ples of Godwin and his wife. Henry Sydney is the lover of Harriet Orwell, and is beloved by her: Bridgetina is, alfo, to make the character of a true female citizen complete, anxiously defirous to be useful, and fighs in her turn for Henry. Her various fchemes and amorous advances for the accomplishment of her purpofe form a moft interesting and amufing portion of the work.

In a vifit of Mrs. Botherim and Bridgetina to Mr. Sydney's, where the whole party are met, there is fome well supported conversation in which the heroine shines with her usual luftre. Walking afterwards into the hay-field, "where every face wore the appearance of chearfulness and contentment, Bridgetina thus addreffes the happy ruftics:

"Miferable wretches!' exclaimed Bridgetina; how doth the injuftice under which you groan, generate the fpirit of virtuous in dignation in the breafts of the enlightened."

What d'ye fay, Mifs?" faid an old man who imagined her eyes were directed toward him, though in reality fhe was ftedfaftly looking in Henry's face- What d'ye fay, Mifs,' repeated he, about any one's being miserable?'

I fay,' returned Bridgetina, that you ought to be truly wretched.'

"And why fo, Mifs? what has I done to deferve to be wretched? I works as hardly, and I gets as good wages, as any man in the parish; my wife has good health, and we never loft a child. What fhould make me wretched ?”

• Miferable depravity!' cried Bridgetina, how abject that mind which can boaft of its degradation! Rejoice in receiving wages! No wonder that gratitude, that bafe and immoral principle, should be harboured in fuch a breaft!'

"Why, Mifs," returned the man, confiderably irritated by her harangue, I would have you to know as how that I don't under ftand being made game of; and if you mean for to say that I have no gratitude, I defy your malice. I am as grateful for a good turn as any man living. I would go ten miles at midnight upon my bare feet to ferve young Mr. Sydney there, who faved my poor Tommy's life in the fmall-pox: poor fellow, he's remembers it ftill-don't ye Tommy? Aye that a does; and if thou ever forgets it thou art no true fon of thy father's.

"Here Mrs. Martha interpofed, and by a few kind words allayed the refentment which the declamation of Bridgetina had enkindled. She then invited our heroine to walk with her, and as foon as they were out of the hearing of the labourers, afked her what was her motive for thinking that poor man fo miferable?

And are not all miferable?' faid Bridgetina. Are not all who live in this deplorable state of diftempered civilization miserable, and wretched, and unhappy?"

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It is not neceffary to say that these stupid plagiarisms of the heroine are combated by Mrs. Martha, the fifter of Dr. Orwell, with found fenfe, and irrefutable argument.

Having thus fhortly given our readers fome idea of the other perfonages of the drama, we return to Julia, who, attended by Dr. Sydney, and nurfed by Harriet Orwell, is confined at the farm-houfe to which fhe was at firft carried-happy had it been for her had a broken limb been the only evil brought upon her by her attachment to modern philofophers. This day fo unhappy to Julia, was by Bridgetina marked as the moft aufpicious of her exiftence. Among a variety of books received by Glib from his correfpondent in London, was a copy of Valliant's tour in Africa. This work produced, among the party at Glib's, the following conversation:

All

ff See here!" faid he, See here, Citizen Myope, all our wifhes fulfilled! All our theory realized! Here is a whole nation of philofophers, all as wife as ourselves! All on the high road to perfectibility All enjoying the proper dignity of man! Things juft as they ought! No man working for another! All alike! equal! No laws! No government! No coercion! Every one exerting his energies as he pleases! Take a wife to-day leave her again to-morrow! It is the very effence of virtue, and the quintef fence of enjoyment!'

Alas!' replied Mr. Myope, I fear this defirable state of things is referved for futurity. Ages muft elapfe before mankind will be fufficiently enlightened to be fenfible of the great advantage of living as you describe.'

"No, no," cried Glib, ages need not elapfe. It is all known to the Hottentots. All practifed by the Gonoquais hoard. Only just liften.'

"In a country where there is no difference in birth or rank, (as is the cafe in Gonoquais) every inhabitant is neceffarily on an equality." The very ground-work of perfectibility!' cried Bridgetina, that is certain ; but go on."

"Luxury * and vanity, which in more polished countries confume the largest fortunes, create a thoufand unhappy diftinctions entirely unknown to thefe favages; their defires are bounded by real wants, nor are they excluded from the means of gratifying them; and these means may be, and are effectually pursued by all: thus the various combinations of pride for the aggrandizement of families, all the fchemes of heaping fortune on fortune in the fame coffer, being utterly unknown; no intrigues are created, no oppreffion practifed, in fine, no crimes inftigated."

O learned and amiable Hottentots!' exclaimed Bridgetina, by what means

"See Vaillant's Travels, Vol. ii."

Stay

Stay a little, Mifs, and only liften to this paffage about their marriages," faid Glib, refuming his book.

The formalities of thefe marriages confift in the promife's made by each party to live together as long as they find it convenient; the engagement made, the young couple from that moment become man and wife."

O enviable ftate of fociety!' exclaimed Bridgetina, O—' "Do not interrupt me, Mifs, till I have finished the paffage.

"As I have binted before, they live together as long as harmony fubfifts between them for fbould any difference arife, they make no fcruple of feparation, but part with as little ceremony as they meet: and each one, free to form other connections, feeks elsewhere a more agreeable partner. Thefe marriages, founded on reciprocal inclinations, have ever a happy iffue; and as love is their only cement, they require no other motive for parting than indifference."

"Mark that, citizens! No other motive for parting than indifference. Who would not wish to live in that bleffed country? But here is a ftill further proof of their progress in philofophy. You never meet among the Gonoquais with men who apply themfelves to any particular kind of work, in order to fatisfy the caprice of others. The woman who defires to lie foft will fabricate her own mat. She who has a wish to be clothed, will inftruct a man to make a habit. The huntfman who would have good weapons, can depend on thofe of his own making and the lover is the only architect of the cabin that is to contain his future mistress*"

Why this is the very state of perfection to which we all aspire!" cried Mr. Myope, in extacy. It is the fum and substance of our philofophy. What illuftrious proofs of human genius may we expect to find in a fociety thus wifely conftituted, a fociety in which leisure is the inheritance of every one of its members ?'

"It is evident," cried Bridgetina, that the author of our illuftrious fyftem is entirely indebted to the Hottentots for his sublime idea of the Age of Reafon. Here is the Age of Reafon exemplified; here is proof fufficient of the perfectibility of man!"

We have not given here the whole of this very admirable illuftration of Godwinian philofophy; for however defirous we might be to do it, it would occupy too much of our Number fully to gratify, even our own wishes on the subject. In our opinion it is a confiftent and true picture, and we give the author our beft thanks for his very happy expofition of its abfurd and wicked doctrines. The difcuffion concludes with the determination of the whole party to embark for the only place to which, in this diftempered ftate of civilization, a

"The curious reader may; if he please, compare the paffage quoted from Vaillant with the eighth chapter of the eighth book of Political Juftice, Vol, ii. octavo edition; and he will not be furprised that Citizen Glib fhould be struck with the coincidence."

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philofopher can refort with any hopes of comfort. Let us feek," faid he," an afylum among thofe kindred fouls. Let us form a horde in the neighbourhood of Haabas; and, from the deferts of Africa, fend forth those rays of philofophy which shall enlighten all the habitable globe.

(To be continued.)

CHEMISTRY, MEDICINE, &c.

ART. X. Some Obfervations on the Bilious Fever of 1797, 1798, and 1799. By Richard Pearfon, M. D. Phyfician to the General Hospital near Birmingham, and Member of the London College of Phyficians. 8vo. Pr. 30. IS. 6d. Seeley. London. 1799.

THE author who gives an accurate defcription of a new difeafe, and points out the remedies by which its fymptoms may be either removed or alleviated, is entitled to a fhare of the gratitude of mankind; and more particularly, if the difeafe be of long continuance, dangerous from its violence, or apt at times to become epidemic or contagious. Now thefe, according to Dr. Pearfon, are fome of the characters of the bilious fever, of which he endeavours to give an account, in the observations which he has published, and which he intends only as a prelude to a more complete set of observations which he hopes to communicate hereafter. As a clear and distinct know. ledge of a difeafe contributes more than any thing else, to affift the practitioner in finding out and applying the remedies, it must follow that the merits of this, and every fimilar, publication will depend much on the nofological defcription. In all cafes this defcription should be as concife and perfpicuous as poffible; and fhould mark carefully thofe fymptoms, or combination of fymptoms, that dif tinguish the disease from every other. At the fame time, the author fhould omit, or defcribe feparately, the occafional or accidental varieties, that are not fo much the neceffary confequence of the disease, as modifications arifing from circumftances, from age, sex, habits, local fituation, temperature, &c.

If these rules be well founded our author's defcription must rank very low in the estimation of a nofologift who has been accustomed to generalize and arrange his ideas. The account he has given of the commencement, progrefs, and fymptoms of this fever occupies no fewer than eight pages, where, inftead of a general defcription, we meet with the tedious incoherent details of particular cafes; occafional symptoms that occur in women and children; fucceffions of paroxyfms that are not regular; characters taken from the pulfe and the urine, which he tells us, in the notes, are not conftant; repetitions of the fame idea in a different language, as where he fays "in about twelve hours, more or lefs, another rigor comes on, if the

firft feizure happened about noon, the fecond paroxyfm comes on at midnight, or at one or two o'clock in the morning, and with trifling circumftances, as how the patient, after the fecond paroxyfm, is fometimes relieved, relishes his breakfast tolerably well, and is able to fit up. He feems to have thought that nofological defcription confifted in a minute enumeration of all the symptoms which he found in his different patients during their illness. Nor does he trouble himself to inquire whether thefe fymptoms were regular or anomalous; the effects, the causes, or the mere accidental concomitants of the fever. Of course he has no fuch terms as fymptomatic and idiopa thic. His fever is continued remittent or intermittent, is attended with pneumonia, gaftritis, dyfentery, or epiftaxis, with numerous varieties in the frequency of the pulfe, in the colour and other qualities of the urine, and either with or without relief after evacuations by the ftomach and inteftines. After fuch a description, to which he fays the disease answers, he infinuates, in P. 9, that it does not anfwer, particularly with regard to the rigors, exacerbations, paroxyfms, and remiffions; and adds, that it is fometimes accompanied with other complaints, as rheumatifm, rheumatic fwellings, hepatitis, miliary eruptions, and boils, and that mania fometimes fupervened and continued for a longer or fhorter time after the fever was removed. Proceeding thus from deeper into deeper confufion, and after obferving that in one stage the fever is contagious, and in another not fo, it is not furprizing that he could not find an order in nofology under which he might clafs it. He endeavours to diftinguish it from Zyphus; but thinks that it might be referred to the fynochus of fome nofologifts, and that, according to its various modifications, might be called the fynochus cholerica, fynochus gaftritica, fynochus dyfenterica, fynochus pneumonica, &c. By these means he would make the varieties of this fynochus as numerous as the fymptoms or combinations of fymptoms that occur occafionally in different individuals.

From his manner of writing, one is at firft led to fuppofe that this bilious fever is a non-defcript in the annals of medicine. "" Oba serving something anomalous and peculiar in its character, our author was induced to watch it with close attention ;" and found it " most prevalent during the autumnal months, especially in the autumns of 1797 and 1799, both which (and particularly the laft) were remark ably wet*. The quantity of rain which has fallen in the months of Auguft, September, October, and the beginning of November, of the prefent year (1799) has been immenfe, and the confequent inundations in various parts of the kingdom, have greatly exceeded all those which have happened for a long feries of years. During these

* " In the autumn of 1798, the quantity of rain which fell was by no means equal either to that of 1797 or of 1799. Yet, excepting fome dry weather in Auguft, the general ftate of the feafon was humid. July and November were rainy; and September was close and foggy."

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