done with pendulums, for it is like meafuring bodies at reft with moving in ftruments, or fhooting at game with a trembling hand. Suppofing thofe gentlemen had over come the difficulties they gave themfelves, how could they have found a comparative statement for knowing the length of their pendulum, from the centre of fufpenfion to its centre of ofcillation, which proves of what little use a pendulum is to measure motionless bodies? What makes it appear more ridiculous is, that the globe's furface runs over a space of about 21,600,000 fathoms in twenty four hours; which is exactly measuring a furface of 43,000,000 yards, with a three-feet rule, that cannot be kept fteady. This must ever make common fenfe fay, that meafuring in fuch a manner is against all the rules of reafon, feeing that the ideas of motion and reft are diametrically in contradic tion to one another. Our country principles for meafuring furface are on fixed rules, which lead to divide in aliquot parts to infinity they are nothing more than three barly corns for one inch, and the measure of gravity, if fixed on, fixty grains of wheat for a dram, and a quart of ale to make two pounds. Thefe are the bafis of our meafure, which made me find that a cylindrical foot of water weighs forty-eight pounds; and that one inch of water, of a cylindrical figure, and fix feet high, weighs two pounds, or a quart of ale; with thefe round numbers I have found, that the medium column of the atmosphere is fifteen hundred weight. And from these rules I have found two univerfal Яandards for meafuring folids and fluids. The firft ftandard for fpace is taken from a degree of latitude on the meri. dian, which may be meafured on the ground in fathoms, feet, and inches. The fecond ftandard for gravity is taken from the moft fimple element; this is water, which, being reduced to a column of one inch in diameter and a fathom long, will make two pounds. To have the divifion for the first ftandard, I fhall repeat, that one degree of latitude on the meridian must be divided into fixty minutes, which I name miles, the mile into a thousand fathoms, a fathom into fix feet, and the foot into twelve inches, which can be measured on the ground, as I have faid. The divifions of the fecond standard are made with a cylinder of a latitudinal foot in diameter, and twelve inche high, full of water, which must be divided into forty-eight parts, to make as many elementary pounds, which again may be divided into as many aliquot parts as are neceffary to keep to the ancient denomination of pounds, half-pounds, quarters, ounces, drams, grains, &c. only changing the number fixty into fixty-four for a dram. Having, Sir, given you a fhort account of the ftandards I have found out, you must know what the Bishop d'Autun faid to Sir John Riggs Miller. I wrote to the Baronet, who lent me the memoir and letter of this prelate fent him. ❝ SIR, "THE Bishop of Autun's propofals and letter I have examined. They come from a fenfible man; and show he is a very proper perfon to decide the question in hand, mucha better than many of thofe book-wife gentry who are stocked with other people's ideas, without having any of their own, which has made these favans jumble the whole, fo as London, April 7, 1790. not to have one clear idea towards what is neceffary to make a standard. What can be more against a rule for coming to a fixed measure than what the Bishop fays has been tried? And again, what can come from their operations, till they have a couple of comparative standards? "The worthy Abbé de la Caille got hold of the ancient principle for a standard to divide a degree of latitude into 60,000 parts; which was very right; but then he runs out of the road, and makes ufe of his Paris meafure to procure a degree on the meridian of 57,930 toijes, one of which must be five feet eight inches five twelfths and a quarter. Is not fuch a conclufion in fractions like a man who has loft fight of his mufick, and plays with inftrument out of time. "The Bishop fays, the Abbé's principles are trues but he thinks they are not trictly exact. I fhall fay, why did not this learned man keep to his divifions of 60,000 parts, and name them toifes? then he would have had an elementary standard for space, and but a fecond to find for gravity. "The Abbé de la Caille fays, an elementary measure fhould be taken from the pendulum which beats the feconds, one of which would make an ell, and two of them would make a toife that divided into feet and inches, &c. "The Bishop again fays, that thofe mea. fures properly put in execution would not give pofitive exactnefs. And, at the fame time, he lets us know that an ingenious experiment has been made by Monfieur de la Voifiere, and that with great accuracy, on the weight of a cubic foot of diftilled water, in order to have an invariable pound in a cu bic veifel. Then M. de la Voifiere runs to of Pope's Odyffey. [July his wabbling pendulum, for a fixed mea- "Very happily for thefe gentlemen, that the arbors of wheel and pignions carry hands which anfwer to the divifion of time, other wife they could never find the number of beats; nevertheless they have not a true account of the distance from the center of fufpenfion to the center of ofcillation. "But, en attendant, I fhall make bold to claim the principle of water, for a comparative standard, being an English invention, till M. de la Voifiere has proved it has not been published the 10th of April, in the Journal des Savans d'Amfterdam, and alfo in the Efprit des Journaux, printed at Liege, and publifhed at Paris, and fent to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. at London, the 22d of January, 1781, and again published at Vienna with other matters in 1785. I do not, Sir, in the leaft defire to make ufe of M. de la Voifiere's invention of meafuring in cubic veffels, or any other fyftem which has the resemblance of a square, to bring into harmony with a circle. I ever fhun fuch operations, and keep to our oldfashioned quadrant and cylindrical veffels; they have never puzzled me with fractions; on the contrary, their fimplicity has given me rules to come at the measure in hand, and has even brought me to find that a cylindrical column of atmosphere, of a foot diameter, has 1500 pounds of gravity, as I have faid. "M. de la Voifiere's making ufe of distilled fractions, which proves, that thefe far-fetched "Thus much, Sit, I thought was proper to "WILLIAM BLAKEY." P. S. You fee, Mr. Urban, the confequence this matter is of, both for usefulnets and the reputation of having ideas in our own, land, without going artfully to nations inventions, as M. de la Lande fays of us, in his hafty defire of appearing wife. Mr. URBAN. July 10. R. JOHNSON, in his Lives of lowing account of the gentlemen con- "When the fuccefs of the Iliad gave en "As this tranflation is a very important event in poetical hiftory, the reader has a right to know upon what grounds I establish my narration. That the verfion was not wholly Pope's was always known. He had mentioned the affistance of two friends in his Propofals; and at the end of the work fome account is given by Broome of their different parts, which however mentions only five books as written by the coadjutors; the fourth and twentieth by Fenton; the fixth, the eleventh, and the eighteenth, by himself; though Pope, in an advertisement, prefixed afterwards to a new volume of his works, claimed only twelve. A natural curiofity, after the real conduct of fo great an undertaking, incited me once to enquire of Dr. Warburton, who told me, in his warm lan guage, that he thought the relation given in the note a lie; but that he was not able to afcertain the feveral fhares. The intelligence, which Dr. Warburton could not afford me, I obtained from Mr. Langton, to whom Mr. Spence had imparted it." Inftead of faying with Warburton, that Broome's note is a lie, may not we mentioned only thofe books which he fuppofe that Broome, out of modesty, thought he had tranflated with the leatt afiflance from Pope? His words greatest fuccefs, and perhaps with the may poffibly bear this conftruction. "If my performance," fays he, "has merit, either in thefe [notes], or in my part of the tranflation (namely, in the 6th, 11th, and 18th books), it is but just to attribute it to the care and judgement Mr. Pope, by whofe hand every sheet was corrected." of That Pope corrected, or at least re vifed, every heet, cannot be doubled, 26 as he was answerable for the whole. In a note to the Dunciad, he himself fpeaks of his affifting Broome in correcting his verfes in these general terms: "Concahen dealt very unfairly with our poet, not only frequently imputing to him Mr. Broome's verfes (for which he might indeed feem, in fome degree, accountable, having corrected what that gentleman did), but thofe of the Duke of Buckingham and others." Dunc. II. 299. Broome himself freely acknowledges Pope's "daily revifal and correction of his and Fenton's publications." The licence for vefting the right of printing the tranflation of the Odyffey in Lintot, the book feller, is dated Feb. 19, 1724 5. The first volume in 12mo was printed in 1725, the last in 1726; and the note at the conclufion was written the fame year. For, Broome himfelf tells us, that the verfes, "Let vulgar fouls," &c. at the end of the notes, were addreffed to Mr. Pope in 1726. See Poems, p. 94. At that time the tranflators might rather with that their readers and fubfcribers fhould be left to their own conjectures, and attribute as much as they thought proper to the celebrated tranflator of the Iliad. Mr. Spence, in his Effay on the Odyf. fey, printed in 1727, gives us no information on this head. He only fays, "Moft people, I think, are ready to agree, that Pope is the only mafterhand in this tranflation. Be that as it may, he has recommended the whole with his name; he gives the finishing troke to every thing; and the Dialogues fpeak of him as if he were really the author of the whole. It would have been a confused thing, and often not practisable, to have spoken, at every turn, to the right perfon." Pref. has difplayed as much elegance of style, and harmony of numbers, as we find in any other part of the poem. And there is, I think, a general equality in the poetical diction, which could not be derived from the occafional alterations of the mafter-poet. Dr. Johnson obferves, "that the readers of poetry have never been able to diftinguish the books of Broome and Fenton from thofe of Pope." We do not indeed find in this excellent work that manifeft difparity of style which generally characterizes different poets; yet in fome paffages, perhaps, the writer may be difcovered by certain peculiarities, or unufual expreffions. 1 fhall mention one of them. An ingenious reader may poffibly difcover more indu bitable criteria. The English poets almoft unanimoufly reprefent Death as a tremendous fpec tre of the mafculine gender. Thus Shakspeare: Could not find Death, where I did hear bim I, in my own woe charm'd, groan; [monsterNor feel him, where be ftruck. This ugly 'Tis ftrange be hides him in fresh cups, foft beds, Sweet words; or hath more minifters than we That draw bis knives i' th' war. Cymb. V.2. Thus Milton: Grim Death, my son and for. P. L. II. 804. Death with bis fcythe cut off the fatal thread, Theb. 1. 745. Let ghaftly death in all bis forms appear, I faw him not; it was not mine to fear. Odyf. XIV. 255 In Broome's Poems we have the fol It may be observed, that the licence A thousand ways, alas! frail mortals lead See! in the horrors of yon houfe of woes, In the eleventh book (the defcent into hell), where Homer frequently rifes into the greateft fublimity, Broome, the acknowledged tranflator of that book, GENT. MAG. July, 1792. High on a trophy rais'd of human bones, Troops of all maladies the fiend inclose ! Swords, fpears, and arrows, and sepulchral ftones, kills. In horrid ftate be reigns; attendant ills Here Death is personified in the feminins gender, contrary to the ufual cuf tom But never have thy eyes aftonish'd view'd I do not produce thefe as the best lines in this admirable book, the eleventh of the Odyfley; but merely to Specify one of thofe incidental circumftances in poetical language, by which we may fometimes difcover the author of an anonymous publication. "The price," fays Dr. Johnfon, "at which Pope purchafed affiftance was 3col. paid to Fenton, and 500l. to Broome, with as many copies as he wanted for his friends, which amounted to one hundred more. The payment made to Fenton I know but by hearfay; Broome's is very diftinctly told by Pope in the notes to the Dunciad. "It is evident," continues our biographer," "that, according to Pope's own eftimate, Broome was unkindly treated. If four books could merit 300l., eight, and all the notes, equivalent at least to four, had certainly a right to more than fix. "Broome probably confidered himself as injured; and there was for fome time more, than coldnefs between him and his employer. He always spoke of Pope as too much a lover of money; and Fope purfued him with avowed hoftility; for he not only named him difrefpectfully in the Dunciad, but quoted him more than once in the Bathos, as a proficient in the art of finking. And in his enumeration of the different kinds of poets, diftinguished for the profound, he reckons Broome among "the parrots, that repeat another's words in fuch a hoarfe odd voice as Gray, I know, has made Death "the QUEEN of a grily troop :" but by this injudicious title he has diverted the fpectre of his formidable appearance. In French, Death (la Mort) is feminine. English writers, with much greater propriety, represent Death as the king of terrors. On this paffage was the following note: "He [the author of the Dunciad] concludes his irony with a ftroke upon hinfelf; for whoever imagines this a farcafm on the other ingenious perfon is furely mistaken. The opinion our author had of him was fufficiently fhewn by his joining him in the undertaking of the Odyffey; in which Mr. Broome, having engaged without any previ ous agreement, difcharged his part fo much to Mr. Pope's fatisfaction, that he gratified him with the full fum of five hundred pounds, and a prefent of all thofe books, for which his own intereft could procure him fubfcribers, to the value of one hundred more. author only feems to lament that he was employed in tranflation at all." Our Here, I must confefs, I fufpect a la tent and ungenerous farcafm. The placency, or rather the air of vanity, phrafe, "furely mistaken," the com with which he mentions his having gra ified Mr. B. with the full fum of fix hundred pounds, and his pretending to lament that he himself was employed in a work which established his fortune and his fame, carry with them ftrong symptoms of diffimulation. However, in later editions, the two lines are thus corrected: Hibernian politicks, O, Swift! thy fate; And Pope's, ten years to comment and tranflate. When Pope fpeaks of his comments, he alludes to his edition of Shakspeare, published in 1721, as well as to the comments on Homer. The fhare which he himself took in the notes on the Iliad cannot now be ascertained. The larger part part of the extracts from Euftathius, powerful adverfary in reciprocal ftrokes "with several excellent obfervations," of fatire. However, in the fecond were fent him by Broome, as we are edition of his poems, published in 1739, informed in the Poftfcript inferted at the when the amicable connexion was conclufion of the Iliad, written by Mr. probably diffolved, Broome, though Pope in 1720, when he condefcended to Pope was yet alive, takes uncommon fpeak impartially and favourably of pains to vindicate his claim to that cre"his friend." Another gentleman of dit as a critick and a poet which he Cambridge is alfo faid to have lent his thought he deferved. For in an adver affiftance, but Johnfon fays he foon tifement prefixed to his Poems he fays, grew weary of the work; and a third "the author has not inferted into this was recommended by Thirlby, who is collection any part of his translation of now known to be Jortin. When the the eight books of the Odyssey, pubOdyffey was to be illuftrated with notes, lifhed by Mr. Pope." In a note at p. Broome refumed the office of commen- 55 he fays, "the author tranflated eight tator, and was employed without any books of the Odyley." At p. 98, he coadjutor. fays again, "the author tranflated eight books of the Odyffey." And in the Preface he fays, "If my credit should fail as a poet, I may have recourse to my remarks upon Homer, and be pardoned for my induftry as the annotator in part upon the Iliad, and entirely upon the Odyffey," p. xii. He likewife obferves in a note, p. 47, that Fenton tranflated four books of the Odyssey. Though Pope had spent ten years in commenting and tranflating, he had very little reafon to complain of his fate. "His fubfcribers to the Iliad were 575. The copies, for which fubfcriptions were given, were 654; for those copies he had nothing to pay. He therefore received, including 200l. a volume from Lintot, 53201. without deduction, as the books were fupplied by the bookfeller. For each volume of the Odyffey he received 100l. The number of his fubfcribers was 574, and of copies 819." On thefe occafions we may fuppofe that many pecuniary compliments were paid him above the fum ftipulated in the Propofals. So that his profits, when he had paid his affiftcured him that eafe and affluence which ants, was very confiderable, and prothousands of learned and ingenious men have merited, and laboured to acquire; but merited and laboured without fuc cefs. The paffages in the Bathos, evidently applied to Broome, contain only the initials of his name. The first is that of the parrots already cited, marked with W. B. W. H. &c. The fecond, I believe, is that of the tortoises, which, he fays, are flow and chill, and, like paftoral writers, delight much in gardens. They have for the most part a fine embroidered fhell, and underneath it a heavy lump. A. P. W. B. L. E. the Right Hon. E. of S. That is, I fuppofe, A. Philips, William Broome, Lawrence Eufden, and the Earl of The treatife on the Bathos was written in the year 1727. In this manner Pope feems to have purfued his coadjutor, as Johnson obferves, "with avowed hoftility." Broome had not, I apprehend, any inclination to centend with an acrimonious and "The first copy of Pope's books, with thofe of Fenton, are to be feen," fays Johnfon, "in the Mufeum. The parts of Pope are lefs interlined than the fliad; and the latter books of the Iliad less than the former. He grew dextrous by practice; and every sheet enabled him to write the next with more facility The books of Fenton have very few alterations by the hand of Pope. had much trouble in correcting them." Thofe of Broome have not been found; but Pope complained, as it is reported, that he On this extract I would obferve, that Johnfon's account of Pope's complaint is only founded on report; that it is impoffible to determine whether Broome or Pope thought himself more interested in deftroying the copy, and actually fuppreffed it; that is, whether Broome wanted to conceal the great number, or Pope the paucity, of his corrections ; and, laftly, upon a presumption chat the books which have not been found are the translations of Broome, it may be worth while to enquire if they are the fame that are afcribed to him by Johnfon. If they are, this circumftance will corroborate Mr. Spence's information. Whether any new light may be thrown on the fubject or not, by an infpection of the MSS. in the British Muleum, I fhall leave to the investigation of thole learned and ingenious gentle Pope died May 30, 1744; Broome, Nov. 16, 1745. men |