one of these fubtile fpirits, in the guife of fixed air, from the Pyrmont waters; and that M. Bergman afterwards laid hold of another, under another but fimilar difguife, in the fulphureous waters. Since thefe difcoveries have been made, though not before, there are no juft grounds to fufpect that the natural mineral waters are endowed with any latent virtue,' which may not be communicated to common water, even in a greater degree, in fome cafes; as the folid, faline, or other contents of thete mineral waters are generally known, and eafily procured. Whatever other circumftances therefore may contribute to a recovery, by a courfe of the Pyrmont, Bath, or any other waters on the spot, they are not to be fought for, we apprehend, in the waters themselves: nor will the moft fublime chemistry ever be able to discover, in them, the unknown fubtile fpirits which the Author fpeaks of. Could a fair trial be made of the Enedical virtues of the two claffes of waters above specified, the natural and artificial; we are confident that the refult, which, we own, would most probably turn out in favour of the former, would not be owing to their fuppofed unknown, or inimitable ingredients, but to their conftant concomitants, or acceffaries ;particularly to that greateft of all doctors, TIME, with certain medical virtues in his train, particularly FAITH, attended by her conftant companion, PATIENCE, affifted by TEMPERANCE, or regularity, together with exercife, amusements, change of fcene, prepoffeffion, and other powerful co-operators.-The analogical reasoning of phyficians, above alluded to by the Author, which led them to fubftitute vinegar and other acids in the room of the recent vegetable acids, before the late discoveries refpe&ting fixed air, is now known to have been erroneous; nor is his inference from thence juft or applicable to the prefent cafe, In fact, the Author does not feem to have attended much to the late aftonishing difcoveries refpecting air, made by Dr. Priestley; particularly fixed air, the air we breathe, &c. and which are so nearly connected with the hiftory of medicine. All that he fays on this moft interesting subject is contained in five lines, and is expreffed in the following extraordinary and frigid terms: The fubtile analysis of the atmospheric element, and its various impregnations and properties, has been lately revived by Dr. Priestley; and the rage for this particular inveftigation is now widely diffused amongst the chemical fect of philofophers." The Author, however, prefents us with fome juft obfervations and criticisms on the modern systems of Nofology; or that branch of medicine in which difeafes are arranged, in the manner of the Naturalifts, into claffes, orders, genera, and fpecies. Claffification, he obferves, is folely intended to affift the memory, to enable us to attain knowledge with more eafe and dif Ii 3 patch; patch; fo that by a natural order, and a few effential marks, not too numerous to be retained in the memory, every disease may be readily found, and unerringly difcriminated from all others.'-Some of the modern Nofologifts, by curtailing effential fymptoms, have rendered the characters of each difeafe, or, in other words, the genus, faint and obfcure, and ftript them into naked skeletons, where the features are no longer diftinct and visible;-fo as frequently to degenerate into mere nomenclators. Others, on the contrary, are too prolix ;-the memory is taxed and teazed, and becomes fatigued with futile diftinctions. They fometimes cut a single disease into a number of pieces, or fpecies, and confufe the reader to fearch for the fcattered fragments amongst a number of heterogeneous orders. Their claffes and orders, like thofe of the frilum and laxum of the ancient Methodics, are frequently forced and artificial; and difeafes totally difcordant in their nature, caufes, and method of cure, fettered together.' The Author, with equal juftice, criticises the fingular and obfcure terms, or names that have been given to difeafes, by fome of the Nofologifts. The technical terms of fcience, one of the greatest nuifances which defiles and darkens every branch of Phyfic, are unneceffarily increafed by the Nofologifts. Sauvages has an order called Hallucinationes, and Morofitates; Vogel, difeafes called Alotriophagia, Sparganofis, Hemantofis, Acatopofis, and Carebaria; the etymology and meaning of which the old Greeks, were they to return to the earth, would be puzzled to decypher. Should the career of Nofology, and licentious affectation of new terms, go on for a century, we fhall, it is to be feared, have a fynod of Nofological method ifts, a new language and medical orthography, and all the old books will be rendered fcarce intelligible.' To this Compendium of medical history and biography the Author has prefixed a ftill more fummary view or chronological chart of medical and furgical authors, on one large sheet, in imitation of Dr. Priestley. This chart, the chronology of which commences 400 years before Chrift, comprehends the names of the various writers in the different branches of medicine, including natural hiftory; and at the fame time denotes the century in which each of them lived. ART. II. The Art of Painting of Charles Alpbanje Du Frefucy. Tranflated into English Verfe by William Mafon, M. A. With Annotations by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Knt. Prefident of the Royal Academy. 4to. 8s. Boards. York printed, by A. Ward; fold by Dodfley, &c. London. 1783. T is not often that a writer who excels in original compofition, and whofe reputation is established, condefcends, ex cept Bids fmall from great in juft gradation rife, Yet deem not, youths, that perfpective can give Thofe charms complete by which your works fhall live; A quick mechanic fubititute for art; Yet formal, geometric fhapes the draws; Man's changeful race, the sport of chance and time, Mark well the difference, and let each be feen Learn action from the dumb, the dumb thall teach How happiest to fupply the want of speech.' The verbal inaccuracy in this laft line, in which the adjective happiest is improperly substituted for the fuperlative of the adverb happily, is not what we meant to have taken notice of. We are of opinion, that in the concluding couplet Mr. Mafon has widely deviated from, what appears to us, the obvious fenfe of the original. If the precept be as it is here rendered, it may be asked, where are fuch inftructors to be met with? A painter may pass half his life before an opportunity of improving himself by the method recommended may occur to him; and when the opportunity does occur, unless the dumb perfon be agitated by the very paffion the painter is intending to reprefent, how can he avail himself of it? But let it even be granted that he is agitated by fuch paffion, were the painter to tranffer upon his canvafs the gefticulations it would produce in a perfon of this defcription, it is much to be doubted whether they would appear natural; for though the paffions are, with Componat; genitumque fuo generante fequenti Regula certa licet nequeat profpectica dici, 'Non eadem formæ fpecies, non omnibus ætas out out difpute, the immediate language of nature, yet their tone and modification depending fo much both upon the organs of bodily fenfe and the perceptions of the mind, it requires a competent enjoyment of each to exprefs them with due force and intelligence. The ingenious annotator is aware of these objections, and wishes to understand the rule, as dictating to him, to obferve how perfons, with naturally good expreffive features, are affected in their looks and actions by any light or fentiment which they fee or hear, and to copy the gestures which they then filently make ufe of; but he should ever take these leffons from nature only, and not imitate her at fecondhand, as many French painters do, who appear to take their ideas, not only of grace and dignity, but of emotion and paffion, from their theatrical heroes, which is imitating an imitation, and often a falfe or exaggerated imitation.' But, waving every argument arifing from the impropriety of the precept as understood by Mr. Mafon and Sir Joshua Reynolds, let us refer to the original. If by mutorum is to be understood perfons born dumb, what becomes of imitabitur? The pofitions or attitudes of the dumb are not imitations, but expreffions. As mutorum, therefore, cannot poflibly fignify thofe who are born dumb, why may it not fignify the dumb figures upon the painter's canvas? The figures, in fhort, which imitate in their attitudes the real actions of men fo naturally and juftly, that they may be faid, in the language of poetry, to want nothing but fpeech to be alive. This fenfe of the paffage feems not only the most obvious, but confiftent alfo with what went before it. Our interpretation may, perhaps, be more clearly exprefled in the following couplet: So fhall with life thy mute creation vie, Th' expreffive attitude thall words fupply. It must be acknowledged, that Mr. Mafon's interpretation is countenanced by the marginal intimation of the rule, which fays mutorum actiones imitande. Moft probably the marginal enumeration of the rules was drawn up by the firft editor and tranflator, De Piles, who may eafily be fuppofed to have miftaken the fenfe in this, as he has in many other paffages. If from any unforeseen event the poetical works of Mr. Mason were to be loft, this tranflation only excepted, it alone would entitle him to one of the foremost ranks on Parnaffus: and with equal truth it may be faid, that were there no other evidence of Sir Joshua Reynolds's abilities than what might be collected from the annotations that accompany it, they alone would be fufficient to eftablish his reputation as a painter. Of these annotations the reader will be particularly pleased with the following, though he may probably have his doubts re specting fpecting the extent of the principle which the ingenious annotator has laid down. • The band that colours well muft colour bright, Hope not that praise to gain by fickly white.' All the modes of harmony, or of producing that effect of colours which is required in a picture, may be reduced to three, two of which belong to the grand ftile, and the other to the ornamental. The first may be called the Roman manner, where the colours are of a full and ftrong body, fuch as are found in the Transfiguration; the next is that harmony which is produced by what the an cients called the corruption of the colours, by mixing and breaking them till there is a general union in the whole, without any thing that fhall bring to your remembrance the painter's pallette, or the original colours; this may be called the Bolognian ftyle: and it is this hue and effect of colours which Ludovico Carracci feems to have endeavoured to produce, though he did not carry it to that perfection which we have feen fince his time in the fmall works of the Dutch school, particularly Jan Steen, where art is completely concealed, and the painter, like a great orator, never draws the attention from the fubject on himself. • The last manner belongs properly to the ornamental flyle, which we call the Venetian, where it was first practifed, but is perhaps better learned from Rubens. Here the brighteft colours poffible are admitted, with the two extremes of warm and cold, and those reconciled by being difperfed over the picture, till the whole appears like a bunch of flowers. As I have given inftences from the Dutch school, where the art of breaking colour may be learned, we may recommend here an attention to the works of Watteau for excellence in this florid style of painting. To all these different manners, there are fome general rules that muft never be neglected; firit, that the fame colour, which makes the largest mafs, be diffused, and appear to revive in different parts of the picture; for a fingle colour will make a spot or blot. Even the difperfed flesh colour, which the faces and hands make, require their principal maís, which is best produced by a naked figure; but where the fubje&t will not allow of this, a drapery approaching to flesh-colour will answer the purpofe; as in the Transfiguration, where a woman is clothed in drapery of this colour, which makes a principal to all the heads and hands of the picture; and, for the fake of harmony, the colours, however diftinguished in their light, fhould be nearly the fame in their shadows, of a fimple unity of shade, "As all were from one fingle pallette spread." And to give the utmoft force, ftrength, and folidity to your work, fome part of the picture should be as light, and fomes dark as poffible; these two extremes are then to be harmonized and reconciled to each other. Inftances where both of them are used may be observed in two pictures of Rubens, which are equally eminent for the force and brilliancy of their effect; one is in the cabinet of the Duke of Rutland, and the other in the chapel of Rubens at Antwerp, which ferves |