1768. The Appellation Caledonians. by joining Kaled and in together we have caledin, or rough and mountainous country; which is exactly the fignification of Alba the only name by which the highlanders dif. tinguish Scotland to this day. This etymon of Caledonia is at leaft plaufible: but I muft confefs that the derivation given by Mr. Macpherson, the tranflator of the poems of Offan, is more fimple and natural. The highlanders, as he juftly obferves, call themselves Cale That divifion of Scotland which they poffefs they univerfally call Cae dock, that is to fay, the country of the Cael or Celtes. The Romans by a tranfpofition of the letter in Caël, and changing the harsh eb of doch into an harmonious termination, formed the name of CaJedonia. From this etymon arifes an obfervation, of which we shall make ufe in the fequel of thefe differtations. 45 the country; To the north of the Firths the fame writer affigns the respective places to Caledonii, Epidii, Carini, Cantæ, Logs, and feveral other small tribes. Without infifting upon the probability that Ptolemy, an Egyp tian, was not fo minutely acquainted with the internal state of Britain as he pretends, at a time when the north of Europe, was fo little known to men of letters, we shall take it for granted that all thofe nations he mentions were of the fame original; and to avoid confufion, I fhall, for the future, comprehend them all under the general name Caledonians. Tacitus divides the inhabitants of Britain into three claffes; the Caledonians, Silures and those who inhabited the coaft next to Gaul; he endeavours to trace those three nations to others on the continent, from whom he fuppofed they had derived their origin. The Caledonians, he concludes, from the fize of their bodies, and the colour of their hair, were of a Germanic extraction. Though it must be confeffed that the conclufion is far from being decifive from those two circumftances; yet there are many collateral arguments to corroborate the opinion of that bif During the invafions of the Romans we find many other tribes befides the Caledonians and Mæate in the north of Britain; though probably they were no more than fubdivifions of thofe two illuftrious nations. Every one of those tribes were governed by an independant chief or petty king. la Cetorian. Thefe, in fome future differtation I far's time, there were no lefs than four fuch chieftains in Kent, and each of them vefted with regal authority. The political governThis the author has done in a Differment of Caledonia was, in Domitian's reign, tarion, intitled, A Parallel between the Camuch the fame with that of Kent during Caledonians and ancient Germans, which is far s proconfulship, When the tribes of North Britain were attacked by the Romans they entered into atociations that by uniting their ftrength, they might be the more able to repel the Common enemy, the particular name of that tribe, which, either its fuperior power, or military reputation placed at the head of the affociation, was the general name given by the Romans to all the confederates. Hence it is that the Mæate and Caledo nians have ingroffed all the glory which beJonged in common, though in an inferior degree, to all the other nations fettled of old in North Britain; it was for the fame reafon that the name of Maate was entirely forgot ten by foreign writers after the third century, and, that of the Caledonians themselves is but felcom mentioned after the fourth. The Mæate, we have already observed, were one of those tribes who were fettled to the fouth of the Clyde and the Forth, Ptolemy places the Gadeni, Salgotæ, Novantes, and Dampii, in the fame divifion of the may throw together, and leave the whole to the judgment of the public. printed in this work. An Effay upon Prints, containing Remarks upon the Principles of picturesque Beauty, the different kinds of Prints, and the Characters of the most noted Mafters; illuftrated by Criti cims on particular Pieces; to which are added, fome Cautions that may be useful in collecting Prints, Robfon. This is an ingenious performance, and well worth the perufal of every person who is fond of prints.In the variety of the author's obfervations we are aloft at a lofs from what part to make an extract, but as the following remarks on the different kinds of prints feem rather more likely to affist a purchafer of fuch performances than any other, we fhall, on that account, fele&t them for the information of the public. "There are three kinds of prints; engravings, etchings, and Metzotintos. The characteristic of the first is frength, of the fecond freedom, and of the thire foftness, all thefe however may in fome degree be found in each. • That this is the proper fignification of Aiba shall be shown in the fequel of these dissertations. If the etymon given bere of Caledonia should appear a juft one, I fball make no difficulty in fuppo fing that the Calydonia of Greece is derived from the fame Celtic fource, Ætolia, of which the Gre cian Calydonia was a part, was a very mountainous country. Three mountains in particular there, Japhiosus, Chalcit, and Corafe, were according to Strabo immensely bigb, the face of the country was very rugged, and the inhabitants bardy. Homer gives the characteristical epithet, of rocky to Calydon, the capital of that country,--Hom, Iliad XÃ, ves, 640. 46 ESSAY UPON PRINT 5. It is a rare thing to meet with a print en tirely engraved which is free from stiftness ; a celebrated mafter of our own, indeed, hath found the art of giving freedom to the ftroke of a graver; and hath difplayed great force of execution upon works by no means worthy of him as if he were determined to shew the world he could ftamp a value upon any thing. But fuch artists are rarely found. Mere engravers in general are little better than mere mechanics. In etching we have a greater variety of excellent prints, the cafe is, it is fo much the fame as drawing, that we have the very works themselves of the most celebrated mafters, many of whom have left behind them prints in this way which however flight and incorret, will always have fomething masterly, and, of course, beautiful in them. In the mufcling of human figures of any confiderable fize, engraving hath undoubtedBy the advantage of etching; the foft and delicate tranfitions from light to fhade which are there required, cannot be fo well expref fed by the needle; and in general large prints require a ftrength which etcbing cannot give, and are therefore fit objects of engraving. Etching, on the other hand, is more particularly adapted to sketehes and flight defigns, which, if executed by an engraver, would entirely lofe their freedom, and with it their beauty. Landskip too is the object of etching. The foliage of trees, ruins, fky, and indeed every part of landskip requires the atmost freedom; in finishing an etched landfkip with the tool (as it is called) too much care cannot be taken to prevent heaviness. The fare grounds may require a few ftrong touches, and the boles of fuch trees as are placed upon them, and here and there a few harmonizing frokes will add to the effect, but if the engraver ventures much farther, he has good luck, if he does no mischief. An engraved plate, unless it be cut very flightly, will caft off five hundred good impreffions; an atched one will not give above two hundred, unless it be eaten very deep; and then it may perhaps give three hundred, after that the plate must be retouched, or the impreffion will be faint. Besides the common method of engraving on copper, we have prints engraved on pewter and on wood; the pewter plate gives a coarsenefs and dirtiness to the print which is difagreeable, but engraving upon wood is capable of great beauty. Of this species of engraving more shall be said. Metzotinto is very different from either engraving or etching. In these you make the fades in Metzotinto the lights. Since the time of its invention by prince Rupert, as is commonly fuppofed, the art of fcraping Metzotintos is greatly more Jan. improved than either of its fifter arts; fome of the earliest etchings are perhaps the beft, and engraving, fince the time of Goltrius and Mulier, hath not perhaps made any very great advances, but Metzotinto, compared with its original ftate, is at this day almoft a new art, if we examine fome of the modern pieces of workmanship in this way, the Jewish Rabbi; the portrait of Mrs. Lascelles with a child on her knee: Mr. Garrick between tragedy and comedy: and feveral other prints, by fome of our beft Metzotinto scrapers, they almost as much exceed the works of White and Smith, as those mafters did Becket and Simons. The characteriflic of Metzotinto is foftness, which adapts it chiefly to portrait or history, with a few figures, and these not too fmail; nothing except paint can exprefs flesh more naturaliy, or the flowing of hair, or the folds of drapery, or the catching lights of armour. In engraving and etching we must get over the prejudices of crofs lines which exist in no natural bodies, but Metzotinto gives us the frongest representation of a furface. If how ever the figures are too crowded it wants ftrength to detach the feveral parts with a proper relief, and, if they are very small, it wants precifion, which can only be given by an outline; or, as in painting, by a different tint. The unevennefs of the ground will occafion bad drawing, aukwardness in the extremities especially. Some inferior artists have endeavoured to remedy this by terminating their figures with an engraved or etched line: but they have tried the experiment with bad fuccefs. The firength of the line, and the foftness of the ground, accord i together. 1 fpeak not here of fuch a judicious mixture of etching and Metzotinto as White formerly ufed, and fuch as our best Metzon tinto fcrapers at prefent ufe, to give a ftrength to a particular part; 1 fpeak only of a harsh, and injudicious lineal termination. Metzotinto excels each of the other species of prints in its capacity of receiving the most beautiful effects of light and fhade: as it can the most happily unite them by blending them together. Of this Rembrandt seems to have been aware; he had probably seen some of the first Metzotintos; and admiring the effeet, endeavoured to produce it in etching by a variety of interfecting fcratches. You cannot well caft off more than an hundred good impreffions from a Metzotinto plate, the rubbing of the hand foon wears it smooth, and yet by conftantly repairing it, it may be made to give four or five hundred with tolerable ftrength. The first impreffions are not always the best, they are too black and harsh. You will commonly have the best impreffions from the fiftieth to the feventieth: the harsh edges will be fofined down; and yet there will be fpirit and krength enough left. A fall 1768. Warner on the Gout. A full and plain Account of the Gour: From whence will be clearly feen the Folly, or Bafness of all Pretenders to cure it, &c. By Ferdinando Warner, L L. D. As an excufe for our reverend author's infringing upon the province of the gentlemen of the faculty, "It is certain, fays he, that befides much experience in myfelf and others, physicians cannot allow fo much time in the tudy of any ONE diforder, as I have given upon the Gout; neither can any phyfician who is not a gouty man, be fo well acquainted with the little circumftances in the progrefs of this diftemper, which are neceffary to be known, as an attentive arthritic who is not a physician; for almost every fit produces fomething new for his obfervation." After fome phyfiological remarks, our reverend writer proceeds to give a history of the regular gout, in which he has endeavoured to collect every thing of importance that has been advanced by some of the best authors upon that disorder, and at the same time that he pronounces the cure of it to be impoffible, be profeffes to produce fome new methods of affording the gouty patient relief: "When the fit is arrived at it's height, fays he, if the pain fhould be greater than the patient can bear commodiously, and his nights are fleepless, then, notwithstanding the prejudices of moft physicians against opiates in the Gout, he may relieve himself by the following ano dyne: Take of opium fix drachms-Soap of tartar and caftile foap of each half an ounceNutmeg powdered one drachm-Camphire three drachms Saffron two fcruples-Sweet fpirit of fal ammoniac nine ounces.-Digeft all the ingredients in a Florence Alalk in a fand heat for Ben days, fhaking it now and then till the last day or two, and then pour it off clear, and ftop it up for use." He directs thirty or forty drops of this medicine to be taken, upon an empty ftomach an hour before it is wanted to operate, in a glafs of mint or plague water, and if, an hour or two after taking it, the pain is not greatly abated, he orders twenty drops more.-The number of drops are to be proportioned to the violence of the pain, and repeated every night, if the pain requires it; abating two or three drops at a time as the pain abates, till the dofe is reduced to ten or a dozen, when the patient may defift at once from taking any more. He then proceeds to fhew how very illfounded the prejudices against exhibiting opium in this diforder have been, and after giving fome directions and recipes for the treatment of all the cafes of irregular gout, which he chiefly borrows from Mulgrave, concludes his treatise. Tho' Dr. Warner profeffes to take notice of "every thing material in the best writers 47 on this fubject," he appears never to have read Van Swieten, who is confeffedly the best author on the Gout extant, and though he promifes to give fome new inftructions for its relief, we can discover very little in this work but what is taken from Sydenham, Quincey, James and Mufgrave. His notion in the phyfiological pari of this treatife of the powers of the ftomach in digestion, and of Lewenhock's difcoveries have been long fince exploded, but these errors every man is liable to fall into who fteps out of his own profeffion to write on phyfical fubjects, and any cenfure on this occafion, will, we apprehend, give very little trouble to our author, as he says, he has hazarded his character too much as a writer upon great works of other kinds, to be in any degree folicitous about the reception of this account of the gout. The Gout-extraordinary Cafes in the Head, Stomach, and Extremities, with phyfical and chirurgical Remarks and Obfervations, &c. &c. By Richard Ingram, Man-Midwife, late Surgeon to the Fift Regiment of Dragoons. This writer is of opinion, that what is commonly called the Gout, is only the effects of a caufe, and a kind endeavour in nature to affemble together and fling off the obnoxious particles. He afferts, that he is poffefied of a preparation that immediately frikes at the origin of this diforder, though he acknowledges that it must be varied in quantity and form, according to the age, constitution, and habit of the patient. At the end of the Effay, he has published cafes of n ne perfons, who were fuccefsfully treated in this disease. His plan to prevent the evils which arife from the indifcriminate grant of medicinal patents is worthy of attention, and his obfervations on the pernicious cuftom of cordial drinking, which deftroys fuch numbers of the moft amiable part of the creation, deserve the moft ferious confideration. In short, notwithstanding our ingenious author keeps his medicine a fecret, we cannot but recommend his performance to the perufal of every one afflicted with this complaint, which has hitherto bid defiance to the utmost efforts of the medical art. The Entanglement, or, The Hiftory of Mifs Eleonora Frampton and Miss Anaftatia Shaf toe, 2 Vol. Noble. This history is indeed an entanglement, and, was it even unravelled, would give but very little fatisfaction to a fenfible reader, it being written in the true taste of the circulating library. Clementina, or, The Hiftory of an Italian Lady, who made her Escape from a Monafter for the Love of a Scots Nobleman. Noble. In an advertitement prefixed to this little volume we learn, that it was written by Mis. Haywood in the year 1728, and published under the title of the Agreeable Caledonian, fo that it is now only vamped up with little more that a different title-page, and cannot confequently 48 POETICAL ESSAYS in JANUARY, 1768. A Collection of the most effecmed Pieces of Poetry that have appeared for several Years, with Variety of Originals. By Mofes Mendez, Efq; and other Contributors to Dodfley's Colletion, to which this is intended as a Supplement. Richardson. The compiled part of this publication is the beft, and in fome degree aafwers the affertion in the title page. Chobeletb, or the Royal Preacher, a Poems most bumbly inferibed to the King. Johnston, Ludgate-freet. This is a poetical verfion of Solomon's Ecclefiaftes, and will, in all probability, prove an agreeable entertainment to many religious readers. POETICAL ESSAY S. ODE for the NEW YEAR, Jan. 1, 1768. ET the voice of mufick breathe, Feels not yet his influence near, The genial God who rules the day, Has bid his glowing axle roll, And promis'd the return of May. Shall cease their founds of war: An OCCASIONAL PROLOGUE, written for the Play and Entertainment of THE WAY TO KEEP HIM and THE GUARDIAN: acted by the Comedians at Scarborough, Nov. 25, 1767, given to the Ladies, by the Marquis of Granby. WHILE Greece and Rome blaz'd forth in early days, With genuine luftre and with unbought praises We too, a bero could point out to you; But ftop, fond mufe, or e'er you're out of wind, 1 Bloom where'er her ftep the bends. Whilft, upon its airy brow, Rolls his eye with tranfport round, Let the voice of mufick breathe! Regardless of the peasant's tear, O hear one figh of real woe. blcfi. Nor dare to hail the fav'rite of mankind: Demand we now what brought thefe beau- In fpight of darkness and of ftormy weather? Ladies, we offer to your candid view, Stop Charming fouls, and hear me whilft I Unforc'd, unakk'd, unprejudic'd, unfeed. And what if our good Guardian should suggest And charm his forrows with a chafte carefs! tion, Conceive your darlings-in imagination; |