tries, and frequent the theatres; and Shakespeare ferved them with entertainments to their tafte." In another place, he fays that Shakespeare intro luced low characters and fcenes of buffoonery, to pleafe the people, and to get money. I venture to aver, on full conviction of my own mind, that these imputations are rafh, and even grofsly falfe and injurious. Shake Ipeare's low characters have fo curious and fo perfect a refemblance to nature, that they mat always pleafes as I have obferved, like malter-pieces in painting; and moreover, they never fail to illustrate and endear the great characters. Take away the odd, humourous, natural characters and fcenes of Falstaff, Poins, Bardolph, Piftol, Mrs Dickly, &c. in his two plays of Henгу the IV. and particularly the common foldier Williams, in his play of ́Henry the V. and I venture to affirni, that you at once extinguish more than one half of our cordial efteem and admiration of that favourite hero. In the fame manner, expunge from the play of Julius Cæfar the reprefenta tion of a giddy, fickle, and degenerate Roman mob, and you diminish, in a very great degree, our eftimation of the two noble republican characters, the honelt, fincere, philofophical Bru us, and his brave, able, and anibitious friend Callius. The juft ad mirers, and frequent readers of Shakefpeare, will, on their own reflections, and with but farther explanation, find that thefe obfervations, though, as far as I know, they are new, are clearly applicable to every one of his plays, in which low characters are introdu. ced. Shakespeare was incapable to deviate from the truth of nature and character to please the great, or footh the vulgar; and no dramatic writer ever treated the common people with fo much contempt. His fcenes, in ridicule of them, are as exquifite as they are various; though Voltaire ignorantly fays he courted their favour. Or this the ludicrous characters, and true comic drollery of Dogberry the contable, and his low affociates, in the play of Much Ado About Nothing, is one proof; there is fill a more preciou; fcene, of the fame kind, in that part of his play of Henry the Sixth, where Jack Cade and his gang deliberate on a reformation of the state: this is a fingular piece of comedy and ridicule of low life, applicable to all periods and all nations; it has that character of eternal nature, which diftinguishes Shakespeare; ir defcribes to the life, the fooleries of free and ignorant people in all ages. There is no judgment in Voltaire's reflection on Shakespeare," that he was reduced to become a comedian," a circumftance which certainly improved his great natural talents as a dramatic writer. mean Moliere, who far excelled all French comic writers, was also a player. The native genius and judgment of both poets derived material advantages from experience and knowledge in the theatrical reprefentations of hunan nature. Voltaire himself was ftudious of the art, and practifed it often. Oné circumftance must be fufficient to convince all fenfible foreigners of Voltaire's wilful and partial mifreprefentation of Shakespeare. What I is, that he fingly contradicts the una nimous opinion of all British people for a courfe of more than two centuries. An imperfect judge of the Spanifh language right as reafonably, attempt to deny the merit of Cervantes, and produce a mofel of a flat, literal tranflation by himfeif, as fuficient evidence to difcredit him. Not only the common people in Britain, but afl their fuperiors, wife and unwife, all the poets, great and fmall, all the critics, good and bad, concur without a diffenting voice, in admiration of 'Shakespeare, as an unrivalled dramatic poet. Even Pope, (though, like Voltaire, bedazzled by the immoderate praife of his cotemporaries of all ranks, though, like hini, proud of his 302 harmonious as Shakespeare was. Indeed, his o pinions of our poets, particularly of the immortal Milton, are evidently warped and affected by the avowed bigotry of his principles in regard to church and ftate; yet he warmly joins the general applaufe. Voltaire inv.tes his countrymen to judge of Shakefpcare's merit by his morfel of literal tranflation, made, to use his own words, mot pour mot; and then he adds, (with aftonishing levity), these words; " Je n'ai qu'un mot á ojouøer ; harmonious rhimes, and his art of poetry,) joined in the general veneration, and publifhed an edition of his works, with humble notes, which are not fo abfurd as Warburton's-Flies fwarm in the fun-beams, or, to use Shakespeare's expreffion, "Whither fly the gnats but to the fun?" Shakefpeare has been plyed by commentatrs and critics more than all the rest of our poets together. Among the crowd I can dininguish very few. The author of the Canons of Citicifm writes, in my opinion, with superior propriety, judgment, and tafte;. and he lashes Warburton moft juftly. An eminent lady, Mrs Montague, has alfo diftinguished herfelf in the lift.that compofitions in blank verfe coft She writes with true difcernment and elegance. I only object, that he treats Voltaire with more complaifance than he deferved. I concur with those who allow that Sanuel Johnson poffeffed uncommonly strong powers, both of thinking and expreffion; but furely he was not fufficiently unprejudiced and liberal in his knowledge of hu man life, and he was too formally fcientific, to merit the character of a found and unexceptionable critic, on fo great a master of truth and nature c'eft que les vers blancs ne coutent que"la peine de les dicter, cela n'eft pas "plus difficile qu'une lettre."-i. e. “ I "have only a word to add, that is, "only the trouble of dictating them, "which is as easy as a familiar letter." No man of common fenfe can wonder that a literal tranflation, mot pour mot, and written, as Voltaire boasts, with the indolence and cafe of a famili; r epiftle thould be totally inadequate to convey any juft idea of original genius. TH Method of using the Cold Bath to moft Advantage. "Fies nobilium tu quoque Fontium.” SIR, HOR. 3. Carm. xiii. 13. HE intention of the following lines will be a fufficient apology for troubling you with them. I hope and trust the hints they contain may make them worthy the attention of many of your readers, as well as contribute to the health and comfort of fome individuals of that number; than which nothing can be more gratifying to the writer, whofe fole view in their publication is the benefit of thofe who feek, what they deferve, Health. The important good confequencer of Cold-bathing need nothing faid at this time of day to recommend it to the notice of the debilitated. Tie experience of mankind has taught its ufes and effects; which have been further fanctioned by many writers, and fome of the most eminent in the medical world, who have at different times very ably employed their pens on its fubject. To the latter for its virtues, and to the prefent enlightened Faculty for the propriety of its ufe individually, the application of invalids is recommended. When that is deter to prescribe. mined, it is the mode only I am about to which the most tender are, even wit the greatest care and circumfpection, occafionally expofed in ufing,the Cold Bath in the ufual way. This circumftance has induced me for fome years paft to recommend, in the dipping weakly children at a distance from the fea, the addition of as much fea or bay falt to the water as would make the folution nearly as falt, or rather a little falter than fea-water; and the event has ever fully rewarded the practice, and fubitantiated the preference; for I have feen fome unhealthy children more benefited by a few weeks bathing in this way than by months in fresh-' water; and others, who have received Waving, therefore, every endeavour at attempting to offer any thing new on the general fubject, as to the medical powers of the Cold Bath, I fhall only briefly relate what led me to use the mode recommended below; what were is effects on myself, and on fome others who, by my advice, have been in the habit of using it; adding a few practical hints, which, I hope, will make an operation, very frightful to many, not only pleafanter, but much more effectually, and, I hope, more extensively, ufeful. From a natural delicacy in my conftitution, and wishing to enjoy what. no benefit by fresh long continued, one would almost think fome people thought not worth having, I have been long accustomed to this remedy, and have the greatest reafon to think I owe much comfort to its friendly aid. Seabathing, if my attentive observation has not deceived me, in general, has been more certainly advantageous in its tonic powers; but whether that fuperiority arifes only from its holding faline particles diffolved, or whether the large body of water the fea contains is at all contributing, or if any thing is particu larly due to its comparative fpecific gravity; whether the purity of the air breathed during its ufe compared with that of a crowded city, and the relaxation of the mind from bufines, and the amufement enjoyed in a large fociety, where every member feems difpofed to be and to make happy, has not each its demand; which feparate ly has the greateft claim, it would perhaps be hard to determine, while it maft be allowed that each has its merit. Something probably is due to its impregnation; but the fum of all thefe circumstances co-operating, no doubt, fills the measure of its effects; and in its ufe likewife, as well from my own obfervation, as from the information of others, whofe conftitutions were alike tender, I have learned there is much lefs chance of taking cold, an accident : very foon get colour, fpirits, and whom whom it fhould be particularly a matter of the first confequence (the tender and chilly,) who are generally those who are apt to be too much in a hurry to get on their cloaths, and by that means frequently take cold. For their fakes, now that friction is the fub ject, viewing the importance of that part of the operation, it would feem wrong to proceed without utging the practise of it to a much greater extent than is customary, and that immediately before as well as after bath ing. I believe, from my own experience, that the good effects of this renredy will, in many cafes, be confiderably increased, if, before the immerfion, the body and extremities be well rubbed for a few minutes with a fleshbruh. To the notice of thofe afflict ed with chronic rheumatism, as well as to the fhivering bather, it is very earnestly recommended. The ftay of the delicate and those with tender bowels in the water fhould be very short; the more robust may indulge longer. The other, and perhaps not lefs important advantage, is that of using their own towels (which fhould be as coarfe and rough as can be borne,) untainted with the excrementitious dif charges of the skins of a multitude, and perhaps often negligently washed; the truth of which no very nice degree of perfection in the olfactory nerves is neceffary to discover in the clean towels of a public bath. Except in this circumftance, perhaps no public baths in the world exceed in their conveniences and perfection those of London, as far as I have been able to learn. The practife alluded to, and which I can now with confidence recommend, is that of impregnating the towels with fea falt, by dipping them in a folution of the falt in water, and then drying them. The folution I have ufed is four ounces to a quart of water: a coarse hand towel of the common fize, by being thoroughly wetted in this folution, when dried, acquires an increase of weight of about an ounce, confequently contains that quantity of fea falt, which is as much, perhaps, as is neceffary, or as would be pleasant. The folution may be res peated, after three or four times ufing them, by thofe who are fatisfied with one fet of towels fome time, as eafily as once by the more nice. The roughness given to the cloths, when dry, by the falt, affifted probably by the ftimulus of the falt itself, adds very confiderably to the much-to-bewithed for glow. And as in the action of rubbing the body fome of the fat becomes diffolved by the drops hanging to the fkin, and is of courfe fpread over the whole furface of the body, and is partly abforbed; to that abforption, which is perhaps more alive during the empty state in which bathing is generally recommended, are to be attributed the good effects of medicated baths, both natural and artificial. The common fhower-bath will be much improved in its efficacy by the addition of a proper quantity of falt in its water. What is in the prefent cafe the immediate rationale of its action, or to what cause is to be attributed the preference of fea over fresh water, as it is not the profeffed defign of this pa per, we wish to leave undifcuffed. The fafeft means of applying a powerful and pleasant remedy to the diseased, the refult of experience, being all we intended, the modus operandi is leit for a more able directed pen. It may be that the ftimulus given by the faline fpicula to the cuticular glands, by its abforption, may not be the smalleft of its caufes, especially when it is recollected how extenfive is its application, and at the fame time the great importance of the functions of the abforbing furface. How powerful frequently is the application of a folution of fome of the neutral falts in local glandular affections. topically applied ! Another circumftance, worth notice in an enquiry of this kind, is the effect of fome neutral falts in freshdrawn blood; an example of which every winter affords in a well-known culinary preparation of hog's blood; I mean, that of preventing its coagulation. In the extreme and minute fanguiferous veffels, where the circulation must neceffarily be very weak and flow, on account of their great distance from the fource of its motion, its moving power, and especially in thofe of the skin, when expofed to cold air in fuch fituations; may not fomewhat like a difpofition to coagulation exift? and may not the introduction of fuch particles do away an approaching evil? Perhaps inflinct first recommended the ufe of that material with our food for fome fuch wife purpose; the practice will be found, upon recollection, very general, and gives a probability to fuch an idea. The learned and ingenious Bishop of Landaff has faid, in his "Chemical Effays," that the falt in fea water applied to the fkin is not abforbed. I confefs myself of a different opinion. That fome of it is abforbed I am convinced; or why is not rain, or any other pure water, equally efficacious, applied to fcrophulous glands? Before the fubject be entirely quitted, the writer wishes to fubmit it to the experience of the medical world, to determine how far this mode of abforption may be usefully applied in a variety of cafes requiring the various baths which nature has, probably for human ills, provided in different parts of the world, and which are too frequently, from fome circumftance or other, not within the reach or power of thofe to whom they would no doubt be of great fervice; and to add that, in more than one instance, he has applied with the above faline folution fome few drops of the tinci ferri mur. he thinks with fome fuccefs in fome cafes where chalybeates feemed to promife relief. The Materia Medica will readily fupply, through the medium of Chemistry, a fund of powerful topicks to the ingenious Phylician.. Remarks on the Island of Hinzuan or Johanna; by Sir William Jenes. So bad an account had been given me of the road over the mountains, that I diffuaded my companions from thinking of the journey, to which the captain became rather difinclined; but as I wished to be fully acquainted with a country which I might never fee again, I wrote the next day to Salim, requesting him to lend me one palanquin, and to order a fufficient number of men; he fent me no written anfwer, which I afcribed rather to his incapacity than to rudeness; but the, Governor, with Alwi and two of his fons, came on board in the evening, and faid, that they had feen my let ters; that all fhould be ready; but that I could not pay lefs for the men than ten dollars. I faid, I would pay more, but it should be to the men themfelves, according to their behaviour. They returned fomewhat diffatisfied, after I had played at chefs with Alwi's younger fon, in whofe manner and addrefs there was fome, thing remarkably pleafing. Before fun-rife on the 2d of Auguft, I went alone on fhore, with a fmall basket of fuch provifions as I might want in the courfe of the day, and with feme cushions to make the prince's palanquin at least a tolerable vehicle; but the prince was refolved to receive the dollars to which his men were intitled; and he knew that, as I was eager for the journey, he could |