The 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, 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 a man Should doat fo much, or fuffer any one He, in all points the oppofite of this, The elder boy is by adoption mine ; NEW TRANSLATION. 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 You ftay from her, perfuades herself an- that wine I give, forgive, nor hold it neceffary Young men make fecrets of to fathers, thefe Have I most carefully accuftom'd mine 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: 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. [minds; By which you may conjecture of men's Attention; in its feafon, liberal fhame; Oh NEW TRANSLATION. My brother. Often he comes bawling [you to me, What are you doing, Micio? Why will He is himself unreas'nably fevere : fame. A father's duty is to bring his fon But is not this the very man I fpeak of? Dem. I talk not of our fubftance, but 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 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, But that by dear experience I've been told, 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- 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 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, I have led hitherto, do I give up. 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 Hath he at little coft made them his own, 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, |