his prefent Majefty, and from the cutting of canals. That thofe caufes may, or actually do, increase the quantity of evaporation in certain places, we readily admit; but let Mr. W. take in his imagination a bird's eye view of the whole ifland; and let him furvey the whole, obferving what proportion the increafed vegetable furface bears to the entire furface of the country, what extent of marfhy ground has been drained, in order to render it fit for cultivation, how many uselefs vegetables have rooted out of the inclosed grounds by the action of the plough; and we may venture to affert, that when every particular fhall have been duly examined and ftrictly calculated, it will appear, that if the total evaporation of this island has been at all increafed of late years, that increase will not amount to the thousandth part of the whole. Confidering then the infular fituation of the country, in confequence of which, from whatever quarter the wind blows, the air, with the evaporation of the country, is quickly fwept away, and other air fucceeds, which an hour, or two, or three, before flood over the ocean or over the continent; one must naturally conclude, that the bad effects of the increased evaporation on the climate must be more imaginary than real.

The lat particular that remains to be noticed, is the methods which this author propofes for the amelioration of the climate, and of thefe, after the preceding observations, we need only mention his plan for electrifying the atmosphere. Mr. W. propofes to erect buildings with electrical machines, and other apparatus, in various parts of the country, without onfidering the difficulty of the execution, the enormous expence it would be attended with, and the flight foundation upon which the probability of fuccefs refts. His reafon for propofing the adoption of this plan is a fuppofition that the particles of vapour may at times want electricity fufficient to form a peculiar electric atmosphere round each veficle of vapour; and he thinks that the existence of this peculiar electric atmosphere, is indicated by the veficles of vapour, moving very nimbly over the furface of water, without actually mixing with it. See page 37 of the work.

It is true, that when water is converted into vapour, its capacity for containing electric fluid is increafed, and accordingly in that cafe electric fluid is abforbed; but it is impoflible to lay what becomes of that fluid. It is also true, that the velicles of vapour move very nimbly over the furface of water, generally without incorporating with it; but this effect must be attributed to other caufes; for there are various other bodies, fuch as particles of duft, metallic lings, and even common fewing needles, which will reft

upon

apon the furface of water without finking, and without becoming wet.

After the abovementioned remarks, it is necessary to obferve, that in whatever light this author's theory and his proposals may be viewed, he modeftly offers them for the fair and mature investigation of candid and scientific men. But independent of the theory, &c. this work contains the account of various ufeful experiments, together with the Aatement of curious facts, and proper obfervations, which undoubtedly render it worthy of perufal.

ART. VI. ETEX lagoevla: or the Diversions of Purley, &c. (Concluded from p. 480.)

WE

E have obferved, in our review of the first part of this learned work, that the author blends with his philological inquiries many obfervations calculated to excite political difcontent. He purfues the fame courfe in the fecond part; and has dropt all mention of St. John's College, Cambridge, as well as the letters A. M. which are added to his name on the title page of the first part! Whether he has done this to fhow his contempt for the inftitutions of the country which gave him birth, and for the univerfity in which he was educated, we know not; but by thefe omiffions on the title page of the fecond part, we were prepared for fome extravagancies which we had not met with even in the firft. Accordingly, this volume, which, like the former, profeffes to treat of univerfal grammar, is divided into eight chapters, in the firft of which the author confiders the rights of man! in the fecond, third, fourth, and fifth, he attempts to account for what is called abstraction, or abstract ideas; or rather, indeed, abftract nouns, and in the fixth, seventh, and eighth, he explains the nature of adjectives and participles, by tracing them, as he had formerly traced conjunctions, adverbs, and prepofitions, to fome noun or verb in the parent language.

The reader will naturally fuppofe that the firft chapterentitled, of the rights of man, has nothing to do with the fubject under difcuffion; and it is certain that the ridiculous cant, which, in the form of dialogue between Mr. Horne Tooke and his dear Burdett, fills the fix firft pages, is a moft offenfive excrefcence, with the exhibition of which we will

not difguft our readers. But when from making farcaftical reflections on the Houfe of Commons, on all lawyers, and on Johnfon as a lexicographer and tory, the author proceeds to explain the words right, and juft, and law, though we perceive no traces of the fuperior grammarian or profound philofopher, we are inftructed by the etymologist. He very fairly proves that RIGHT is no other than REC-tum, the paft participle of the Latin verb regere; that the Italian DRITTO and the French DROIT are no other than DIRECT-um, the paft participle of dirigere; that our English word JUST is the past participle of the verb jubere; that LAW is merely the paft tenfe and the paft participle LAG or LEG of the gothic and Anglo-Saxon verb LAGZAN or LÆCGAN ponere; and that it means therefore fomething laid down-as a rule of conduct. From these premifes, which he establishes as firmly as mere etymology can eftablish any thing, he infers

that

"When a man demands his RIGHT, he asks only, that which it is ordered he fhall have; that a RIGHT conduct is that which is ordered; that a RIGHT line is that which is ordered or directed— (not a random extenfion, but) the fhorteft between two points; that a RIGHT and JUST action is fuch a one as is ordered and commanded; and that a JUST man is fuch as he is commanded to be qui leges juraque fervat-who obferves and obeys the things laid down and commanded." (Vol. 2. p. 8.)

That fuch is the origin of the words RIGHT and JUST and LAW, and that fuch is the meaning of the original Latin and Anglo-Saxon words from which they are derived, must, we think, be granted; but Mr. Tooke feems to have fallen into the fame mistake which, in our last number, we pointed out in his explanation of the word FROM. The words RIGHT and JUST, when tranfplanted into the English language, are, by the jus et norma loquendi, employed to exprefs a meaning, which, though analogous, is not exactly equivalent to the original meaning of the Latin words rectum, dire&tum, and juffum. This is obvious from the very example which he gives in fupport of his own opinion, from the language of geometry; for furely a man, may order or direct two points to be connected by a line not the fhorteft-by a femicircle for inftance. Such a curve would be ordered or directed, and therefore, in the original fenfe of the word, as much direclum as the diameter of the fame femicircle which might have been drawn by the order or direction of another man; and yet it is only the diameter, and not the curve, that could with propriety be called a RIGHT line.

The

The author's notions, however, are fo completely under the dominion of etymology, that he says,

"It appears to me highly improper to fay, that God has a RIGHT, as it is alfo to fay that God is JUST. For nothing is ordered, directed, or commanded concerning God. The expref fions are inapplicable to the Deity, though they are cominon, and thofe who use them have the beft intentions. They are applicable only to men; to whom alone language belongs, and of whofe fenfations only words are the reprefentatives; to men, who are by nature the fubjects of orders and commands, and whofe chief merit is obedience. Every thing that is ordered and commanded is RIGHT and JUST!)" (P. 11.)

This reafoning, if it deferve to be called reafoning, muft proceed on the fuppofition that the words of the first language were the natural, and not the arbitrary representatives of the notions or fenfations which they were employed to exprefs; and that thefe words muji retain their original fenfe, whatever change they may undergo in found! a fuppofition more abfurd never entered into the mind of a Jewith Cabbalift, who finds natural meanings in Hebrew roots-nay, even in Hebrew letters; and it is a fuppofition which, in the firft volume, the author himself treats with merited contempt. Whatever be the origin of the word JUST, we appeal to every Englishman of reflection whether it be not affociated in his mind with a notion quite diftinét from the notion which is fuggefted by the word COMMAND, and whether it would not be JUST, though it had never been COMMANDED, to "do unto others whatsoever we would that, on a change of circumftances, they should do unto us?" Thefe queftions are to be decided not by etymology, but by the laws of human thought; for the notion expreffed by the word juftice, or juft, might have been expreffed by a found derived not from jubere or juffus, nor from any other word of any language; and Locke, whom this author cenfures for faying that God is JUST, and that he has a RIGHT to do fo and fo; we are his creatures," is in queftions of this kind entitled to greater deference than the Rev. John Horne Tooke and Burdett united, whoever may be the perfon defigned by that puppet name.

Burdett, indeed, feems not to be fatisfied with this account. of RIGHT and JUST, and very naturally objects to Mr. H. Tooke his own conduct as a democrat. Was it ordered and commanded, he afks, that you fhould oppofe what was ordered and commanded? Can the fame thing be at the same time both RIGHT and WRONG? To which the author fagely replies,

"A thing may be at the fame time both RIGHT and WRONG. -It may be commanded to be done, and commanded not to be done. The LAW, LEG, LAG, i. e. That which is laid down may be different, by different authorities.-I have always been moft obedient when moft taxed with disobedience. The RIGHT

I revere is not the RIGHT adored by fycophants; jus vagum, the capricious command of princes or minifters. I follow the LAW OF GOD (what is laid down by him for the rule of my con duct) when I follow the LAWS of human nature; which, without any human teftimony, we know muft proceed from God: and upon thefe are founded the RIGHTS of man, or what is ordered for man. I revere the conftitution and constitutional LAWS of England; because they are in conformity with the Laws of God.and nature and upon these are founded the rational RIGHTS of Englifhmen. If princes or minifters, or the corrupted fham reprefentatives of a people, order, command, or lay down any thing contrary to that which is ordered, commanded, or laid down by God, human nature, or the conftitution of this government, I will ftill hold faft by the higher authorities. If the meaner authorities are offended, they can only deftroy the body of the individual, but never can affect the RIGHT, or that which is ordered by their fuperior." P. 13.

More contemptible fophiftry than this we have never met with, nor any thing which pourtrayed greater arrogance in its author. It will be readily admitted, that what is ordered, commanded, or laid down by God is to be obeyed in preference to the orders, commands, or laws of princes and parliaments, when these are indisputably inconfiftent with each other; but was this the cafe in every inftance in which Mr. H. T. fobeyed the laws of his country? And was his conduct in all thofe inftances indifputably ordered, commanded, or laid down by God? To thefe queftions he has given one anfwer, and nine-tenths of the community another. Is he an infal lible interpreter of the laws of God, and the rest of the nation fools and blockheads, who by no effort of understanding can difcover what it is which God requires of them? It might feem fufficient to put the Rev. John Horne in mind of the folemn injunctions of Scripture to "fubmit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's fake;" and of that "damnation which we are affured, by the fame authority, they fhall receive to themselves, who refift the higher powers of any tate," when commanding things not impious or immoral; but the politician of Purley has laid afide, as far as he can, the character of the clergyman, and with that charafter it may be, also reverence for the word of God! He reveres, however, the English conflitution, but has not told

us