the twelfth edition of the Systema Naturæ of Linnæus it does not appear; but is probably the Dermestes tesselatus of Fabricius, in which case he seems to have placed it in a wrong genus. Ridiculous, and even incredible as it may appear, it is an animal that may in some measure be tamed: at least it may be so far familiarized as to be made to beat occasionally, by taking it out of its confinement, and beating on a table or board, when it will readily answer the noise and will continue to beat as often as required.

We must be careful not to confound this animal, which is the real Death Watch of the vulgar, emphatically so called, with a much smaller insect of a very different genus, which makes a sound/ like the ticking of a watch, and continues it for a long time without intermission. It belongs to a totally different order, and is the Termes pulsatorium of Linnæus.

I cannot conclude this slight account of the Death Watch without quoting a sentence from that celebrated work the Pseudodoxia Epidemica of the learned ir Thomas Brown, who on this subject expresses himself in words like these. He that could eradicate this error from the minds of the people would save from many a cold sweat the meticulous heads of nurses and grandmothers."

The minute and tedious details concerning the singular genus Pausus, transmitted by Dr. Afzelius to the Linnéan Society, are stated with great precision; and we are presented with amusing remarks on the history of some sorts of Attelabus, Lampyris, Elater, Dytiscus, Hydrophilus, Carabus, and Forficula.The Hemipterous families here selected are Blatta, Mantis, Plasma, Gryllus, Fulgora, Cicada, Notonecta, Nepa, Cimex, Aphis, Chermes, Coccus, and Thrips.

Mantis oratoria, or the Camel Cricket, is thus described:

This insect, which is a stranger to the British isles, is found in most of the warmer parts of Europe and is entirely of a beautiful green colour. It is nearly three inches in length, of a slender shape, and in its general sitting posture is observed to hold up the two fore. legs, slightly bent, as if in an attitude of prayer: for this reason the superstition of the vulgar has conferred upon it the reputation of a sacred animal, and a popular notion has often prevailed, that a child or traveller having lost his way, would be safely directed by observing the quarter to which the animal pointed when taken into the hand. In its real disposition it is very far from sanctity; prey. ing with great rapacity on any of the smaller insects which fall in its way, and for which it lies in wait with anxious assiduity in the posture at first mentioned, seizing them with a sudden spring when within its reach, and devouring them. It is also of a very pugnaci. ous nature, and when kept with others of its own species in a state of captivity, will attack its neighbour with the utmost violence, till one or the other is destroy d in the contest. Roesel, who kept some of these insects, observes that in their mutual conflicts their ma œuvres very much resemble those of Huzzars fighting with sabres ; and sometimes one cleaves the other through at a single stroke, or

severs the head from its body. During these engagements the wings are generally expanded, and when the battle is over the conqueror devours his antagonist.'

The devastating progress of the locust is likewise commemorated with singular effect: but the details are too long for, quotation, and most of them have already appeared before the public in other forms. Dr. Shaw very plausibly conjectures that the locusts mentioned in the New Testament, as the food of St. John the Baptist, were of the species which Linné denominates Gryllus cristatus, and which at this day are exposed in the market as an article of food, in various parts of the Levant.

On the singular history of the Aphides, or Plant-lice, which has already more than once attracted our notice, Dr. Shaw has borrowed much important information from a paper of the late Mr. Curtis, which appeared some time ago in the Philosophical Transactions.

Under the Lepidopterous order, the somewhat fanciful subdivisions of the Linnéan school are shortly explained, and a few examples are adduced of some of the most remarkable species of Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalana. On the transformations incident to these families of insects, our readers will doubtless be pleased with the author's sensible and pious reflections:

The alteration of form which the whole of the papilionaceous tribe undergo, and in a particular manner the changes above describ ed of the genus Sphinx, afford a subject of the most pleasing con templation to the mind of the naturalist, and though a deeply philosophical survey demonstrates that there is no real or absolute change produced in the identity of the creature itself, or that it is in reality no other than the gradual and progressive evolution of parts before concealed, and which lay masqued under the form of at insect of a widely different appearance, yet it is justly viewed with the highest admiration, and even generally acknowledged as in the most lively manner typical of the last eventful change.

If any regard is to be paid to a similarity of names, it should seem that the ancients were sufficiently struck with the transformations of the Butterfly, and its revival from a seeming temporary death, as to have considered it as an emblem of the soul; the Greek word un signifying both the soul and a buttefly. This is also confirmed by their allegorical sculptures, in which the butterfly occurs as an emblem of immortality.

Modern naturalists, impressed with the same idea, and laudably solicitous to apply it as an illustration of the awful mystery revealed in the sacred writings, have drawn their allusions to it from the dormant condition of the papilionaceous insects during their state of chrysalis, and their resuscitation from it; but they have, in general, unfortunately chosen a species the least proper for the purpose;

viz. the Silkworm, an animal which neither undergoes its changes under the surface of the earth, nor, when emerged from its tomb, is it an insect of any remarkable beauty; but the larva or caterpillar of the Sphinx, when satiate of the food allotted to it during that state, retires to a very considerable depth beneath the surface of the ground, where it divests itself of all appearance of its former state, and continues buried during several months; then rises to the surface, and bursting from the confinement of its tomb, commences a being of powers so comparatively exalted, and of beauty so superior as not to be beheld without the highest admiration. Even the animated illustration taken from the vegetable world, so justly admired, as best calculated for general apprehension, must yield in the force of its similitude to that drawn from the insect's life, since Nature exhibits few phenomena that can equal so wonderful a transformation.'

The hurried notices with respect to the Phalane are agreeably relieved by an abridged history of the Manufacture of Silk. Part II. of this volume commences with the Neuropterous tribes, which are discussed in a few pages; the only genera which are particularized being Libellula, Ephemera, Phryganea, Hemerobius, Myrmeleon, Panorpa, and Raphidia. The most prominent passages in this division of the work are those which recount the progressive history of the Libellula varia, from the egg to the winged state, and the cunning manner in which the Myrmeleon captures its prey.

Dr. Shaw's illustrations of the Hymenopterous order are limit. ed to Cynips, Tenthredo, Sirex, Ichneumon, Sphex, Chrysis, Vespa, Apis, Formica, and Mutilla. The apparent severity of nature, it is observed, in giving birth to the genus Ichneumon, may be much diminished by supposing that, after the operation of piercing the skin and depositing the eggs has been performed, the caterpillar feels no acute pain, and loses its life by gradual decav.

The account of the common honey-bee is chiefly composed of extracts from Mr. John Hunter's Memoir inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for 1792. Some additional and very curious information on this subject might have been selected from Mr. Huber's observations, which will shortly fall under our consideration.

Oestrus, Tipula, Diopsis, Musca, Tabanus, Culex, Empis, Conops, Asilus, Bombylius, and Hippobosca, are the generic titles of Dr. Shaw's Dipterous catalogue; and most of them are dismissed with provoking brevity. We may remark, however, that Mr. Bracy Clark's wonderful account of Oestrus equi, and Mr. Bruce's relation of the destructive properties of the Zimb, occupy some valuable and attractive pages; and had these passages now appeared for the first time, we should, without hesitation, have transcribed then at length,

The

The concluding, or Apterous section, comprizes Lepisma, Podura, Termes, Pediculus, Pulex, Acarus, Hydrachna, Phalangium, Aranea, Scorpio, Cancer, Monoculus, Oniscus, Scolopendra, and Julus. Here, the figuring article is a long but interesting extract from Mr. Smeathman's history of the Termites. In the selection of his quotations, Dr. Shaw, on this as on former occasions, manifests both taste and judgment: but we fear that he has been less anxious than heretofore to confirm his claims to the merit of an original writer, or to that of a critical expounder and corrector of existing arrangements. Yet we cherish the well-grounded hope that, in the farther prosecution of his undertaking, he will resume his habits of patient investigation, and present us with a more complete and more elaborate analysis of the subjects which wait his discussion. We have only to add, that the plates and typography of the present volume are executed in the same superior style as in those which have preceded it.

ART. IV. A brief Restrospect of the Eighteenth Century. Part the First; containing a Sketch of the Revolutions and Improvements in Science, Arts, and Literature, during that Period. By Samuel Miller, A.M. One of the Ministers of the United Presbyterian Churches in the City of New York, Member of the American Philosophical Society, and Corresponding Member of the Historical Society of Massachusetts. 3 Vols. 8vo. Printed at New York and re-printed for Johnson in London, Price one Guinea, in Boards.

A

HISTORY of literature, science, and the arts, is a more pleasing and instructive theme of contemplation than those registers of the follies and crimes of man which have never ceased to deform the annals of the world; and a review of the progress of mind, during the most recent and splendid period of its improvement, is a task not unworthy of the most ap proved talents and of the most exalted genius. The reverend author of these volumes, however, arrogates to himself no such lofty pretensions, but very candidly acknowleges the com paratively limited range of his reading, his want of access to large libraries, and his ignorance of most of the languages of the continent of Europe, These, we must confess, are very serious disqualifications in one who should attempt an enlarged and liberal retrospect of the literature and philosophy of the eighteenth century: but it is not every writer who would have the ingenuousness to avow them; and Mr. Miller, with a degree of modesty and good sense which cannot be too much commended, limits his exertions to the circumscribed sphere of his opportunities and acquirements. As he aims only at

2

rapid

rapid sketches, he is, for the most part, contented merely to state the principal discoveries, inventions, and improvements which distinguish the important age to which his work refers; and to mention the names of those individuals to whom the world is indebted for them. Such an outline, if drawn with ability and fairness, may better suit the purposes of popular reading than a more detailed and learned analysis, while it may assist the philosophic scholar in preparing more ample and satisfactory records. The author has at least the merit of suggesting and of partly executing an important design, and the honour of inviting the literati of Europe, who possess advantages that have been denied to him, to follow and to excel in the

same career.

Mr. M. thus relates the origin of this publication:

On the 1st day of January, in the year 1801, the author being called, In the course of his pastoral duty, to deliver a sermon, instead of choosing the topics of address most usual at the commencement of a new year, it occurred to him as more proper, in entering on a new century, to attempt a review of the preceding age, and to deduce from the prominent features of that period such moral and religious reflexions as might be suited to the occasion. A discourse, formed on this plan, was accordingly delivered. Some who heard it were pleased to express a wish that it might be published. After determining to comply with this wish, it was at first intended to publish the original discourse, with some amplification; to add a large body of notes for the illustration of its several parts; and to comprise the whole in a single volume. Proposals were issued for the publication in this form, and a number of subscribers gave their names for its encouragement.

Little progress had been made in preparing the work, on this plan, for the press, before the objections to such a mode of arranging the materials appeared so many and cogent, that it was at length thought best to lay aside the form of a sermon and to adopt a plan that would admit of more minuteness of detail, and of greater freedom in the choice and exhibition of facts. This alteration in the structure of the work led to an extension of its limits; materials insensibly accumulated; and that portion which was originally intended to be comprised in a third or fourth part of a single volume gradually swelled into two volumes *.'

This first Part consists of twenty-six chapters, which respectively treat of Mechanical Philosophy, Chemical Philosophy, Natural History, Medicine, (which occupies two chapters), Geography, Mathematics, Navigation, Agricul ture, Mechanic Arts, Fine Arts, Physiognomy, Philosophy of the Human Mind, Classic Literature, Oriental Literature, Modern Languages, Philosophy of Language, History, Biography, Romances and Novels, Poetry, Literary Journals, Political Journals, Literary and Scientific Associa

*The original edition is in two volumes.'

tions,