Improvements fuggefted. mufic would now, perhaps, have a fingle air began with deep melan been free from fome blemishes which feeminveterate and incurable. A phyfician who should apply all his atten. tion to extirpate a wart on the finger of his patient, while he overlooked fome growing malady in the lungs or the ftomach, would acquire little fame for fkill or fidelity. Whether from a neglect of this kind, or from what caufe, I know not,--the tafte of the English for the Italian Opera has been miferably warped and vitiated. Indeed they feem hardly to confider it as a dramatic entertainment at all-but only as a more e. legant concert, Two or three fongs of a profcribed form and character are liftened to:-if these are happily executed, all is well: the reft may be any thing; the richest harmony of Handel, or a folo on the Jew's harp. Here is an infeparable bar fet up against all improvement. The compofers know it well; and fuch of them as depend for fubfiftance on public applaufe, comply accordingly, debafe their beft talents, and proftitute the fineft powers of their art to fplit the ears of thefe groundlings in tafte. It is not long fince a file of theatrical mufic, in many refpects new, was ftruck out by the Chevalier, Gluck, with a freedom becoming a man of independent fortune, and claffical tafte. His piece, of which the airs were almoft as fimple as Scots fongs, yet with accompanyments as learned as the profoundest skill in harmony could afford, was received on the Continent with infinite applaufe. It was alfo brought on at London, by Bach and Vento. But thefe gentlemen, knowing their ground, forefaw no thing lels than the terrible profpect of damnation. For their piece was only beautiful and pathetic; there was nothing to elevate and furprife; not a fingle voice was turned into a hautbois or fiddle; not choly, and ended to the tune of Green Sleeves. To fecure the emoluments of fuccefs, therefore, they found it neceffary to foift in fome bravura fongs of their own writing, in a file as different from that of Gluck, as the Paradife Loft from Triftram Shandy. Indeed there are feveral reformations wanting to the perfection of this entertainment as a dramatic fpectacle, of which few hopes, and thefe very faint, can be admitted. One, for example, is the banishment of Caftrati-who no fooner appear on the ftage, with their "childin treble, piping and whistling in their found," than all delufion of reality is loft. All the fongs and recitatives of the male characters might be written in the bafs or tenor chils, fo as to be within the compafs of mafculine voices. In chorufcs, the foprano parts might be given to women, or the orchestre, Another is, the abolishment of the dance, confidered as diftinct from the action. If there must be dancing, let it be wrought into the body of the piece; then it will have a chance of meaning fomething to the purpofe, which at prefent it cannot be accufed of. But the grand defideratum, is a clofer communication between the ideas of the compofer and the poet. While a musician makes a rondeau of words, which have nothing proper for taking that form,--while he fets all his inftrumental parts in an uproar, to accompany the foft ac cents of love and pity-while he gives a dozen bars to one fyllable, and thefe filled with paffages which cannot be executed without a wry face; it is vain to look for any effect truly dramatic. Thofe things may be tolerated in a concert-room;. in a theatre they are infufferable. For the application of mufic to words, I have never feen a better rule, and perhaps perhaps a better rule could not be framed than that of Quintilian :— "Et voce, et modulatione, grandia "elate, jucunda dulciter, moderata "leniter, canit: totaque arte con"fentit cum eorum quæ dicuntur "affectibus." MARCELLO. IN the Portrait of Sir WILLIAM JONES *. gay fpring of life, that fea- Ifæus in an English drefs, and for an pation, and the diligent employ in elementary ftudies, diftinguished by that elegant conviviality which too frequently proves the bane of its poffeffor, the Author of the Oriental Commentaries affumed the triple character of a Linguist, a Poet, and a Critic. With powers too vigorous and comprehenfive to be fhackled by the vulgar trammels of education, he commenced his literary career where veterans of no common reputation have been content to finish theirs. To an intuitive, perception of the fublime and beautiful, and an imagination at once bold and luxuriant, he added, what Mr Pope thought incompatible with thefe faculties, the diftinguishing judgment of Ariftotle, and a memory quick and tenacious as that of Seneca, or Carneades. Nothing less than the union of thefe powers in the fame mind could have produced fuch pregnancy of thought, and fuch elegance and facility of compofition, in languages fo difficult and diffimilar. Yet this fancy, this elegance, and this facility, did Sir W. Jones poffefs, in fpite of his early deftination to a profeffion, of which even the preparatory exercifes exhauft the midnight lamp of the most perfevering ftudent. To the pen, whofe more ferious bufinefs it was to collect the cafes, and note the precedents of an English court of judicature, we are indebted, not only for a fpeech of ; plicated part of the Athenian laws but for verses, which echo the language, as well as the fentiments, of Sophocles, Theocritus, and Menander. To him who might have been fuppofed to confult the pages of Ci cero, as the models only of legal argument, or popular declamation, we owe the perufal of fuch Latin profe as Tully might have read without difguft; and of Latin poetry, which breathes the fpirit of the best writers of the best age of Rome. He who was more profeffionally em; ployed in difcuffing the legal mode of fuppreffing riots, and the laws of his native country on the fubject of bailments, cultivated the Oriental languages, not only to illuftrate the Mahometan laws of fucceffion to the property of inteftates, but to develope the grammatical conftruction of the Perfian language, and to woo the Afiatic Mules from the spicy groves of Arabia to the more chilly climate of Britain. Let it be remembered alfo, that the man of whom all this, and much more might be faid, is now only in the bloom of manhood; poffeffed of integrity unimpeached, and of manners the most attracting: in his judicial capacity, the glory of the British name in India; and, as a fcholar, ftill indefatigable in thofe purfuits, which render him at once the patron and example of the poet, the philofopher, and the critic. Monthly Review. Account Account of a Thunder-form in Scotland; with fome Meteorological Obferva- . tions. In a Letter from Patrick Brydone, Efq. F. R. S. to Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart. P. R, S, I Lennel-Houfe, near SIR, {Coldstream, Dec. 29. 1736. NOW fit down to give you fome account of the thunder-ftorm, which I remember to have mentioned to you in converfation, and of which you wished to be more particularly informed. I do not know whether you will think it worthy of the attention of the Society; but you will be pleased to make whatever ufe of it you think proper. It is copied, with fome additions, from the journal which I ufually keep in the country, and which was wrote down immediately after the event. Tuesday, the 19th of July 1785, was a fine foft morning (thermome. ter, at ten, 68°;) about eleven, clouds began to form in the foutheast, and between twelve and one there were feveral flashes of lightning, followed by rolling claps of thunder, at a confiderable diftance. I was fitting in my ftudy at an open window, in the fecond ftory, obferving the progrefs of the ftorm; when fome ladies, who were in the drawing-room below, alarmed by the lightning, came up to me. I was making them obferve, by a ftop watch, the time which the found tock to reach us (which was generally from 25 to 30 feconds,) and affuring them the ftorm was at fo great a distance that there could be no fort of danger, when we were fuddenly alarmed by a loud report, for which we were not prepared by any preceding flash: it refembled the firing of feveral mufkets, fo clofe together, that the ear could hardly feparate the founds; and was followed by no rumbling noise like the other claps. The clouds immediately began to diffipate, and there were no more They were both fervants to Mr Turnbull, a tenant of the Earl of Home, and were returning home with two carts loaded with coals. James Lauder, a strong young man, of twenty-four years of age, had the charge of the first cart, and was fitting on the fore-part of it. They had croffed the Tweed a few minutes before, at a deep ford, and had almoft gained the highest part of an afcent, about 65 or 70 feet above the bed of the river. They were converfing about the thunder, which they heard at a distance, and expreffing a wifh that it might be accompanied by a fall of rain, as the only means of faving the crop, after fo long and fo fevere drought. At that inftant he was ftunned by a loud report, and faw his companion, his horfes and cart, fall to the ground. He immediately ran to his afliftance, but found him quite dead. His faces he faid, was of a livid colour, his cloathes were torn to pieces, and he had a strong fimell of burning B * Phil. Trans. Part I. for 1787. He He immediately emptied his own cart, and carried home Lauder's body to his friends; fo that I had not an opportunity of examining it: but Mr Bell, Minifter of Coldstream, a gentleman of the most perfect candour and veracity, told me, that he had been fent for, to announce the fatal event to the young man's parents, and had examined the body; that he found the fkin of the right thigh much burnt and fhrivel led, and many marks of the fame kind over the whole body; but none on the legs, which he imputed to their hanging over the fore-part of the cart at the time of the explofion, and not being in contact with any part of it. His cloaths, and particularly his fhirt, was very much torn, and emitted a ftrong fmell of burning. The body was buried two days after, without having difcovered any symptoms of putrefaction. Lauder's companion fhewed me the distance between the two carts, which was exactly marked; for his horfes had turned round at the time of the explofion, and broke their harness: I found it about twentyfour yards, and Lauder's cart was a few feet higher on the bank, but had not yet reached the fummit. He told me, he was likewife fitting on the the fore-part of his cart, and had Lauder, his cart and horses, full in view, when they fell to the ground; that he perceived no flash, nor appearance of fire, and was fenfible of no fhock, nor uncommon fenfation. I now examined the cart, and the fpot around it, as exactly as I could. The horfes were black, and of a ftrong make; they had fallen on the left fide, and their legs had made a deep impreffion in the duft, which, on our lifting them up, fhewed the exact form of each leg; fo that no kind of struggle or convulfive motion had fucceeded the fall, but every principle of life feems to have been extinguifhed in an instant. The hair was much finged over the greatest part of their bodies; but was most perceptible on the belly and legs. Their eyes were already become dull and opake, and looked like the eyes of an animal which had been long dead. The joints were all fupple; and I could not perceive that any of the bones were either foftened or diffolved, as it has been alledged fometimes hap pens to animals killed by lightning. The left'fhaft of the cart was brok en; and I obferved, that fplinters had been thrown off in many places, particularly where the timber of the cart was connected by nails, or cramps of iron. Many pieces of the coal were likewife thrown out to a confiderable distance all round the cart; and fome of them, which I have preserved, have the appearance of coal which had lain fome time on a fire. I likewife gathered up the fragments of Lauder's hat, which had been torn to innumerable fmall pieces; fome of which I fhall inclofe for your infpection, as well as part of his hair, which I found ftrongly united to fome of the fragments which had compofed the crown of the hat *. About four feet and a half behind each wheel of the cart, I observed an odd ap pearance in the ground; a circular hole, of about twenty inches in diameter, the center of which was exactly in the tract of each wheel. The earth was torn up, as if by violent blows of a pick-axe, and the fmall ftones and duft were scattered on each fide of the road. The tracks of the wheels were ftrongly marked in the duft, both behind and before thefe holes, but were completely obliterated for upwards of a foot and a half on thefe fpots. This led me to fufpect, Thefe were exhibited to the Society. G. B that Account of a Thunder Storm in Scotland in 1786. that the force which had formed them muft likewife have acted ftrongly upon the wheels; and, on examination, I found evident marks of fufion on each of them, which I now fhewed to many people who had affembled around us. The furface of the iron, to the length of about three inches, and the whole breadth of the wheel, had become of a blueish colour, had entirely loft its polish and smoothnefs, and had the appearance of drops incomplete ly formed on its furface; thefe were of a roundish form, and had a fenfible projection. I fufpected that the great heat which had been communicated to the iron might probably have burnt the wood of the wheels, but this I did not find to be the cafe. To afcertain whether thefe marks were occafioned by the explosion which had torn up the ground, we pushed back the cart on the fame tracts which it had defcribed on the road, and found that the marks of fufion answered exactly to the center of each of the holes; and that, at the instant of the explosion, the iron of the wheels had been funk deep in the duft. They had made almost half a revolution after the explosion, which might be occafioned by the falling down of the horfes, which pulled the cart a little forward. On examining the oppofite part of the wheels, or that part which was at the greateft diftance from the earth,, no mark of any kind was obfervable. The broken earth still emitted a fmell fomething like that of ether. The ground was remarkably dry, and of a gravelly foil. It would appear that this great explofion had, in an inftant, pervaded every fubftance connected with the cart, the wheels of which had probably conducted it from the ground. They had been complete ly wetted but a few minutes before, as well as the legs and bellies of the B horfes, and this might perhaps be the reafon why the hair on thefe parts was much more burnt than on the rest of their bodies: However, the two horfes had already walked over this electrical mine, without having produced any effect; and, had not the cart followed them, might have efcaped without hurt. I examined all their fhoes, but could not perceive the leaft mark on any of them, nor was the earth broken where they had trodden. But the cart was deeply laden, and the wheels had penetrated much farther into the ground. The equilibrium between the earth and the atmosphere feems at this inftant to have been completely reftored, for no farther appearance of thunder or lightning was obferved within our hemifphere; the clouds diipelled, and the air refumed the most perfect tranquillity: but how this vast quantity of electric matter could be discharged from the one element into the other, without exhibiting any appearance of fire, I fhall not pretend to examine. The fact, however, appears certain; and when I was mentioning it as a fingular one, a gentleman told me, that the fhepherd of St Cuthbert's farm, on the oppofite bank of the Tweed, had been an eye-witnefs of the event, and gave a different account of it. I immediately went to the farm, found the fhepherd, and made him conduct me to the fpot from whence he had obferved it, and defired him to give me an account of what had happened. He was looking, he faid, at the two carts going up the bank, when he was flunned by a loud report, and at the fame inftant faw the first of the carts fall to the ground, and cbferved that the man and horfes lay ftill, as if dead. I asked him if he had obferved any lightning? He faid, he faw no lighting, nor ap pearance of fire whatever; but ob2 ferved |