PARALLELS.

How beautiful is night!

NOW came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests
Were slunk; all but the wakeful nightingale;
She all night long her amorous descant sung;
Silence was pleas'd; now glow'd the firmament
With living sapphirs: Hesperus, that led
The starry host, røde brightest, till the moon
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

....

MILTON.

As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night!
O'er heav'n's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver ev'ry mountain's head;
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies:
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
POPE'S HOMER.

Faliimur exemplis ; temere fibi turb a fcholarum Ima tuas credit permitti Scaliger iras.

Quifque fuum norit modulum; tibi prime, viro

runi

Ut ftudiis fperem, aut aufim par effe querelis,
Non mihi forte datum; lenti feu fanguinis obfint
Frigora, seu niinium longo jacuiffe veterno,
Sive mihi mentem dederit natura minorem.

Te fterili functum cura, vocumque falebris
Tuto eludatum fpatiis fapientia dia
Excipit æthercis, ars omnis plaudit amico,
Linguarumque ommi terra difcordia concors
Multiplici reducem circum fonatore magiftrum.
Me, penfi immunis cum jam mihi reddor, inertis
Defidiæ fors dura manet, graviorque labore
Triftis et atra quies, et tardæ tædia vitæ.
Nafcuntur curis curæ, vexatque dolorum
Importuna colors, vacuæ mala fomnia mentis.
Nunc clamofa juvant nocturnæ gaudia menfæ,
Nunc loca fola placent; fruftra te, Somne, re.
cumbens'

Alme voco, impatiens noctis metuenfque diei.
Omnia percurro trepidus, circum omnia luftro,
Si qua ufquam pateat melioris feinita vitæ,
Nec quid agam invenio, meditatus grandia, cogor
Notior ipfe mihi fieri, incultumque fateri
Fectus et ingenium vano fe robore jactans.
Ingenium nifi materiem doctrina miniftrat,
Ceffat inops rerum, ut torpet, fi marmoris abfit
Copia, Phidiaci fæcunda potentia cœli.
Quicquid agam, quocunque ferar, conatibus
obftat

Res angufta domi, et macræ penuria mentis.

Non rationis opes animus, nunc parta recenfens Confpicit aggeftas, et se miratur in illis, Nec fibi de gaza præfans quod poftulat ufus Summus adeffe jubet celfa dominator ab arce; Non operum ferie feriem dum computat ævi, Præteritis fruitur, lætos aut fumit honores Ipfe fui judex, actæ bene munera vitæ ; Sed fua regna videns, loca nocte filentia late Horret, ubi vanæ fpecies, umbræque fugaces, Et rerum volitant raræ per inane figuræ.

Quid faciam tenebrifne pigram damnare fe.

nectam

Reftat? an accingar ftudiis gravioribus audax? Aut hoc, fi nimium eft, tandem nova lexica pofcain?

The drudgery of words the damn'd would know, Doom'd to write Lexicons in endless woe.*

Yes, you had cause, great Genius, to repent; "You loft good days that might be better spent ; You well might grudge the hours of ling`ring pain, And view your learned labours with difcain. 'To you were giv'n the large expanded mind, The flame of genius, and the tafte refin'd. 'Twas yours on eagle wings aloft to foar, And amidit rolling worlds the Great First Cause explore;

To fix the æras of recorded time,

And live in ev'ry age, in ev'ry clime;

Record the chiefs, who propt their country's caule;

Who founded empires, and establish'd laws; To learn whate'er the fage with virtue fraught, Whate'er the mufe of moral wifdom taught. 'Thefe, were your quarry; thete to you were known,

And the world's ample volume was your own.

Yet warn'd by me, ye pigmy wits, beware, Nor with immortal Scaliger compare. For me, though his example ftrike my view, Oh! not for me his footsteps to purfue. Whether first nature, unpropitious, cold, This clay compounded in a ruder mould; Of the flow current, loit 'ring at my heart, No gleam of wit or fancy can impart ; Whate'er the cause, from me no numbers flow, No vifions warm me, and no raptures glow.

A mind like Scaliger's, fuperiour ftill,
No grief could conquer, no misfortune chill.
'Though for the maze of words his native fkies
He feem'd to quit, 'twas but again to rife;
To mount once more to the bright fource of day,
And view the wonders of th' ætherial way.
'The love of fame his gen'rous bosom fir'd ;
Each science hail'd hin, and each muse inspir’d.
For him the fons of learning trim'd the bays,
And nations grew harmonious in his praife.

My task perform'd, and all my labours o'er,
For me what lot has fortune now in store?
The liftlefs will fucceeds, that worst difeafe,
The rack of indolence, the fluggish eafe.
Care grows on care, and o'er my aching brain
Black melancholy pours her morbid train.
No kind relief, no lenitive at hand,

1 feek at midnight clubs, the foctal band;

But midnight clubs, where wit with noife con-
Ipires,

Where Comus revels, and where wine infpires,
Delight no more: I feek my lonely bed,
And call on fleep to foothe my languid head.
But fleep from thefe fad lids flies far away;
I mourn all night, and dread the coming day.
Exhausted, tir'd, I throw my eyes around,
To find fome vacant spot on claffick ground;
And foon, vain hope! I form a grand defign;
Languor fucceeds, and all my pow'rs decline.

* Sec Scaliger's epigram on the fame fubject, communicated, without doubt, by Dr. Johnton, Gent. Mag. 1743, p. 8.

ARTICLE 1.

[Concluded.]

Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Vol. I. 1805. 4to. pp. 564. PART II. PHYSICAL PAPERS.

1. Observations upon an hypothesis for solving the phenomena of light, with incidental observations, tending to shew the heterogeneous ness of light, and of the electrick fluid, by their intermixture, or union, with each other. By James Bowdoin, Esquire, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The celebrated Dr. Franklin observed, that he was much in the dark about light. And it must be acknowledged, that, notwithstand ing the great progress we have made in opticks, many difficulties still remain relative to the nature of light, or the manner in which visjon is produced. It is well known, that modern philosophers have proposed two hypotheses for the purpose of explaining this point. In one, adopted by Huygens, Eu ler, and some others, an extremely subtile, elastick fluid is supposed to penetrate all bodies, and to fill all space; and vibrations,being excited in it by the action of luminous bodies, are propagated to the eye, and produce in that organ the sensation of vision in the same manner, as pulsations of air pro duce in the organ of hearing the sensation of sound. According to the other

hypothesis, maintained by Sir Isaac Newton and others, light consists of particles of matter, extremely minute, which being projected or thrown off from luminous bodies in every direction by a repulsive force, and reflected by opaque bodies, produce the sensation of vision by impulse on the eye.

The hypothesis, on which the author of this Memoir remarks, is contained in some queries, proposed by Dr Franklin, and is in substance the same as the former of the two preceding; to which the observations may be considered as objections, or arguments in favor of the other.

In one part of the reasoning in form of queries relative to the production of light in various instances by motion, on supposition that the hypothesis of vibration is true, more seems to be assumed than is granted in the hypothesis. It does not appear to be inferable from Dr. Franklin's statement, nor from any other, that we recollect to have seen, that every kind and degree of motion in the elastick fluid is supposed or admitted to be productive of the sensation of vision; does this seem to be a necessary consequence, In the theory of sound, though the vibratory agency of the air is clearly ascertained, yet it is not supposed that every kind and degree of motion in the air produces the sensation of sound.

nor

The author's ideas respecting the heterogeneousness of light and

of the electrick fluid may be well Jearned from the following extract, it being noted, that he uses fire in it as synomimous with light.

"Electricity and fire differ in many respects, and in some they agree; as hath been shewn in Dr. Franklin's letters on electricity. So far as they agree in their effects, their nature may be presumed to be alike or rather, from that agreement and similitude of effects, I think it may be inferred, that they are mixt with, and generally do accompany each other; and that each produces its own effect at the time of their joint operation. The effects of electricity, similar to those of fire, being produced by the fire mixt with it; and the effects of fire, resembling those of electricity, being produced by the clectricity mixt with that the compound taking its name from the predominant principle."

Is it not more probable that one fluid, operating in different modes and circumstances, produces those different effects?

II. Observations on light, and the waste of matter in the sun and fixt stars, occasioned by the constant efflux of light from them;, with a conjecture, propos ed by way of query, and suggest ing a mean, by which their several systems might be preserved from the disorder and final ruin, to which they seem liable by that waste of matter, and by the law of gravitation. By James Bowdoin, Esquire, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Franklin had made some objections to the Newtonian doctrine of light on the ground, that there most consequently be a momentum or force in the particles

of light, and a waste in the matter of the sun, which do not accord with experience and observation. Mr. Bowdoin endeavours to remove these objections. Accordingly the "Observations on Light” in the former part are calculated to show, that the inference relative to the motion or momentum of light is not just, and of course the objection, raised on it, unfounded. In the other part, after some good observations on the waste of matter in the sun by emission of light, the hypothesis is introduced, which is announced with so much modesty and caution in the title. The author,apparently well apprized of the difficulty of supporting it with evidence, merely proposes it as a query, or subject of consideration. That wonderful phenomenon, the ring of Saturn, which appears to the planet like a vast, surrounding, luminous arch, suggested the idea of conjecturing that a hollow sphere or orb might encompass the several systems, which compose the visible heavens. This surrounding orb is supposed to be fitted by its structure, and the properties of gravity, repulsion of light, &c. with which it is furnished to stop the rays of light, reflect them to the source, whence they emanated, and thus prevent loss or waste of any matter within it, and preserve the magnitude of the sun and stars; and also to serve as a counterbalance to the mutual gravities of the systems and bodies, inclosed by it, thus contributing to the preservation of their relative distances, and the prolongation of their regular motions.

The following remark shows, that the author was not insensible to the weight of objections. "To this hypothesis objections may be made, and such as might prove it to be, like many an one which has

reverie.”

III. Observations tending to frove, by phænomena and scripture, the existence of an orb, which surrounds the whole visible, material system; and which may be necessary to preserve it from the ruin, to which, without such a counterbalance, it seems liable by that universal principle in matter, gravitation. By James Bowdoin, Esq. President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In this Memoir is adduced the evidence, on which the author depends to support his hypothesis of an all-surrounding orb.

"The evidence is phenomena and scripture.

"The phænomena are the luminous girdle in the blue expanse, called the Milky Way; other luminous appearances in it; and the expanse itself."

With respect to the Milky Way, objection is made to the opinion, that its appearance is occasioned by the blended light of stars; and it is observed, "the phenomenon strikes us, as it may be supposed, such a luminous girdle would strike, if its light were reflected from the concave surface of a far distant orb; to which, on the hypothesis assumed, it had been propelled from the numerous systems which the orb enfolds."

Quotations are given from Ferguson and Smith, containing some observations on the milky way, and descriptions of some whitish spots or luminous appearances in the heavens. And it is observed, "From these phenomena it seems not improbable, that the Milky Way, and those lucid spots, are parts of a concave body or orb, of the same nature with some of the other heavenly bodies; and whose

those phænomena, according to the laws and circumstances, which regulate it."

Sir Isaac Newton's explanation of "the blue concave expanse, which surrounds, and appears to limit visible nature," is considered as unsatisfactory. The opinion relatively to this phenomenon, entertained by this author, and his ground for supporting it, may be seen in the following extract.

"Nature is simple and uniform in its operations. From the same cause follow like effects; and these indicate the same cause. Bodies of every kind, through the medium of light, produce their respective phænomena, and these demonstrate the reality of those bodies.

"From these principles we infer the reality of those terrestrial bodies, which, by reason of their situation and distance, can only be the objects of sight: and from the same principles we also infer the reality of the heavenly bodies, the planets, and fixed stars. If this last inference be just, is it not equally just to infer, from the same principles, the reality of the blue circumambient expanse that is, that it is a real concave body, encompassing all visible nature?"

After the statement of such evidence in favour of an orb surrounding the visible universe, as seems to him to be deducible from natural phenomena, farther light is sought in the sacred scriptures. His own words express his sentiments on the propriety of recurring to this source of information.

"In regard to the subject in hand, there seems to be a happy coincidence between phenomena and scripture; and therefore in further evidence of such an orb, and in evidence of several other orbs similar, and concentrick to it,