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obferve, 1. That falt-petre, of itself, is not inflammable; and though it melts in the fire, and grows red hot, yet does not explode, unless it comes in immediate contact with the coals. 2. That brimstone eafily melts at the fire, and easily catches flame. 3. That powdered charcoal readily takes fire, even from the fparks yielded by a flint and fteel. 4. That if nitre be mixed with powered charcoal, and brought in contact with the fire, it burns and flames. 5. That if fulphur be mixed with powdered charcoal, and applied to the fire, part of the fulphur burns flowly away, but not much of the charcoal. And, 6. That if a lighted coal be applied to a mixture of nitre and fulphur, the the fulphur prefently takes fire, with fome degree of explosion, leaving a part of the nitre behind; as we fee in making the fal prunelle and fal polycreflum.

Thefe experiments, duly confidered, may give us the chemical caufe of the ftrange explofive force of gunpowder: for each grain of this powder, confifting of a certain proportion of fulphur, nitre, and coal, the coal prefently takes fre, upon contact of the fame spark; at which time both the fulphur and the nitre immediately melt, and, by means of the coal interpofed between them, burft into flame, which fpreading from grain to grain propagates the fame effect almoft inftantaneously; whence the whole mafs of powder comes to be fired and as nitre contains a large proportion both of air and water, which are now violently rarified by the heat, a kind of fiery explosive blast is thus produced; wherein the nitre feems, by its aqueous and ærial parts, to act as bellows to the other inflammable bodies, fulphur and coal, blow them into a flame, and carry off their whole fubftance in fmoke and vapour.

• The difcovery of this compofition was accidental, and perhaps owing to the common operation of fulminating nitre with fulphur, for making of fal-prunella: it appears to have been known long before the time of Schwartz, as being particularly mentioned by friar Bacon, as we have before obferved.

The three ingredients of gunpowder are mixed in various proportions, according as the powder is intended for musquets, great guns, or mortars; though thofe proportions feem hitherto not perfectly adjusted, or fettled by competent experience.

There are two general methods of examining gunpowder: one with regard to its purity, the other with regard to its ftrength: its purity is known by laying two or three little heaps near each other upon white paper, and firing one of them; for if this takes fires readily, and the fmoke rifes upright, without leaving any drofs, or feculent matter behind, and without burning the paper, or firing the other heaps, it is esteemed a fign that the fulphur and nitre were well purified; and the coal was good; and all the three ingredients were thoroughly incorporated together but, if the other heaps alfo take fire at the same time, It is prefumed, that either common falt was mixed with the nitre, or that the coal was not well ground, or the whole mass

not:

not well beat and mixed together; and, if the nitre or fulphur was not well purified, the paper will be black or spotted.

In order to try the ftrength of gunpowder, there are two kinds of inftruments in ufe; but neither of them appear more exact than the common method of trying to what distance a certain weight of powder will throw a ball from a mufquet.

To increase the ftrength of powder, it feems proper to make the grains confiderably large, and to have it well fifted from the fmalleft duft. We fee that gunpowder reduced to duft has but little explofive force; but, when the grains are large, the flame of one grain has a ready paffage to another, fo that the whole parcel may thus take fire near the fame time; otherwife much force may be loft, or many of the grains go away, as fhot unfired.

It should also seem that there are other ways of increafing the ftrength of powder, particularly by the mixture of falt of tartar but perhaps it were improper to divulge any thing of this kind, as gunpowder feems already fufficiently deftructive."

Of the huffars we have this fhort account:

Hufars. Hungarian horfemen. Their habit is a furr'd bonnet, adorned with a cock's feather, (the officers either an eagle's or a heron's) a doublet with a pair of breeches, to which their ftockings are fastened, and boots. Their arms are a fabre, carbines, and piftols. Before they begin an attack, they lay themselves fo flat on the necks of their horses, that it is hardly poffible to difcover their force; but being come within piftol hot of the enemy, they raife themfelves with fuch furprising quickness, and fall on with fuch vivacity on every fide, that, unless the enemy is accustomed to them, it is very difficult for troops to preferve their order. When a retreat is neceffary, their horfes have fo much fire, and are fo indefatigable, their equipage fo light, and themfelves fuch excellent horfemen, that no other cavalry can pretend to follow them; they leap over ditches, and fwim over rivers with great facility. They are retained in the fervice of moft princes on the continent. They are refolute partifans, and are far better in an invafion or hafty expedition, than in a fet battle.'

An Introduction is prefixed to the work, containing some pertinent obfervations on fortification; accompanied with two copper-plates, containing a general plan of fortification, and the manner of carrying on a fiege; and a reprefentation of the feveral military utenfils defcribed in the Dictionary.-At the end is fubjoined a translation of The New Method of Fortification, by the late Marshal Saxe, explained; with fome Obfervations on the prefent Method of fortifying Towns, and the Reasons why they are fo liable to be reduced.'

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ΕΥΡΙΠΙΔΟΥ ΤΑ ΣΩΖΟΜΕΝΑ. Euripidis que extant omnia. Tragedias fuperfiites ad Fidem Veterum Editionum Codicumque MSS. cùm aliorum, tùm præcipuè Bibliotheca Regia Parifienfis recenfuit: Fragmenta Tragoediarum deperditarum collegit : Varias Lediones infigniores Notafque perpetuas fubjecit: Interpretationem Latinam fecundùm probatiffimas lectiones reformavit: Samuel Mufgrave, M. D. Accedunt Scholia Græca in Septem priores Tragedias ex optimis & locupletiffimis Editionibus recufa. 4 Vols. Oxonii, è typographeo Clarendoniano. 410. 47. 15. in boards. Elmiley.

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HOUGH Greece produced a very confiderable number of tragic poets, the works of only three of them, Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, are now remaining.

fchylus was born about 525 years before the Christian æra; and, according to Voffius and others, wrote ninety tragedies; of which there are only seven extant *.

Sophocles was born about the year 493, and is said to have written 120 tragedies, of which feven only are preserved. viz. Ajax, Electra, Oedipus Tyrannus, Antigone, Trachini, Philoctetes, and Oedipus Coloneus.

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Euripides was born about the year 478, and wrote seventyfive plays, of which there are nineteen remaining: viz. Hecuba, Oreftes, Phoeniffe, Medea, Hippolytus, Alceftis, Andromache, Supplices, Iphigenia in Aulide, Iphigenia in Tauris, Rhefus, Troades, Baccha, Cyclops, Heraclidæ, Helena, Ion, Hercules furens, Ele&tra, and a small fragment of Danae.

The critics obferve, that Euripides abounds with excellent maxims of morality; that he is tender and affecting, or, as Ariftotle expreffes it t. 7payınaτatas, extremely pathetic; but that he is not fo graceful, regular, nervous, and elevated as Sophocles.

The works of this excellent poet have been frequently publifhed, in different forms. The most common editions are: Euripidis Tragoedia xviii. Edit. princeps, apud Aldum, 1503. Electra and the fragment of Danae are not in this impression. The former was first printed by Victorius at Florence, in 1545. The latter in the Commeline edition at Heidelberg, in 1597. -Tragœdiæ quæ extant Gr. Lat. cum Annotat. Stiblini, fol. Baf. 1562.-Tragædiæ xix, cum additione vigefimæ, Gr. Lat. cuin notis Æm. Porti. Heidel. 1597.-Tragœdiæ xix, Gr. Lat. interprete Guil. Cantero, 4to. Genev. 160z.-Euripidis Tragœdiæ, Fragmenta, &c. Gr. Lat. cum Scholis, ftudio Jofuæ Barnes, fol. Cantab. 1694.-Euripides. Gr. Ital. 10 vols. 8vo. à Carmeli, Patav. 1743.-- And many detached plays, by fome † Poet. c. 13.

See Crit. Review for April, p. 241.

excellent critics, Erafmus, Grotius, Buchanan, Piers, King, Valckenaer, Markland, and others.

Canter boafted, that he had done more fervice to Euripides, than to any other ancient author he had ever published. Barnes made a more oftentatious difplay of his learning. He had read a multitude of books; he was intimately acquainted with Pollux, and Suidas, and other celebrated lexicographers, and could write Greek with great facility; but he was neither an accurate, nor a judicious critic. Valckenaer, Markland, &c. as far as their labours extended, performed more effential fervices to the author, and gave the learned world fome happy.. conjectures and emendations * ; but the text was still deformed and obfcured by a multitude of errors; and a more improved edition of Euripides was an important defideratum in the republic of letters.

The prefent edition is greatly fuperior to every other, that has yet appeared, in elegance and accuracy, and in the learned and useful annotations, with which it is enriched.

In this work the editor has not only collected his materials from the firft, and the most valuable printed copies; but has had recourse to a confiderable number of MSS. viz. several ma nuscript copies of different tragedies in the royal library at Paris; a MS. at Florence, formerly collated by Ifa. Voffius; two MSS. of Hecuba, Oreftes, and Phæniffe, communicated by the late Dr. Afkew; a MS. of Rhefus and Troades in the British Museum; the Cambridge MS, of the three first plays, collated by Barnes; the MSS. in the library of the Royal Society, and the Bodleian, collated by King, and more accurately by Dr. John Burton; two MSS. at Leyden by Valckenaer; the collations of H. Stephens; fome manuscript notes in a copy of Barnes's edition in the Bodleian library; fome few annotations by Tanaq. Faber in a copy of Stephens's edition in the royal library at Parist; and feveral notes written by Dr. Jortia in the margin of his Euripides.

Befides the Greek text and the Latin interpretation, this edition contains the author's life by Mofchopulus, Tho. Magifter, and Aul. Gellius; a chronological feries of events relative to the Grecian ftage; various lections and annotations; the fragments of the tragedies which are loft, with a Latin verfion and notes; the Greek fcholia on seven tragedies; and an index to the notes.

Profeffor Reifke published fome emendations and conjectures on Euripides, at Leipfic, in 1754.

+We have feen the MS notes of T. Faber in the margin of a copy of Canter's Greek edition, ap. Plant 1571.

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In the collection of fragments, Dr. Mofgrave has rejected fome paffages, which Barnes has afcribed to Euripides without any apparent authority; and has added others, which that compiler has omitted,

It is perhaps to be regretted by every reader, who values his time, that the notes are printed at the end of the three first volumes; and the Latin interpretation and the scholia, fe parately, in the fourth.

This edition however, as far as we can judge by a cursory examination, will be received with pleasure by every admirer of the claffics; and will confer immortal honour on the learned and judicious editor.

Mifcellaneous Works of the late Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chefterfield; confifting of Letters, political Tracts, and Poems. Volume the Third; completing the Edition of bis Lordship's Works, began by Dr. Maty. 4to. gs. boards, Williams.

WHEN a pofthumous work is offered to the public, we

might expect that its authenticity fhould be established on the most unquestionable foundation. For this purpose it feems indifpenfably neceffary to be informed not only of the name of the editor, but of the channel by which he obtained the manufcripts of the deceased author. Nothing on this fubject occurs in the volume before us, which, however, we are far from confidering as a fpurious production on this account ; as it bears, in general, ftrong marks of the ftyle and manner of the earl of Chesterfield.

This volume commences with a delineation of the Art of Pleafing, in a series of fourteen letters addressed to master Stanhope; which afford additional proof of the noble author's confummate knowledge refpecting the nature of mankind, and the means of conciliating affection.

The defire of being pleased, fays his lordship, is univerfal; the defire of pleafing should be fo too. It is included in that great and fundamental principle of morality, of doing to others what one wishes they fhould do to us. There are indeed fome moral duties of a much higher nature, but none of a more amiable; and I do not hesitate to place it at the head of what Cicero calls the leniores virtutes.

The benevolent and feeling heart performs this duty with pleasure, and in a manner that gives it at the fame time; but the great, the rich, the powerful, too often beftow their favours upon their inferiors, in the manner they bestow their fcraps upon their dogs; fo as neither to oblige man nor dogs. It is no wonder if favours, benefits, and even charities thus be

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