I confecrate this crown henceforth to Jove. These veins while fee thefe eyes, or ftir While' glows between these lips,the breath of heaven. Should you to me commit the general's fword, I'll draw it; when and where and why you will; And bright or bloody yield it up again, With Jove's affiftance and your love, unfearing Chorus. Hail Thefeus-Thefeus, guardian god of Athens. Our only monarch be the king of heaven, And under him the fovereign people reign! Thefeus. Compare not me with the im mortal gods: What I have done was but the obvious duty Of any man fo ftation'd. 'Tis in me And under him the fovereign people reign! Safety, the nurse of life, There rears her branchy tree. Through thee alone the father-land is dear; Without thee an unmeaning fenfelefs name, A lefs than air, a dream Freedom, Freedom, mufic to the ear, To chafe the forms of Beauty and of Mr. GOETHE'S OBSERVATIONS on the LAOCOON, concluded from page 352. of the prefent Number. Tforty, he is ftruck with inquietude, this is the higheft degree of activity. HE youngest makes unavailing ef- prefent evil, and prevent a greater one; t; but not hurt; the father makes powerful efforts, without however being able to fucceed; his efforts even produce a quite oppofite effect. He irritates his adverfary, and he is hurt by him. The eldest fon is only flightly inlaced; he does not yet feel himself oppreffed nor affected with pain; he is afraid at the wound and momentaneous movement of his father; he utters a cry, endeavours to extricate his foot from the ferpent which has inlaced it; he is therefore here an observer; a witnefs who takes a part in the action, and the work is terminated. What I have only hitherto touched of en paffant, I fhall here again notice particularly; and that is, that all the three figures have a double action, so that they are occupied in a very various manner. The youngest of the fons would extricate himself by raising his right arm; and he pushes back the head of the ferpent with his left hand; he would alleviate the art. We might, perhaps, imagine a young Hercules fleeping and infolded by ferpents; and the artist might lead us to guets by his figure, and the tranquillity of his fleep, what might be expected from him when awake. Let us go further, and let us imagine the father and his fons feeling themselves interlaced by ferpents; in whatever manner this may be, we fhall fee that there is only a fingle moment in which the intereit is the greatest: it is that in which a body is to infolded that it can no longer defend itfelf; in which the second, although yet in a condition to defend itfelf, is nevertheless wounded; and in which the third has, laftly, fome hope of faving itfelf. The youngest fon is in the first ftate, the father in the fcond, the eldest fon in the third. Let us endeavour to find yet another state; let us try to diftribute the parts differently from what they are here! art. In reflecting then on this action, from its commencement, and finding that it has arrived to its highest degree, we shall foon perceive, by reprefenting to ourfelves the moments which are to follow that which is figured by the monument, that the groupe muft entirely change, and that we cannot find another moment of the action which is fo precious for the The youngest fon will be ftifled by the ferpent that infolds him; or if, in his fituation, which deprives him of all fuccour, he irritates it further, the ferpent will bite him. Thefe two ftates are inTupportable, because they are extremes which ought not to be reprefented. As to the father, the ferpent may bite him again in other parts; but then all the fituation of his body would be changed, and the first bites would be loft for the fpectasor, or they would become difgufting, if the artit had a mind to indicate them. There is yet another cafe: the ferpent may turn away, and attack the eldest fon; this laft is then brought back to himfelf; there is no longer any perfonage interefting himfelf in the action; the last appearance of hope difappears from the groupe, and the reprefentation is no longer tragical, but cruel. The father, who repoles now upon himself, in his greatness and his fufferings, would turn round towards his fon, and he would become an acceffory figure, interefting himself with another figure. In his own fufferings, and thofe of another, man has only three fenfations, fear, terror, and compaffion; he forefees with inquietude the evil which approaches him; he perceives on a fudden an evil which trikes him, and he takes part in the fuf. fering which yet remains, or which has already paffed; all the three are reprefented and excited by this monument, and even by the most fuitable gradation. The arts of defign, which always la. bour for the moments when they chufe a pathetic fubject, will seize that which excites terror; poetry, on the contrary, will chufe thole which excite fear and compaffion. In the groupe of Laocoon, the fufferings of the father excite terror to the highest degree; fculpture has done in it all that it could do; but, either for the fake of running through the circle of all human fenfations, or of moderating the violent impreffion of terror, it excites compaflion for the fituation of the youngeft fon, and fear for that of the eldest; leaving yet some hope for this laft. It is thus that the ancients gave, by variety, a certain equilibrium to their works; that they diminished or strengthened an effect by other effects, and were enabled to finish an intellectual and fenfible whole. In a word, we may boldly maintain, that this monument exhausts its fubject, and that it happily executes all the conditions of the art. It teaches us, that if the artift can communicate his fentiment of the beautiful to tranquil and fimple objects; this fame fentiment fhews itself nevertheless, in its greatest energy and all its dignity, when it proves its force by figuring varied characters; and when in its imitation, it can moderate and retain the violent and impaffioned expreffions of human nature. The moderns have often been mistaken in the choice of fubjects for pathetic reprefentations in fculpture. Milo, whole two hands are locked in the rift of a tree, and who is attacked by a lion, is a subject which the artist will endeavour in vain to reprefent in fuch a manner as to excite a pure and true intereft. A double grief, unavailing efforts, a fituation which deprives him of all relief, can only excite horror, and cannot even touch. Lattly, I thall drop a word or two on the relation of this fubject to poetry. We are unjust towards Virgil and poetry, when we compare, be it only for an initant, the most finished chef d'œuvre of fculpture, with the epifodical manner in which this fubject is treated in the Eneid. As the unfortunate Eneas is to relate himself, that he and his compatriots have committed the unpardonable fault of fuffering the horse to enter their city, the poet has only to contrive means means to excuse this action: every thing tends to this; and the hiftory of Laocoon is only a rhetorical figure, in which we may very well allow of fome exaggeration, provided that it anfwers the end which the poet defigns it fhould. Immenfe ferpents then proceed out of the fea; they have a creft on their head; they light on the children of the priest who had infulted the horse; they infold, bite, and pollute them with their venom; they afterwards infold the breaft and the neck of the father, who runs to their fuccour, and they raife their heads to fhew their victory, whilst the unfortunate one they opprefs calls for fuccour in vain. The people, who are ftruck with terror at this fpectacle, fly; no one dares any longer undertake the defence of his country; and the hearer and reader, affrighted at this marvellous and difgufting hiftory, alike confent that the horfe fhall enter into the city. The hiftory of Laocoon, in Virgil, is only therefore a mean to attain a more confiderable end; and it is yet a great question, whether this event be a proper fubject for poetry. Some Obfervations on the Groupe of Laocoon and his two Sons. The right leg of the eldeft fon is of a moft agreeable elegance. The expreffion, and the turn of the members in general, and of the mufcles, is admirable in the entire work. In the A confiderable part of the ferpents, and probably the two heads, are of modern workmanship. 1 The left arm of the father, up to the juncture of the fhoulder, and the five toes of the left foot, are restorations; the right foot, however, has fuffered nothing. In the eldest fon, the end of the nofe, the right hand, the three first toes of the left foot, the end of the great toe in the right foot, have been reftored; the belly having been fomewhat damaged on the right fide, this part has also been restored. The end of the nofe, the right arm, two fingers in the left hand, and the five toes in the right foot, of the youngest fon, have been restored. It is only the right arm of Laccoon which has been well restored in burnt earth, and as moft fay, by Bernini, who, nevertheless, if it be really his work, has herein furpaffed himself. The other retorations, which I have juft mentioned, are in marble; they are carefully done, but with little art, and with convulfive contorfions, in the taste of the school of Bernini. It is thought they were done by Cornachini. NEW PATENTS THE France, and Flanders; nor could its cotton works, its works in fteel, and other metals, or its potteries, have had an exiftence. In the latter part of the now clofing century, while the population and the manufacturing eftablishments of Britain have been fo prodigioutly increased, the confumption of pit-coals has increased in pro portion. Happily, the trata of this foffil in the northern counties are fo immenfe, that we can fcarcely look forward in imagination,to the time at which they are likely to be quite confumed. The dif tance of thefe ftrata from London, if it enhance the price to the inhabitants of the metropolis, has, however, the beneficial effect of producing a neceffity for feacarriage, by which a confiderable number of hardy mariners are continually formed and maintained. But, independently of any cofts of carriage, the work of digging pit-coal is exceedingly expenfive. The labour is exceffively fevere: the confinement at it, 3 F under under-grount, is difagreeable: its unwholefome.nefs and dirtinefs are extremely repulfive the neceflity for unremitting toil, in order to afford fufficiently regular fupplies of fuel, makes it often requifite to yield to very unreafonable demands 'from the colliers. And it is natural that all thefe circumftances in combination, fhould make the wages of those who work in coal-pits enormously great. On this account, there is, perhaps, no abbreviation of labour more to be defired than that which, leffening the toil of the collier, fhall enable him to throw out a greater quantity of coals, than formerly, within a given time, and shail thus diminish the price of the coals in the market, The labour of conveying the coals, after they are dug, from where they are left by the collier who digs them, to the mouth of the pit, is a very troublefome part of the toil which they demand. To accomplish this, and to clear the pits of water and foul air, a complex and expensive fyftem of machinery is ufually employed. Even the advantages of the team-engine ftill leave much to be wifhed for. We have, therefore, great pleasure in announcing that Mr. HUMPHREY JEFFERIES, of Newcastle upon Tyne, has re'cently obtained a PATENT for an improved modification of the apparatus for the conveyance of coals from the bottom to the mouth of the pit, by which the ufual labour of this operation will be facilitated and abridged. A feries of engravings would be neceffary to make his improvement clearly intelligible to the reader. But, we think it, a good one'; we hope the world will derive benefit from it; and we wish the patentee an adequate reward for his ingenuity. Mr. REHE'S PATENT for an Engine for the Conveyance of Water from one Place to another. THE discoveries of GALILEO, TORRICELLI, and PASCAL, relative to the preffure and the elasticity of the atmophere, have given to the moderns very great fcientific advantages in the management of water, which the ancients did not poffefs. Our wells, our drains, our mounds, our fewers, our mills, our canals, and all our hydraulic arts, fufficiently evince this truth. By regulating the preffure of the atmosphere upon any piece of water, we can now direct its movements almoit at our pleasure. Water is next after fire, the most useful handmaid of the arts. We announce, therefore, with pleafure, that Mr. SAMUEL REHE of London has juft enrolled a patent for an engine for the convenient convryance of avaler from one place to another; frem which, emolument to the inventor, and utility to the public, may be reafonably expected to refult. We noticed in our xlift Number, p. 62, the extenfive practical importance and utility of Mr. COLLIER's new machines for percolation, (applicable to all fluids, but more particularly water) for which he had obtained a patent: we have now much fatisfaction in adding, that on further inquiry, we highly approve thefe inventions, grounded on the only true principles that can shorten this procefs, which has hitherto been always found tedious in the extreme. First. He removes the difficulty refulting from the clear fluid paffing through its own impurities, by taking a direction from the external parts of the filtering medium inwards, from which it is drawn off. Secondly -An urged preffure is employed, which fpeedily forces it through the percobating pores. Thirdly. Though the apparatus takes up comparatively no room, and the expenfe is very eafy, it is fo contrived, as to contain more filtering furface, in contact with the fluid, than a large ftone does when full. We think it neceffary to tate these particulars, more in detail than we otherwife should do, because modern improvements have fo manifeftly fhewn the great advantages of water to the conftitution, in cleanfing the vafcular fyftem from unctuous matter detained by the absorbents, and thus giving activity to the circulation and fecretion of the fluids; while the attempts of the faculty, to introduce water into more general ufe, either in its fimple ftate or mixed, have been impeded by the extreme difficulty of procuring it in any tolerable degree of purity. The means Mr. COLLIER has employed, to deprive any quantity of fluid of its colour or putrefcent qualities, by a given quantity of charcoal, are likewife highly ingenious. We are concerned to find, that, in our laft number, there was an error in regard to the name of Mr. SAMUEL SANDY HICKLING of Birmingham, the proprietor of the patent for the application of aitreous compounds to iron, &c. While we thus rectify that mistake, we cannot help mentioning, that, if the authors of new inventions would take the trouble of tranfmitting to the publisher of the Monthly Magazine thort notices of the fpecifications of their patents, they would invariably find the intereft of the proprietor of every tually ferved by thus making it faithfully truly valuable invention to be much more effecpublic, than by that my fery in which it is fometimes endeavoured to conceal the fubjects of fuch patents from the knowledge of the world, VARIETIES, LITERARY and PHILOSOPHICAL; Including Notices of Works in Hand, Domeftic and Foreign. * Authentic Communications for this Article will always be thankfully received. R. MARSH, the translator of Mi III.-The most certain Methods of con Mais, and author of Letters to peying Aistance from Shere, to Veffels in Mr. Travis," is now employed at Leipfic in translating his work in the German language, which he lately published, intituled, "An hiftorical Review of the Politics of Great Britain and France, from the time of the Treaty of Pilnitz and the Declaration of War against England, founded throughout on authentic Documents which have been carefully collected." In this work the English nation and government are vindicated from the afperfions thrown on them in Germany, as being the authors of the prefent war. The English tranflation will be in London at the end of the fummer. An offer has lately been made to Mr. MARSH to accompany the embaffy to Conftantinople, with a view of examining the Greek and Oriental MSS. in the Ottoman libraries. The lovers of literature are in hopes that it will fait his health to take this journey, as the republic of letters may expect to derive important discoveries. The Rev. H. BOYD, tranflator of the "Inferno of Dante," is now employed upon a tranflation of the "Filippo, Don Garzia," and "Congiura de' Pazzi," of Count Alfieri. A work is in the prefs, under the title of the "General Apiarian," wherein a fimple, humane, and advantageous method of obtaining the produce of Bees, without deftroying them, is pointed out in a series of letters to a friend; by Mr. ISAAC, Secretary to the Western Apiarian Society. An Anfwer to Mr. BELSHAM's Review of Mr. WILBERFORCE's Treatife," is in the prefs, written by the author of the "Age of Infidelity, &c." with a word to the author of "Letters on Hereditary Depravity." The Royal Humane Society has propofed the following queftions for the year Diftrefs, within a certain Distance of Land, and ben Boats dare not venture out to the aid of Shipwrecked Mariners? On the 20th of May was opened, at No. 118, Pall-Mall, the Milton Gallery; confifting of a series of pictures from the poetic works of John Milton. Painted by HENRY FUSELI, R. A. Admiffion IS. Catalogues, with the paffages to which the pictures refer, 6d. Mr. SHERWIN, of Enfield, intends to publish a work on the "Affections botb morbid and falutary, excited in the Human Frame ly external Abforption." In the year 1787, Mr. SHERWIN communicated a paper on this fubject to the Medical Society of London, a part of which, relating to the abforption of emetic tartar, was published in the fecond volume of their Memoirs. In the introduction to that paper, which was not published by the Society, appears the following striking paffage, on account of recent discoveries relpecting the cow-pox: "May it not be conceived, that fome particular unfufpected fubftance applied to the human frame, in a state of moisture or effluvia, may be imbibed and excite an infectious diforder, which fhall afterwards propagate itself from one patient to another? &c. may have been thus originally excited, Small-pox, mealles, infectious fore throat, though mankind may for ever be ignorant of their respective sources." We learn that Mr. PARKINSON is about to enlarge his work of " Medical Admonitions," by the addition of a table, pointing out the degrees of danger manifelted by various fymptoms; and an Effay on the injurious confequences of the exceffive indulgence of children. Such a work is truly a defideratum in English literature, and cannot fail to be productive of the molt beneficial effects, elpecially among thofe claffes of fociety," which are prejudiced in favour of quackery. Mr. LE SAGE has circulated propofals for publishing by fubfcription, "A Genealogical, Chronological, Hiftorical, and Geo graphical |