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ART. XV.-A Practical Essay on Chemical Re-agents or Tests, illustrated by a Series of Experiments. By FREDERICK ACCUM, Operative Chemist, &c. 12mo. Callow.

1816.

IF Mr. Accum were as accurate and perspicuous as he is in dustrious, his services to the science of chemistry would be less equivocal. Certainly a work of this nature, if properly executed, might be very convenient and even useful to the most experienced chemists; but the author has aimed at more; he has tried to give it such “a popular form” as to place it "within the reach even of those who are unacquainted with the principles of chemical science." This design seems equally sagacious with that of teaching language without grammatical rules, or mathematics without a knowledge of arithmetic. If by popularity, however, Mr. A. only meant to give those details which are to be found in almost every modern work on chemistry, he is much nearer the attain ment of his object. Yet even with this very humble design, a little more care would have obviated many errors which disgrace this voluine; and the student "unacquainted with the principles of chemical science," might have been prevented from confounding carbonate and sulphate of magnesia, (p. 165), or carbonated alkalies and carbonate of silver, (p. 80). There is, indeed, no branch of chemistry which requires greater attention to language, than the sub ject of chemical re-agents; the greatest precision and accu racy are indispensable to every sentence, otherwise results the most contradictory must occur. Whether the author pos sesses this critical knowledge of language and of the principles of chemical science, may be ascertained by an appeal to his numerous works on chemistry: in charity to a professor who is not a native, we now say nothing of his labours on crystallography and mineralogy. Had Mr. Accum published a synoptical table of tests, including all the new discoveries and improvements in operating, at about one-eighth of the expense of the present volume, he might have been certain of an adequate portion of public approbation. The use of such a tabular view of re-agents, to assist the memory, must be sufficiently obvious; but its utility must very considerably depend on its brevity, accuracy, and perspicuity; qualities which are not very abundant in this "practical essay." From an "operative or practical chemist," we expected, at least,

some abridgment of the usual process, some easier manipu lation, or something designed to economise time and labour in chemical experiments. But, in this respect, the author seems peculiarly deficient; yet it must be allowed that he has collected together, in his own way, more details respecting re-agents than are to be found in any chemical work hitherto published. This volume, also, professes to be "stereotyped;" but it is rarely that we have seen a book so extremely incorrect in almost every page.

ART. XVI.-St. Clyde, a Novel, in Three Volumes. Gale and Fenner. 1816.

THE perusal of this work affords internal evidence that it is not from the pen of a female writer; and almost every page proves it to have been produced somewhere beyond the Tweed. We are not under any apprehension that the frequent use of the broad dialect of the North in works of taste will tend, in any material degree, to barbarise the English language; that dialect being pretty nearly as unintelligible to an Englishman as high Dutch, or the language of Nootka Sound: and it is every way proper that a novel professing to make us acquainted with the customs, the manners, and characters of a country and people with which we are intimately connected, should be composed, in part at least, in the language of that country. We find that, on the stage, this succeeds in more languages than one; and no stronger proof is wanting of it losing none of its effect at the fire-side, than the popularity of the poems of Robert Burns.

The scene lies principally in Scotland; and, with the exception of the fictitious title St. Clyde, all the characters bear names to be found in real life, and the places are topographically laid down where the incidents are supposed to take place.

The Laird St. Clyde, residing in the Island of Bute, has a son in the 42d Highlanders. He is reported to have fallen at Quebec, under General Wolfe. The laird is murdered; and the murderer is discovered, at the very end of the novel, to be his own brother-in-law-a Mons. Villejuive, who bad followed the fortunes of Charles Edward Stuart, for the express purpose of securing to himself the estate of

St. Clyde. The son, Colin, returns after some years ab sence; and, by the assistance of a smuggler, Whiggans, the murderers of the laird are found out; but Villejuive and his accomplice, Lerwick, a pedlar, commit suicide, to avoid the ignominy of being banged.

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We have read with much pleasure the wedding-scene at Millhole, the march of young St. Clyde's recruits,-the intended but relinquished suicide of Mr. Stuart,-the mur der of the Laird St. Clyde, the tragic death of his wife and daughter, Norah,-the funeral-procession of these three corpses, the courtship of Lieut. Stuart and Miss Caroline Springfield, the letters from the Dominie's son and James Graham, both soldiers in the 42d, the return of Captain St. Clyde, his visit to Dunmorven, in the island of Mull,the wreck of the Danish ship,-the interview between John Carr and Colin St. Clyde, the conduct of Whiggans, and the sturdy friendship of that Godlike man Mr. Thornhill, the clergyman.

The work would have been all the better if it had not, been interlarded so with poetry. But we are not at odds with the author for giving us Eliza's poetical ethics with her purse of gold; or Mrs. Burnfoot's "Drops of Dew" or the recitative song of the Smugglers, beginning, "Turn, War rior in the western sky." We could, however, very well have dispensed with some of Sandy Glass's effusions, and a few others equally tasteless and tiresome.

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A good deal of invention is discovered in the plot; but we are sorry to observe that a gentleman who is not unclas sical,-nay, who is probably a mathematician, should have departed, in several instances, from that logical division and continuous detail, without which, the best matèrials produce no powerful effect. We have known more novelists than one, who might have toiled a summer's day without giving so natural a sketch as the following:

"The procession now approached the brow of a hill. The descent to its base skirted an immense mass of whin-stone rock, which, from time • immemorial, had been quarried out in the form of a huge parallelopipedon. ECHO here, ever since the memory of man, had built herself a palace; and, as the procession passed her gates, she came forth with her train to testify her grief for the death of St. Clyde," &c.

423

Monthly Register.

The Conductors of the AUGUSTAN REVIEW request scientific and literary men, and also Editors and Publishers, to favor them with authentic information relative to inventions, discoveries, and improvements in Arts and Sciences; Notices of works preparing for publication, and of those recently published; which will be thankfully received, and communicated to the public in the subsequent Number, if sent to the publishers (post paid) before the 20th of the month.

I.

WORKS PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION,

Observations on the Ruins of Babylon, as recently visited and described by Claudius James Rich, Esq. Resident for the East. India Company at Bagdad; proving that the famed Tower of Babel was a Temple to the Sun, and the whole of that vast City was constructed upon an Astronomical Basis. Shewing, also, the high advance of the ancient race of Fire-Worshippers, its Founders, in Metallurgic Science, in Architectural Design, in Geometry, in Mechanics, in Hydraulics, in the Art of Engraving, Colouring, &c. together with Strictures on the Babylonian Bricks, and their Inscriptions, preserved in the British Museum-On the Ruins of Persepolis, or Chelminar; including a Dissertation on a lately discovered Persepolitan monument, of high importance to astronomers, and supposed to contain a portion of the ancient Babylonian Sphere-On the presumed Antiquity of the Arch, no where to be found amid these ruins-On the origin of alphabetical off writing, and various other subjects connected with the history of the most ancient periods. With illustrative engravings. By the Author of Indian Antiquities.

Memorial Sketches of the late Rev. David Brown, of Calcutta, with Sermons, &c. are printing in an 8vo. volume.

The Rev. W. Wilson, M.A. head-master of St. Bee's School, is preparing for publication, Collectanea Theologica, or the Student's Manual of Divinity. Containing the following works in Latin:Dean Nowell's larger Catechism, Vossius on the Sacraments, and Bishop Hall on Walking with God.

The Rev. Thomas Rees will soon publish, in a duodecimo volume, a translation of the Racovian Catechism; to which will be pre fixed a Sketch of the History of the Unitarian Churches of Poland, for whose use it was composed.

Mr. T. Dibdin is preparing for the press, the Posthumous Dramatic Pieces of the late Mr. Benjamin Thompson, accompanied with a copious Memoir, in two 8vo. volumes.

Preparing for the press, and will be speedily published, in one volume, 8vo. The Ægis of England; being a collection of those admirable and eloquent addresses, in which have been communi. cated the thanks of Parliament to those officers of the Navy and Army whose eminent services during the wars of the French Revo Iution have so essentially contributed to the glory of the British Arms. To which will be added, notes biographical and military. By Maurice Evans.

Mr. G. Jackson, of Islington, has in the press, a new and improved System of Mnemonics, or Two Hours Study in the Art of Memory, illustrated by many plates.

Mr. Robert Fellowes, of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, has in the press, a History of Ceylon, from the earliest period, to the year 1815, with characteristic details of the people.

Select Pieces of Early Popular Poetry. Edited by E. V. Utter. son, Esq. Each poem will be ornamented with a wood-cut vignette, and to each will be prefixed a short notice. A glossary to the whole will also be added.

The Rev. John Bruce, of Newport, is printing Juvenile Anecdotes, designed for the moral and religious instruction of the rising generation.

Mr. Matthew Gregson, of Liverpool, is printing in a small folio volume, Fragments of the History of the County of Lancaster, with numerous engravings.

Speedily will be published in one volume 8vo. Sermons on inte. resting Subjects. By the late Rev. James Scott, D.D. Rector of Simonburn, Northumberland, and Fellow of Trinity College, Cam. bridge.

A translation of the Antiquarian Travels in Italy, of the learned French Archeologist, M. Millin, is preparing for the press,

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