introduction of it in its genuine fimplicity; as holding out the worship of one God, inculcating the pureft morality, and promifing eternal life as the reward of obedience. Thefe are views of things which are adapted to general comprehenfion, and calculated to produce the noblest effects. D Memoirs of Dr Gilbert Jacchæus, Profeffor of Philofophy at Leyden. R GILBERT JACCHEUS (pro- us, &c.; and is faid to have been bably JACK) was born in the the first Profeffor at Leyden who year 1578 at Aberdeen, where his publicly taught Metaphysics. Havfather was a refpectable merchant.-ing alfo applied to the fudy of MediHe was educated at the fchools and Univerfity of Aberdeca, under the care of Mr Thomas Cargill an eminent teacher, and Mr Robert Howie, firit Principal of Marifchal College. Having gone through the ufual courfe of education in this place, he went to Germany, where he ftudied in feveral Univerfities, particularly at Helmstadt and Herborn, and in all of them had the good fortune to meet with fome of his countrymen eftablished as Profeffors. For the writer of his funeral oration, from whom thefe hints are chiefly drawn, obferves to the honour of Scotland-" quinetiam quod “ad commendationem gentis illius perti"net, neutiquam reticendum, vix ulla "Eadie celebris Europe dcademia eft, que non Scorum aliquem inter fuos Profejores babere gaudeat,"-and mentions among others JAMES RAMSAY and MURDISON, as formerly eminent at Leyden. After paffing a few years in Germany, Mr Jack removed to Holland, and for fome time fupported himself by teaching privately at Leyden, where be foon acquired fo great reputation that he was appointed Protefior of Philofophy in 1C04. Here he continued till his death, teaching Ariftotle's doctrines with much applaufe, fo that Vorttius affirm.s-"juraffes Philofophi ewn fuiffe genium et "mentem, ficut ille natura dictus eft." He alfo taught the Platonic fyftem of Philofophy, explained the writings of Themillics, Philopenus, Simplici. cine, he received the degree of M. D. in that Univerfity in 1611. He is reprefented as a very eminent fcholar, of a most retentive memory, and converfant in moft branches of literature, efpecially in claffical learning and hiflory. He was indefatigable in his application to teaching and ftudy, ele gint and agreeable in his manners, and more attentive (fays Vorftius) to dress and external appearance than the learned men of that age generally were.— He died of a paralytic diforder on the 17th April 1628, in the 50th year of his age, leaving behind him a widow and ten children. His funeral oration was pronounced by his colleague Adolphus Vorftius, Profeffor of Medicine; and various commendations of him in poetry and profe are given by fome of the moft diftinguifhed fcholars of that period, particularly D. Heinfius, Ger. Voffius, Dom. Baudi us, C. Barlæus and others. Nor was his merit acknowledged only in his own University, for Vorftius fays, that a little before his death he was invited to be Profeffor of Civil History at Oxford, as his friend Gerard Vuf fius had been, and which, like him, he declined, either on account of bed health, or that he rather chofe to remain at Leyden. Cf his writings that can now be found are the following: Gilberti Facchai Seats Inftruftiones Medica,-Leid. 1624. Republifhed after his death-bid. 1631. Infiitutiones Inftitutiones Phyfica, Juventutis 1612. Republished with notes and Lugdunenfis Studiis potiffimum dicata, additions-ibid. 1615. Authore Gilberto Facchao,-Lug. Bat, On the Original State of Forefts and their Inhabitants*. PERHAPS of all land. "feen about inquent little ERHAPS of all species of land- " feen running about in quest of fish, univerfally captivates mankind as foreft-fcenery, and our prepoffeffion in favour of it appears in nothing more than in this; that the inhabitants of bleak countries, totally deftitute of wood, are generally confidered, from the natural feelings of mankind, as the objects of pity. Pliny has given us a view of this kind, which, he tells us, he took him. felf upon the fpot. It reprefents a black fea-coast in Zealand, before that country was embanked; the inhabitants of which he fpeaks of as the moft wretched of human beings. It is true, there are other wants befides that of fcenery, which enter into the idea of their wretchedness; but I dare affirm, that if Pliny had found the fame people, with all their wants about them, in a country richly furnished with wood, he would have spoken of them in different language. "This coaft, fays he, lies fo much lower than the ocean, that the tides "daily overflow it. The inhabitants "build their huts on little eminences, "which they either find or conftruct "on the fhores; and which ferve to "raise their dwellings just above the "water-mark. Thefe dwellings, or "rather cabins, when the tide rifes, "often feem like floating boats; and when it retires, the inhabitants ap"pear like ftranded mariners, and "their cottages like wrecks. Their harvest is the ebbing of the fea; during which they are every where creek of the fhore, as the tide de"ferts it. They have neither horfe "nor cow, nor domeftic animal of any "kind: and as to game, they have "not the leaft appearance of a bun "to fhelter it. "to fhelter it. The whole employ"ment of this wretched people is "fishing. They make their nets of "fea-weed; and dry a kind of fl.my "mud for fuel. Rain-water is their "only drink, which they preferve in "ditches dug before their cabins." Such is Piiny's picture of this bleak and defolate country. From the very feelings of nature we fhudder at it.— Whereas the idea of the foreft is pleafing to every one. The cafe is, tho' there may be as much real mifery amidft beautiful fcenery, yet beautiful fcenery covers it. Wretchedness is often felt under fplendid apparel; but it does not strike us in fuch attire as it docs in rags. That man was originally a foreftanimal appears from every page of his early history. Trace the firit accounts of any people, and you will find them the inhabitants of woods, if woods were to be found in the countries in which they lived. Caves, thickets, and trunks of trees were their retreats; and acorns their food, with fuch beasts as they took in hunting; which afforded them only a precarious fupply. Ifindeed they lived near a coaft, like the Zealanders defcribed by Pliny, they obtained a livelihood by fishing. But with the favages of the coaft we Nn 2 From "Gilpin's Remarks on Forest Scenery," have have nothing to do. Our attention is only engaged by the favage of the woods. While man continued thus an inmate of the foreft, it is poffible he might have fagacity to build himself a hut of boughs, which he might cover with clods; and yet it is more probable, that while he continued the mere child of nature, he was contented with the fimple fhelter which Virgil above fuopoles his common mo her farnished, the imbowering thicket or the hollow trunk; as funner or winter led him to prefer an open or a clofer cover. Strabo fpeaks of certain Afiatics, even fo late in the history of mankind as the times of Pompey the Great, who harboured, like birds, in the tops of trees. And I think the favages about Botany Bay are not reprefented by our late difcoverers in a much more improved condition. Man in this folitary ftate (for fearcity of food forbade any enlarged ideas of fociety) waged but unequal war with his brother favages the brutes.Most of them out fripped him in fpecd, many of them contended with him in ftrength, and fome nearly equalled him in fagacity. The human favage thus finding himself hard put to it, even to defend his own, might look round for affiftance. The dog, whose friendly manners might folicit his acquaintance, was probably one of his frit afficiates in thofe countries where dogs were to be found. This union made a powerful party in the foreft. The great object of it however was rather food than conquett. The dog and his ma iter were both carnivorous animals; and they foon began to gratify their appetites at the expence of their fellow-brutes. The one conducting, and the other executing the plan, few breatures could oppole them. But man, from the beginning, was an ambitious animal. Having filed his belly, he afpired after dominion.--For this purpofe it was neceflary for him to procure a better ally than tha he had chofen. He had yet but little, connection with his fellow. To joia, now and then, in a hunting party was ali the intercourfe he knew. It was little more than fuch a league as is found a mong jackalls and other animals that hunt in packs. Ideas of fociety, however, by degrees took place. The dawnings of focial compact appeared. Man now threw off the brute, and thought it good to leave his feattered tenements, and to affemble in hoards. The rudiments of law were traced, and fome rude fketch of fubordination. In earneft he began now to thew his dominion. By fellowship he had increased his ftrength; the horse, the bullock, and other animals were reclaimed from the foreft; fome for focial affiance, and others for a lefs precarious fupply of food; while the fhaggy tenants of the foreft, which were boftile to his plans, began every where to give way, prowling only by night, and skulking by day in fuch deep receffes as might beft fecure them from the formidable affociation which had taken place. But ftill his native foreft was man's delight. Here, in fome opening furrunded with woods the hoard firft fettled. Here the first attempts of ar chitecture were made; the krail was laid out by rule and line, and the firft draughts of regular defence were imagined. Cæfar, with all his boasted conquefts, found the Gauls, the Britons, and the Germans fcarce emerging from this state of barbarifm. His commentaries every where fhew them to have been forest people; retreating before him into their faltneffes, and impeding his march by felling timber ia his way. The Britons, he expressly tells us, gave the name of a town to a part of a forett which they had fortified with a rampart and a ditch. Bat Cæfer faw the British town only is time of war. Strabo gives us a picture of one in time of peace." Fo"refts, fays he, were the only towns a fe among them, which were "formed formed by cutting down a large circle of wood, and erecting hurs within ❝ it, and fheds for cattle." The fame author, afterwards defcribing a town of this kind, fhews more exactly the mode of fortifying it. It was the practice, he tells us, to intermix and weave together the branches of thorny trees, and ftrengthen them with flakes. As the arts of civilization increased, man began to feel that the foreft could not afford him all the conveniences he withed. Wants multiplied upon him which he could not indulge amidst its receffes. He chofe fertile fituations for tillage the neighbourhoed of rivers for mills and manufactures-and, defcended to the fea-coat for commerce, which he extended to the most diftant parts. Thus genial intercourfe, and mutual aid, fhade; Call'd nature from her ivy-mantled den, When man became thus refined, we leave him. When he relinquished the foreft, we have no farther connection with him. His haunts and habits are no longer the object of conjecture They become the fubject of recorded history. To the fage hiftorian therefore we now confign him; and return to the foreft, which at this day in moft parts of the world, where any forests remain, is left in poffeffion of the brute creation. Under the burning fans of Lybia, in the forefts of Zara and Bilduleerid, the lordly lion reigns. He harbors too in the woods of India; but there he is an ignoble brute, compared with the lion of Africa. The African lion is a beat of unrivalled prowefs; nothing appalls him. From his dark receffes in the forest he fometimes eyes the numerous caravan, confifting of - men, horfes, and camels, marching flowly along the burning fands of Barca. He lathes his tail, collects his Hiength, and bounding forward, the bingle, attacks the whole. He is received by a brigade of pointed fpears, and foon overpowered; but in the bravery of his foul he dies without a wish to retreat. In the forefts of Malabar and Bengall the tyger roams. Of this animal there are various kinds; the largest and fierceft is called the royal tyger. Of all the favages of the forelt he is the most active, the most infidious, and the most cruel. The forests of India are inhabited alfo by the gentle and inoffenfive elephant. This animal commonly marches in facial bands. The traveller hears them at a distance, as they traverse the foreft; marking their rout by the crush and defolation of thickets and intervening woods. He liftens without dismay, and even waits to be a fpectator of the unwieldy proceffion as it moves along. The monkey inhabits the woods both of Africa and India; and, what is fingular, where he chufes to take poffeffion he may be called the lord of the foreft. The lion himself gives way-not being able to bear, as travellers report, the inceffant tricking of that mifchievous brute, whofe agility prevents correction. But the human figure is of all others the object of his highest derifion. If fuch a phenomenon appear in his domains, the whole fociety are called together by a whoop; from curiofity they proceed to infolence, chattering, grinuing, and throwing down fruit, cones, withered flicks, or any thing their fituation furnithes. Fire-arms can scarce reprefs them. In fome forefts where the ape, the Laboon, and other large fpecies of this difgufting tribe inhabit, the travelier must be well guarded to pafs in fecu carries his devaftations beyond that mighty ftream. Buffon relates, that he has been known to cross the fea in large companies, between the continent and the island of Cavenne; and, in the infancy of that colony, to have kept it in conftant alarms. in many parts, as well as his shoulders, with long fweeping briftles. Nor are his gait, attitude, and motion, at all inferior to his form. This beast, during the three first years of his life, herds with the litter, among which he was produced. He then is called by forrefters a beast of company. In his fourth year he affumes the title of a wild boar-ranges the foreft alonebecomes royal game-and at this day furnishes the chief amufement of half the princes of the empire. From the forefts of the Pyrennees, when winter rages, the famifhed wolves ruth down in troops. All the country is in arms, and the utmost vigilance of men and dogs can scarce reprefs fuch a torrent of invafion. In North-America the moofe-deer feems intitled to the appellation of lord of the foreft; an animal reprefented by many travellers as high as an elephant, and of a nature as gentle. With fately tread he trave:fes the vaft woods of fir; and crops the cones and pine-tops beyond the reach of any o. ther animal. When the foreft is covered with fnow, and crufled over with froft, the wild American marks him for certain deftruction. His feet fink deep in the faithlefs furface, and In the gloomy forests of Lapland, his flight is impeded; while his pur- where the pine is covered with black fuers, mounted on fnow-fhoes, attack mofs, the hardy rein-deer browzes.— and retreat at pleasure, affailing him If he defcend into the plain, his food with fhot or arrows on every fide, and differs only in hue. With those two when he falls, half a townthip is em- kinds of mofs, the black and the white, ployed to drag him to their habita- the whole face of Lapland is difcolourtions; where the noble carcafe is re- ed; and when the diminutive native ceived in triumph, and at once fuf- of the country fees the waftes around pends the effects of famire. If food him abound with this femi vegetable, be plentiful he is hunted for his skin. he blefies his ftars, and calls it luxu But though his nature is gentle, like ry. His rein-deer, fupported by this many other animals, he will turn upon cheerlefs pafturage, supplies him with is purfuer, if he be wounded. He every thing that nature wants. It fights with his fore-feet. We have a gives him food-it gives him milk— flory well authenticated of a hunter, it gives him c'oathing-and carries on whom a wounded moofe deer turn- him, wrapped in fur, and feated in his ed, he was found in the woods pound-fledge, with amazing velocity from one ed into a jelly: his very bones were defart to another. broken in pieces; ard the deer, having exhausted his fury, was found lying dead bofile bim. The words of Germany nourish the wild boar, a beafi by no means among the moft ignoble of the foreft. His form, the fhape of his head, his fhort crect ears, his tufks, his thick mufcular houlders, adorned with briftles, and the lightness of his hind quarters, fo contrary to the domeftic hog, which is a round lump, are all highly picturefque. Such alfo are his colour, a gully brown; and his coat, covered Thus most of the forefts of the earth became the poffe fion of the brute creation. In the forels of Sumatra, we are told that wild beats at this very day depopulate whole villages. In other favage countries, man and beaft are still joint-tenants; yet, in general, even the barbarian is taught by example to leave the foreft for a more convenient abode. But though man had deferted the foreft as a dwelling, and had left it to be inhabited by beafts, it feon ap peared that he had no intention of giving |