Upon fuch principle, were draughts from the militia to fapply the regulars with recruits, it might in time become a proper conftitutional method, of providing for thofe men, who have a natural turn for military life, or of making fuch, as at prefent disturb the peace of fociety, ufeful members of the community, according to the plan of parochial allotments laid down in this tract.'

As the most enlightened nations are now exerting them felves to reform old flavish ufages, that degrade and infult human nature, we should rejoice to fee thofe who protect their country by fea and land, fight for their own benefit as well as for that of their country at large, by enjoying as much liberty as the nature of their respective employments, and the public fecurity, will admit.

As this gentleman writes on an important fubject, with a libe ral fpirit. we truft he will excufe our remarking, that we cannot approve that hackneyed ftyle which we are apt to adopt, through mere habit, our natural enemies upon the continent of Europe.' How has nature pointed out any one community as properly inimical to another? If any one people declare any other their natural enemies, it is fuch an infatuated avowal of hoftile malice, as muft create what it fuggefts, and tend to perpetuate inveterate inhumanity. The time has been, when the English, the Scots, the Irish, and the Welch, confidered and treated each other as natural enemies.

MISCELLANEOUS.

N.

Art. 28. A fort Relation of the River Nile: of its Source and Current; of its Overflowing the Campagnia of Egypt, till it runs into the Mediterranean; and of other Curiofities. With a new Preface. Written by an Eye-witness, who lived many Years in the chief Kingdoms of the Aby fine Empire. London. 1669. 8vo. pp. 113. 2s. ftitched, Lackington. 1791.

The fhort preface to this edition fhews the defign of this re publication. We cannot give an account of the work in better words than in thofe of the editor:

Lord Broenker, Sir Ifaac Newton, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Wallis, Mr. Gregory, Dr. Halley, with other learned men of that day, were the respectable members, who, in the year 1668, formed the Royal Society in London, and patronized these tracts; and which Sir Peter Wyche, at their request, tranflated *.

A late Traveller, however, has, in various inftances, afferted the ignorance of the Portuguese Miffionaries, taxing them with wilful mifreprefentation, and including them all under the polite appellation of Lying Jefuits!

The fame writer, through the whole of a late work, arrogates to himself the unique merit of having vifited the Heads of the Nile, and takes uncommon pains to fhew, or at least to make his readers believe, that no other perfon than himself, had ever arrived at these fo much famed fources; or had returned thence alive, and given the world a true account of them.

A copy of that edition is now in our poffeffion.

It will appear, however, from the perufal of the following pages, that Father Jeronymo, a lying Jefuit, had infallibly feen thele celebrated fountains, and had given a true account of them, in a plain, unaffuming and modest manner; and, excepting fome peculiarities of ftyle, nearly in the fame words as the writer of the prefent day.- -The inference is obvious!

Befide the account of the Nile, many curious relations and reafonings are offered by this fame lying Jefuit, which form fome of the molt material parts of the five Quarto Volumes lately published.'

To what this editor obferves, our readers will permit us to add, that the work of Father Jeronymo, as far as it extends, ferves as a confirmation of our ample critique on the works of the traveller to whom allufion is above made.

Gil. Art. 29. Viaggiana: or, Detached Remarks on the Buildings, Pictures, &c. &c. of Ancient and Modern Rome. With Additional Obfervations. 8vo. PP. 202. 3s. fewed. Clarke.

Bond-ftreet. 1790.

In this work, the reader will find feveral obfervations both new and curious; for Rome is a fubject never to be exhaufted. As a fpecimen, take the following ingenious remarks on the old fubject of St. Peter's:

I think we can have little or no reafon to lament the lofs of a pyramid, when we get a church in its room. And yet some writers have made it matter of complaint that the monument of Scipio Africanus, of which we have ftill a moft beautiful and perfect fpecimen in that of C. Seftius, fhould be removed, to make way for the grandeft -building that either Pagan or Chriftian world ever faw. And ih this particular I make no exceptions, though the temple at Ephefus t fhould rife up again complete in all its parts, or the one at Agrigentum be restored from its ruins. Nor are we to be much furprised at this, fince the advantages the artists enjoyed at the revival of science from the ufe of antient models, advanced them nearly as far at one ftroke as the antients themselves: the defign was drawn, and the materials were prepared, little more remained to be done, than to build them up. I do not mean here to depreciate the ingenuity of thofe men who laid the plan of St. Peter's, but only to give some reason for their out-ftripping, if poffible, their very mafters. The original of this great and magnificent ftructure was conceived by Bramante, and intended to have been a Greek cross, which the pride of Pope Paulus Burghefius Quintus changed into a Latin one. Bramante did little more than begin the building; he in

We are not fure that this is to be confidered as entirely a new publication. We think we have feen it before; and, poffibly, it may have been mentioned in our Review; though, at prefent, we can find no fuch article.

+ Some idea of the beauty of this building may be collected from its being fupported by an hundred and twenty-feven columns, each fixty feet high, and all of the fame quarry.'

The artifts were Cavalier Fontana Carlo Madeina, and others.'

Rr 4

fcribed

fcribed the deme in it's fquare, and fupported it by four pilafric
piers. Michael Angelo advanced it to that point from whence you
may fee the dome, and its vault, which compleated the Greek cross.
So far the figure of the church is regular; and on entering it, had
the western door been placed here, you might have diftinguished
the nature of the flructure, and difcerned the cupola. But here a
defire of immortalizing a name, and fending it down with triumph
to pofterity, induced the Burghelian Pope to add four more piers on
each fide, and to facrifice the regularity of the building to his am-
bition. I fay facrifice, because without this addition the church had
been fill the largest in the world, and of courfe wanted no increase
of fize to take from the beauty of its form. In its prefent ftate it is
not poffible to determine precifely what figure it may be, on enter-
ing at the weft door; without advancing confiderably forward, you
cannot be informed if there be any dome at all. This feems to be
an imperfection, but it is not the only one. Few people, I believe,
have ever been able to give any tolerable guefs at the dimenfions
of St. Peter's on their first approach to it, and perhaps for a very
good reafon, though not fo generally obvious: for on entering, it
appears not to be the fize it really is, on account of its immenfe
fquare piers, which div.ding the body from the ailes, meet the eye
diagonally, and are feen foreshortened: hence you have an imper-
fect view of them, and the idea of the fpace they occupy is not ac-
quired. Had the artist employed columns instead of piers, (would
the nature of the edifice have permitted it) the effect had been
widely different, as may be feen in St. Paul's Fuori delle Mura,
where pillars are made ufe of, and the eye judges much better of
the dimenfions. This deception, therefore, feems rather to proceed
from a defect than a beauty, and cannot be refolved into the exact-
nefs of the proportions of the building; fince it is the property of
regular dimenfions to facilitate the judgment rather than impede it.
The Baldaquin too, or canopied altar, which stands under the cu-
pola, may be inftrumental in breaking the length, as the piers are
in contracting the width. This machine is obliged to stand here,
on account of the papal chair, which occupies the east end; though,
in fact, it adds nothing to the beauty of the church.'

We wish the anonymous author, who appears to be a man of
learning and reflection, may find encouragement to publish his ob-
fervations on other parts of Italy.

ERRATA in this VOLUME.

Page 21. line 4 from bottom, for remaining,' read remainder.
19. for precifion,' read preceffion.

18.

231.

-

2. for depreciate,' read deprecate

246. -.15. for sketch.' read ftretch.

21. for Sir William,' read Sir Thomas.

287. 12. dele the in tuftly.

302.

31. for the Rev. Mr. Shillito,' read Lieutenant Shillito.
345 15 for render,' read renders.

-

Gil.

15. for work,' read worth.

To the REMARKABLE PASSAGES in this Volume.
N. B. To find any particular Book, or Pamphlet, see the
Table of Contents, prefixed to the Volume.