and which was difputed for fome time, in fpite of the repeated confirmation of this phenomenon by Heriffant and Lavoifier. He demonftrated it again afterwards in the Memorie della Societa Italiana; as alfo the renewal of the tail, the limbs, and even the jaws, taken from the aquatic falamander. Thefe facts continue to aftonish even at this day, when they are thought of, notwithstanding every one has had the opportunity of familiarifing himfelf with them: and we hardly know which we ought moft to admire, the expertnefs of Spallanzani in affording fuch decifive proofs, or his boldness in fearching after them, and feizing them. We have to regret that the project of his great undertaking is not realized, but various circumstances prevented him from giving way to the folicitations of his friends for its accomplishment. I fhould fufpect that he defpaired of throwing upon every part of it all the light which at first he thought he might be able; and that he found it prudent to mature his ideas by new meditations this, perhaps, may have been as powerful a caufe, as that other calls and occupations, perpetually accumulating, fhould not have allowed him to purfue it as he had intended. He has always laid nature open to full view, and the thinneft veil darkened her till he fucceeded in removing it altogether.

:

The phyfiology of Haller that Spallanzani ftudied, fixed his attention upon the circulation of the blood, in which he difcovered feveral remarkable phenomena. He published, in 1768, a fmall tract: Dell' Azione del Cuore ne' Vafi Sanguigni nuove Offervazioni, and he reprinted it in 1773 with three new differtations, De' Fenomeni della Circolazione offer. vata nel Giro univerfali de' Vafi'; de' Fenomeni della Circolazione Languente; de' Moti del Sangue independente del Azione del Cuore e del Pulfare delle Arterie. This work, but little known,

contains a feries of obfervations and experiments, of the most ingenious and delicate nature, upon a fubject of which the furface only is known. This work merits the attention of thofe who are interested in the progrefs of phyfiology.

When the univerfity of Padua was re-established upon a larger fcale, the emprefs Maria Therefa directed the Count de Firmian to invite him to fill a chair, as profeffor of natural hiftory; his great reputation rendered him eligible for this distinction, folicited by many celebrated men, and he merited it by his fuccess, and by the crowd of fludents who thronged to his leffons. Only great men make excellent mafters, because their ideas are the most perfpicuous, the moft extenfive, and best connected.

Spallanzani united a vast extent of knowledge to a fine genius ; a method fimple, but rigorous in its nature, and he connected what he knew to principles firmly established. His ardent love of truth made him difcufs, with the utmost care, the theories which prevailed; to found their folidity, and difcover their weak fides. The great art which he had acquired, of interpreting nature by herfelf, diffufed fuch a light over his leffous as made every thing perfpicuous that was capable of affording inftruction. An eloquence at once plain and lively animated his difcourfe; the purity and elegance of his ftyle charmed all who heard it: in fhort, it was known that he always occupied himfelf about the means of rendering his leffons ufeful, which he prepared a year beforehand. They became always new and engaging, by his new obfervations, and by the enlarged views that his meditations prefented to him. The learned perfons who attended his lectures were pleased to become his fcholars, in order to know better what they already knew, and to learn that which otherwife they would perhaps never have known.

In arriving at the univerfity, Spallanzani took the Contemplation de la Nature of Bonnet for the text of his leffons: he filled up the vacancies in it, he unfolded the ideas, and confirmed the theories by his experiments. He believed with reafon, that the book which infpired him with the love of natural history by reading it, was the most proper to give birth to it in the minds of his difciples.

He tranflated it into Italian, and enriched it with notes; he added a preface to it, wherein he pointed out the fubjects of the vegetable and animal economy, which in an efpecial manner deferved the attention of his pupils and fometimes pointing out to them the means of fucceeding in their researches. It was thus he at first devoted himself to the pleafing employment of inftructor of his countrymen, and that he became the model of those who were defirous of inftructing ufefully. He published the first volume of his tranflation in 1769, and the second in 1770.

The connexion of Spallanzani with Bonnet had an influence upon his genius, which bent to the fevere method of the philofopher of Geneva. He prided himself in being his pupil, and he unceasingly meditated upon his admirable writings; and thus it was that he became defirous of feeking in nature for the proofs of Bon. net's opinion upon the generation of organized bodies, and that this charming fubject fixed his attention for a long time.

He published, in 1776, the two first volumes of his Opufcoli di Fifica Animale e Vegetabile: they are the explanation of a part of the Microscopic Obfervations, which had already appeared..

If the art to obferve be the most difficult, it is nevertheless the moft neceffary of all the arts; but it fuppofes every quality, every talent: and further, though each believes himself more or lefs confummate

therein, yet it is obvious that only great men have exercised it in a diftinguished manner. Genius alone fixes the objects worthy of regard; that alone directs the fenfes to the obfcurities which it is neceffary to diffipate; it watches over them to prevent error; it animates them to follow by the fcent, as it were, that which they have but a diftant view of: it takes off the veil which covers what we are looking after; it fupports the patience which waits the moment for gratifying the fight in the midst of obftacles multiplying one upon another: in fhort, it is genius that concentrates the attention upon an object, which communicates that energy to him for imagining, that fagacity for discovering, that promptnefs for perceiving, without which we fee only one fide of truth, when we do not happen to let it ef cape altogether. But this is not all; for after nature has been read with precision, it is neceffary to interpret her with fidelity; to analyfe by the thought the phenomena anatomifed by the fenfes; to confider of the fpecies by obferving the individual, and to anticipate the general propofitions by confidering the unconnected facts. Here, prudence and circumfpection will not always fecure us against error, if an ardent love for the truth does not affay obfervations and their confequences in its crucible, and thereby reduce every thing to scoria which is not truth.

Such was Spallanzani in all his refearches; fuch we fee him in all his writings. Occupied by the great phenomenon of generation, he examined the opinion of Needham to demonftrate its want of foundation : the latter, not fatisfied with the microfcopic obfervations of Spallanzani, which weakened the imagined vegetative force to put the matter in mo. tion, challenged the profeffor of Reggio to a reperufal of what he had written; but he proved to the other,

that

that we in common practice always fee that which has been well obferved, but that we never again fee that which we have been contented with imagining we faw.

I make no remark on the fevere logic and amiable politeness of Spallanzani in his refutation, or the art with which he demonftrates to Needham the causes of his error; but it will always be understood with pleafure, that the animalculæ of infufions are produced by germs, that there are fome of them which defy, like certain eggs and feeds, the most exceffive cold, as well as the heat of boiling water. On this occafion he treats on the influence of cold upon animals, and proves that the lethargic numbness of fome, during winter, does not depend upon the impreffion the blood may receive from it, fince a frog, deprived of his blood, becomes lethargic when he is reduced to the fame cold ftate by an immerfion in ice, and fwims as before when restored to warmth. In the fame manner, he fhews that odours, various liquors, the vacuum, act upon animalcule as upon other animals, that they are oviparous, viviparous, and hermaphrodite. Thus, in running over thefe diftant regions of nature with this illuftrious traveller, we are always meeting with new facts, profound remarks, precious details, and fome curious anecdotes; in short, an univerfal history of thofe beings which are the most numerous of the globe, although their existence is fcarcely fufpected, and whofe organization is in many refpects different from that of known animals.

The fecond volume of this work is a new voyage into the most unknown parts; a fublime pencil had already painted it, but the picture was not done after nature. Spallanzani here gives a hiftory of the fpermatic animalculæ, which the eloquent hiftorian, above alluded to, always confounds with the animalcula of infu

fions. We cannot but admire the modeft diffidence of this new domonftrator, ftruggling againft his own opinion and the authority of Buffon; and he appears to admit with repugnance the refults of his multiplied and in a thousand ways varied obfervations, which expofe the feebleness of the fyftem of organic moleculæ.

Spallanzani afterwards defcribes the volvox and the flow-moving animalcula (rotifere and tardigrade) thofe coloffufes of the microscopic world, fo fingular by their figure and organization, but more fingular ftill by their faculty of refuming life, after a total fufpence of all the apparent acts of it during many years.

I do not here fpeak of the experiments of Spallanzani on the death of animals in clofe veffels, because he took up the fubject again; and enlarged and exemplified it by the new lights of chemistry; but this collection he concludes with another on the hiftory of vegetable mould growing on the furface of liquors and moist fubftances, the feeds of which he fhews to float in the air; and he remarks that these microscopic champignons, or mushrooms, diftinguish themfelves from other plants by their tendency to grow in all directions, without conforming to the almost univerfal law of perpendicularity of ftalk to the ground.

Spallanzani was placed at the head of the univerfity's cabinet of natural history, but he was little more than titular depofitary of a treasure which no longer exifted. He laid the foun dations however for its renewal, and, by his care, it is become one of the most precious and ufeful. He enriched it through his repeated travels by land and fea, in Europe, in Afia, across the Apennines, the Alps, the Krapacks, at the bottom of mines, on the top of volcanoes, at the mouth of craters: fupported by his ardent paffion in the midft of perils, he preferved the fang-froid of the philofo

pher

pher to contemplate thefe wonders, and the piercing eye of an obferver to ftudy them. It is thus that he always diftinguished the proper objects for improving fcience by favouring instruction; it is thus that he filled this depofitory with treafures, that all the gold in the world could not have obtained, becaufe gold never fupplies the genius and the difcernment of the enlightened naturalist.

In 1779 Spallanzani ran over Swit zerland and the Grifons; he then went to Geneva, where he fpent a month with his friends, who admired him the more in his converfations after having admired him in his writings. I have seen him enjoy the

pleasure he afforded to Trembley, Bonnet, and De Sauffure; his feeling foul came to meet that of thefe great men; he unravelled the thread of his vaft thoughts, and animated himself by reflecting on the grand views they gave birth to. It would be highly useful to recal thefe friendly converfations, not only for the honor of thofe who held them, but alfo for the instruction of pofterity. But it will be always important to know that the geniuses of this great caft relish the fweets of friendship, and experience as great joy in difclofing their hearts as in difcovering the fecrets of nature.

(To be concluded in our next.)

Its fculptured ornaments are light and elegant. Its principal front looks towards the north-east: The accefs to it is by a winding road which approaches nearly in this fame direction. The principal rooms within are large, in a due proportion to the fize of the edifice; skilfully proportioned, in their relative height, breadth and length;cheerfully lighted, handfomely furnished and fo arranged as to compofe a very elegant fuite. In that one, which is well known by the denomination of Offian's Hall, the cieling has been nobly adorned by the pencil of Runciman, with feveral pieces of history-painting, reprefenting scenes from the poems afcribed to Offian the fon of Fingal. In the midft, the venerable, fabled

bard, of the figure of a hero, who, with the countenance, and in the attitude of poetical infpiration, ftrikes his harp in unifon with his fong. Near him ftand, not the children of Fingal (for the blind and aged Offian was the laft of his race,) but kindred Scots, fondly venerating the fage, the hero, and the bard: They drink his ftrains with ravished ears; and their features feem to glow, at once, with enthufiaftic admiration of the poet's power, and with deeply impaffioned fympathy in the fortunes of the perfons whom he celebrates. Around this principal piece are others, fomewhat fmaller in their dimenfions, but not at all lefs interesting; and ftill difplaying the powers of Runciman's pencil;, and of Caledonian poefy. But the paintings, the pieces of fculpture, the marble tables, the handfome ftair-cafes, and all that is ftately, elegant, or commodious in the ftructure; the interior difpofition of the apartments, and the furniture and decorations of Pennycuick House, would require to their adequate defcription, a minuteness and amplitude of detail, incompatible with the defign of the defcription which accompanies this view.

ACCOUNT

THIS

HIS refpectable fcholar and ami able man was the eldest for of Mr Thomas Warton, formerly of Magdalen College, Oxford; Poetry Profeffor of that Univerfity, and Vicar of Basingstoke and Chobham*. He was born at Bafingstoke about the year 1722, and received the early part of his education from his father, who was mafter of a fchool there in high repute. From his father's tuition he was removed to Winchester, where he continued until about the year 1740, when he went off from that feminary to the University of Oxford fecond on the roll; William Collins, the afterwards celebrated poet, being the first; and Mr Mulfo, afterwards Prebendary of Winchef. ter, the third. He was entered of Oriel College, where he continued but little longer than he had taken the degree of Bachelor of Arts. At a late period, 23d June 1759, he was created M. A. by diploma.

In 1740 he wrote "The Enthu fiaft, or Lover of Nature," a Poem; afterwards publithed in folio about 1745. This piece is preferved in Dod fley's Collection of Poems, Vol. III. as is Fathion, a Satire, which made its appearance about the fame time. In 1746 he printed "Odes on vari ous Subjects," 4to. confifling of fourteen, viz. 1. To Fancy. 2. To Li berty. 3. To Health. 4 To Superftition. 5 To a Gentleman upon his Travels through Italy. 6. Against Defpair. 7. To Evening. 8. To a Fountaint. 9. To the Nightingale. 10. On the Spring. 11. To a Lady who hates the Country. 12. On the Death of his Father. 13. On Shooting. 14. To Solitude. To this publication he prefixed the following advertisement : "The public has been fo much accuftomed of late to didactic poetry alone, and effays on moral fubjects, that any work where the imagination is much indulged will perhaps