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debt and intereft will be annually reduced, till the whole be dif 321 charged; and then the affeffment of each parish will be proportionably leffened.-Suppofe, for inftance, the average affefiment of the parishes within the hundreds of Mitford and Launditch fhould amount only to 3500l. and that, from a judgment founded on the accounts and experience of the houfes in Suffolk and Norfolk, the expences of maintaining all the poor within the hundreds of Mitford and Launditch, in and out of the house of induftry, fhould one year with another amount to 2600l. and fuppofe the fums borrowed should amount to 12,000 l. the intereft of that fum at 4 per cent. is 4801. which added to the 2600 1. makes 30801. per ann. overplus then will be 420 1. exclufive of the profits of the work of fome of the poor in the houfe.-To fhow that this is not mere fpeculation, the expences of building and furnishing the house at Bulcamp amounted to 10,000l. the annual income of the house is 308ol. the house was fitted up for the reception of the poor at Michaelmas 1766; it has faved and paid off 30col. Hence it appears that, though the poors rates of the kingdom have in thefe years advanced nearly 1 s. 9 d. in the pound, the parishes in the hundred of Blything have not only not advanced, but have faved nearly 2 s. 5 d. in the pound, which together amount to 4 s. 2 d. in the pound by the land tax affeffiment, without reckoning the reduction of the rates by the average affeffment.'

Here the advantages of these inftitutions are extremely obvious, yet we may venture to conclude that they afford no motives forcible enough to make them univerfally adopted. That adoption must depend upon local contingencies; where a fpirit of this kind, with unanimity, prevails among the neighbouring gentlemen. Innovations, of whatever tendency, are startling to the lower clafs of people; and hardly any idea of future advantage, if it lie beyond the common line of practice, can induce them to a prefent expence. Much lefs are they to be appealed to on principles of humanity; yet it is chiefly on thofe principles that fuch establishments as these must depend for their exiftence.

L.

ART. VII. New Tranflation of the Adelphi of Terence into Blank Verfe,
with Notes by the Tranflator. 8vo. I s. 6d. Dodley, &c.

H

AVING on a former occafion delivered our opinion much in favour of Mr. Colman's tranflation of the Comedies of Terence, we may perhaps be fuppofed to fit down with fome prejudice to the perufal of a work, which feems intended to fuperfede the verfion of the former tranflator. To obviate, therefore, any fufpicion of partiality, we fhall wave all remarks on the feveral excellencies or defects of the refpective tranflations, and content ourselves with fubmitting parallel extracts of the fame paffages from each verfion, leaving it to our Readers to make that comparison which the laft tranflator, by the very nature of his performance, has challenged from the Public.

REV. Apr. 1775.

Y

COL

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a man

Should doat fo much, or fuffer any one
To wind himself so close about his heart,
As to grow dealer to him than himself!
And yet he is not my fon, but my brother's,
Whole bent of mind is wholly different.
I, from youth upward even to this day,
Have led a quiet, and ferene, town-life:
And, as fome reckon fortunate, ne'er
married.

He, in all points the oppofite of this,
Has paft his days entirely in the country
With thrift, and labour; married; had
two fons.

The elder boy is by adoption mine ;
I've brought him up; kept; lov'd him as
[dear,
my own;
Made him my joy, and all my foul holds
Striving to make myself as dear to him.
I give, o'erlook, nor think it requifite.
That all his deeds fhould be controul'd by

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NEW TRANSLATION.
ACT I, SCENE I.
MICIO.

Storax! Not yet is chinus return'd From last night's fupper! not one of the flaves [true,

Who went to feek him! 'tis indeed moft
That if you ftay out late, or chance to play
The truant any where, 'twere better far
That all an angry wife may in her paffion
Say, or imagine fhould befal you, than
What a fond anxious parent apprehends
In th' abfence of a child. A wife, when-
e'er
[other

You ftay from her, perfuades herself an-
Hath won and holds you from her; or

that wine

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I give, forgive, nor hold it neceffary
To carry every point in right of father:
And for the common faults of youth,
which other

Young men make fecrets of to fathers, thefe

Have I most carefully accuftom'd mine
Never to hide from me; for he who learns
A habit of deceiving, or can once
Dare to deceive a father, will the more
Practife on others: better to reftrain,
I think, our children by the principles
Of fhame and generofity than fear.
Thefe are opinions which by no means
fuit
My

1

COLMAN's TRANSLATION. Nor do thefe notions, nor this conduct

please him,

[now, Micio? Oft he comes open-mouth'-" Why how "Why do you ruin this young lad of our's? "Why does he wench? why drink? and why do you

"Allow him money to afford all this? "You let him drels too fine. 'Tis idle in you." [reafon, 'Tis hard in him, unjuft, and out of And he, I think, deceives himfelf indeed, Who fancies that authority more firm Founded on force, than what is built on

friendship;

For thus I reafon, thus perfuade myself:
He who performs his duty, driv'n to't
By fear of punishment, while he believes
His actions are obferv'd, fo long he's wary;
But if he hopes for fecrecy, returns

To his own ways again: but he whom kindness,

Him alfo inclination makes your own: He burns to make a due return, and acts, Prefent or abfen, evermore the fame. 'Tis this then is the duty of a father. To make a fon embrace a life of virtue, Rather from choice, than terror or conftraint.

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[minds;

By which you may conjecture of men's
And when two perfons do the felf-fame
thing,
[one
May oftentimes pronounce, that in the
'Tis dangerous, in t'other 'tis not so:
Not that the thing itself is different,
But he who does it.-In thefe youths I
fee
[prove
The marks of virtue; and, I truft, they'll
Such as we wish them. They have fenfe,
I know;

Attention; in its feafon, liberal fhame;
And fondness for each other; all fure figns
Of an ingenuous mind and noble nature :*
And tho' they ftray, you may at any time
Reclaim them. But perhaps you fear,
they'll prove
Too inattentive to their interest.

Oh

NEW TRANSLATION. My brother. Often he comes bawling [you

to me,

What are you doing, Micio? Why will
Ruin my fon? Why keeps he miftreffes?
Why does he drink? and Why do you
fupply him
[him
With money for his vices? You indulge
Too much in drefs; you are too fond and
foolish,

He is himself unreas'nably fevere :
And much he errs, in my opinion, who
Thinks that authority maintain❜d by force
More weighty, or more durable than that,
Which friendship and aff &tion give to us.
This is the way I argue, and conclude:
He who's compel'd by force to do his duty
Will do it only while he fears to be
Difcover'd; but whenever he may hope
To pals unnotic'd, will again return
To his own difpofition and bad ways.
He, whom you win by kindnefs, will be
good
[ful:
From a good heart: he fudies to be grate
And with you, or away from you 's the

fame.

A father's duty is to bring his fon
To do well rather of his own accord,
Than from the fear of any other man.
Here lies the difference between the parts of
Father and mafter; he who can't obferve it,
Must own he knows not how to govern
children.

But is not this the very man I fpeak of?
It certainly is fo. Why fhould he be
Thus fullen? I fuppofe, as ufual,
He has a quarrel with me.

Dem. I talk not of our fubftance, but
their manners.

Micio. Stay, I was coming too to that: there are [which Signs, Demea, many in mankind, by One may guess eafily of characters: So far, that when two people are engag'd In the fame thing, you often may pronounce, [thereby "This man may do this, and receive "No injury; but not the other :" nor Is that becaufe the matter in itself, Be not the fame, but the men different. Thefe figns appear in them, and in their favour; [turn out, And thence I have good hope they will As we would have them: I perceive they have

Good understandings, and a proper fenfe
Of fhame reciprocal affection: marks,
Of liberal minds and difpofitions, all.
You may bring them to order, when you
please.
(negle&
But then your fears are, left the should
Y 2
The

COLMAN's TRANSLATION. Oh my dear Demea, in all matters elfe Increase of years increases wifdom in us: This only vice age brings along with it; "We're all more worldly-minded, than there's need :" [elfe, Which paffion age, that kills all paflions Will ripen in your fons too.

DEMEA alone.

Never did man lay down fo fair a plan,
So wife a rule of life, but fortune, age,
Or long experience made fome change in
it ;
[thought he knew,
And taught him, that thofe things he
He did not know, and what he held as best,
In practice he threw by. The very thing
That happens to myself. For that hard life
Which I have ever led, my race near run,
Now in the laft ftage, I renounce: and
why?

But that by dear experience I've been told,
There's nothing fo advantages a man,
As mildness and complacency. Of this
My brother and myfelf are living proofs:
He always led an eafy, chearful life;
Good-humour'd, mild, offending nobody,
Smiling on all; a jovial batchelor,
His whole expences center'd in himself.
1, on the contrary, rough, rigid, cross,
Saving, morofe, and thrifty, took a wife :
What miferies did mariage bring!-

had children;

-A new uneafinefs !-and then befides, Striving all ways to make a fortune for them, [health: I have worn out my prime of life and And now, my courfe near finish'd, what

return

Do I receive for all my toil? Their hate. Meanwhile my brother, without any care, Reaps all a father's comforts, Him they love,

Me they avoid to him they open all Their fecret counfels; doat on him; and both faken.

death.

Repair to him; while I am quite for-
His life they pray for, but expect my
(labour,
Thus thofe, brought up by my exceeding
He, at a fall expence, has made his own:
The care all mine, and all the pleasure his.
-Well then, let Me endeavour in my turn
To teach my tongue civility, to give
With open-handed generofity,
Since I am challeng'd to't!-and let Me
[dren!
Obrain the love and reverence of my chil-
And if 'tis bought by bounty and indul-
gence,

too

I will not be behind-hand.-Cash will fail: What's that to me, who am the eldeftborn?

NEW TRANSLATION. The main concern of money. O dear Demea!

To every other purpose of our lives
Years make us wifer: this, old age itself,
Adds to our follies: we old men are all
But too attentive to our money: years
Will give to them that fame attention.

DEMEA folus.

Never did man lay down fo perfect rules For his conduct through life, but circumflance, [produce, Time, custom, ftill fhall fomething new Still teach him fomething; and he finds at laft

That he's deficient in the very points,
He thought himself a mafter of: and on
Trial, will lay aside his firt designs.
And this is now my cafe; for th' auftere
life

I have led hitherto, do I give up.
When my race, too, is almoft run. And,

why? [and Because I've found, in fact, that kindness Compliance turn unto the best account. The truth of this may easily be feen, In me, and Micio: he hath spent his life In ease and revelling; mild, affable, Offending none, and smiling upon all. He for his own fake liv'd away, and made Expence all love him, and speak welt of him.

I, who forfooth am favage, countryfied, Sulky, begrudging, peevish, obftinate, Was married: oh! what mifery was there! Then came two fons, another charge upon me!

Moreover, while I have been studying
To get as much as poffible for them,
I've worn the best part of my life away;
Now at the end of it, the recompence
They render me for all my care, is this;
Hatred! my brother, who has had no care,
He enjoys all a father's benefits:
'Tis him they love: me they avoid: truft
him
[with him :
With all their fecrets: him adore: are
I am forfaken: his life they pray for:
But long, no doubt, to fee my death. And
thus

Hath he at little coft made them his own,
Whom I have labour'd hard in bringing up.
I have the pain, and he the pleasure; well!
Let me try t'other fide; what I can do
I' th' way of civil fpeech, and courteous
Behaviour! fince I am provok'd to it.
I too will fet myself to gain the love,
And be the darling, of my family.
If that's to be procur'd by giving, and
Complying, I'll not be behind in that.
Our means fhall fail us; but that touches me
The leaft of all, who am the oldeft man.

We

We have endeavoured to felect fuch paffages of the play as might, with leaft violence, be detached from the rest of the dialogue, and would therefore be most agreeable to the Reader. The difference between the two tranflations, a difference which prevails through the whole work, is obvious. We shall therefore only obferve that the laft ought to have been the beft, and that the New Translator, having adopted Mr. Colman's mode of rendering the Roman poet into familiar blank verfe, has no claim to that originality of tranflation which the firft idea of fuch a method conferred on the verfion of Mr. Colman,which indeed he has taken uncommon pains to defend and recommend in his preface. The New Tranflation of the Adelphi has no preface, and very few notes.

C.

ART. VIII. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, Vol. LXIV. Part 2, for the year 1774. 4to. 7 s. 6 d. fewed. Davis.

PHYSICAL OBSERVATIONS and EXPERIMENTS. Article 44. On the Stilling of Waves by Means of Oil: Extracted from fundry Letters between Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. F.R.S. William Brownrigg, M. D. F. R. S. and the Rev. Mr. Farish.

T

HE very fingular effect produced by a small quantity of oil thrown upon water, in ftilling its furface when it is agitated with waves, was not, as is obferved in this Article, unknown to the ancients. Pliny has related this property of oil, and the ufe made of it by the divers, in a paffage that occurs in his fecond book, which we have given below *. But it was not wonderful that philofophers fhould pay little attention to the obfervation, when, on turning back a few pages, they find this venerable but credulous ancient affirming likewife that the moft violent tempeft, the Typho, might likewife be filled, only by dashing a little vinegar in its face ;—tenui remedio aceti in advenientem effufi; [lib. ii. cap. 48] cui, he philofophically adds, frigidiffima eft Natura.

Though it is evident from this Article that oil really poffeffes, in a confiderable degree, the power afcribed to it by Pliny in the quotation given below; yet none of our writers on experimental philofophy appear to have been acquainted with this property. It is well known however to the modern divers and dredgers of oyfiers at Gibraltar and elsewhere, who are not philofophers, but who have long availed themfelves of this piece of traditional knowledge handed down to them from their fore

Omne oleo tranquillari. Et ob id urinantes ore fpargere: quoniam mitiget naturam afperam, lucemque deportet. Lib. 2. cap. 103.-Plutarch likewife, in Quæft. Natur, asks, Cur mare oleo confperfum, perlucidum fit et tranquillum ?

Y 3

fathers,

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