We are not altogether ftrangers to this pretended demonAtration, nor to the correfpondence which took plack on it, between the author of this book and a late illuftrious prelate; whofe knowledge of the principles of the Newtonian system of the world will not be queftioned. As Dr. Robifon's detection of the fallacy was, in the opinion of his Lordship, complete, (we ourselves never faw that detection), we trust that it will not be longer withheld from the public. It occurs, we fee, in that part of the fyftem which treats of the force of cohefion; and as COHESION appears to have occupied the fecond place in the author's arrangement of the articles of which his great work was to confift*, it would probably have been confidered in the next volume. That volume, we should imagine, must have been left in a state almost, if not altogether, fit for the prefs; and we may venture to affure the profeffor's friends, that the British public is too generous a body not to make every allowance for flovenli nefs, or even inaccuracy, in the pofthumous works of a man of genius and virtue. If we might in the mean time hazard a conjecture, refpecting the means which he may have employed to demonftrate that the law of gravitation, is not fo effential to the existence of matter, that it could not have been otherwife than in the inverfe ratio of the fquares of the distances, we would fuppofe that he had adopted, for this purpose, the mathematical part of the theory of Bofcovich; and in our opinion he could not have adopted or devised any thing better. To feel the force of a demonftration, conducted on the principles of that theory, a man must indeed be tolerably converfant in the higher geometry: but perhaps the following obfervations on cohesion may be fufficient to convince any person that the established law of gravitation is not effential to all qualities that are diffufed, or feem to be diffufed, from a centre; and that the heavenly bodies might have tended.towards each other, by a force decreafing in any ratio that had feemed good to him who brought all things into being, and continues to uphold them by the word of his power.

Nothing feems to be now more univerfally admitted, than that the particles of the densest bodies are not in abfolute contact. The phænomena indeed of expanfion by heat, and contraction by cold, render this truth indifputable. The particles therefore of lead, and gold, and iron, and of every other material fubftance, are held together by fome force which may be called attraction; but according to La Place,

See our laft Number.
Pp

BRIT, CRIT, VOL. xxix, may, 1807.

and

and the other philofophers of the fame fchool, every force of this kind decreafes, and can decrease, only in the inverse ratio of the fquares of the diftances. The phænomena, however, are altogether irreconcilable to this doctrine. An iron wire, 0.078 of an inch in diameter, is capable of fup. porting 549.25 lbs. avoirdupoife, without breaking. The force of attraction, therefore, which keeps the particles of iron at their natural diftances, must be somewhat greater than what is neceffary to balance 549.25 lbs. avoirdupoife; but let the particles of the wire be feparated from each other a hair's-breadth, or the tenth part of a hair's-breadth, or even fo far as to admit only a ray of light, will the force requifite to feparate them another tenth of a hair's-breadth be only fo much lefs than the force that firft feparated them, as the fquares of their diftances is increased by that feparation ? and will the force requifite to carry them to a diftance from each other only gradually diminish in the ratio of the fquares .of the increased distances?

Again, lead and gold are much denfer than iron. The atoms of which they confift must therefore be nearer to each other than the atoms of iron; and upon the principles of La Place, kept together by a greater force. Yet a wire of gold, 0.078 of an inch in diameter, does not fupport a third, nor a wire of lead the tenth part of the weight which is fupported by a fimilar wire of iron; though, after the particles of thefe different bodies are feparated ever fo little, they may be carried to any diftance by forces not indeed equal, but directly in the ratio of the quantity of matter in each. Thus, though it requires much less force to overcome the attraction by which the atoms of gold, or of lead, are held together, than to overcome the force by which the atoms of iron are attracted to each other; the cafe is juft reversed, where the force is to be overcome, which attracts equal magnitudes of thefe metals to the earth. All thefe objections to La Place's doctrine are ftill more ftriking, when the cohefion and gravitation of quick filver are compared with the cohefion and gravitation of iron.

From thefe obfervations we think it appears incontrovertible, that the law of gravitation, though ellablifhed with infinite wifdom, might have been different from what it is; and that indeed every thing which is called attraction, refults from a power foreign from matter. What that power is, we need not inquire; for it must be at laft relolved into the fiat of the Almighty, when he formed the univerfe. It was his will that matter fhould tend towards matter by laws, many of which he has enabled man to discover: "He fpake, and it

was done; he commanded, and it stood fast;" and every attempt that has been made to explain this univerfal tendency, by the interpofition of æthers, and vortices, and powers radiating from a centre, has ended in atheifm or abfurdity. Under fuch attempts,

66

Philofophy, that lean'd on Heaven before,

Shrinks to her fecond caufe, and is no more."

From the view that we have taken of this work, the reader will perceive that we think it of great value. We do indeed think it of extraordinary value. We do indeed think it one of the moft valuable works on Dynamics and Aftronomy that we have feen; but like every other work of man it is. imperfect. The author's language, though generally perfpicuous, is often flovenly, and fometimes hardly grammati cal; and of fome of his metaphyfical diftinctions we perceive not the foundation. Thus, fpeaking (p. 37) of the confufion of thought occafioned by the phrafe vis inertiæ, he fays,

"Thefe doubts and difficulties in the ftudy have all arifen from the introduction of the notion of refiftance, or force exerted by matter, in order to remain as it is. It would have been infinitely better to have employed the word REACTION, becaufe this is the expreffion of the very fact.”

Surely this is a diftinction without a difference; or if there be any difference, the word reaction is the lefs proper of the two, becaufe interpreted literally it is more expreffive of force than refiftanee, and therefore lefs applicable to inert matter.

Dr. Robifon too, in fome of his mathematical conclufions, differs from aftronomers of great name, particularly in what he fays (p. 251) of the probability of the planet Mars being hollow, and (p. 390) of the node of Jupiter's orbit advancing in the ecliptic; but on thefe points he may be right, for we have not examined the queftions with fufficient care to enable us to decide between him and thofe from whom he diffents. In the following paffage, however, while diffenting from others, he feems to contradict what he had himfelf formerly demonftrated.

"It is on all hands agreed that our winter tides exceed the fummer tides. This is thought to confirm that point of the theory which makes the fun's accumulating force greater as his diftance diminishes. I am doubtful of the applicability of this principle, because the approach of the fun caufes the moon to recede, and her recefs is in the triplicate ratio of the fun's ap

Pp2

proach

proach. Her accumulating force is, therefore, diminished in the fefquiplicate (Q. fextuplicate?) ratio of the fun's approach, and her influence on the phænomena of the tides exceeds the fun's.” P. 651.

When we compare this with what is demonftrated in page 428 of this volume, the ingenious author's doubt appears to be groundless. These, and a few trifling overfights fuch as these, may be magnified into great errors by thofe impious fciolifts who never forgive a philofopher who fteps out of his way, however little, to establish the first principles of religion; but by readers of a different description, they will be viewed only as fpots on the fun.

ART. VI. The Inferno of Dante Alighieri. Canto XVIII. et Seq. With a Tranflation in English Blank Verfe, Notes, and a Life of the Author. By the Rev. Henry Francis Cary, A. M. 12mo. Vol. 2d. Carpenter. 1807. WE have before commended the firft volume* of this

elegant, but by no means trifling literary labour. Dante created, as it were, a language of his own, his diction, though eminent for its purity, is occafionally harsh and perplexed, and more remarkable for energy than fweetness. His fubject alfo, thus far, employed in defcribing the punishment of human vice in the infernal regions, prefented no eafy talk to the tranflator. Mr. Cary has furmounted thefe difficulties, and has given the third part of a very elegant work to English Literature. He has by no means in the fecond volume diminifhed his claims to our praise, either as a Poet or a Commentator. We felect two paffages only, as corroborative of his poetical pretenfions; his merit as a Commentator, and his familiar acquaintance with the best writers of Italy and of his own country, is apparent; as well from the notes, which, though generally concife, are always pointed and pertinent, as from the va rious parallel paffages which he has diftinguished.

After travering the various departments of Hell allotted to the feducers of women, practifers of fimony, divination, peculators, &c. &c. we come to the 24th Canto which opens In this fpirited manner.

*See vol. xxvi. p. 18. Of Mr. Boyd's valuable tranflation of the whole work, the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradifo, we have alfo fpoken, with due praife, vol. xxi. p. 255. Mr. Cary's is more literal, and more explanatory.

- 5

In the years early nonage, when the fun
Tempers his treffes in Aquarius' urn,
And now towards equal day the nights recede,
When as the rime upon the earth puts on
Her dazzling fifters image, but not long
Her milder fway endures, then rifeth up
The village hind, who fails his wintry store,
And looking out beholds the plain around
All whiten'd, whence impatiently he fmites
His thighs, and to his hut returning in,
There paces to and fro, wailing his lot,
As a difcomfited and helpless man;

Then comes he forth again, and feels new hope
Spring in his bofom, finding e'en thus foon

The world hath chang'd its countenance, grafps his crook,
And forth to pafture drives his little flock:
So me my guide dishearten'd, when I faw
His troubled forehead, and fo fpeedily
That ill was cur'd; for at the fallen bridge
Arriving, towards me with a look as sweet,
He turn'd him back, as that I first beheld
At the fteep mountain's foot. Regarding well
The ruin, and some counsel first maintain'd
With his own thought, he open'd wide his arm
And took me up. As one, who, while he works,
Computes his labour's iffue, that he feems

Still to foresee the effect, fo lifting me

eye upon

another.

Up to the fummit of one peak, he fix'd
His
<< Grapple that,"
Said he, but firft make proof, if it be fuch
As will fuftain thee." For one capp'd with lead
This were no journey. Scarcely he, though light,
And I, though onward pufh'd from crag to crag,
Could mount. And if the precinct of this coaft
Were not lefs ample than the laft, for him

I know not, but my strength had furely fail'd." P. 117. In the portion of the work which follows, the reprefen. tation of the ftate of the giants of old, Enceladus, Antæus, &c. is remarkably curious, and well tranflated; but the whole poem does not contain, either in itself or in its version,

a

more pathetic, or more interefting paffage than the famous ftory of Count Ugolino, fo well known from Sir Joshua Reynolds's fublime picture of the subject.

"Know I was on earth

Count Ugolino, and th' Archbishop he
Ruggieri. Why I neighbour him fo close,

Now lift. That through effect of his ill thoughts,
In him my trust repofing, I was ta'en

PP 3

And