I Mr. URBAN, Jan. 7. KNOW no more frequent cause of regret, than that the circumftances upon which we are apt to value ourselves are the mofliable to abufe, and to be turned into inconveniencies. We naturally, for example, pride ourfolves on living in an ageof civilization, and on being more polifhed, more civil, and more qualified for the intercourfe of focial life, than our ancestors. Now, Sir, granting that all this is true, is it not thockin that all this fhould at the fame time be a fit fubject for lamentation? For my own part, I heartily with that thofe perions, or perfonages, who have introduced fuch a degree of politenefs, had kept it all to themfelves. Alas! woeful experience proves that it has defcended to our inanufactories, our warchoufes, and our fhops; and the confequence is, that bufine's is retarded and neglected, without our having it in our power to complain. I can well remember how different the cafe was in my younger days. The roughness and rudeness of the people then was highly favourable to trade and paffion. Then I could rate and feold a man; and he make me anfiers little fhort of the politeness of a fishwowan: I could touch his pride, and by a few well-timed and most abufive epithets, which are now become obfolete, get my business done in a trice. The man would grumble and growl out a few oaths, pretend that he did not understand fuch language, that he was a reputable houtekeeper, paid foot and lot, and had ferved parish of fices--but fill the bufinefs was done, and a perfon in my fituation never need carry out a quantity of fury and indignation without finding a vent for it But now-it is-" Dear Sir, I am fo exceeding ferry that little affair of yours (little affair, think of that!) is not quite ready, but really the materials are not come home or my men have had a bowel-complaint or the weather has been so unfavourable to our butinefsand knowing, Sir, your goodness and indulgence; bat you may depend on it. Here! John, Thomas, Kichard! be fure Mr. Fidget's job be done out of hand immediately, and put by that other-exceeding forry, indeed, Mr. Fidget-but to morrow, or Thurfday at fartheft-am quite afhamed you had the trouble to call-give me leave, Sirour paffage is rather dark-take care of the ftep-am very much obliged to ou, I'am ture, Mr. Fidget, for your orders at all times you are one of my beft friends-your most humble fervant, Sir -to morrow, or Thursday, you may depend on having it home-give me leave-I'll open the door-Sir, your very humble fervant!" Now, Sir, what can a man fay to all this? Can I write to my correfpondent in the country, and tell him that I dared not feold the perfon employed on his bufinefs, because he is fo civil? Yet I cannot avoid giving vent to my pallion through the medium of your Magazine; and I hope fome of your correspondents will take the matter in high dudgeon. I am not without fome hope, likewile, that, when the Peace has had its full effect, our tradefinen may have employment enough to make them faucy; in which cafe, a little impertinence now and then will greatly tend to make employers and cufioniers underland one another, and afford much fatisfaction to, Yours, &c. FERDINANDO FIDGET. P. S. I beg that what I have faid of the growing civility of manufacturers, workmen, hop-keepers, &c. may not be fuppofed to allude, in any degree, to gentlemen in the public offices! Mr. URBAN, Jan. 20. BEING perfuaded that it is a duty I owe to my fellow fufferers in this diforder, I cannot withhold the following communications. The end of the year 1785, I was attacked with a pain in one of my feet; but, not having the molt difiant reation to fuppofe it a gouty complaint, I treated it as a ftrain, and it foon left me. After ten or twelve days the fame kind of pain feized me in my other foot: I treated it in the fame way, and with the fame effect. I was at this time otherwife in high health but foon thereafter I began fo to lofe my fpirits and appetite, my fiomach and bowels became fo affected, that they could not perform their ufural functions; at haft the diforder feated in my feet, and I was foon refiored to health. Since then I have been feverely attacked in various fhapes, every ten, twelve, or fometimes fourteen or fifteen months. Twelve months ago was confined for two months with a very acute paroxyfin in both feet and hands, and one knee, fucceflively. At this time I heard of Sir Jofeph Banks having got relief in this painful difeafe from the ufe of ginger: as I was not able to write myself, a friend wrote to I London London to afcertain the fact. The following is Sir Joseph's answer: "Sir J. Banks has for more than a year taken two tea-ipoons heaped up of ginger powder in a pint of milk boiled with bread, and fweetened with fugar, for his breakfaft; the weight of the ginger is between two and three drachmis; at firft this quantity was difficult to fwallow, if the ginger was good. Str Jofeph then was guided in his quantity by the ethat it had on his omach. If it made him bic-cough, he thought the dafe too large. Sir Jofeph fourd occafionally that it produced ardor urine; but this went off without any ill Confequence whatever. "Su Jofeph has not yet found it neceffary to increate his dole; but he now ufes rativer a coat fer powder than he did at firth, which mixes more easily with his milk, and poffibiy produces more effect ufual appetite, but what might have SELECTIONS FROM LE CLERC'S BIB- Mr. URBAN,. Leicestershire. than the fine. He has fine as ofta e TIE famous Le Clerc was the an had one fit of the gout, but it was confined entirely to the extremities, and never affailed either his head, his loins, er his ftomach, and it lafted only feverteen or eighteen days; but the last fit he had before he took the ginger affected his head, ftomach, and loins, and afted with intervals from the end of October to January. Sr Jofeph's pulfe used to intermit one ftroke in five or fix: it is now quite regular, aud has been fo for feveral months. "Lord Rivers has taken ginger in large dofes for more than thirty years; he is now more than eighty, a hale, upright, and healthy old man." I could have wifhed that Sir Jofeph had been more circumftantial. However, I immediately began the ufe of ginger in fine powder, but in a much Imaller quantity; as, from Sir Jofeph's own account, his dofe feemed to me to be too large for him, and by nature he is of a nuch ftronger conftitution than I am. I therefore began with about a drachm, equal to fixty grains daily, which I found enough for me, as it fometimes heated ine, which was all the immediate fenfible operation I ever felt-but this quantity may be too finall for many conititutions. I have now to relate the happy confequences that I think have accrued to me from the quantity of ginger which I have taken, and am continuing to take. I have juft recovered from a very flight attack of the gout, which confined me to the houfe for about three weeks only. I might deferibe this attack in Sir Jofeph's own words; for I had no part of my frame affected but my feet, and they fo flightly, that I neither loft an hour's fleep nor my thor of a literary journal with the above title, which commenced in January, 1686, at Amfterdam. I purpofe fending you from time to time felect extracts from it, with occafional illuftrations and remarks of my own. I now fend you fome extracts from the firft article in the Bibliotheque, which contains a Review of the Epifiles of Grotius. SCOTO BRITANNUS. The Epifiles of Grotius were pub→ lifled at Amfterdam in 1686, in one volume folio, with the following title, Hugonis Grotii Epifiolæ, ex officina Blaviana." This volume contains upwards of 2500 letters of that great man, in chronological order. The firft, which is addreffed to M. de Thou, is dated April 1, 1599; and the lat, which is addreffed to William Grotius, is dated July 1645, a month before the author's death. Thefe letters comprehend an immenfe variety of fubjects. Le Clerc arranges his extracts from them under the five following heads: Criticilin, Theology, Jurifprudence, Hiftory, and Politics. The fubject of the first extract, under the head of Criticifin, is the origin of the Latin language; which, according to Grotius, has fcarcely any words that can be traced back to Phrygia, whence the Latins derived their origin; nor even to Etruria, whofe language was the most antient in Italy. He endeavours to fhew that the origin of the Latin language maft be fought in a dialect of the Greek language, the Greeks having occupied a confiderable part of Italy as well as of the neighbouring iflanda, "which went by the vane of Magua proofs of it; which Grotius in one of his letters confirms by additional proofs; and he avails himself of thefe remarks in order to prove that the perfon of whom St. John fpeaks, Revelat. chap. xiii. ver. 8, is no other than Trajan; becaufe in the word OYAHOC, which is the name of that Emperor, we find the number 666, taking C for fix, and not for two hundred according to the numeral computation of the letter E. I have often thought, Mr. Urban, that many Latin words have probably been derived from the Celtic; a lan guage of which Grotius certainly had no knowledge, and which lays in as high a claim to antiquity as niott languages. The Celtic was once the language of the greatest part of Welieru Enrope, and was fpoken throughout the whole of this ifland at the time of the Roman invafion. I have fome knowledge of that branch of the Celtic which is fpoken to this day in the Highlands of Scotland; and I have often been firuck with the refemblance that many words in the Gaelic language bear to Latin words. It is very plain that the Celts must have borrowed thefe words from the Latins, or the Latins from the Celts; and I fhould be glad to fee this fubject difcuffed by foine of vour readers who are verfed in Celtic Græcia all the people who spoke Greek were antiently divided into lonians and Dorians; and the two principal dialects were the Ionic and the Doric. The Attic dialect, according to Grotius, is only a branch of the Ionic. The Eolian is a branch of the Doric, which prevailed in Sicily, as appears from the eclogues of Theocritus, which are in pure Doric; whereas the olic was fpoken in thofe ifles which had the name of olian; and it is from this laft dialect that Grotius main tains the Latin language is derived, in proof of which he adduces a variety of examples. The other Dorians changed into A long, the common termination of the feminines in II; but the Eolians changed it into A fhort, for example a nympha, Cape fama. The fixth letter in the antient Greek alphabet was formerly called Bau, or Vav, as it is called in the Phenician alphabet, from which the Greek alphabet is derived. Others call it the Eolic digamma, which letter, although it be difearded from the new alphabets, yet fill retains its place among the Greek numbers, for For makes fix. The Bolians had been acculioned to prefix this letter to words beginning with a vowel: thus, for him they faid Féra, as Prifcian teftifies. The Latins followed their example, for infiance, infiead of impos, they wrote Vefperus; inflead of ozog, they wrote Vinum: and fo on. The Eolians prefixed their Bay to words that began with an R, as F.dyw, to break, for the Doric ja, which comes from yw, out of ufe ; for which they fubitituted fry. It is plain that from the Eolic Frigo, comes the Latin Frango; the only difference being the letter N in the laft, which at other times was omitted. as appears by the words Fragor and Confiages. The Eolians allo put an S before the vowels, as well as the Latins, who for or fay Sorpo, for 3; Sas, &c. Whence it happens that we find in the Eolic dialect alone feveral Latin words of which there are no traces in the other dialects, as 10 yrics nuncius, T.; nepos, &c. The fame matter, adds Le Clerc, is treated more fully in the Etymologicon of Voffius, and in fome letters of Salmafius. The latter, having been confulted by Gro-tural caufe of things, the wicked finds tius to know whether C or Σ did not himfelf punished. And he refers the reader to a finilar pulege in the apocrys hal book of Ecclefiafticu cxxxiii. fignify fia on the Greeks, anfwer "ed in the amtive, and gave feveral antiquity. A vocabulary of parallels would be interefing and amufing to thofe who underftand the Latin and Gaelic languages. I am not competent bit of fpeaking Gaelic for many years; to the tafk, not having been in the habut I have no doubt that you have both readers and correfpondents who are and I hope to have the fatisfaction of fecing the fubject fpeedily taken up in your Mifcellany. To return to Grotius. We find in fome of his Epifiles explications of various paffages from Scripture, and profine authors. In Ep. 91. are remarks on Proverbs c. xvi. v. 4. "The Lord hath made all things for himfelf; yea even the wicked for the day of evil." Grotius's tranflation of this paffage is thus given by Le Clerc, in French, "Dien a difpofe toutes chofes, en forte qu'elles fe repondent les unes anx anties, & le mèchent au jour de l'adverfite" that is to fay, adds Le Clerc, God hath fo ordained, that in the na 14, 15, "Good is fet against evil, and life against death: fo is the godly against the finner, and the finner againfi the godly-fo look upon all the works of the Most High-and there are two and two, one against another." Grotius maintains in one of his letters, that the words 1 Tim. chili. 2. "a bishop ineft be the huband of one wife," ought to be explained in this fenfe, that "a bishop have never taken in marriage more than one wife;" which fenfe excludes not merely a plurality of wives at one and the fame time, but alfo fecond marriages. Thus Lycophron calls Helen Tare, femme à trois maris, as Le Clerc tranflates it-Helen; who never had three hufbands at once, Thefeus being already dead, at the time that Paris took her away from Menelaus. Afranius gives the appellation biviram to a woman who had been twice married; and Tertullian calls a woman who had been but once mar 66 ried univiram. The antient Chriftians, monii caufa, nubunt repudii." In like pro Sie fight octo maiti cman Theban vag Que nebit toties, non nabe; ad-kern geeft. question to Grotius: "How it was to be accounted for, that the Evangelifts gave us no account of the hiftory of our Lord's life before the thirtieth year of his age; excepting the tranfaétion which St. Luke records to have taken place in the Temple, when he was indre years old?" To this queftion Grotiuswered, "That we inuft judge of what a writer ought to lay, and what he ought to omit, by the end which he has in view; that it was not the defign of the Evangelifts to write fimply the life of Jefus Chrift, but to tranfinit to pofterity the Gofpel; that is to fay, a doctrine which upon the condition of repentance holds forth to finners pardon, and everlafting life: that the Gospel consists of two parts, of which the one regards doctrine, the other history; which laft is introduced fo far as it ferves to confirm the former; as the hiftory of the miracles, the death, the refurrection, and the afcenfion of Jefus Chrift: that this hiftory does not commence, properly fpeaking, until the baptifin of Jefus Chrift, becaufe until then be had not begun to teach publickly, and without intermiflion, and to perform miracles: that it was therefore perfectly confiftent in the Evangelifts to pafs over intermediate events; and whatever notice is taken of the tranfactions from the birth of our Saviour until the commencement of his public miniltry, ought to be regard ed rather as a fort of preamble in order to make known the perfon of Jefus Chrift, than as the beginning of an exact hiftory of his life. 66 DOACER, king of the Heruli, was brought up in Italy among the emperor's guards. His birth was to obfeure, that it is not known in what country he firft faw light. After various adventures, he becaine chief of the Herali. An advantageous fiature, united with much boldness and courage, foon gained him a name. The Roman empire drew near to its ruin. The Roman foldiers confifted of a number of barbarians, who all revolted at once, and chofe Odoacer for their leader, who was foon acknowledged by part of the empire, weary of the ty ranny of Orelies and his fon Auguftalus. Orefics took refuge in Pavia, whither Odoacer purfted him, and, after taking, plundering, and burning the city, put him to death. He next proccede I proceeded to Rome, and proclaimed himfelf king of Italy, Auguliulus being banished into Campania after being divefted of the mark of the imperial dignity. Thus fell the Weltern empire, and Rome was compelled to fubit to a king, a title fo odious to her for many centuries. This furprizing revolution happened A. D. 475. The world then changed face; Spain was inhabited by the Goths; the AngioSaxens paffed over into Britain; the Tranes fed in Gau! the Almans feized on Germany; the Heroli and Lombards remained afters of Italy. Barbarilin accompanied them every where: the monuments of feulpture and archite ture were deftroyed; the mafter-pieces of poetry and cloquence at Athens and Rome were neglected; the fine arts were lott; and men, plunged into the grofleft favagenels, knew not what to think or feel. Odoacer, mafter of Italy, had to fight Theodoric. He was thrice beaten and belieged in Ravenna, A. D. 490, and obtained peace only on condition of dividing his authority with his conqueror. Theodoric promited with an oath not to take away his crown or life; but, a few days after, having invited him to a feat, he killed him with his own hand, and put all his officers and friends to death, A. D. 493. Odoacer was a prince of great magnanimity and - mildnets. Though an Arian, he did not perfecute the Catholicks. He made a moderate ufe of his fortune, and had nothing barbarous but the name. If he laid on many heavy taxes, he was compelled to do to by the neceflity of rewarding thofe to whom he owed his fceptre." Nouveau Dict. Hiftorique. Is there no perlon or fiate in modern times whom this picture fuits? Q. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 9. feen in a fimilar fituation in Derbyfhire, in the road from Chesterfield to Matlock; and many fuch will be found in different parts of Cornwall and other counties. M. F. vol. LXXI. p. 931, will D. find an antwer to his enquiry about the fione crolles of Cornwall, in Dr. Borlate's Antiquities of that county, p. 891, where, peaking of an antient inferibed tone at St. Clement's, near Truro, which has at prefent a large erois on it in bas relief, he fays, "I queflion whether the crofs may not be of later date than the infeription, and gut on the stone in thofe times when it was none of the meanett parts of religion to erect erofles in every churchyard, and at the meeting of highways." A one with a erols in a circle I have Stratton Strawless hall, burnt Dec. 15. (fee LXX. 1142), appears to have been the hell of the hall there in mentioned as built 1074. The new one was furnished and inhabited, and the materials of the old were intended for fale. Several chefs of tools Lelonging to the workmen werd coufamed in it. The poon-fork engraved pl. I. fig. 10, vol. LX. p. 596, belonged to this family. Yours, &c. R. G. DURHAM CATHEDRAL, Ccontinued. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 10. DEFORE I enter into the church Bill carrying on the lines of the general plan), fet me remark, that in the area of the cloifters is the remant of the conduit, wherein the monks ufed to wash their hands and faces before dinner. The plan of this building, (from the two bafons one above the other conftituting the faid remnant), mult have taken an octangular form, whofe interior was fo large as we find the religious could walk at their cafe round the fame. The enrichments belonging to this defign, we read likewife, were extremely profufe. I cannot leave the defcription of this area's decorations, without foliciting the indulgence of my readers, to paufe a while on the fpot where once flood the monument erected to the memory of St. Cuthbert, the patron faint of Durham. After his body had been depofited in the cathedral, Dean Whittingham, the faerilegious foe to antient art, was the defiroyer of this valuable piece of antiquity. I refer once more to the North cloitter, where are two grand Saxon doorways entering into the church the Wettern one has its feulptured treafure on its front within the South aile; and the other bearing towards the Eaft gives an excefs of workmanship alfo, but is left to adorn the cloifiers. Choice induced me to pafs through the Weftern entrance into the cathedral; where helitating on what point to lay down the lines of fo mighty a fabric, I faw on each fide door-ways which led into the chapel called The Galilee. As this ftructure was raised up directly against the Weft front of the cathedral, and gave its extremity of plan on this part, I determined here to begin my ground |