, that the verfes on the banishment of Cicero were written when Bishop Atterbury was fent into exile and that many flattering circumftances common to the fortunes of the Roman orator, and the chriftian divine and prelate, are selected with a delicate art, and fet forth in all the pomp of numbers.

There is a general obfervation to be made on the whole of these remains of Doctor Atterbury; that even in the most careless productions of his pen, we every where difcover the most claffical purity of ftyle. This indeed was more ftudied both in writing and public fpeaking, in the reign of Queen Ann than it is at prefent. There is none of our orators to be compared with Lord Bolingbroke, either for fublimity of genius, or propriety of style. In the fpeeches of Mr. Burke, the most cultivated undoubtedly of our fpeakers, we meet with phrases and words by no means authorized by the English claffics. Our moft claffical speakers appear to be the Lords Mansfield and Loughborough in the houfe of Lords, and Mr. Pitt and Lord Mulgrave in the house of Commons. In fpeaking and in writing there is at present a very great flovenlinefs. "I have made up my mind." "That defcription of men," "It meets my idea."-Thefe with many other barbarous innovations difgrace the public difcourfe, and the epiftolary correfpondence of the greatest characters of the prefent age. It was not fe in the days of Atterbury correctness and purity of ftile were generally ftudied and with great juftice and propriety. It is purity of ftyle alone that can tranfmit any compofition to pofterity. The writers of the Auguftan age are eafily understood and admired, while the barbarifms of later writers are unintelligible.

ART. XIII. Hiftory of the Difpute with America; from its Origin in 1754. Written in the Year 1774. By John Adams, Efq; 8vo. 2s. 6d. Stockdale.

THE

HE objects of this performance, at the time it was written, appear to have been, to roufe the Americans to a fenfe of their right to liberty, and to point out the

circumstances which rendered it probable that by continued and unanimous exertion they would be enabled to obtain it. For what purpose it is publifhed at this day, and in the prefent crifis, it is difficult to conjecture. It is, poffible that Mr. Adams may not be actuated by any political motive whatever, and that he has published this pamphlet, as fo many other writers do theirs, from a love of fame. His predictions are certainly, for the most part, verified, and he is a man of good fenfe, extenfive information, and found obfervation.

In the year 1774, as appears from this publication, the moft ftrenuous advocates for the rights and liberties of the Americans contended, not for an entire difunion from Great Britain, but for a redress of grievances, and a happy reconciliation.Towards the conclufion of the pamphlet we find fome very juft and ingenious obfervations on the importance of a communication of fentiments among the people.

What the eloquence and talents of Demofthenes could not effect, among the States of Greece, might have been effected by fo fimple a device. Caftile, Arragon, Valencia, Majorca, &c. all complained of oppreffion under Charles the Fifth ; flew out into tranfports of rage, and took arms against himBut they never confulted or communicated with each other.They refifted feparately, and were feparately fubdued. Had Don Juan Padilla, or his wife, been poffeffed of the genius to invent a Committee of Correfpondence, perhaps the Liberties of the Spanish Nation might have remained to this hour.'

This tract for it is improperly ftiled a " Hiftory," may be deemed a curiofity by the Americans of future times.

FOREIGN

LITERATUR E. ART. XIV. Traité fur le Venin de la Vipere, fur les Poifons Amer cains, fur le Laurier Cerife, & fur quelques autres Poifons vegeteaux &c. Par M. Fontana, Florence. 2 tomes en 4to. Elmfly. London. A Treatise concerning the Poison of the Viper, the American Poisons, the Lauro-cerafus, and fome other vegetable Poifons. With Obfervations relative to fome other Subjects. Plates.

IN

(Concluded from our Review for December.)

N the arrangement of this work there is the fame want of regularity as in Pricftley's experiments on different kinds of air. The author frequently quits a topic and afterwards returns to it again. He is however of opinion that the disadvantages arifing from this neglect of order are compenfated by its placing the reader in the fame point of view in which he himself stood.

Having

Having related in the firft volume, fome experiments made in order to afcertain the efficacy of a remedy against the bite of the viper, he refumes the fame fubject at the beginning of the fecond. Among many fubftances which he traced, he found that fomentation with warm oil of turpentine and water beft answered the end he had in view; this method of cure however was very far from being always fuccefsful. The amputation of the limb, foon after the bite, prevented the effects of the poifon. The author was led by thefe experiments to make a very remarkable obfervation on fowls. He had before feen that when the comb was bit, the virulence of the venom was chiefly exerted upon the wattles: this led him to cut away the wattles after he had caufed a viper to bite the comb, and he found that by this means the animal was preferved. Even a ligature thrown round above the wounded part, almoft conftantly faved the life of pigeons, but when the experiment was made upon other animals, the refult disappointed the hopes which Mr. Fontana had begun to entertain of having difcovered a fafe and eafy prefervative against the poifon. In the fupplement, this enquiry is once more taken up, and it would feem that the quickfime, when fpeedily applied may be reafonably expected to prevent the confequences of the bite of the viper. It may be fufpected that this preparation acts mechanically by crifping the mouths of the veffels by which the venom is taken up and carried into the fyftem. The author accordingly brought this fufpicion to the teft of experiment, and proves it to be ill founded, for the mineral acids, the lapis infernalis, &c. fubftances equally cauftic are not equally effcctual against the poifon. Quicklime, moreover, when previously mixed with the envenomed fluid, prevents its ufual ill effects. If upon fome occafions the animal died when it was applied, the author attributes this failure to its not having come in contact with the whole furface of the wound. We next meet with a relation of various experiments made with the American poifon called ticienas, and poisoned arrows from the Eaft and Weft-Indies. If we were to lay the refult before our Readers, we fhould be obliged to repeat what we have already had occafion to fay on the poifon of the viper. When mixed with the blood, the pernicious effects of thefe poisons were conftantly produced; but when applied to the nerves, they appeared to be harmless.

But the mode of action of the American poifon feems to be different. The venom of the viper evidently coagulates the blood, the American poifon does not deftroy its fluidity,

*For fo we tranflate "Pierre á cautére."

but

but it produces a morbid alteration on the lungs. Our Readers may recollect that the very fame phænomenon was obferved in thofe experiments with laurel water which were fuggefted by the murder of Sir Theodofius Boughton. "When it is injected into the jugular vein, fays the author," it is difficult to imagine how it comes to destroy the animal fo fuddenly. It no fooner touches the breaft than the animal ceases to live; nor is it more eafy to conceive why it proves fo foon fatal to cold animals, which live when the fluids no longer circulate; they however ftruggle longer against the poifon than hot animals. Yet the alteration, produced by the poifon on the blood, occafions greater diforder in the former clafs than the ftoppage of the circulation.

As death fo foon follows the introduction of the poison into the blood, one may fufpect that there exifts in this fluid fome active, volatile, and fubtle principle, fuch as the eye cannot perceive, even when aided by the microscope. This principle muft according to the hypothefis be neceffary to life, and at the fame time the fubject of the action of the poison.

We shall be more inclined to adopt this fuppofition, if we confider that the poifon of the viper prevents the coagulation of extravafated blood, while it produces. the very contrary effect upon that which is contained in the veffels. Hence it would feem that fomething muft evaporate when it is expofed to the air.

The Reader will doubtlefs remark the coincidence of this fuppofition with the opinion of Mr. Hunter, concerning the vitality of the blood, but let him alfo remark its infufficiency to explain the cause of the death of fome cold animals. The frog, the toad, and the water newt live long after all their blood has been evacuated Nay what is fill more furprizing, the Abbé Spallanzani, after having emptied the veffels of these animals buried them in fnow; they became torpid; and when he had expofed them again to a proper degree of heat, they recovered just as well as those which had fuftained no lofs of their fluids; from this fine experiment it appears that the fuppofition of any principle neceffary to life in the blood is repugnant to direct facts.

We have next two memoirs on the lauro-cerafus. An atrocious action committed in this country a few years ago, rendered this plant an object of general attention, and fome enquiries were inftituted concerning the effects of the products obtained by diftillation from the leaves, and they proved that they were violently poisonous. From Mr. Fontana's memoirs, we learn the fame thing.

He was at

first