Φασκῃς, λογισμών τωνδε πλάτην Σωκράτη.
Ἐν ίσθ', ἐπειδαν έκπιω το φαρμακον,
Χωρος άπειμι φαιδρος εἰς εὐδαίμονας,
Ἐς των δικατων και θεων ὁμιλιαν,

Τγτων, δικασας ἐς καλεσ', ἀπαλλαγείς.

These fentiments are not unworthy the exalted character of the philofopher to whom they are attributed; and the author has fhewn no contemptible acquaintance with the language of the Socratic fchool. We should willingly have tranfcribed the whole fpeech, could we have done it confiftently with our defign of quoting fhort fpecimens of the Latin and English compofitions. From the former, we felect the tranflation of Aikin's beautiful Winterpiece:

CANTILENA HYEMALIS.

I.

Vefper erat: campis et nix hyemofa ruebat,
Stridebatque Aquilo per loca mofta fitu;
Hæc, incerta viæ, peragrabat fola puella,
Infantemque premens, cœpit acerba queri.

"Heu! pater ille ferus, natæ qui tecta negavit,
Et fera, quæ vidit talia, mater erat,
Et fera vis venti eft, quæ fic mea pectora tundit,
At, mihi qui nummos prætulit, ille magis.

IfI.

Parvule mi, taceas, gremio renovesque calorem ;
Ah! nefcit genitor, nos mala quanta premunt:
Si noftros fciret, durus licet, ille dolores,

Vix hyemem miferos lædere vellet acrem:
IV.

Blandule væ! friges, friges; calor offa reliquit ;
Sufcitet ex oculis fervida gutta meis!
Fervida gutta fuit, fed congelat aura fluentem:
Ah! nunc infelix, orbaque mater ego."
V.

Jam nive congeftâ miferè prolabitur exfpes,
Infandumque gemit, quod dolor intùs agit;
Tum lateri natum apponens, atque ofcula figens
Sufpicit, et flectit, morte gravata, caput.'

The following tranflation from Strada deferves no common hare of praise:

FIDICINIS ET PHILOMELE CERTAMEN.

Now Sol, defcending from his mid-day blaze,

With mild effulgence fhot his golden rays;
When Strephon took his lyre to footh his care,
And pour'd its music through the filent air,
Where Tiber's ftreams in pleafing murmurs flow,
And the broad holm-oaks cool the vale below.

His ftrains the jealous Philomela move,
The sweetest Syren of the neighb'ring grove,
Behind the verdant fpray the hears unfeen,
And, envious, echos each melodious ftrain.
Keen emulation fwells her little throat,
To try her pow'rs, and warble note for note.
Strephon admir'd the fongfter's fweet effay,
And ftrove again to wake the vocal lay;
Now the full mufic of his lyre explores,
Or fhews, with flying hand, a mafter's pow'rs.
In vary'd ftrains the bird renews her fong,
In many a labour'd trill it flows along.
Thus with refponding zeal her kill the proves,
When o'er the ftrings the fwain his finger moves,
And careless feem'd his touch, the mufic flow;
Its fimple founds in even tenor flow.
Inftant the chords his hurrying finger plies,
The quicken'd tones in rapid movement rise.
He ftops: refponfive to each note the fings;
With equal pow'rs fhe imitates his ftrings.
As one perplex'd, what other ftrain to chufe,
One plain, unvary'd tune the bird pursues ;
No quaver mixes in her artless note,
Free, like the current, iffuing from her throat.
Now quick and light the warbled numbers move,
In trembling echos, through the vocal grove.
This Strephon heard, in tranfports of amaze,
That fuch a throat fhould utter ftrains like thefe;
Again new efforts of his art he tries,

Through all the fcale of founds his finger flies;
In concord bids the fhrill and bafs unite;
So the loud clarion fires the foul to fight.
Again the Syren fings: and, whilst her tongue
In well-tim'd warblings thrills through all her fong,
To louder harmony the fwells the note,
Then rolls the deep'ning murmur in her throat;
Now fhrill and clear her fong, now deep and low
So clarions urge the foldier to the foe.

Strephon now blufh'd, with glowing ire inflam'd
"Or Philomel fhall yield," he quick exclaim'd,
"Or perish this weak lyre:" he said no more,
But tun'd to harmony beyond her pow'r;
Now loud, now fhrill, now rais'd to loftier notes;
On Zephyr's wing the trembling mufic floats.
Again the crowding strings the artift plies,
The vary'd numbers echo through the fkies.
He flops, expectant of his rival's fong;

She, though her voice now roughens on her tongue,
To own his pow'r fuperior ftill difdains;

Yet, ah! in vain fhe tunes her sweetest strains;
For whilft her little, fimple voice effays
The labour'd mazes of his artful lays,

U 4

Του

Too great th' attempt, too great her forrows rife,
Upon the victor's lyre fhe falls, and dies.'

Pa....s.

ART. III. Philofophical Tranfactions of the Royal Society of London. Vol. LXXVIII. for the Year 1788. Part 11.

[Concluded from Page 148.]

PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS.

Defcription of a new Electrical Inftrument capable of collecting a diffuffed or little condenfed Quantity of Electricity. By Tiberius Cavallo, F.R. S.

HIS inftrument appears to be a very valuable collector of electricity, free from the imperfections of Mr. Volta's condenfer, and Mr. Bennet's doubler *; as it retains no electricity of its own, and therefore cannot give an equivocal refult. It confifts of a tin plate, infulated, and fixed vertically; with two wooden frames, one on each fide of it, moveable on hinges at the bottom. The plate is made to communicate both with the body from which the electricity is to be collected, and with an electrometer: the frames are turned up fo as to stand parallel to it, and at the diftance of about a fifth of an inch from it, while the electricity is collecting, and afterward let down horizontal when the electrometer is to be examined: their inner furface, from the middle upward, is covered with a good conducting fubftance, as gilt paper, or thin tin plates.

Mr. Cavallo gives fome experiments refpecting the use of this inftrument, which clearly fhew, that the tin plate can collect and retain a vast quantity of electricity when the lateral frames are contiguous to it, in comparison to what it can either collect or retain when they are removed. The principle on which its action depends, is the fame as that of the electrophorus, the condenfer, and many other electrical experiments; viz. that a body has a much greater capacity for holding electricity, when its furface is contiguous to a body that can easily acquire the contrary electricity, than when it does not ftand in that fituation. The larger the collecting plate, and the nearer it ftands to the conducting furfaces, the greater is its power.

A Defcription of an Inftrument, which, by turning a winch, produces the two States of Electricity, without Frillion or Communication with the Earth. By Mr. William Nicholfon.

This inftrument confifts of two metalline plates, feparately infulated, and fixed in the fame plane; fo that another plate, made to revolve in a plane parallel to them, paffes very near, but without touching them. The electricity appears to be pro

* See Review for October last, p. 320.

duced

duced on the principles explained by Mr. Cavallo; but we can give no adequate idea either of the inftrument itself or its effect, without the plate by which it is illuftrated in the original; nor, with that affiftance, could we do it in much lefs compafs than Mr. Nicholson himself has done.

Additional Experiments and Obfervations relating to the Principle of Acidity, the Decompofition of Water and Phlogiston. By Dr. Priestley. With Letters to him on the Subject, by Dr. Withering, and James Keir, Efq.

The green liquor, which Dr. Prieftley obtained by firing large quantities of a mixture of dephlogifticated and inflammable air, in copper veffels, was fubmitted to the examination of Dr. Withering and Mr. Keir; and the letters above mentioned give an account of the particular experiments made on it by those gentlemen. The firft is the moft formal, the laft the most inHtructive; but both of them fhew decifively that the liquor in queftion is a folution of copper in the nitrous acid.

It differs remarkably, in fome of its properties, from common folutions of copper in that acid; and Mr. Keir has afcertained, very fatisfactorily, the causes of thofe differences. The green colour he attributes to what is called phlogiftication of the acid; for he finds that by a very flight degree of that quality, fuch as is produced by the addition of a little melted nitre, the blue folutions of copper, both in the nitrous and vitriolic acids, are changed to green.

The liquor did not redden litmus, as the acid folutions of copper do; nor did it give any cupreous tinge to a polifhed iron +: evaporated gently to drynefs, by expofure to the air only, it did not cryftallize, but left a green powder not foluble in water. These properties, he finds, arife from the faturation of the acid with the metal; and in this refpect, he diftinguishes three periods or ftages in the combination of copper with nitrous acid. The firft is, when the acid is fuperabundant, and produces deliquefcent cryftals: the fecond, when it is completely faturated, or perhaps fuperfaturated, by repeated evaporations, and rediffolutions in water; in which cafe, no cryftals are produced, but a green powder is formed: the third, when, by a farther evaporation of acid, and increase of heat, the green powder is changed into a brown or black calx. Dr. Priestley's green liquor was plainly in the second stage, and the brown powder in the third.

See Rev. for October laft, p. 327.

We have ourselves obferved, that faturated folutions of copper are not precipitated by iron, nor faturated folutions of filver by copper, till a few drops of acid are added; on which the action begins immediately. Perhaps the fame law may prevail in the other metallic folutions.

A mixture of marine acid was difcovered in the liquors examined by both thefe gentlemen; and if this fhould conftantly be the cafe, it will only be analogous, as Mr. Keir obferves, to all the other known productions of nitrous acid; in which, cither in the natural formation of nitre, as in Spain and India, or in the nitre beds and walls made by art, a large proportion of marine falts is conftantly found to accompany the nitre.

From the quantity of acid afcertained by thefe experiments, Dr. Prieftley computes, that dephlogifticated air, when it has been kept in contact, and has faturated itfelf, with water, contains about 19 parts of water to I of the acidifying principle; but when the air is in its drieft ftate, he thinks the quantity of He calls the other water may be no more than 18 parts in 20. component parts, the acidifying principle, in compliance only with M. Lavoifier: Mr. Keir's opinion, Dr. P. fays, is, that there is fomething in both the airs neceffary for forming the acid; and Mr. Watt's, that the nitrous acid is contained in the inflammable air, as the vitriolic is in fulphur, and the phofphoric in phofphorus; the dephlogifticated air doing no more than to develope the acid.

The Doctor had fhewn before, that water is a component part of dephlogifticated, inflammable, and fixed air; and he now difcovers it to be an ingredient in nitrous air alfo. Iron, heated in this air, abforbs the water, becoming fimilar to finery cinder; and only phlogisticated air remains. The nitrous air fuffers a like decompofition by being paffed repeatedly through hot porous earthern tubes: the water is tranfmitted through the fubftance of the tube, and the phlogifticated air is left.

Dr. Priestley gives fome additional obfervations in fupport of the phlogistic theory; but as he has now proceeded further in this enquiry, we fhall foon have an opportunity of giving a connected view of the whole of his reafoning on the fubject. On the Converfion of a Mixture of dephlogifticated and phlogisticated Air into Nitrous Acid, by the Electric Spark. By Henry Cavendish, Efq. F. R. S.

Mr. Cavendish's curious experiment of converting these airs into nitrous acid, by paffing repeated electric fparks through them, has been tried by fome foreign gentlemen of diftinguished abilities in fuch purfuits, without fuccefs. He has therefore thought proper to authenticate the truth of it; for which purpofe, the experiment was repeated by Mr. Gilpin, clerk of the Royal Society; and fome of the gentlemen moft converfant with thefe fubjects were prefent, both at the putting of the materials together, and at the examination of the produce. A particular detail is given of the whole procefs, which was repeated twice;

* See Review, vol. lxxii. p. 241.

and