have made his volumes buoyant over all these prejudices. His Worthies; his Church-History; his Abel Redivivus, &c. not only rise in price, but are found to contain large portions of instructive and amusing matter. His vivacity and his learning have surmounted his quaintness; and his diligence has brought together, if not exclusively preserved, numerous minute notices, which they who love to make the past predominate over the present will always highly value. Loyd, the imitator, and in many parts plagiarist, of Fuller, may more properly be called a book-maker; but even his volumes contain many memorials, and remarks, which are now become interesting. I cannot say much for poor Winstanley; but we sometimes see that contemptible scribbler quoted to this day by respectable authors; because he has intermixed here and there a scrap or two of original information. If books were to be written by none but by men of the first genius; and nothing were to be said that had been said before, I am afraid that the lovers of new publications must be without a rational amusement, and the trades of printers and booksellers be nearly annihilated. But this is the cant of a set of beings, who are determined to find fault, and whose interest and whose malignity it gratifies to deal in censure. Dec. 17, 1808. ART. ART. XVII. On Arrowsmith's Map; the Highland Roads; and the Caledonian Canal. A sense of public duty demands the insertion of the following important communication. No one will suspect the Editor of having local or personal prejudices on this subject to gratify. SIR, TO THE EDITOR OF CENSURA LITERARIA. Having lately seen your Miscellany, I read in it two communications from FACT AGAINST PUFF. These contain some severe truths, from the effects of which the Commissioners for Highland Roads and Bridges cannot escape; nor the Scotch nation claim exemption. I trouble you with this letter in order to explain to FACT the probable reason why Arrowsmith's Memoir has not been published; and to communicate some important information to the Commissioners, on a subject of which they appear to be as ignorant, as of the mode employed for constructing the great Map from Roy's justly celebrated Survey. It is very well known, that in the Memoir there was a description of a new discovery by Mr. Arrowsmith, which was neither more nor less than that of a method of finding the variation of the magnetic needle. I is very probable that the Memoir was to be made subservient to the annunciation of the discovery; for on its being submitted to the revisal of scientific men about two years ago or more, they pronounced Mr. Arrowsmith's lucubrations to be little if at all better than nonsense. I do not know that Mr. Arrowsmith is yet yet convinced that his discovery is good for nothing; but it is likely that he is; and that the Memoir has become so crippled by so severe an amputation as to be unfit to appear. Indeed it could contain no other information than that Professor Play fair, Mr. Nimmo of Inverness, and a few private individuals had compared the map with such parts of the country as they best knew. Mr. Playfair has often travelled through the Highlands and other parts of Scotland not frequented by ordinary tourists; and as he is undoubtedly one of the few profound mathematicians which inhabit Great Britain, his authority is of the highest order. Mr. Nimmo, is a young man of very considerable talents and learning; and he has rendered a most important service in delineating the boundaries of the northern counties. While executing the task assigned to him, he experienced many of those privations and annoyances so glowingly described by your Correspondent in his second communication. In every instance when it was not possible for Arrowsmith to procure authority for deviating from the original survey, we find the map perfectly correct. But he has neglected many alterations which were necessary on account of the removal of villages, and the changes in the names of places, which have taken place since the survey was made. The Commissioners have certainly trusted too much to Arrowsmith, who ought to have been contented with the profits of publishing a copy of Roy's survey, without permitting his ambition to dare to correct it. In one of the reports of the progress of the Caledonian Canal the Commissioners gravely state that a steam engine, which was not immediately wanted, had been sunk for preservation in one of the lakes. If this statement statement be true, it betrays a most unpardonable de◄ gree of ignorance. The meanest labourer on the canal knows that any thing made of iron, especially an apparatus, the goodness of which depends on the smoothness of its surface, will be destroyed by such treatment. How this has escaped censure in the House of Commons it is not easy to discover. But the statement is false, and the Commissioners have allowed themselves to be grossly deceived by their tutor Mr. Telford. The engine in question was put upon a raft, in order to render its conveyance easy. The raft gave way; and the engine was lost. Whether the canal was originally intended as a tub to amuse the Highland whale, or as a big gew-gaw to divert some great treasury babies I do not know. But the whale is tired of it; and John Bull had better take care of those he trusts with such expensive playthings as steamengines. ANOTHER FACT AGAINST PUFF. ART. XVIII. Salle Tragedie di Vittorio Alfieri, da Asti. SONNET.* 1. O HAIL, ALFIERI!-To thy tragic tone The GRECIAN BARDS, a band sublime appear, I prefer the arrangement of the Sonnet which marks the recurrence of the rhimes by correspondent indentings. SIENNA 1783 Qualtro Tragedie. Quindci Traged: EDIM BORGO 1806. 3 vols. 12mo Editore il Dott's: ANTONIO MONTUCCI. But But Dante's self, the aweful, the severe, 2. Light-rob'd SIMPLICITY, and keen-ey'd ART, Troston, 21 Oct. 1808. Die, NELSONI ultimâ Victoria & Morte, insigni. C. L. ERRATA P. 201, Quinzain, 1. 15. r. purest day."-Sonnet III. v. 3. transpose thus : 5 When their melodious way graceful they wind Sonnet V. after "mourn" a comma-p. 204. Ruminator, No. XLIX. ETONH OIATATH. iota subscript― stanza 2. 1. 2. φαλαίων.-- ΕΔΟΑΡΔΟΣ Αυλή.—st. 4. Δικησις—st. 3. της μειονSt. 6. p. 205, όρμαίνεσαι & φεργος—sto 7. ες—st. 8. αμηχωνει—st. 9. Πινδαρικον in one wordst. 10. ΑΙΣΧΥΛΕΙΟΝ -st. 13. Manualar-st. 14. p. 206, Ewotwoλe in one wordst. 16. εξέλαμψεst. 17. θεμις-Μαιμακτηριώνος. CORRIGEND: for Ταύλης Γ. Της μεν γάρ. ART. |