of Dr. Lind's method, nor to thofe of Mr. Hoffman's, first attempted in the year 1765, and of others, practifed about the fame time. Nothing is required but a fimple tube, which is eafily made, even at fea, and applied to the fhip's kettle or boiler. This tube is to be fitted clofe to the top of the boiler, and placed in an horizontal direction, in order to prevent any compreffion of the fluid; and by means of a mop, paffed along its upper furface, to be kept conftantly wet. We must refer to his own account for the farther improvements of this practicable and useful contrivance; and conclude with Captain Phipps's recital of the advantages attending it.

We began this day (June 20th) to make ufe of Dr. Ir. ving's apparatus for diftilling fresh water from the fea: repeated trials gave us the most fatisfactory proof of its utility: the water produced from it was perfectly free from falt, and wholefome; being ufed for boiling the fhip's provifions; which convenience would alone be a defirable object in all voyages, independent of the benefit of fo ufeful a refource in cafe of difftrefs for water.

The quantity produced every day varied from accidental circumstances, but was generally from thirty-four to forty gallons, without any great addition of fuel. Twice indeed, the quantity produced was only twenty-three gallons on each diftillation; this amounts to more than a quart for each man, which, though not a plentiful allowance, is much more than what is neceffary for fubfiftence. In cafes of real neceffity I ; have no reafon to doubt that a much greater quantity might be produced without an inconvenient expence of fuel.'

The laft article in the appendix is an account of the aftronomical obfervations and time-keepers, by Mr. Lyons; who, for this purpose, embarked in the voyage, by appointment of the Board of Longitude.

• For Remarks on this part of the work, our Readers are referred to the next enfuing article. R...S.

ART. VIII. Remarks on the Obfervations made in the late Voyage towards the North Pole, for determining the Acceleration of the Pendulum, in Latitude 79° 50'. By Samuel Horfley, LL. D. Sec. R. S. In a Letter to the Hon. Conftantine John Phipps. 4to. is. White. 1774.

DR

R. Horley, in this publication, has detected two errors in the calculations of Mr Ifrael Lyons relating to the gain of the pendulum recited in the foregoing article: which, per haps, were owing more to hurry and negligence (for either of which, however, we do not conceive that any excufe can be arged, that will prove fatisfactory to the Public) than to the want of fufficient mathematical knowledge. To whatever caufe

K 2

the

the intelligent and candid may afcribe them, it is proper to obferve, in this place, that Captain Phipps is no otherwife accountable for them than by fuffering them to pafs, unexamined and uncorrected. They do not, however, immediately affect the truth of the general obfervation; but reduce the evidence of the acceleration of the pendulum to the comparifon with the watch, and the fix altitudes of the fun taken with the aftronomical quadrant for determining the lofs of the watch.' The farther confirmation of this aftronomical defideratum deduced from the observation of the fun's return to the vertical wire of the equatorial telefcope, is clearly evinced to be "imaginary," and to arife merely from an error in the computation.

As to the ultimate conclufion that thefe obfervations give a figure of the earth nearer to Sir Ifaac Newton's computation, than any others which have hitherto been made' (see the preceding article), Dr. Harfley's reasoning feems materially to affect it. If (lays he) the meridians be ellipfes, or, if the fi gure of the earth be that of a fpheroid generated by the revolution of an ellipfis, turning on its fhorter axis, the particular figure, or the ellipticity of the generating ellipfis, which your obfervations give, is nearer to what Sir Ifaac Newton faith it fhould be, if the globe were homogeneous, than any that can be derived from former obfervations. But yet it is not what you imagine. Taking the gain of the pendulum in latitude 79° 50' exactly as you ftate it, the difference between the equatorial and the polar diameter, is about as much lefs than the Newtonian computation makes it, and the hypothefis of homogeneity would require, as you reckon it to be greater. The proportion of 212 to 211 fhould indeed, according to your obfervations, be the proportion of the force that acts upon the pendulum at the poles, to the force acting upon it at the equator. But this is by no means the fame with the proportion of the equatorial diameter to the polar. If the globe were homogeous, the equatorial diameter would exceed the polar by of the length of the latter and the polar force would alfo exceed the equatorial by the like part. But if the difference between the polar and equatorial force be greater than, (which may be the cafe in an heterogeneous globe, and feems to be the cafe in ours,) then the difference of the diameters fhould, according to theory, be less than 2, and vice versa.

In confequence of this reafoning, and by means of a theorem, demonftrated by Monf. Clairault, in his treatise on the Figure of the Earth, Dr. H. determined the ellipticity of the earth's figure, according to the obfervations of the pendulum now published, to be. This, he fays, is the true conclufion on the fuppofition, that the meridians are ellipfes: a fuppofition, though

though it is the foundation of the prefent theory, the truth of which, he thinks, may be queftioned from experiment. According to this hypothefis, the increment of the force which actuates the pendulum, as we approach the poles, should be as the fquare of the fine of the latitude; or which is the fame thing, the decrement, as we approach the equator, should be as the fquare of the cofine of the latitude.' But, Dr. H. apprehends, that obfervations of the pendulum in different latitudes, feveral of which are here fubjoined, do not eftablish this proportion. If the meridians are not ellipfes, the difference of the diameters may indeed, or it may not, be proportional to the difference between the polar and the equatorial force; but it is quite an uncertainty, what relation fubfifts between the one quantity and the other; our whole theory, except fo far as it relates to the homogeneous fpheroid, is built upon falfe affumptions, and there is no faying, what figure of the earth any obfervations of the pendulum give.'

This pamphlet ought to be annexed to every copy of Captain Phipps's book, and bound up with it. R.. s.

125.

ART. IX. Moral Difcourfes on Providence, &c. By Thomas Hunter, M. A. Vicar of Weaverham in Cheshire. 8vo. 2 vols. fewed. Warrington, printed. Sold by Cadell in London. 1774.

TH

HE first volume of these fermons is entirely devoted to the proof of a fuperintending providence, and a vindication of the methods of the divine government. The great aim of the preacher is to manifeft the righteoufnefs of providence in humbling the proud, punishing the luxurious, and ordaining ftates and kingdoms to rife or fall according to the degree in' which virtue or vice prevailed among them; occafionally endeavouring to illuftrate and fupport his affertions, by inftances. drawn from ancient and modern history.

• We cannot, says Mr. Hunter, fpeaking of the state of nations, the fall of states and empires, close the page of ancient eastern story, without calling a mournful eye on the broken, yet elegant remains of Palmyra, At the first fight, or mere reprefentation of these ruins, as they are exhibited to us by the curious travellers, their magnificence and elegance ftrike you with a pleafing wonder, which is immediately fucceeded, at least I found it fo, with a deep fenfibility of the uncertainty of human greatnefs, and the awful process of a divine providence, in thus humbling the efforts of human pride. In this fcene of defolation, I thought there appeared vifibly the hand of Heaven. The ravage of an enemy rarely makes fuch univerfal ruin, or extends to the laboured demolition of every monument of art, especially where the materials are fo hard and durable, and no advantage accrues to the ravager. The city might have been difmantled upon policy; but it could ferve no interests to tear its bowels, and rend it as it were piece-meal, and limb from limb.

K 3

But

But what, or whoever was the executioner, there appears to me the hand of a righteous God in the execution. City or empire never fell thus low, without fome diftinguished and inveterate crimes of the poffeffors preceding. The very ruins before us yet fpeak and tell us, that the Palmerines were a delicate and diffolute people; and the reflection of the critic on this occafion is both jult and obvious. The want of this fpecies of architecture (the Doric) makes me fofpect, the ruins which now remain, were built at a time, when an unbounded luxury had over-run the state, and almost extinguished the natural tafte for truth and propriety *." And afterwards; "I am inclinable to think the ruins now before us were erected in the age immediately preceding, or in that of Zenobia herself, when the fplendid Corinthian order only could fatisfy the luxury of the times, which had eradicated that tafte for propriety, which other wife would be occafionally delighted with the milder charms of the Doric ordert." That the Palmerines were grown to a high degree of luxury, is to me evident enough by a letter extant of Aurelian to Zenobia, commanding her fubmiffion : "Gemmas, argentum, aurum, fericum, equos, tamelos, in ærarium Romanum conferas." And the fame writer continuing the fubject of this people, or rather of the emperor's victory over them, adds, "tunc ille vestes quas in •Emplo Jolis videmus, conferta gemmis; tum Perfici dracones et tiara; tum genus purpuræ quod poftea nec ulla gens detulit, nec Romanus orbis vidit §." The ingenious travellers, who have favoured the Public with thefe curious ruins, have obferved that the Palmerines were, in the time of Mark Anthony, a rich, trading, and free people. How long they had been in poffeffion of these advantages we are left to conjecture. It seems probable, that their riches, and of courfe their trade, muft have been of fome ftanding; for we fhall find by: the infcriptions, that in less than forty years after, they were luxurious and expenfive to fuch a degree, as must have required confiderable wealth to support.

So juft, obferves Mr, H. and, in general, fo certain, are God's judgments to pursue the wicked, and fo regularly has vengeance overtaken enormous offenders, that you may often forefee the tyrant's death by his life, and foretell the cruelties he has to fuffer, by thofe he has exercifed: thus generally it fares with nations and public communities; and though we may not prefume to limit the mercy of God, nor comprehend all the ways of his providence, yer this we may fafely affirm, that there has been fcarcely a kingdom or people on earth, with whofe hiftory we are acquainted, who have been fignal fufferers, before they had manifefted themselves to be diftinguished finners; and we may almoft predict the fate of a nation from the ftate of its morals. Before the Tartars fubdued the kingdom of Corea, we are told that it was full of luxury and debauchery, the whole bufinefs of the Corefians being eating and drinking, and giving themfelves up to all lewdnefs. And we may prefume from the little oppofition which the fame Tartars met with in their invafions of the other Chinese provinces, that they were

greatly degenerated, and fallen into a flate of cowardice and effeminacy at the time of this invafion; when to use the language of the hiftorian, it is faid, "the Tartars began to try their valour against the delights of China *." A remarkable inftance of this degenerate spirit we have in the conduct of the Emperor Vu an Lie. The ene my entered his capital, filled it with blood and flaughter, and coming to his palace, found him fast asleep, and wholly ignorant of the difafter.'

Among the feveral examples with which this Writer illuftrates his fubject, it was to be expected that our own country would not be neglected. He greatly applauds Lord Clarendon as an hiftorian who frequently and piously acknowledges the hand of providence; and he complains that the later writers of history are of a different caft; taking even lefs notice of a fuperior influence in human affairs than Pagans themselves have done. We agree with Mr. Hunter in fuppofing that fome general reflections of the religious kind, might be very fuitably introduced, at times, amidst the detail of public occurrences, if we are duly guarded against superstition, or bigotted and party applications: we alfo agree with him in allowing to Lord Clarendon the merit of a pious writer, but it is at the fame time very evident that he wrote under the power of party prejudice, and was not free from fuperftition. We shall fubjoin to these curfory hints fome extracts from thefe difcourfes relative to the English hiftory.

'Were we, it is obferved, to read the hiftory of any nation in Europe with an eye to its providential adminiftration, it would give us better information, more profit, as well as delight, than the political refinements of the most celebrated wits of Rome or Italy. Examine the history of France, Spain, or Britain, with this providential key in your hand, it will give you a better infight into the caufes of the rife or decline, the profperity or diftrefs, as founded in the morals, of each nation, than the fpeculations, the comments and bold conjectures of the most fharp fighted politician, or latef man, can afford you. There is a time, when the abundance of God's bleffings in the natural world is abufed and applied to luxury and excefs; and then heaven interpofes by plague or famine to check man's misapplication, and to teach him moderation and pious gratitude. There is a time when peace is abufed as well as plenty, and men under no danger from abroad, grow fearleЛly wicked and licentious at home. To remedy this, war is fent from the magazine of God, to lay waste the nations, and to teach mankind to enjoy their happiness with fobriety and a chafte joy. There is a time, when the tyrants of the earth, elated with flattery, and grown mad with pride, exalt themfelves above humanity, and treat their fubjects as flaves, regardlefs of the rights and properties of those whom they fhould protect, and defpifers of both God and man. Against thefe God raises up a spirit of liberty within the bowels of their own

Navarette in Churchill's Voyages, vol. i.
K 4

kingdom