Vol. VII. 'thus it is.'

p.

8. 1. 3. for

this it is,' read

6

P. 11. 1. 14. for post-horse,'

read post-hafte.' P. 33. A bottle spider is evidently a fpider kept in a bottle long fasting; and, of conféquence, the more fpiteful and ve

nomous.

My remarks on the remaining volumes, you shall have on a future occafion. I fhall conclude my present Letter with an apology for quoting a few black-letter books in these brief notes. They are fuch as have occurred to me as worth reading, from their curiofity or style; for I do not think any one can form a proper knowlege. of his native language, without being a little verfant in all its stages. As to reading maffes of antique nonfenfe, on purpose to illustrate any writer, gratitude is certainly due by the public to him who can facrifice his very understanding in its fervice.

LETTER

LETTER XXVII.

OU remember well that the Abbé du

You

Bos, one of the moft ingenious critics. France has produced, if that be any praise, has, in his Reflections on Poetry and Painting, employed many chapters to prove, that climate has a moft certain and immediate influence upon the human mind. His arguments I must beg leave briefly to recapitulate, as I mean to fet them in oppofition to those of a more eminent writer of our own; and fhall then offer you my own thoughts on this very curious fubject, fince you require them,

THE Abbé, in fupport of his opinion, fift produces a beautiful quotation from Fontenelle, 'Different ideas,' fays that amiable writer, are as plants, and flowers, which do not grow 'equally in all climates. Perhaps our territory of France is as improper for the Egyptian 'modes of reasoning, as for their palm-trees; and, without going so far, perhaps the N 2

orange,

• trees,

trees, which do not flourish here so easily as 'in Italy, denote that there is in Italy a certain turn of mind, which we have not in France. It is however certain, that by the reciprocal • connection and dependence, that exists among all the parts of the material world, the difference of climate, perceivable in its effects upon plants, ought alfo to extend its influence to the powers of the human brain.' This argument, fantastic as it may appear, has more verifimilitude than may at first fight be attributed to it. Certain it is, that the further natural philofophy proceeds, the more connection is difcovered between plants and animals: and the most eminent botanifts have confeffed, that the fureft plan of attaining to perfection in that science is, to allot to plants as much of the properties of animals as poffible; fuch as fleep, difference of fexes, and the preference of one nourishment or foil to another.

To proceed with the most remarkable of the Abbé's arguments. He attempts to fhew, that fome countries have naturally given birth to. arts without receiving them of others; fuch as Egypt, for inftance; and he might have added

China; whereas, in others, fome arts would never take root, tho planted by fovereign power, and nurtured by golden fhowers of liberality. He inftances painting in England; which, had he received a prophetical glimpse of our days, he would have omitted.

MANY of his other arguments are those of a man who wishes to go ingeniously wrong: and I muft here beg leave to make one general remark on his work, naturally arifing from his arguments and quotations on this fubject; which is, that the Abbé thro-out displays woeful ignorance of the Greek tongue and Greek writers; fcarce one of which he even quotes, tho they bear the fame proportional value to the Latin as gold doth to filver. Hence his admiration of Virgil, and his feeming to forget that there is fuch a writer as Homer in the world: a defect utterly contemptible, and unpardonable, in a writer who pretends to inftruct his readers in critical knowlege, and a due eftimate of works of literature. To return:

He proceeds to fhew the power of climate upon genius, from the characters of nations; and, in the fucceeding fection, offers his answer to fuch objections as may be drawn from the characters of the Romans and the Dutch; fo entirely oppofite in ancient and modern times. His arguments are derived from the changes which nature hath made on thefe countries. In Rome, by the infection of the ancient cloacæ; and, in Latium, from the want of cultivation, and the marshes not being kept drained, as in ancient times; or from the mines (he means frata) of alum, fulphur, and arfenic, which nature hath been forming by degrees; and which exhale malignant vapours of power to affect both mind and body. • We fee frequently,' fays he, in La Compagna de Roma, a phæno5 menon, which forces us to think that the

attraction of the air is owing to thefe mines' (ftrata) formed near the furface of the ground. During the heats, exhalations arife, which kindle of themfelves, and form long columns of flame. If thefe,' he adds, had appeared in Livy's days, his hiftory would have been full of the facrifices offered for the expiation

of fuch prodigies,' The changes which na

ture