of fuperpofition, reckoning from below upwards, is, 1. granite; 2. fchiftus; 3. lime-flone. This rule has been found to hold good by fo many mineralogical travellers, that though it may not be abfolutely univerfal, it must be allowed to prevail very extenfively. Now, in this island, there are numerous inftances where bafaltes is fubftituted in the feries inftead of granite, and where it feems to alternate with granite as the fubftratum of other rocks. As limeftone is fometimes faid to reft immediately on granite, fo at the foot of the Wrekin, and at Liilefhall-hill, no flate is interpofed between the lime-ftone and bafaltes; fo that the analogy extends even to the exceptions.-But another feries has been obferved, which feems to connect granite by a closer tie with the operations of fubterraneous fire. In Italy, lava ftands to flate and lime-ftone in the fame relation as granite and whinflone in other countries. Whole ridges of mountains in the Venetian territory confift of folid lava, fometimes bare, fometimes retaining the fuperincumbent ftrata. -Thefe chains have a totally different form from the common conical fhape of volcanos or heaps of loofe ejected matter. They feem to afford a clear inftance of the manner in which long continuations of mountains have been elevated;-it appears highly probable, that they have not pre-exilted as bills in another ftate, but owe their elevation to the expanfive force of fire; and that the fame lava which appears in fo many places, lies alfo under all the limeftone hills, of which indeed there are evident indications.'

One confequence of these obfervations is too important to be omitted. They lead us to reject the common divifion of mountains into primary and fecondary. The chains of granite, fchiftos, and lime-ftone, must be all coëval; for if the central chain of the Alps burft as a body expanded by heat from the bowels of the earth, it reared the bordering chains at the fame effort. It is by no means difficult to understand why no exuviæ of organized bodies are found in these imaginary primitive mountains. Kifing from a great depth, they threw afide the fuperficial accumulations of the ancient ocean. What was deepeft, is therefore now moft central; and what lay on the furface, now fkirts the high interior chains. Hence the ftrata reft indifferently on granite, bafaltes, or lava.-It is moreover certain, that all thefe lifting maffes, from granite to acknowledged lava, are found fqueezed up through fiflures formed in the ftrata by their own expanfion. This, and not the infiltration of water, as M. De Sauffure would perfuade us, appears to be the true origin of fuch veins of granite.'

Dr. B. thinks it impoffible that fuch fiffures could be filled up by cryftallization from water; because if water can diffolve any, it is furely but a very fmall part of all the ingredients of granite; the cryftals must be fmall, on account of the fmall quantity of matter to form them, and a fucceeding folution can only yield another crop of fmall cryftals, it will not enlarge those already formed.'-He also thinks it contrary to all our experience in chemistry, to fuppofe crystals built up by fucceffive operations;' and yet we believe there are inftances of

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large

large maffes, not indeed of granite, but of compound stone, variegated, and apparently cryftallized, filling up nearly the whole bore of wooden pipes through which water had been conveyed, and which must therefore have been formed by succesfive appofitions from fucceffive quantities of water.

Obfervation on certain Horny Excrefcences of the Human Body. By Everard Home, Efq. F. R. S.

The naturalift, and the chirurgical reader, will find this curious paper worthy of their attention; particularly with refpect to the cure of this fpecies of tumour.

This fmall publication of the Philofophical Transactions concludes with a Meteorological Journal, kept at the appartments of the Society.

ART. III. Seventeen Hundred and Ninety-one: A Poem, in Imitation of the Thirteenth Satire of Juvenal. By Arthur Murphy, Efq. 4to. pp. 29. 25. Robinions.

DR.

R. JOHNSON's reputation, as a poet, chiefly rests on his imitations of the Third and Tenth Satires of Juvenal, in his poems entitled, London, and The Vanity of Human Wishes. The fubject fuited his genius and habit of thinking; the tone of his own moral feelings was in unifon with that of his author; and he found no difficulty in transfufing into the English language that vigour of fentiment, and that ftrength of expreffion, which he found in Juvenal. Mr. Murphy, as he informs the public in his preface to this poem, frequently urged his friend to add an imitation of the thirteenth fatire: but his anfwer always was, "I wish it was done." This deficiency (with respect to Juvenal,) is now fupplied; and in a manner which will do no difcredit to the talents of a writer, who has long held a very refpectable ftation in the republic of letters.

In the original, Juvenal inveighs, with his accuftomed indignation, against the reigning vices of the times, particularly fraud and perjury; and he paints the horrors of a guilty mind, and the vengeance which, fooner or later, inevitably overtakes offenders. Thefe conceptions Mr. M. has unfolded at large, and applied to the prefent age, with lefs clofenefs and energy of expreffion, indeed, than we find in Dr. Johnfon's fatires, but with great felicity of imitation, and with no inconfiderable fhare of poetical merit. We quote a few lines as a specimen, referring the reader to the original, ver. 210.-Cedo, fi conata pereget, &c.

Who but conceives a crime, with malice fraught,
Warps into vice, and kindles at the thought.

What

What though the embryo fin, conceal'd with art,
In thinking die? Guilt rankles in his heart.
If the ftrong motive urge him to the deed,
Horror, remorse, and mifery fucceed.
See him at table, liftlefs, wan with care,
In thick-eyed mufing loft, and pale despair.
Within his mouth, now unelaftic, flow,
The viands loiter, and infipid grow.
In vain for him the banquet fpreads its ftore,
The rareft banquet now can please no more.
In vain for him the mellowing years refine
The precious age of the pure racy wine.
In vain gay wit calls forth her magic train :
He flies the fcene, to think, and dwell with pain.
No refpite from himfelf, with cares oppreft,
If weary nature fink at length to reft,
In the dead waste of night pale phantoms rife,
Stalk round his couch, and glare before his eyes.
The temple bends its arches o'er his head,
And the long aifles their umber'd twilight shed.
He fees the altar perjur'd where he trod,
The violated altar of his God!

He groans, he rifes, but the conscious mind
Wakes to worse horrors than he left behind.'

We are forry that Mr. Murphy has thought it neceffary to employ his elegant pen in fixing a ftigma on writers, who honeftly, however erroneously, exercise the native right of free inquiry. The poem would, in our opinion, have been more perfect, if nothing of this kind had been mingled with it; and which only ferves as an alloy to the pure gold of the general mafs-but Liberty, we apprehend, is not that goddefs, "heav'nly bright!" in whofe caufe the poets are, of all men, the moft willing to fuffer martyrdom. We furmife this, however, with due reverence and gratitude to the names of a Milton, an Addison, a Thomson, and a few others.

ART. IV. Poems: confifting of a Tour through Parts of North and South Wales, Sonnets, Odes, and an Epifle to a Friend on Phyfiognomy, By W. Sotheby, Efq. 4to. pp 93. 5s. Crutwell, Bath. Faulder, London. 1790.

IN the first of thefe poems, which is by far the longest, the author describes, in blank verfe, feveral of the moft remarkable and romantic scenes in Wales. His defcriptions are ftrong, and frequently poetical, though his language is frequently turgid. Some incidental circumstances, which are introduced in the way of epifodes, render this Tour' more interefting. The fonnets are principally occafioned by the remembrance

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membrance of views, which Mr. Sotheby had taken : many of them are pleafing; nor is the following felected as being fuperior to the reft.

SONNET XII.

Skirid! remembrance thy lov'd scene renews;
Fancy, yet ling'ring on thy fhaggy brow,

Beholds around the lengthen'd landscape glow,
Which charm'd, when late the day-beams' parting hues
Purpled the diftant cliff. The crystal ftream
Of Uke bright winds the verdant meads among;
The dark heights low'r with wild woods overhung;
Pale on the grey tow'r falls the twilight gleam;
And frequent I recall the fudden breeze,

Which, as the fun fhot up his last pale flame,
Shook every light leaf fhivering on the trees;

Then bath'd in dew, meek evening filent came,
While the low wind, that faint and fainter fell,
Soft murmur'd to the dying day-Farewell.'

Of the odes, that which is entitled Netley Abbey,' is the beft: it is fhort, and deserves to be quoted:

I.

• Soft on the wave the oars at diftance found,
The night breeze fighing through the leafy spray,
With gentle whifper murmurs all around,

Breathes on the placid fea, and dies away.
As fleeps the Moon upon her cloudless height,
And the fwoln fpring-tide heaves beneath the light,
Slow lingering on the folitary shore

Along the dewy path my fteps I bend,
Lonely to yon forfaken fane defcend,

To mufe on youth's wild dreams amid the ruins hoar.

II.

Within the fhelter'd center of the aisle,

Beneath the ash whofe growth romantic spreads
Its foliage trembling o'er the funeral pile,

And all around a deeper darkness sheds;

While through yon arch, where the thick ivy twines,
Bright on the filver'd tow'r the moon-beam fhines,
And the grey cloyfter's roofiefs length illumes,

Upon the molly ftone I lie reclin'd,

And to a vifionary world refign'd,

Call the pale spectres forth from the forgotten tombs.

III.

Spirits! the defolated wreck that haunt,

Who frequent by the village maiden feen,

When fudden fhouts at eve the wanderer daunt,
And fhapelefs fhadows fweep along the green;
And ye, in midnight horrors heard to yell
Round the deftroyer of the holy cell,

With interdictions dread of boding found;
Who, when he prowl'd the rifled walls among,
Prone on his brow* the maffy fragment flung;-

Come from your viewless caves, and tread this hallow'd ground!

IV.

How oft, when howeward forc'd, at day's dim close,
In youth, as bending back I mournful stood
Fix'd on the fav'rite spot, where first arose
The pointed ruin peeping o'er the wood;
Methought I heard upon the paffing wind
Melodious founds in folemn chorus join'd,

Echoing the chaunted vefper's peaceful note,
Oft through the veil of night's defcending cloud,
Saw gleaming far the vifionary croud

Down the deep vaulted aisle in long proceffion float.

V.

But now; no more the gleaming forms appear,
Within their graves at reft the fathers fleep;
And not a found comes to the wistful ear,

Save the low murmur of the tranquil deep:
Or from the grafs that in luxuriant pride
Waves o'er yon eastern window's sculptur'd fide,
The dew-drops bursting on the fretted stone:
While faintly from the diftant coppice heard,
The mufic of the melancholy bird

Trills to the filent heav'n a fweetly-plaintive moan.
VI.

Farewell, delightful dreams, that charm'd my youth!
Farewell th' aërial note, the fhadowy trail!
Now while this fhrine infpires fublimer truth,
While cloyfter'd echo breathes a folemn ftrain,

In the deep ftillness of the midnight hour,
Wisdom fhall curb wild fancy's magic pow'r,
And as with life's gay dawn th' illufions ceafe,
Though from the heart steal forth a figh profound;
Here Refignation o'er its fecret wound

Shall pour the lenient balm that fooths the foul to peace. The letter on phyfiognomony contains several good lines on

a fubject, perhaps, not well adapted for poetry.

This alludes to a circumftance recorded in Grofe's Antiquities, and ftill believed in the neighbourhood."

ART.