hear "Tis pleafant, by the chearful hearth, to Of tempests, and the dangers of the deep, And pause at times, and feel that we are safe; Then listen to the perilous tale again, Avail not; to look round, and only fee The mountain wave incumbent, with its weight Of bursting waters, o'er the reeling bark,.. O God, this is indeed a dreadful thing!.. And he who hath endured the horror, He comes himself in arms! .. Lincoya heard, As he had raised his arm to strike a foe, And stayed the stroke, and thrust him off, and cried, Go, tell the tidings to thy countrymen, Madoc is in the war! Tell them his God Hath fet the White King free! Afton ishment Seized on the Azteca; on all who heard, Amazement and dismay; and Madoc now Stood in the foremost battle, and his fword,.. His own good sword,.. flashed, like the fudden death Of lightning, in their eyes. The King of Aztlan Heard and beheld, and in his noble heart Heroick hope arofe. Forward he moved, And, in the shock of battle, front to front, Encountered Madoc. A strong statur- back Hung the long robe of feathered royalty; Gold fenced his arms and legs; upon his helm A sculptured snake protends the arrowy tongue; Around, a coronet of plumes arofe, Brighter than beam the rainbow hues of light, Or than the evening glories, which the fun Slants o'er the moving many-coloured fea, Such their furpassing beauty; belts of gold Embofsed his glittering helmet, and ..... where'er Their found was heard, there lay the press of war, the Prince And Death was busiest there. Over the breast, And o'er the golden breastplate of the For the sharp falchion's baffied edge A buckler, overlaid with beaten gold. The loud alarum-bell, heard far and wide. Upon his helm no sculptured dragon fate, Sate no fantastick terrors; a white plume Nodded above, far-feen, floating like foam On the war-tempeft. Man to man they stood, The King of Aztlan and the Ocean Chief. Fast, on the intervening buckler, fell The Azteca's stone faulchion. Who hath watched He grappled with the king. The pliant mail Bent to his straining limbs, while plates of gold, The feathery robe, the buckler's amplitude, Cumbered the Azteca, and from his arm, at once Clenched in the Briton's mighty grafp, refumed He thrust him off, and, drawing back, The sword, which from his wrist sufAnd twice he smote the king; twice from the quilt pended hung, Of plumes the iron glides; and lo! the So well his foldiers watched their mon- The midnight lightnings of the summer Shakes in his hand a spear. storm, That, with their aweful blaze, irradiate heaven, Then leave a blacker night? so quick, fo fierce, Flashed Madoc's sword, which, like the ferpent's tongue, Seemed double, in its rapid whirl of light. Unequal arms! for on the British shield Availed not the stone faulchion's brittle edge, And in the golden buckler, Madoc's fword Bit deep. Coanocotzin faw, and dropt The unprofitable weapon, and received His ponderous club,.. that club, beneath whose force, Driven by his father's arm, Tepollomi Had fallen fubdued,.. and fast and fierce he drove The mafly weight on Madoc. From bis hield, THE BOSTON REVIEW, FOR JANUARY, 1806. Librum tuum legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, quæ eximenda, ar bitrarer. Nam ego dicere verum assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qu maxime laudari merentur.-Pliny. ARTICLE 1. Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Vol. I. 1785. 4to. pp. 568. It is honourable to Massachusetts, that in the year 1780, in the midst of the memorable war, which terminated in the establishment of the independence of the United States, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was incorporated by her enlightened legislature. According to the act of incorporation, "The end and design of the institution of the academy is, to promote and encourage the knowledge of the antiquities of America, and of the natural history of the country; and to determine the uses to which the various natural productions of the country may be applied; to promote and encourage medical discoveries, mathematical disquisitions, philosophical inquiries and experiments; astronomical, meteorological and geographical observations; and, improvements in agriculture, arts, manufactures and commerce; and in fine, to cultivate every art and science, which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity and happines of a free, independent and virtuous people." In prosecuting the object of their institution, the Society has presented to the publick in this volume, the first fruits of their learned labours. The time, that has elapsed since the publication, will not, we hope, render a review of the contents useless nor uninter esting. To the Memoirs is prefixed the act of incorporation; and also the statutes of the Academy, a list of members, and donors with their respective benefactions. Then follows A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE, publickly addressed to the Academy by their first President, the honourable JAMES BOWDOIN, Esq. on his first election to that office. The learned and excellent pre sident, after some remarks on the social affections, and their operation in forming societies of various descriptions, observes, in the spirit of true philosophy, with respect to the American Philosophical Society, which had been previously formed, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, "it is hoped, that, as optic glasses, by collecting the solar rays, do assist and strengthen the corporeal sight, so the two societies, by concentring in a proper focus the scattered rays of science, may aid and invigorate the intellectual: benefiting by their productions, not only the communities, in which they are respectively instituted, but America and the world in general: both together resembling some co pious river, whose branches, after refreshing the neighbouring region, unite their waters for the fertilizing a more extensive country." He afterward takes a cursory view of the antiquities of America, and of natural history, two of the subjects, to which the inquiries of the Academy are particularly directed by the act of incorporation; notices the benefits, which the publick has derived from Harvard College; pays a tribute of gratitude to the generous benefactors of that institution, and addresses to their disembodied spirits the effusions of a heart, strongly impressed with a view of the great and extensive good, arising from their donations. Looking forward to the end of a century from the declaration of independence, he gives a character of the Academy, to which he hopes it will then be entitled in the pages of some eminent American historian. The liberal spirit, that animates the society, appears in the following extract. "As the society is formed on the most liberal principles,and is of no sect or party in philosophy, it wide extends its arms to embrace the sons of science of every denomination, and wheresoever found; and with the warmth of fraternal affection invites them to a philo sophical correspondence: and they may be assured, their communications will be esteemed a favour, and duly acknowledged by the Society." This discourse appears to flow from a mind, correct, reflecting, well informed; and from a heart, warm with benevolence, patriotism, love of science, and engaged in promoting the best interests of society. PART I. ASTRONOMICAL AND MATHEMATICAL PAPERS. I. A method of finding the altitude and longitude of the nonagesimal degree of the ecliptic; with an appendix, containing calculations from corresponding astronomical observations, for determining the dif ference of meridians between Harvard-Hall, in the University of Cambridge, in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the royal observatories at "eenwich and Paris, By the Rev. Joseph Willard, president of the University, and corresponding secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Previous knowledge of the altitude and longitude of the nonagesimal degree of the ecliptick is requisite in determining the diurnal parallaxes of the heavenly bodies, belonging to the solar system, in latitude and longitude. Such parallaxes are necessarily used in de. ducing the longitude of places from corresponding observations of solar eclipses, as well as in various other astronomical calculations. The late learned and excellent president of our university has, in this memoir, given a method of finding the altitude and longitude of the nonagesimal degree, which he thinks is not only different from, but to him easier, if not shorter than any other, with which he was acquainted. The method is explained with perspicuity, and illustrated by an example and suitable figures; and may be easily understood by those, who are acquainted with the stereographick projection of the sphere, and spherick trigonometry. In the appendix, rules are given for calculating the difference of meridians from corresponding ob, servations of solar eclipses; and they are exemplified in determining the longitude of Cambridge from the celebrated royal observatories of Greenwich and Paris, Of the calculations by solar and lunar tables, in which Mayer's were used, it was deemed sufficient to publish merely the results, or particular elements, requisite in the subsequent parts of the process. The principles and rules, stated in the appendix, are well exemplified. It was evidently the intention of the author to render this method of finding longitude < easy to the apprehension of those, who, not having made much progress in subjects of this nature, are yet disposed and qualified to attend to them; and it may with propriety be recommended to their perusal. The longitude of Cambridge is deduced, from observations of two solar eclipses and one transit of mercury over the sun's disc. The first of these eclipses happened Aug. 5, 1766; the other, June 24, 1778; and the transit of Mercury, Nov. 5, 1743. The observations used are those of the beginning and end of the two eclipses by • Dr. Maskelyne, the British royal astronomer, at Greenwich; the beginning and end of the former by Dr. Winthrop at Cambridge, and the end of the latter by the Rev. Phillips Payson at Chelsea, 26" in time eastward from Cambridge, according to a terrestrial measurement, made by President Willard and Mr. Payson; and the observations of the first and second internal and the second external contacts of Mercury, at the said transit, by some eminent French astronomers at Paris; and the second internal and external contacts by Dr. Winthrop at Cambridge. The mean of the results of these calculations, which appear to have been made with great accuracy, gives 4h. 44' 31" * for the longi • On the 60th page the difference of meridians between Paris and Greenwich is considered as 9 16" in time. This is the difference according to the Tables of M. De La Lande, in the second edition of his Astronomie, published in 1771. But later observations have shown it to be 9 20". The difference therefore being called 9 20" instead of 9 16" the above mean result becomes 4h. 44' 29". The mean of the three results in the Memoir and that of observations on the solar eclipse of April 3, 1791, is 4h. 44 28", which is now considered as the longitude of Cambridge. tude of Cambridge in time westward from Greenwich. II. A memoir on the latitude of the University at Cambridge: With observations of the variation and dip of the magnetick needle. By Samuel Williams, F. A. A. Hollis professor of mathematicks and natural philosophy in the university. This memoir contains the observations and calculations, by which the author determined the latitude of Cambridge. For this purpose meridian altitudes of the sun, six stars near the equator, and the pole-star, were observed in the philosophy chamber in Harvard hall with an astronomical quadrant of a radius, equal to 25 feet, made by Sisson. The mean of the re sults from observations of the stars is 42° 23′ 28" north, which, he concludes, is the true latitude of Harvard hall. No mention is made of the firmness or stability of the floor, on which the instrument was placed. It is however of great importance, that the support of the quadrant should be entirely secure from motion, at the time of making observations of this kind. A few facts, relative to the variation and dip of the magnetick needle at Cambridge, are mention ed at the close of the memoir. III. A table of the equations to equal altitudes, for the latitude of the University of Cambridge, 42° 25' 28" N. with an account of its construction and use. By the Reverend Joseph Willard, President of the University. The importance of regulating a clock, that is to be used in making astronomical observations, or de termining the rate of its motion, is well known to astronomers. In this memoir is the method of accomplishing this purpose by ob |