The fifth part is, as we hinted above, entirely practical, and contains a treatife on land furveying, explaining the use of the inftruments employed in planning, the methods of computing the contents of fields, reducing plans, and dividing grounds. After the furveying, follows a comprehenfive effay on gauging, in which fome very curious and uncommon rules are delivered for finding the true contents of cafks. The rule for computing the contents of a cask of any form, from three dimenfions only, as given in page 592, is extremely neat and fimple; the author fays it was made from a method of inveftigating the contents of casks, which was hinted by Mr. James Davidson of Dundee; and he gives the investigation in a note. The rule is, • Add into one fum 39 times the fquare of the bung diameter, 25 times the fquare of the head diameter, and 26 times the product of the diameters; multiply the fum by the length, and the product by 00034, then the laft product divided by 9, will give the wine gallons; and divided by 11, will give the ale gallons.' We cannot fubjoin the curious and ingenious investigation, for want of the figure. To the gauging, fucceed the methods of meafuring the works of artificers; viz. bricklayers, carpenters and joiners, glaziers, mafons, painters, pavers, plaifterers, plumbers, and flaters, with a defcription of their respective meafures or rules, the manner in which they take the dimenfions of their work, and the ufual price of their workmanship. Some useful obfervations on meafuring timber are added; and the work concludes with a large table of the areas of circular fegments, the verfed fine of half the area being given. Such are the general contents of this excellent work, which must prove acceptable both to the practical measurer and to the fcientific mathematician. ART. XIII. Le Paradis Reconquis: Poëme, imité de Milton, par L. R. LAFAYE, Gradué en l'Univerfité de Paris, Maitre de Langue Françoise. 12mo. pp. 141. 55. fewed. Bell. 1789. WHAT fhall we fay of this imitation? That we have WHA fearched for its appendage, a refemblance, and cannot find it. What can we fay of an arrangement of words in the form of blank verfe, deftitute of cadence and harmony? What but that it is profe in the fhape of poetry? Monfieur Lafaye will, perhaps, reply to us with the furprife of Moliere's Bourgeois Gentilhomme," par ma foy, il y a plus de quarante ans que je dis de la profe, fans que j'en fuffe rien." But we do not expect him to fubjoin the following part of the speech as an address to the Reviewers," je vous fuis le plus obligé du monde de m'avoir M m 4 apris apris cela :" be that as it may, we muft proceed on our journey; we have many regions to pafs through; from the river Jordan we must fly to Mount Olympus; and from Olympus we muft make all poffible hafte to get back into the wilderness of Judea: but, alas! we Reviewers have not the privileges which our poetical travellers enjoy-we are confined both by time and pace. For this reafon, Monfieur Lafaye muft excufe us if we do not follow him through the whole of his flights and peregrinations. This poem confits of fix cantos; and the fubje& is as folJows-Satan, elated with the fuccefs which he met with when he attempted the feduction of Eve, meditates a victory over Jefus Chrift, while he is in the wilderness: but as it is proper that he fhould confult his peers before he proceeds to bufinefs, he fummoneth the affembly to Mount Olympus; and, in the first canto, page 8, we are introduced to this no very formidable body, confidering they are devils • Chétive affemblée! où chacun tremble. p. 3. 1. 15. Satan, in a long fpeech (for he is a moft verbose orator), communicates his grand defign; which, meeting with general approbation, he fets out on his journey; and with the characteriftic vivacity of a French demon, fays -gaiment Je vais, mon deffein jadis profpére, Verfe en mon fein le beaume de l'efpoir.' Arrived at the defart, he approaches our Saviour under the appearance of an old man, in fearch of ftrayed cattle; he is likewife looking for fome fticks to make a faggot. He enters into converfation with Jefus; and the temptation by which he hopes to feduce the Saviour of the world, is an offer to fhew him the way out of the wilderness. His propofal being rejected with contempt, Satan makes a bow, and vanishes." In the fecond canto, the Arch Fiend again affembles his peers. The council appear to be rather tumultuous. Belial is a very turbulent member, and expreffes himself with great acrimony toward the race of David: • Parbleu! comme je fis dégringoler Toute la famille, jans oublier And this Roi Salomon he talks of taking by the nofe. In the third cante, Satan renews his temptations in the wil dernefs; and fuppofing our Saviour to be very hungry, invites him to eat by the power of his magic wand, a table rifes in the defart, royalement fervie, on which are difplayed all the dainties that the moft excellent French cookery can fupply, game and poultry, • Bardés, This repaft is exhibited fous un pavillon de verdure, ornamented with fruits and flowers; a fplendid buffet prefents itself, covered with vases of gold and cryftal, and attended by Genit with purple wings. In another part of the defart, Nymphs are dancing fous des bouquets d'arbres; while in another, Zephyrus, Pomona, and the train of Flora, are forming garlands and preparing fruits. This is pretty fcenery for an opera. But as we cannot promife to freer this little French bark fafe into port, through the channel of English criticifm, we will (without loading it with any more of our ftri&tures) leave it to feek an harbour on its native coaft ;-it may chance to meet there with a more propitious gale. As to ourselves, we must be candid enough to confefs that our English Satan has obtained fo much popularity, through the skilful management of our immortal Milton, that we can by no means tolerate French devils. ART. XIV. Dr. Burney's General Hiftory of Mufic. WE [Article continued.] E are now to lay before the Public a view of the laft, and, to the generality of readers, probably the most interefting, volume of this curious and valuable work. It opens with an introductory Effay on the Euphony or Sweetness of Languages, and their Fitness for Mufic; the defign of which, as well as its propriety in this place, will beft appear from the author's own account of it: As we are now arrived at that period in the Hiftory of Mufic, when the mufical drama or opera had its origin, in the progress of which lyric poetry and melody have received their chief polish and refinements, it feems a neceffary preliminary to the following narrative, to bestow a few remarks and reflexions on the formation of fyllables, and emiffion of vocal found.' No vifionary innovation, or fantaftical change, is here intended, in a language fo excellent as our own for every purpose of reafon and philofophy; all I would recommend, is care to our lyric poets in the felection and arrangement of fyllables, as well as unity of fubject; and attentive obfervance to the compofers who fet them to Mufic, not to dwell on harsh, mute, nafal, or guttural words, which either preclude or vitiate all mufical found.' This effay contains many ingenious and uncommon remarks on an uncommon fubject; for, as it is juftly obferved, though f our alphabet has often been diffected, and the articulation of our language analyfed, as far as concerns its pronunciation in Speech, Speech,' this has not yet been done with refpect to lyric poetry and finging. The following remarks on the defects of Dryden's Oce on St. Cecilia's day, confidered as a poem intended to be fung, feem to be unexceptionably just: Song and fing, unfortunately, the two most common words in our lyric poetry, begin by a bifs, and end with a found entirely nafal; and if we examine the fyllables which terminate each line in Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's day, the beft of our lyric poems, and perhaps the moft noble production, to read, of modern languages, we fhall find that the dead letter d predominates; terminating in the courfe of the poem-no lefs than two or three and thirty lines; in more than half of which, this hard and dumb letter is preceded by #, which though it does not wholly filence the voice, yet allows it no paffage, but through the nofe. However, this junction is not fo injurious to vocalifed found, as ng in the words fung, young, beginning, avinning, deftroying, enjoying; or fand z in ears, bears, Jpheres, comes, drums, prize, fkies, &c. which terminate each mufical phrafe or period with a hits. The impervious confonant t, in jate, flate, fate, c. preceded by a vowel, is lefs difficult to pronounce, and leis oftenLive to hear, than the fibilation in breast, oppreft, &c. • Admirable and fublime as this Ode is in the perufal, fome of the lines are extremely difficult to fing, without injuring either the poet or musician; the first, by a languid and inarticulate utterance, or the latter by pronunciation too rough and violent. The recitatives may, with propriety, admit of flrong accentuation, as only fuch a portion of found is wanting as will render the words more audible, and nearer finging, than mere fpeech: but as recitative is the medium between declamation and mufical air, fome attention feems neceflary in felecting the words, and polishing the veries, even for this narrative melody; in fhunning harth alliterations, fuch as in the Jines, thrice he flew the flain-the feet enthufiaft from ber facred ftore, &c. where there is a conftant and unavoidable hilling upon all the accents; and in placing fuch words at the paufe, or resting place, in the middle, as well as at the end, of each line, where the pun&tuation requires a repofe, or long note, as will neither wholly filence the voice, nor impede its expanfion. If fuch precautions should be thought neceffary for words of quick utterance in recitative, ftill more folicitous fhould the lyric poet be in their choice and arrangement when he writes an air, where every fyllable is lengthened and vocalifed, and where the vowel in each is all that the compofer can tune, or the finger fweeten and refine.' But though neither thefe, nor the other rules here laid down by the author, for the euphony of lyric language, can be charged with being vifionary, or impracticable; yet we fear (and we believe Dr. B. himself will not think our fears ill founded), that it will, at leaft, be nearly vifionary to expect them to be fufficiently attended to in practice, till the ancient amalgamation of poet and mufician in one perfon, again takes place; an event with regard to which, we can only fay, that we love both poetry and Mufic too well to wifh for it. The The title of the first chapter of this volume is interefting to mufical curiofity. Of the Invention of RECITATIVE, and Efablifhment of the Mufical Drama, or OPERA, in Italy. It is peculiarly the bulinefs of every writer, who undertakes to deliver the hiftory of any art, to mark diftinctly thofe periods, in which its progress toward perfection receives unufual acceleration, quitting the ordinary languor of its flow and equable progrefs, and moving, as it were, by firides ;-per faltum, non per gradum :to point out precifely the nature of the improvement, and, as far as may be, the caufes that produced it. To this effential part of his bufinefs, Dr. B. has here, and, indeed, throughout his work, been particularly attentive. The annals of modern Mufic' (he juftly obferves at the opening of the chapter) have hitherto furnished no event fo important to the progrefs of the art, as the recovery or invention of Recitative, or dramatic melody. Muficians till this period having been chiefly employed in gratifying the ear with "the concord of sweet founds," without refpect to poetry, or afpiring at energy, paffion, intellectual pleasure, or much variety of effect. Epic poetry could never derive great advantage from Mufic, or mufic from epic poetry : fo long a poem as the liad, or Eneid, if we fuppole either of them to have been originally fung, could admit of few embellishments or refinements from lengthened tones; it was the lyric poetry of the ancients as well as the moderns, confifting of fhort effufions of paffion or fentiment, in various meafures, that beft exercifed the powers of mufical expreffion.' It appears, from the author's refearches, that the true musical drama, or Opera-that, which was wholly fet to Mufic, and in which the dialogue was neither fung in measure, nor declaimed without mufic, but recited in fimple mufical tones, which amounted not to finging, and yet was different from fpeech'-did not exift till the year 1597, when the drama of DAPHNE, written by Rinuccini, and fet to mufic by Jacopo Peri, was first performed in the house of Signor Corfi, at Florence, with great applaufe. This fuccessful experiment was followed by two other dramas of the fame kind, Euridice, and Arianna. About the fame time, however, a facred mufical drama, or Oratorio, was performed at Rome, compofed in a fimilar manner, by Emilio del Cavaliere; which has occafioned fome difpute with refpect to the original invention of recitative. But we think, with Dr. B. that the point of priority appears to be given up by Peri himfelf, who confeffes, in the preface to his Opera of Euridice (dated 1600), that Emilio del Cavaliere introduced the fame kind of Mufic on the flage, before any one elfe that he had ever heard of.' This, however, is a matter, which the English reader will not be very anxious to determine; while his curiofity is fully gratified with respect to the date of the invention, and the circumftances which gave rife to it. Of thefe, a clear and fatisfactory account is here given, from |