66 but what you receive freely; ye may indeed and ye ought t compel yourselves to what is good, for fuch Compulfion leadeto to a more perfect Freedom, but to be compelled by another, destroyeth Freedom; if therefore ye do not use the free Power intrufted to you, by becoming Fellow-workers with God, ye then "condemn yourselves, and caft yourselves into Hell, notwithstand"ing the continual Mercy of the Lord is always ready to fave you." Thus far concerning Baron Swedenborg. As to this abridgment of his Heavenly Doctrines, it is made with judgment, by a person who appears to be fincerely interested in the advancement of religion, and particularly the propagation of thefe doctrines. ART. X. The Choleric Fathers. A Comic Opera. Performed at the Theatre-Royal in Covent Garden. By Thomas Holcroft, 8vo. 15. 6d. Robinsons, 1785. WHATEVER be the merit of Comic Opera, in that line Mr. Holcroft makes no mean appearance. Though there be little novelty in the characters of the Choleric Fathers, yet they are well fupported, and there is a degree of intricacy, vivacity, and buftle in the plot, which gives intereft to the piece. The following fcene between the two fathers, Don Salvador and Don Pimiento, we produce as a fpecimen of the Opera. They meet to conclude a marriage between their children. Don Fernando, fon to Salvador, knowing the temper of each, how much his father defpifes the philofophy of Pimiento, and in what contempt the philofopher, on the other hand, held the ignorance of his father, is afraid that their meeting fhould end in a quarrel, inftead of producing the marriage he fo much defired, he therefore endeavours previously to foothe them both. His endeavours are treated with contempt, as totally unneceffary, each truft ing to the gentleness of his own temper, and profeffing fo much to defpife the abfurd and extravagant teftiness of the other, as to receive with cool difregard whatever he fhould fay. In these circumftances the following dialogue commen ces. Enter Don Salvadór. D. Sal. Good Morning, Don Pimiento. D. Pimi. Good morning, good morning, Don Salvador. I have lately made fome very curious experiments, by which I find the ponderofity of light, or, to speak more philofophically, the le vity of light is extreme All Spain by no means contains a pound. D. Sal. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! D. Pimi. What do you laugh at, Don Salvador? I fay the expe riment is a very curious experiment. D. Sal. Who doubts it? Ha, ha, ha, ha! D. Pini D. Pimi. Then what do you laugh at, Don Salvador? D. Sal. Laugh at! To think what a devilish dear commodity light is in England!-Well, here you are, like Noah in the ark, furrounded by all your birds, beafts, infects, and reptiles-Ha, ha, ha! Philofophy must be a plaguy expenfive plaything. D. Pimi. Plaything, fir! Plaything, Don Salvador!" Let me advife you as a friend, Don Salvador, whenever you speak of philofophy, to do it with more respect, left you fhould incur re"proof from the learned and the wife-Philofophy, Don Salvador, 66 1 philofophy is a Being of a fuperior and divine nature; whofe "head is among the ftars, her feet in the bottomlefs deep, and "whofe eye penetrates matter, form, and infinite space, even to darkness and nonentity "[As the Scene advances, the laugh of Don Salvador becomes and increases into a laugh of vexation reftrained.] "D. Sal. Ha, ha, ha! I always told you it was fomething mon"ftrous.-a divine nature! Philofophy, Sir, is a diffector of grubs, 86 a painter of fhadowshe was born in amazement with her "mouth open, has fed upon maggots; and peers, and pores, till "fhe fancies fhe finds miracles stuff'd in the cavity of a mites cra46 nium, or hid in the hair of a flea's foot." D. Pimi. Permit me to tell you, Don Salvador, philofophy is a thing totally beyond your comprehenfion. D. Sal. [half afide] Ha, ha, ha!-ha, ha! yes, and yours too. -Our prefent bufinefs, Don Pimiento, is the conclufion of our children's marriage. Ha, ha, ha! D. Pimi. It is fo, it is fo-and, as I have promifed your fon Don Fernando to be cautious, I fhall take care to avoid all altercation. D. Sal. Which promife, if kept, will redound very much to the honour of your understanding, Don Julio Pimiento. Ha, ha, ha! D. Pimi. Do you mean to infinuate any thing to the difcredit of my understanding, Don Salvador? D. Sal. Ha, ha, ha! I infinuate nothing, Don Pimiento. D. Sal. Ha, ha, ha! D. Pimi. Sir, I affirm no man is lefs captious. D. Sal. You are a very worthy gentleman, Don Pimiento, but very choleric. Ha, ha, ha! D. Pimi. Choleric! I choleric! D. Sal. Were you, as difpaffionate, as ready to listen to reafon as I am! D. Pimi. Tow dipp'd in tar, will not catch fire fo fuddenly, or blaze out fo furiously.-Oil, brandy, and Phlogifton are not fo inflammable. D. Sal. Ha, ha, ha-ha, ha!-You are defcribing yourself, Don Pimiento, not me.-My temper, like a deep ftream, Hows-on fmooth and unruffled. D. Pimi. Smooth! You, Don Salvador! Flow!--Pardon me; but yours is an electic fluid, all flame !-However, be under no reftraint; emit your sparks; discharge yourself: I am a philofopher; Ee 3 and and do not fear a fhock--Be you as captius as you pleafe; I fhall be cool! cautiously cool. D. Sal. Ha, ha, ha! I perceive, Don Pimiento, how remarkably you are difpofed to coolness and caution. "D. Pimi. What do you mean by that, Don Salvador? Am "I not cool? am I not cautious? Is it poffible for any man to be 66 more fo? “D. Sal. Ha, ha, ha! Well, well; where are our children ? "D. Pimi. Am I not cool, Don Salvador? "D. Sal. Exceedingly; as cool as you were the other day, when "I laughed becaufe you afferted heat was nothing. "D. Fimi. Sir, you may laugh again if you please, and I will "affert again, and will affert in the face of the whole world, that "heat is not a thing, but a quality. “D. Sal. Ha, ha, ha! And fo you still perfift in affirming, that "the blaze of a faggot, or the light of a candle, is nothing? "D. Pimi. Sir, I affirm no fuch thing. "D. Sal. And that were I to burn my finger, or fcald my leg, "I fhould feel no pain? "D. Pimi. I fay, fir, pain is a fenfation, produced by the re"action. "D. Sal. And if my house was burnt to the ground, you would "pretend it was still standing. "D. Pimi. Sir, the reaction "D. Sal. Or that the fiery lava of Mount Vefuvius, while it fweeps away fields, flocks, men, and cities, is totally innocent, has nothing pernicious in its effects. "D. Pimi. Sir, the reaction-(very loud, and very angry) Sir, I fay no fuch thing." "D. Sal. Then what do you fay, fir?" D. Pimi. Sir, you won't hear what I fay, fir; you can't understand what I fay, fir. D. Sal. That is your fault, fir, for not fpeaking intelligibly. D. Pimi. Do you mean to call me a fool, fir? D. Sal. Sir, I have too much refpect to good manners to follow your example. D. Pimi Do you mean to fay, fir, I don't know good manners? D. Sal. I mean to fay, fir, you dont practice 'em. D. Pimi. Sir, your fon fhall have no'daughter of mine. D. Sal. Sir, both you and your daughter would be too much honor'd in the alliance. D. Pimi. Too much honor'd! Jaquelina! Diego! Who waits there-Zelida!--Somebody call my daughter. Enter Fernando and Zelida. Donna Zel. My dear father, what's the matter? Come here, child, come away from that D. Fer, My dear father, what is the occafion of all this warmth ? D. Pimi. I would fooner marry my daughter to a defcendant of the Cyclops, or the great grandíon of Cacus, than to the offspring of fuch a paffionate, perverfe,-But I defpife 5 "Donna Zel Donna Zel. "D. Fer. My dear fir, pray for Heaven's fake forbear. "D. Sal. (with great contempt) Here has he been afferting again that fire won't burn, that water can't quench it, that Mahomet's “black ram was an Alderney cow, and that the man in the moon wears a harlequin's jacket. "D. Pimi. Sir, I afferted no fuch things; I defpife both bui "foonery and buffoons." D. Sal. Defpife! Do you defpife me, fir? D. Fer. (Getting between them and forcing him off) Pray fir, confider, fir. D. Pimi. Sir, I defpife ignorance. Donna Zel. (Keeping her father back) For heaven's fake, firD. Pimi. Sir, you are,-Zelida puts her hand over her father's mouth.) D. Sal. Sir, no man fhall dare despise D. Fer. (Raifing his voice to overpower his father's, and forcing bim out.) Be pacified, dear fir. [Exeunt D. Salvador and Fernando. There is good fatire in the two fongs Of ups and downs "we daily fee," and "Of all your poetical Tuum and Meum." "Your mountain fack, your frontiniac,' is an excellent bacchanalian fong. Of the plaintive kind we select the following for its tenderness and fimplicity. When o'er the wold, the heedlefs lamb Hath, 'till the dufky twilight, ftray'd; His fimple plaints cry" here I am! "Of night and folitude afraid." But if, far off, his dam he hears, Echoing, oft, the mournful bleat, He runs, and ftops, and hopes, and fears, And bounds with pleafure when they meet. We could have wifhed, that the author, in fome of the fongs particularly, had not facrificed his own tafte to that of the galleries. It compels us to fay with Boileau, "Dans le "fac de Scapin je perds le mifanthrope." Superior genius, purfuing the road of nature, will find the way to every heart, without hurting the delicacy of tafte. In this route we confefs there are difficulties, but it is the business, and ought to be the ambition of an author to conquer them. ART. XI. Obfervations on the Difeafes incident to Seamen. By Gilbert Blane, M.D. F.R.S. Phyfician Extraordinary to the Prince of Wales, Phyfician to St. Thomas's Hofpital, and Phyfician to the Fleet in the late war, 8vo. 6s. boards, Murray. DR. R. Blane, having been appointed phyfician to the fleet, under the command of Lord Rodney, in the year 1780, determined to avail himself of the advantages which that field of obfervation afforded. A fleet, fometimes exceeding forty fhips of the line, which he attended in different fcenes of active fervice for more than three years, afforded him op-portunities of making obfervations on a large and extended icale. To facilitate his obfervations, the commander in chief gave an order, that every furgeon in the fleet should send him a monthly return, ftating the prevalence of disease, the mortality, and whatever related to the health of the refpective fhips. While the fleet was in port, he daily fuperintended and vifited the hofpitals, kept an account of the various diforders which prevailed, and endeavoured to afcertain the caufes, as well as to mark the courfe of difeafe. By these means he has collected a number of well-established facts to ferve as a ground-work for investigation; and by the refult of his refearches, has not only thrown additional light on the hiftory of human maladies, but alfo contributed to better the condition of a clafs of men, who are the bulwarks of the ftate, but whose lot peculiarly exposes them to hardship and difeafe. The method which he propofes to follow in this work, is, first to deliver the hiftory of the different voyages and expeditions, fo far as relates to health giving an account of the prevalence and nature of the diseases and mortality, on board of fhips and in hofpitals. Secondly, to deduce from obfervations founded on thefe facts, and alfo from the former experience of others, the caufes of fickness in fleets and the means of prevention. Thirdly, to deliver fome practical obfervations on the cure of the most common difeafes incident to fleets, particularly in hot climates. Under the firft. article he gives the medical hiftory of the fleet from March, 1780, to the conclufion of the war in April, 1783. The only certain and effectual method of making difcoveries in fcience, or improvements in art, is to collect and compare a great number of facts. Single phenomena and individual cafes, are not to be relied on as a foundation of general reasoning; they will lead to fallacious conclufions in those who are biaffed by prepoffeffion, or influenced by theory. It is only from a large and liberal knowledge of particulars, that a philofopher or phyfician can inveftigate truth, and exhibit a faithful tranfcript of nature. In this view the medical history of difeafes in the fleet is highly interesting. By studying on a large fcale, and taking the average of multiplied facts, Dr. Blane lays the ground-work for obfervation; by analyfing and collating thefe facts; by throwing the monthly returns that were made to him into the form of tables, he falls upon a certain and compendious way of finding their general refult., Thefe tables are no lefs curious than ufeful |