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country, that the subjections to which the kingdom was reduced, affected them with the heaviest sadness. Sinking beneath this weight of sympathetic sorrow, they became a prey to melancholy: hence the plaintiveness of their music: for the ideas that arise in the mind are always congenial to, and receive a tincture from, the influencing passion. Another cause might have occurred with the one just mentioned, in promoting a change in the style of our music; the Bards often driven, together with their patrons, by the sword of oppression, from the busy haunts of men, were obliged to lie concealed in marshes, and in glynns and vallies resounding with the noise of falling waters, or filled with portentous echoes. Such scenes as these, by throwing a settled gloom over the fancy, must have considerably increased their melancholy so that when they attempted to sing, it is not to be wondered at that their voices, thus weakened by struggling against heavy mental depression, should rise rather by minor thirds, which consist but of four semitones, than by major thirds, which consist of five. Now almost all the airs of this period are found to be set in the minor third, and to be of the sage and solemn nature of the music which Milton requires in his IL PENSEROSO.'

To illustrate his position, Mr Walker introduces the following anecdote:

"About the year 1730, one Maguire, a vintner, resided near Charing Cross, London. His house was much frequented, and his uncommon skill in playing on the harp, was an additional incentive: even the Duke of Newcastle, and several of the ministry, sometimes condescended to visit it. He was one night called upon to play some Irish tunes; he did so; they were plaintive and solemn. His guests demanded the reason, and he told them, that the native composers were too deeply distressed at the situation of their country, and her gallant sons, to be able to compose otherwise. But, added he, take off the restraints under which they labour, and you will not have reason to complain of the plaintiveness of their notes.

"Offence was taken at these warm effusions; his house became gradually neglected, and he died soon after, of a broken heart. An Irish harper who was a

Hist. Mem. of the Irish Bards, p. 12.

contemporary of Maguire, and like him felt for the sufferings of his country, had this distich engraven on his harp:

Cur Lyra funestas edit percussa sonores?

Sicut amissum sors Diadema gemit!

But perhaps the melancholy spirit which breathes through the Irish music and poetry, may be attributed to another cause; a cause which operated anterior and subsequent to the invasion of the English: we mean the remarkable susceptibility of the Irish to the passion of love; a passion which the munificent establishinents of the Bards left them at liberty freely to indulge. While the mind is enduring the torments of hope, fear, or despair, its effusions cannot be gay. The greater number of the productions of those amourous poets, Tibullus, Catullus, Petrach, and Hammond, are elegiac. The subject of their songs is always love, and they seem to understand poetry to be designed for no other purpose than to stir up that passion in the mind."

S.

ENTOMOLOGY.

No. II.

MR. CONDUCTOR,

Ir is a subject that has excited much surprize, that no book has yet been published (except Yates's Institutes of Entomology, which cannot now be met with any where,) pointing out the first principles of the science of Entomology. Perinit me, therefore, through the medium of your entertaining miscellany, to direct my endeavours to this subject. I allow that there are existing some very excellent books on the science, but they are only calculated for the study of such persons as have made some proficiency therein.

Insects are distinguished from other animals by their having two antennæ or feelers projecting from their head their real use to the insect is not yet known: and by their having small holes in their body through which they breathe, and by their having feet formed for running, &c. they are divided into seven orders, viz. Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera, Diptera, and Aptera.

1st. Coleoptera comprehends all those insects come monly called beetles, having four wings, the exterior pair of which are hard, rigid, and opake, and form a kind of case for the interior pair; add to this that the mouth consists of two transverse jaws.

2dly. Hemiptera, the second order:-The characteristic is, that the mouth is either situated in the breast, or inclined towards it; that the upper wings are semi-crustaceous, semi-membraneous, and incumbent, and not connected by a strait longitudinal suseri, as in the preceding order.

3dly. Lepidoptera, the third order of insects:-With four wings imbricated with scales, in the mouth is contained a spiral tongue, and the body is hairy; this order comprehends three genera - Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalana.

4thly. Hymenoptera:-The characteristic of this order of insects is, that they have four meinbranaceous wings, and the tails of the females are furnished with stings, which, in some instances, are used for instilling poison, and, in others, for piercing the bark of trees, and the body of other animals, in which they deposit their eggs. Linnæus enumerates ten genera, but since his time others have been discovered.

5thly. Neuroptera, the fourth order:-This class are so called on account of their wings being membranaceous, with nerves, and being disposed in a reticulated form. Dr. Hill enumerates seven genera.

6thly. Diptera:-This order comprehends all those with two wings, and under each wing a style, or oblong body, terminated by a protuberance or head, and called a balance.

7thly. Aptera:---This order is divided into two classes; the first, aptera anartha, those which have neither wings nor limbs; the second, aptera padaria, such as have limbs but no wings.

*

Each of the foregoing orders are divided into several genera, and each genus comprehends several species; but as I only look to the first principles I shall enumerate the genera in each order, with a description of their distinguishing characters, in a manner as plain as possible,

*A genus is a number of insects agreeing in external form; a species is one of the individuals of a genus, differing, in some respects, from the other species, but still agreeing in external form.

for the better instruction of the early entomologist, and whereby he will be able, whenever he finds an insect, to determine immediately to what genus it belongs. Ishall begin (in my next) with the Coleoptera, and so go progressively through the other orders.

I am, Sir,

Your's, very respectfully,

Newington, 8th June, 1807.

W. F. G.

A WELSH TRADITION

OF THE TENTH CENTURY.

From the French.

DINEVAR, for thirty years the favourite of Hoël the Good, king of Wales, was distinguished for the noble qualities of his heart and mind. He was chief of the bards, chamberlain, and grand judge, and without enjoying the dignity of grand master of the palace, his authority in it was unquestionable.

As chief of the bards, it was his duty, whenever the king required it, to seat himself on an ivory throne, strike the golden harp, and sing of VIRTUE the mother of heaven, and of heroes the children of the gods. Hoël frequently took delight in listening to him, for, before Dinevar, no Welch poet had ever derived the gods and heroes from one common mother, from virtue.

As chamberlain, he was empowered to punish with death, whosoever should be found, in the night, and without a light, in the king's apartment, and to arrest those, who, during the day, should endeavour to poison the royal mind with false and malicious accusations.. But Dinevar had the satisfaction not to deprive any one of his life, for the Welch people, without exception, loved Hoël as a father; and as for his duty by day, Dinevar was so vigilant in preventing all intriguers, flatterers, and officious persons from approaching the throne, that his master was uninterruptedly employed in consulting the happiness of his people at large, and governed with so much wisdom, that under the roof of his palace, no-body talked of any thing but of him, and abroad, no one spoke of him, without reverence and admiration.

As grand judge, he was threatened, in case of giving

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a false judgment, with the loss of his tongue: and, as a memento of the punishment which would follow a breach of his duty, the tongues of all the aniinals destined for the royal table, were also served upon his own. But the conscience of the grand judge was so pure, that the sight of these dishes excited in him, no painful emotion.

The dignity of grand judge gave also to Dinevar, the right of deciding the pretensions of those who cultivated poetry. He had plenty of claimants; but being endowed with an exquisite taste, he was a proper judge of what merited to be handed down to posterity, and rewarded those who excelled, with presents of flowers, harps, and rings of gold.

Hoël the Good, being obliged to march at the head of a large army, to quell the insurrection of one of his most powerful vassals, the earl of Carnarvon, called for his grand judge, and with tears in his eyes thus addressed him ::

"I quit the ancient palace of Aberfraw; my queen, the delight of my heart; and thy celestial harp. Friend of my renown, for thou art the friend of my people, watch, more than ever, over what is so dear to ine. Every thing that you direct in my absence, shall be ratified at my return."-" Sire," replied Dinevar,

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every day of my life is distinguished by you with some act of kindness. A stranger and without relations, when you are near me I possess the vigour of the oak, but, without your presence, I shall be but as the broken reed. Suffer me, my sovereign, to accompany you to the battle. Who shall employ more vigilance than your chamberlain, in guarding you against those snares with which kings are sure to be beset. Who will more successfully urge on your brave troops to the fight, than the chief of the Welsh bards; and what magistrate in your kingdom, shall maintain more effectually than your grand judge, as well in the heart of your dominions, as in the territories of your enemies, the dignity of an army conducted by Hoël the Good.".

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"The good of my service," replied the king, quires our separation. Not having the incumbrances of a family, you will govern the kingdom with more You are my other self. Dinevar must remain in the palace of Aberfraw."

care.

* In casu falsi aut pravi judicii.

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