could not afford to keep hounds and do this into the bargain. But this will give me the most pleasure all to nothing, and then my wife will partake of it- And we will have mufic and books-I recollec that I have got an excellent library-There is another pleasure I had never thought of And then no doubt we fhall have children, and they are very pleasant company, when they can ta k and understand what is faid to them; and now I begin to reflect, I find there are a vaft many pleasures in the life I have chalked out, and what a fool fhould I be to throw away my money at the gaming-table, or my health at any table, or my affections upon harlots, or my time upon hounds and horfes, or employ either money, health, affections, or time, in any other pleafures or purfuits, than thefe, which I now perceive will lead me to folid happiness in this life, and fecure a good chance for what may befal me hereafter.' The OBSERVER's concluding Number (93). Being now arrived at the conclufion of my third volume, and having hitherto given my readers very little interruption in my own perfon, I hope I may be permitted to make one fhort valedictory addrefs to thefe departing adventurers, in whofe fuccefs I am naturally fo much interested. I have employed much time and care in rearing up thefe Effays to what I conceived maturity, and qualifying them, as far as I was able, to fhift for themfelves, in a world where they are to inherit no popularity from their author, nor to look for any favour but what they can earn for themselves. To any, who fhall question them who they are, and whence they come, they may truly anfwer-We are all one man's fons - we are indeed Obfervers, but no Spies. If this fhall not fuffice, and they muft needs give a further account of themselves, they will have to fay, that he who fent them into the world, fent them as an offering of his good-will to mankind; that he trufts they have been fo trained as not to hurt the feelings or offend the principles of any man, who fhall admit them into his company; and that for their errors (which he cannot doubt are many), he hopes they will be found errors of the understanding, not of the heart: they are the firft-fruits of hi leifure and retirement; and as the mind of a man in that fituation will naturally bring the paft fcenes of active life under its examination and review, it will furely be confidered as a pardonable zeal for being yet ferviceable to mankind, if he gives his expe rience and obfervations to the world, when he has no further expectations from it on the fcore of fame or fortune. These are the real motives for the publication of thete Papers, and this the Author's true ftate of mind: to ferve the caufe of morality and religion is his firft ambition; to point out fome useful leffons for amending the education and manners of young people of either fex, and to mark the evil habits and unfocial humours of men, with a view to their reformation, are the general objects of his undertaking.. He has formed his mind to be contented with the confcioufnefs of these honeft endeavours, and with a very moderate fhare of fuccefs: he has ample reafon notwithstanding to be more than fatisfied with the reception thefe Papers have already had in their probationary excurfion; and it is not from any difguft, taken up in a vain conceit of his own merits, that he has more than once obferved upon the frauds and and follies of popularity, or that he now repeats his opinion, that it is the worft guide a public man can follow, who wishes not to go out of the track of honefty; for at the fame time that he has feen men force their way in the world by effrontery, and heard others ap plauded for their talents, whofe only recommendation has been their ingenuity in wickednefs, he can recollect very few indeed, who have fucceeded, either in fame or fortune, under the difadvantages of modefty and merit. To fuch readers, as fhall have taken up thefe Effays with a candid difpofition to be pleafed, he will not fcruple to exprefs a hope that they have not been altogether difappointed; for though he has been unaffifted in compofing them, he has endeavoured to open a variety of refources, fenfible that he had many different palates to provide for. The fubject of politics, however, will never be one of thefe refources; a fubject which he has neither the will nor the capacity to meddle with. There is yet another topic, which he has beer no lefs ftudious to avoid, which is perfonality; and though he profeffes to give occafional delineations of living manners, and not to make men in his closet (as fome Effayifts have done), he does not mean to point at individuals; for as this is a practice which he has ever rigidly abstained from when he mixed in the world, he should hold himself without the excufe, even of temptation, if he was now to take it up, when he has withdrawn himself from the world. In the Effays (which he has prefumed to call Literary, because he cannot ftrike upon any appofite title of an humbler fort) he has ftudied to render himself intelligible to readers of all defcriptions, and the deep-read scholar will not faftidiously pronounce them fhallow, only because he can fathom them with eafe; for that would be to wrong both himself and their Author, who, if there is any vanity in a pedantic margin of references, certainly refifted that vanity, and as certainly had it at his choice to have loaded his page with as great a parade of authorities, as any of his brother-writers upon claffical fubjects have oftentatioufly difplayed. But if any learned critic, now or hereafter, fhall find occafion to charge thefe Effays on the score of falfe authority or actual error, their Author will moft thankfully meet the investigation; and the fair Reviewer fhall find that he has either candour to adopt correction, or materials enough in referve to maintain every warrantable affertion. The Moralift and the Divine, it is hoped, will here find nothing to except againft; it is not likely fuch an offence fhould be com mitted by one, who has refted all his hope in that Revelation, on which his faith is founded; whom nothing could ever divert from his aim of turning even the gayeft fubjects to moral purposes, and who reprobates the jeft, which provokes a laugh at the expence of a blush. The Effays of a critical fort are no lefs addreffed to the moral objects of compofition, than to thofe which they have more profeffedly in view: they are not undertaken for the invidious purpose of developing errors, and ftripping the laurels of departed poets, but fimply for the ufes of the living. The fpecimens already given, and thofe which are intended to follow in the further profecution of the work, are propofed as difquifitions of inftruction rather than of fubtleREV. Sept. 1786. P ty; ty; and if they shall be found more particularly to apply to dramatie compofitions, it is because their Author looks up to the ftage, as the great arbiter of more important delights, than thofe only which concern the taste and talents of the nation; it is because he fees with ferious regret the buffoonery and low abuse of humour to which it is finking, and apprehends for the consequences fuch an influx of folly may lead to. It will be readily granted there are but two modes of combating this abafement of the drama with any probability of fuccefs: one of these modes is, by an expofition of fome one or other of the productions in queftion, which are fuppofed to contribute to its degradation; the other is, by inviting the attention of the Public to an examination of better models, in which the ftandard works of our early dramatifts abound. If the latter mode therefore fhould be adopted in thefe Effays, and the former altogether omitted, none of their readers will regret the preference that has been given upon fuch an alternative. If If the ladies of wit and talents do not take offence at fome of thefe Effays, it will be a teft of the truth of their pretenfions, when they difcern that the raillery, pointed only at affectation and falfe character, has no concern with them. There is nothing in which this nation has more right to pride itself, than the genius of its women; they have only to add a little more attention to their domeftic virtues, and their fame will fly over the face of the globe. I had ever known a good match broken off on the part of the man, because a young lady had too much modefty and difcretion, or was too ftrictly educated in the duties of a good wife, I hope I underfland myself too well to obtrude my old-fashioned maxims upon them. They might be as witty as they pleafed, if I thought it was for their good; but if a racer, that has too great a fhare of heels, muft lie by because it cannot be matched, fo muft every young spinfter, if her wits are too nimble. If I could once discover that men chufe their wives, as they do their friends, for their manly atchievements and convivial talents, for their being jolly fellows over a bottle, or topping a five-barred gate in a fox-chace, I should then be able to account for the many Amazonian figures I encounter in Houched hats, great-coats and half-boots, and I would not prefume to fet my face against the fashion. The first Numbers of the prefent collection, to the amount of forty, have already been published; but being worked off at a country prefs, I find myfelf under the painful neceffity of discontinuing the edition. I have availed myfelf of this opportunity, not only by correcting the imperfections of the first publication, but by rendering this as unexceptionable (in the external at leaft) as I poffibly could. I should have been wanting to the Public and myfelf, if the flatter-, ing encouragement I have already received had not prompted me to proceed with the work; and if my alacrity in the further profecution of it fhall meet any check, it must arife only from those causes, which no human diligence can controul. Vos tamen O noftri ne feftinâte libelli ! Anon. ART. * Sharp.. ART. IX. The Natural Hiftory of many curious and uncommon Zoophytes, collected from various Parts of the Globe, by the late JoHN ELLIS, Efq. F. R. S. &c. fyftematically arranged and defcribed by the late DANIEL SOLANDER, M. D. F. R. S. With 62 * Plates, engraven by principal Artists. 4to. 11. 16s. Boards. White. 1786. THAT HAT the Reader may understand what he has to expect in this work, we will lay the Preface before him; with a little abridgment: Mr. Ellis, having difcovered that feveral fubjects, which had been arranged by natural hiftorians under the title of Marine vigetables, were in reality animal productions, published, in the year 1755, the refult of the refearches he had made in the investigation of that branch of knowledge, in a quarto work intitled "An Effay towards a Natural Hiftory of British and Irish Corallines *." The approbation with which this work was received, gained the Author the patronage of many of the most respectable characters of the age; and an innate defire to dive deeper into the hidden treafures of nature, induced him to make thofe inquiries, which produced feveral memoirs, which were read at different times before the Royal Society, and published in the Philofophical Tranfactions; particularly those "on the animal nature of Zoophytes, called Corallina," and "the Actinia Sociata, or Cluffered Animal Flower," in the 57th volume, which gained him the honour of Sir Godfrey Copley's medal, delivered to him by the Prefident, in November 1768, together with a compliment, in a speech from the chair, on the nature and utility of the difcoveries of the Author. Thus encouraged, Mr. Ellis became more anxious in the pursuit of his favourite ftudy; and being then the King's agent for the province of West Florida, and agent for the island of Dominica; and in correfpondence and intimacy with the learned Dr. Linnæus, and the moft celebrated natural hiftorians of the age; he was enabled to collect information from the most diftant countries, which he purfued with unremitting ardour; and with the affiftance of his friends, Dr. Fothergill, and Dr. Solander, he intended to have laid before the Public a complete hiftory of Zoophytes. In this, however, he was unfortunately disappointed; his declining health preventing him from proceeding farther than the completion of thefe plates, which were all engraven under his immediate infpection. For the arrangement of the defcriptions, we are indebted to Dr. Selander; whofe premature death prevented this, and other valuable works, from appearing in fo complete a manner as they would otherwife have done. These are the circumstances under which the following sheets are now published, at the request of Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart. P. R. S. who has thought the work not unworthy of his attention, and permitted it to be dedicated to him; and it is prefumed, that, even in its prefent ftate, it will meet with a favourable reception, fince it throws many new lights upon a fubject hitherto but flightly investigated. + See Rev. Vol. XII. p. 2178 Mr. * 63 appear in the yolume. P 2 Mr. Ellis's fondness for Natural History was not confined to any particular branch. Botany was likewife to him a fource of infinite amufement; which he endeavoured to render useful to fociety in general, but more particularly to the Weft India islands and America. The Hiftorical Account of Coffee, published by him in 1774, was defigned to encourage the confumption of that article, raised by the planters in the West Indies: while the accounts of the Mangoftan and Bread Fruit Trees t, with directions for conveying feeds and plants from the most diftant parts of the globe in a state of vegetation, were publifhed with a view to introduce thofe, and many other plants into our own fettlements, where they might become beneficial to the Public for the purposes of medicine, agriculture, and commerce: and his active mind was conftantly employed in devising means for promoting the welfare of fociety, until the time of his death, which happened in October 1776.' Mr. Ellis's name is fo well known, and his acuteness and obfervation fo thoroughly eftablifhed, that we have no occafion to enlarge upon them. He has ever food unrivalled in this branch of Natural Hiftory, and truly merits the title which Linnæus conferred upon him, the LYNCEUS of his age. But the process of time always brings with it a progress of improvement. Mr. Ellis, perhaps, ftruck with the wonders which every where prefented themselves, or perhaps indeed it might be the fault of the age, which was not yet fufficiently dif ciplined, did not fix fuch precife generic and specific characters, as were neceffary to the ready difcriminating of the feveral fubjects. This did not efcape the penetration of the excellent Dr. Solander. To give due efficacy therefore to fuch laborious dif coveries, he has here introduced SYSTEM, that vital principle of all researches. At the fame time, he has added fuch new objects, as have been difcovered fince Mr. Ellis's publication, either by himself, or by others, who, through fondness for the fubject, or through mere accident, did not let fuch curious objects país unobferved. Whoever, therefore, admired Mr. Ellis's former obfervations, will here have fresh pleasure in feeing them prefented in a more scientific form. We do not mean to derogate from Mr. Ellis's deferved praife. He characterited all he fet forth; but the fubject itself then, efpecially the influx of new fpecies, required a more correct and more capacious fyftem, -which Dr. Solander fupplied; fo that, while we admire the acuteness of the great leader in this part of fcience, we cannot but applaud the able illuftrator of fuch wonderful discoveries. The plates, and particular descriptions of Mr. Ellis's former work, are constantly referred to; and fixty-three plates, containing excellent figures of the new fpecies now firft introduced to our notice, are given in this volume, together with ample defcriptions in their proper places. *See Rev. Vol. L. p. 497. ↑ Rev. Vol. LIV, p. 77• ART. |