his idea entirely deftroy the credit of the ftory. But this furely is inevitable in a matter which the poets, who first recorded it, collected only from report, and where that was imperfect, fupplied the deficiency from fancy and conjecture. Before the particulars of Mr. Banks's voyage round the world were communicated to the public, feveral different reports were circulated in refpect to the countries difcovered and visited; which reports, if fuffered to go down to pofterity without contradiction, would have formed the bafis of fo many different hiftories. Yet I think pofterity would have reasoned ill to have denied the existence of that gentleman, because fome had infifted that he returned home by the north, and others by the fouth coaft of New Holland. And why might not the Greeks in like manner have full evidence of the exiftence of Jason, Tiphys, Ancæus, and others; and that they failed upon an expedition to Colchis, and returned, without knowing exactly the rivers which they failed down, or the feas and countries which they traverfed? The one might be a matter of public notoriety, the other required accurate information from the mouth of the adventurers themselves. But Mr. Bryant contends that the Argo must be a memorial of the Ark, because it is faid by Eratofthenes + to have been the first ship ever built; which he truly obferves to be inconfiftent with what the great poets and hiftorians have related of the ftill earlier voyages of Cadmus and Danaus, to mention no more; and from this inconfiftency he again infers, that they knew not the origin of their own traditions. But it fhould be observed that the ancient writers are far from being unanimous in reprefenting the Argo as the first Ship ever built. Diodorus Siculus tells us, that it was the firft fhip that had ever been built of fo confiderable a fize: and Pliny the naturalift that it was the first long ship. If we only fuppofe that the Argo was the firft hip of which any memory or tradition had been preferved that failed from Greece upon a diftant and hazardous expedition, we need not be furprifed, I think, to find, that in time it came to be confidered in the popular mythology of Greece as the first ship that was ever built. Mr. Bryant further fays, that the Argonautic hiftory muft have had its origin in fome country fouth of Greece, because the Conftellation Argo is not visible in fo northern a latitude. But this argument, I apprehend, is much more forciby applied in another place to combat the fuppofition of Sir Ifaac Newton, that the sphere, in which the conftellation Argo had * Anal. vol. ii. 493. § L. vii c. 57. 2 + In. Aftar. Anal. vol. ii. 497. L. iv. a place, a place, was conftructed by Chiron for the ufe of the Argonauts. To make it of any weight in the prefent queftion, Mr. Bryant fhould have fhown, that the conftellation Argo was not vifible in any country inhabited by Greeks, or where the language and hiftory and fables of Greece were current. On the contrary, he allows himself * that it was vifible in Rhodes, where Hipparchus is known to have made fome of his obfervations; and in Cnidus, the birth-place and refidence of the famous aftronomer Eudoxus, whofe defcription of the celeftial phænomena, Aratus is faid to have copied. This argument, therefore, being put out of the way, I fee no reafon for attributing the groundwork of the ftory to any nation but the Grecians, who claim it. And this is further confirmed by the word, Argo, which is evidently of Greek origin, being formed from the adjective apyos fwift, by the fame analogy as Topy, Κελαινω, Καλλιστώ, Αριστώ, and as I believe fcme other proper names are from their kindred adjectives. Before I quit the ftory of Jafon, I will juft obferve, that there are two fables connected with it, which admit of no very difficult explanation. The HARPIES, who were used to come fuddenly and carry off the food that was fet before Phineus, were probably pirates, who landed every now and then to plunder the coaft, till finally driven away by the two-winged fons of Boreas, who commanded a part of the Argonautic fleet. Perhaps the ftory of Tantalus, ftarving in the fight of his food, may denote in like manner the fudden incurfions of robbers, who laid waste his country just before harveft. The other miracle to which I alluded, was the Speaking keel of the Argo, which I take to have been fuch another juggle as that of Sertorius +, pretending to receive directions from heaven through the means of a doe, which the Spaniards readily believing, obeyed his orders with a blind fubmiffion. But the Speaking keel might have impofed upon an affembly of mariners in a more enlightened age: nor did it require any thing to carry on the impofture, but the faculty of fpeaking inwardly, without opening the lips or teeth, in the manner of the lyasesμutor." Our learned and ingenious Author next proceeds to enquire into the hiftory of Hercules; whofe ftory (as he obferves) is more intricate than that of any ancient hero whatever; at the fame time that there is very ftrong evidence of fuch a perfon having exifted in Greece, and performed many, not incredible, exploits. The old historical mythologifts feem perfectly aware of this, and take care to inform us, that the actions attributed to Hercules are not at all to be underflood of the Theban Hercules, but fome of the Egyptian, and others of the Tyrian; and Plutarch. Vit. Sertorii. Anal. vol. ii. 497. that that all thefe have been blended together by the fabulous mythologifts into one feries of events.' With refpect to thofe exploits which have been diftinguished by the title of the Labours of Hercules, Dr. Mufgrave remarks that two or three of them appear to be hiftorical facts difguifed by allegory. He therefore attempts to draw from them this myftic veil, and to reduce them to their original ftate, as they may be fuppofed to have exifted in their primitive hiftory. The ftory of HYDRA (fays our Author) related probably to fome crew of banditti who fheltered themselves in the woods, and though defeated and driven from place to place, continually returned, till Iolaus, fetting fire to the woods, completed their deftruction. The STYMPHALIAN birds he fuppofes allegorically to mean fome diftreffed people driven from their own houfes by an enemy called Wolves in the fable, and reduced from mere neceffity to become robbers in their turn. The STAG run down by Hercules is conjectured to be a man of the name of Elaphus, it being common among the Greeks to give the names of animals to men.-The Girdle of ANTIOPE may feem to have been of too trivial a confideration to deserve a place among fuch arduous exploits as thofe which have been attributed to Hercules.' Dr. Mufgrave interprets the term girdle allegori cally, and thinks it meant originally a tract of coaft; for in that fenfe the original word (zone) may be understood, of, which a ftriking example is produced from a line in the Argonautics of Apollonius, [vid. I. 29]. Of the Twelve Labours of Hercules (fays our Author), the only material one unexplained is his cleaning of the AUGEAN STABLES.' The explanation given to it in the prefent work is the following: • Paufanias relates that the country (of Elis, of which Augeas was king) was fo covered with dung as to have been rendered incapable of cultivation. And this indeed may have fome foundation of truth in that warm climate, fince, according to Theophraftus, dung without water burns the ground. But a farther folution of this difficulty may, I think, be found in Pliny, who informs us that Augeas, king of Elis, was the firft who practifed the manuring his lands with dung in Greece. He probably, therefore, had difcovered how much his lands fuffered for want of water, and employed Hercules to remedy the inconvenience; which the latter effected, not by any perfonal labour, but by fetting his foldiers to turn the courie of a river, or lay dams acrofs it fo as one way or other to overflow the country. The fervice, it is probabie, was beyond expectation, as Hercules demanded, in return for it, the half of his kingdom.' The Author concludes his firft differtation with the following candid acknowledgment: Of the explanations of AN TIENT MYTHOLOGY here given, no inconfiderable number hath been handed down by the ancients themselves, and therefore may be confidered as ftanding upon fome ground of evidence furnished by authors and records now loft; the remainder are mostly conjectures upon whieh criticifm has its full fcope. Confidering the fable as an enigma, the thing required, is to find fome probable fact bearing such a resemblance to it as the fable fhall appear to be only a natural and easy allegory of the truth. The complete analogy between them is the only evidence of which the cafe will admit.' Upon the whole, we venture to recommend the Differtation itfelf to the perufal of our readers, as containing in a short compafs much ingenious reafoning upon a difficult fubject, delivered in a language equally perfpicuous and unaffected. The fecond Differtation we can only in general recommend to the attention of the learned; and as the argument must suffer by any partial extracts, we forbear to give any, and claim the privilege of fufpending our opinion on a fubject where so much can be faid, and fo little proved. ART. XIII. Les Genres des Infectes de Linné; confatés par divers Echantillons d'Infectes d'Angleterre, copiés d'après Nature. Par J. Barbut.-The Genera Infectorum of Linnæus, exemplified by various Specimens of English Infects drawn from Nature. By James Barbut. 4to. 11. 6 s. or 21. 12s. 6d. coloured. Sewell. 1781. THI HIS performance is written both in English and French in oppofite columns; and is illuftrated by twenty-two plates, exhibiting lively representations of the objects defcribed, in their natural colours; fome of them, where their minutenefs required, being magnified to a diftinct fize. The ingenious Author truly obferves, in his Preface, thatby a study of this part of natural hiftory, we are conveyed into a kingdom of animals, the moft numerous, luxuriant, fplendidly adorned and diverfified, of any on the face of the globe. The prodigious number of infects which we meet with on the furface of vegetables, the fingularity and diversity of their forms, the beauty and richness of their colours, are fufficient,to entice a rational mind to a closer investigation of fo vast an empire, and fuch luxurious and elegantly cloathed inhabitants, wonderfully adorned and fupplied with every organ of fenfe, complement of limbs, not only beft fuited to their feveral states and neceffities, but proportionably equivalent in utility and ftrength, offence and defence, to thofe of larger animals, only efteemed more perfect in kind, from our familiar connections with them.' The The method he has purfued in this work is thus expreffed : In the courfe of this compilation, I have borrowed confiderably from the difcerning and correct Geoffroy; nor has the ingenious Mr. Yeats's Inftitutions of Entomology efcaped me, whofe eftablished merit requires not my praife. Though I have implicitly purfued the track of Linnæus, I, notwithstanding, cannot help differing from him, in his divifion of fome genera, on account of the diftinctive parts not being fufficiently apparent, or very trifling. The number of genera, as well as the families into which many are divided, might with great propriety be reduced: for inftance, the curculiones and attelabi might be united; and, in like manner the cerambyces and lephira. Again, I cannot help making an observation refpecting the mode of dividing infects into families, from the circumftance of their antennæ being pectinated; it being well known, that the males in many fubjects have pectinated antenna, the females of the fame being plain, or deftitute of those branches. Another circumftance which has induced authors to increase the families, is colour: it ought to be remembered that colour depends upon fex, age, feafons, fiçknefs, health, &c. Other inftances might be produced, but I do not think myfelf qualified to criticize fo great and fo refpectable an author as the much honoured Linnæus, who has fo concisely, and with fuch elegant language, fo judiciously defcribed the wonders of the Almighty; and though fyftematic writers increase, and meet with their admirers, the greatest deference and respect ought to be paid to the learned Swede by every lover of science, for the indefatigable pains he has taken to enlighten and inftruct mankind in natural knowledge; and though a few faults may be found in his works, he may notwithstanding defervedly be ftiled the King of naturalifts.' The Author enters into the confideration of two curious questions in his Preface, relating to infects enjoying the fenfations of hearing and fmelling. With refpect to the former, he affirms it to be well known, that many infects have the power of uttering founds; as large beetles, the bee, wasp, common flies, gnats; and particularly the fphinx atropos, which, when injured, utters a plaintive fqueak, nearly as loud as a mouse: and on this occafion we are pleased to see him express a humane and becoming difguft at the exercife of wanton cruelty toward them from motives of curiofity. The inference, fo far as the fact can be established, is quite fair; namely, To what purpose is the power of utterance given, if the founds cannot be perceived? Nor indeed is it material to the argument, whether the respective sounds they are enabled to make are truly vocal, or produced by the peculiar powers of external organs. If they can, by whatever means, exprefs pleasure and pain, it is in a language intelligible to their companions, or it is wholly fuperRav. July, 1762. F Auous: |