speculators," r. speculations. progressive decline, t. progress and decline. the pretended conduct of Dr. Stabl, x. this conduct of the pretended 1. 7. from bottom, for Delphida' and • Delphin,” t. Daphnida and Daph. nin. 464. 1. 9. for applications seme,' r, application, some. 576. 1.25. for 272 read 35,0 for 11+ read 111⁄2. THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For JANUARY, 1797. ART. I. Essays, by a Society of Gentlemen at Exeter. 8vo. pp. 580. 9s. Boards. Cadell jun. and Davies. 1796. IF it be true, as we should willingly suppose, that literature and philosophy are not less generally diffused, nor less esteemed, in this country, than among the most enlightened nations on the continent of Europe, it must be imputed to some circumstance of national character, that, while almost every provincial capital in France, Italy, Holland, and Germany, has its learned societies, which occasionally publish their transactions or memoirs, such institutions should in England be nearly confined to the metropolis; and that even our pro fessed seats of learning, (the two eyes of the kingdom, as they have been called,) should be totally destitute of any associations of the kind. Perhaps it might not be difficult to suggest probable reasons for this fact: but, without engaging in such a discussion, we shall content ourselves with expressing our satisfaction that the example of Manchester, in exhibiting before the public the products of local ingenuity and inquiry, has at length been imitated in the principal city of the west. Diffidence or reserve, indeed, have prevented the Exeter Society from authorizing their productions by the names of the writers; and in this matter, they certainly had a right to indulge their own feelings. This circumstance may also render criticism more unbiassed though we trust that our impartiality has a better foundation than such a concealment. The volume is introduced by an address to the Society from the President; from which we learn that it has shewn a preference in its topics to polite literature and criticism, but without the exclusion of any subjects except those which are di rectly professional, or those which involve political or religious controversy. A light effusion in verse follows, in which the birth and progress of a Club' are narrated, in a kind of prologue style, partly jocular, partly serious. VOL. XXII. B A Vin A Vindication of the Character of Pindar is the subject of the first disquisition. The scholiasts have represented this illus trious poet as a mercenary writer, who praised for hire, and dealt out his lofty encomiums according to the measure of pay with which he was rewarded. Two particular odes, the cleventh Pythian, and the second Isthmian, have been supposed to contain passages which substantiate this charge. The present writer gives new translations of these odes, and subjoins notes by which he hopes to remove this stigma from the memory of his admired bard. The translations are elegant, but paraphrastical; and we doubt whether the notes, though exhibiting much taste and classical knowlege, will generally be thought to have proved their point. Some Remarks on the early Population of Europe, and particularly of Italy, form the next paper. After some general ob servations on the primitive inhabitants or aborigines of a country, the writer traces the steps of the Celts from the Euxine sea as the conquerors of the rude people who first possessed Italy, and almost the whole of Europe, and then investigates the source of those nations which, in a later period, pressed upon and obliterated the Italian Celts. In this inquiry he chiefly acts as a commentator on Virgil, and concludes with affirming the derivation of the Romans from Grecian colonies, and ultimately from Asia. He next enters into an examination of the antient language of Greece, and shews that the Etrurian letters were probably the old Pelasgic, brought from Arcadia, and primarily from the east; which Pelasgic, in Greece itself, was expelled by the introduction of the Cadmian letters. It is obvious that these profound and obscure topics can only be slightly treated in an essay of the length of the present (50 pages); which, however, displays a wide compass of reading. On some of the more remarkable British Monuments in Devon. This is a description, with figures, of a Cromlech, a Logan or rocking stone, a rock bason, and a funeral urn, existing in Devonshire, with some appropriate remarks on these remains of rude antiquity. Historical Outlines of Falconry. The writer of this memoir traces backwards, from the present time to the earlier ages, this branch of rural amusement, especially in our island. His object, however, is not merely that of giving an entertaining sketch of the history of falconry. In the progress of his researches, he finds that it was first known to the Romans immediately after the time of Vespasian; and he asserts (with what proof, we cannot discover,) that, before this period, hawking was practised by the Britons, and by them alone of all the European European nations, except the Thracians. As, however, he does not suppose it to have been indigenous in this island, and as it is known to have been common from the earliest antiquity among the nations of the east, he is inclined to bring it from them along with a colony of emigrants; who might, at some very remote period, have proceeded in a north-west course from Persia to Scythia, and thence to Britain:-a vast hypothesis, surely, to build on so slight a foundation! The writer has fallen into a mistake respecting Somerville. He supposes that this poet's work, intitled Field Sports, mentioned in a letter from Shenstone, was never published; but it composes a part of his works in all modern editions, and is dedicated to the Prince of Wales, as a second piece inscribed to him; the Chace, doubtless, being the first. A Chronological Essay on Ptolemy's Mode of Computation. Of this learned paper it is not possible to give any abstract, since it consists entirely of particular points of calculation. The main purpose is to shew that Ptolemy ascribes the year of a king's death to the first year of his successor, and not to the last of his own reign, as most chronologers have contended, and have thence accused him of manifold errors. Some gene ral remarks on the use of his canon, and on the Nabonassarean æra which he has adopted, follow the preceding discussion, and conclude the essay. An Essay on the Iris, demonstrative of the motions and effects of that membrane on the pupil of the eye, with some observations which lead to a new theory of muscular motion. The cause of the contraction of the iris is among those problems which are not yet perfectly solved; and it is certain that the common mode of accounting for it, on the supposition of its acting by circular fibres, like a sphincter muscle, is rather controverted than confirmed by an anatomical examination of the structure of this membrane. The ingenious writer before us, having given an accurate description of the iris, and particularly noted its insensibility to direct stimuli, and its supply of blood from the same arterial trunks with the choroid coat and the retina, lays down a theory of its change of form, which we shall briefly explain. He contends, in opposition to the common opinion, that the dilated state of the pupil is the active state of the iris; and that the contracted state of the pupil is its passive state. All arteries, he says, on being distended with blood, become more tortuous, and consequently longer, yet are at the same time shortened in their rectilinear extent. When, therefore, more light is admitted by the pupil, the arteries of the retina and choroid coat become by the stimulus more distended with blood; by which means the iris, which is supplied from B 2 the |