THE ENGLISH REVIEW• For DECEMBER, 1785. ART. I. Letters on the Elements of Botany. Addreffed to a Lady, By the celebrated J. J. Rouffeau, tranflated into English with Notes, and twenty-four additional Letters, fully explaining the Syftem of Linnæus. By Thomas Martyn, B.D. Profeffor of Botany in the Univerfity of Cambridge, Svo. 7s. boards. White, 1785. THERE never was a period when the study of natural hif tory was fo univerfal or fo ardent as it is at prefent, The world, wearied at laft with with furveying things in the mirror of the antients, look into nature with their own eyes: and quitting the fubleties of Ariftotle and the fublimities of Plato, dig into the bowels of the earth, and explore the cavities of the ocean. Leaving the airy regions of Univerfals, they contemplate matter, and particular objects, from whence all our most abstracted ideas are ultimately derived. But of all the three kingdoms, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, the vegetable attracts moft admirers: not indeed among the philofophical, but the vulgar part of mankind. The complex machinery of animal ftructures, that organization on which fenfation, perception, and all the faculties of the mind depend, or with which, at leaft, they are infeparably connected, beftow an intereft on the ftudy of phyfiology and anatomy in the fight of man who is himfelf an animal, who recognizes an affinity with every thing that pertains to animal nature, and is at the fame time capable of receiving the higheft fatisfaction from the ftudy of the animal œconomy. The mineral ftrata, the different kinds of earths, the elements into which all thefe different kinds may be refolved; their arrangement and pofition with regard to each ENG. REV. DEC. 1785. C c other : other: Thefe being connected with the great general idea of matter and substance, and the cause or causes of the revolutions of the universe, form to the cultivated mind the moft fublime subject of speculation. The study of animals, then, is more interesting and curious too, than that of vegetables, and the ftudy of inanimated matter is more fublime; yet Botany has by far more votaries than either of these. Noble and ignoble; lear ned and unlearned; men and women; even boys and girls, all, are delighted with Botany, and are curious to know the names and the nature of plants and flowers. The reason of this preference fo generally given to Botany, before other branches of natural history, is perhaps to be fought for in the. freshness, the beautiful colouring, the variations so obvious and quick in the fame plant, the endless variety of different plants, and the ease and opportunity of studying them, in fome degree, however, imperfectly, Be this as it may, the study of Botany is easy, and full of delight. It tends, as the contemplation of nature in all her powers and forms always does, to compose and harmonize the mind, to allay the turbulency of paffion, to fill up the infupportable void of inoccupation, and to prepare the way for more fatiguing and nobler purfuits, whether of virtue or of fcience. It would be happy, particularly for the female fex, if such ladies as know not how to fill up their time, but by vifits, cards, and public diverfions, would betake themselves to this pleafing study, The scripture tells us, fpeaking of the lilies and other flowers of the field, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of thefe. Whatever lady is impreffed with a full conviction that there is more beauty and excellence in the flowers of the field then in the trappings of a fashionable and fine gentleman, has attained to a state of tranquillity and a fource of entertainment greatly to be envied. It was to facilitate the study of Botany, and to bring it down to the level of the unlearned, that profeffor Martyn published the volume under Review; of which publication he gives the following account in his preface. < When the Elementary Letters on Botany firft prefented themfelves to me, in turning over the last complete edition of Rouffeau's Works, their elegance and fimplicity pleafed me enough, to make me give them a fecond more attentive perufal. I then thought that they had confiderable merit; and that if they were ditembarraffed from the chaos of fifteen quarto volumes, and tranflated into English, they might be of ufe to fuch of my fair countrywomen and unlearned countrymen as wished to amufe themselves with Natural History. When the tranflation was done, I perceived, that the foundation only being laid by the ingenious author, it could be of little fervice without without raifing the fuperftructure. This I have attempted; not flattering myfelf that it is executed at all in Rouffeau's manner, which is inimitable; but merely with the defign of being ufeful. The study of Vegetables, having nothing abftrufe in it, lies within the compafs of every person who has leifure: but hitherto it has been locked up in the learned languages, and overwhelmed with a load of hard words and phrafes; or if there have been any attempts to unbind thefe fetters, they have not been such as are adapted to make Botany fo general a ftudy as it merits; or at least to lead by the hand thofe who, untinctured with literature, wish however to acquire fome reasonable knowledge of that vegetable nature around them, from which they reap such a variety of pleasure, with fo much folid advantage. 'What books can you recommend, that may enable me to acquire a competent knowledge of Botany? is a queftion that has very frequently been asked me. To the learned I can readily answer, the works of Linnæus alone will furnish you with all the knowledge you have occafion for, or if they are deficient in any point, will refer you to other authors, where you may have every fatisfaction that books can give you. But I am not very folicitous to relieve these learned gentlemen from their embarraffment; they have resources enough, and know how to help themfelves. As to the unlearned, if I were to fend them to the tranflations of Linnæus's works, they would only find themfelves bewildered in an inextricable labyrinth of unintelligible terms, and would only reap difguft from a study that is perhaps more capable of affording pleasure than any other, If I were to bid them fit down, and study their grammar regularly; fo dry and forbidding an onfet might difcourage the greater number; and few would enter the temple through a vestibule of fo unpromifing an appearance. A language, however, must be acquired; but then it may be done gradually; and the tedium of it may in fome meafure be relieved by carrying on at the fame time a study of facts, and the philofophy of nature. This feems to have been Rouffeau's idea, and I have endeavoured not to lofe fight of it, in my continuation of his eight ingenious letters. 'Let an unlearned perfon then who is defirous of acquiring fome knowledge of Botany, begin by taking a few plants with flowers, whofe parts are fufficiently vifible, and examine them patiently by the deferiptions and characters which are given in the following pages. You may perhaps know fome plants by their names; or if not, you will be unfortunate indeed if you have not a friend who will show you the flower of a lily. If in the course of your examination, any term fhould occur, that is not explained in the page, or mentioned in the Index, you may have recourse to the Dictionary, the Introduction, or the Elements. If you can have patience to go through the first feven letters, with a plant or two. of each natural tribe explained in them; to make yourself mafter of the claffification in the ninth and tenth; and to examine the obvious plants, whose characters are given in the twenty following letters, as they occur; I flatter myself that you will find little difficulty after that, in determining any plant which you fhall happen to meet with, by Lin næus's næus's characters, as delivered by his tranflators: whereas if you had begun with them I am confident you would have been discou raged from proceeding.' Rouffeau in his introduction to the ftudy of Botany, a ftudy fo congenial to a mind in raptures with the fimplicity of nature, traces it in its progrefs to the time of Linnæus, who rescued it from the confufion and perplexity of different and often unintelligible nomenclatures, and clothed it in a regular language. He proceeds in a series of letters, in a plain, familiar, and engaging style to initiate his fair corref pondent, in the fcience of Botany. Mr. Martyn in his notes fometimes corrects, and fometimes illuftrates Rouffeau and where that writer leaves off, the profeffor carries on a fuperftructure on his foundation, and happily imitates his pleafing manner. ART. II. The Mine a Dramatic Poem. By John Sargent, Efq. 4to. 35. Cadel, 1785. IN N this performance we are prefented with a new attempt to preferve among us the structure and compofition of the ancient Greek tragedy... We enter not in this place into a controverfy which has been fo fully difcuffed as that relative to the abstract merits of this fpecies of poetry. But we confefs that, wherever a writer can be found, who, from the cafe and competence of his circumftances, is enabled to difregard the immediate profit, and from the dignity of his mind to look beyond the obvious introduction to fome degree of notice through the medium of theatrical representation, we are not difpleafed ever and anon to be called upon to pay our homage at the venerable fhrines of Sophocles and Euripides; and to contemplate a ftyle of writing, in which the attractive form of fimplicity and the harmonious and fublime genius of poetry may be exhibited in their fulleft luftre. The plot of the tragedy before us, contains in it just as much of complication and incident as the ftructure of the Greek tragedy will bear. Leopold and Count Maurice, are fuppofed to be two Hungarian noblemen, condemned to labour in the quickfilver mine at Idria in Friuli, during the reign of the late Emprefs Queen. Leopold is faluted with the imperial pardon in the commencement of the poem, and is obliged reluctantly to leave behind him a nobleman whose whole misfortune originated in the fidelity of his attachment to himself. Count Maurice had been followed to the dreary manfion in difguife, by Juliana, his young and amiable confort. Here he is addreffed with the unhallowed paffion of Conrad, Conrad, one of that clafs of miners who had been condemned to the fame punishment for enormous crimes. Rejected by Juliana, he determines to wreck his vengeance on Count Maurice by infinuating charges against him to the fuperintendant of the mine. Juft as his malicious purposes are ripe for execution, Leopold arrives with the pardon of Count Maurice, which had met him upon his emerging from the fubterraneous cavern; and, equally happy in their friendship and their love, they fet out upon their return for Prefburg. We fhall make only one obfervation upon the structure of the fable. It appears to be an ill imagined incident, and attended with little fhow of probability, for Juliana to be fuppofed to have followed her husband to the mine, to have fhown him the most affiduous attendance, fat "Motionlefs, while he delv'd the rifted rock, Fetch'd the cold beverage, and with gentle hand. and all this without the fmalleft fufpicion on the part of the Count. The mode of effecting it, contrived by our author, is for the lady to be conftantly veiled in his prefence. But can it be fuppofed, that an affectionate husband fhould be able to recognize his wife by no other token than the features of her face? To what caufe could he attribute the attachment and affiduity of the beautiful unknown? It is not common for this kind of regard to originate, in a perfect ftranger, without any motives to excite it. And if the Count had fuppofed it to have been love, we cannot imagine, confiftently with the rectitude and purity of his character, that he would have felt fo much complacency in its effects. The ftyle of that part of the performance which is ftrictly dramatic, may be dispatched in two words. It has no bursts of imagination, and no glow of pathos. It is merely the product of a cultivated understanding, with perfpicuity of phrafe, regularity of art, and coldness of imitation. But there is a part of the Grecian tragedy, at least as much deferving of our animadverfions as its dialogue, we mean its choruses. In the prefent inftance, they are rendered still more confpicuous by the fingularity of the idea upon which they are formed. The perfons of the chorus are the Gnomes of the celebrated Roficrufius, and the fubject of their odes are principally the wonders of the foffile kingdom. This idea is more ingenious than fublime, and has more of the wildnefs of the old comedy, than the ferious and affecting ftyle of the mufe of tragedy. The author, in the mean time, has bestowed an infinite quantity of learning upon the execution of his idea. He leads us, in the fame breath, through Cc 3 travellers |
