nical arts, and the mathematical and natural sciences. In the noble literary emulation which has recently pervaded Europe, Germany yields the palm to none of her contemporary nations. But to her honor be it remembered, that the very period, of which we are now speaking, has been the inost disastrous for Germany in other respects: ruinous wars throughout every part of her territories have exhausted her resources, and averted the attention of her population from the peaceful culture of the sciences. "As I have excluded works which treat of modern history, I did not think myself called upon to particularise the many excellent Journals of Germany which contain the materials for the literary History of the present age. It is but justice however to mention the titles of some of the most eminent: of this description are the "Classical Journal" of M. Hauff, the " Musaum Atticum" of Wieland, the "Museum Archæologicum" of Wolff and Batman, the "Studies" of Messrs. Daub and Creutzer, &c. the " Scientific Catalogue" of Gottingen, the literary Gazettes of Halle, Jena, Leipsic, Munich, and the Annals of Heidelberg: when on this subject, I cannot refrain from expressing my regret that the once celebrated "Journal des Sçavans" of France has been discontinued, accompanied with a sincere wish that it may speedily be revived. True science and enlightened views must always gain by a free literary intercourse between nations: "it is," as M. Garat elegantly expressed himself in his address from the French Institute to the Emperor, "that almost celestial commerce of genius, in which both gain and loss are profitable, since we thereby daily acquire new ideas and lose only such as are false." We are arrived at an era when the great European families ought to exert themselves more than ever to break down the barriers which have too long divided them into rival or hostile states: the time is come, when the sum total of intelligence and learning, and whatever may be useful for perfecting and ennobling human nature, ought to be thrown into the common stock, and regarded as the patrimony of mankind!" LATIN POEM. Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, Heu, magico nondum viduata timore pererrant Cinimeria condant tenues; torquentia fulmen In Martem stimulant; glomerata furoribus ardent Quanti terrores, quàm luridus insidet horror H. H. JOY. 1803. DR. VINCENT'S Observations on the China of the Classics,' by Mr. Barker. YOUR correspondent, Mr. E. H. Barker, in his account of China,' says he has the misfortune to differ from Dr. Vincent upon the subject of the Coan Vests. The difference is true, but it is not a misfortune, for Mr. Barker, equally laborious in his researches, as candi‹ in his animadversions, has mentioned me with such honorable distinction in all his publications, that no difference of opinion can make a breach in our amicable correspondence. It is true, that I had said that the Coan Vests were made of cotton, and nothing less than the passage which Mr. Barker has produced from Aristotle' would have convinced me to the contrary. It was my duty originally to have referred to that passage, which is pointed out by Hoffman, Salmasius, and Hardouin in his commentary on Pliny; the corresponding passages in Pliny I had cited, and how it happened that I did not, in this case, go to the fountain head, as my usual custom was, it is now needless to inquire. It is true, then, that Mr. Barker has the advantage of me in his reference to Aristotle, and so far am I from being out of humor with him on this account, that I admire his diligence, and am thankful for the information. It clears up several misconceptions in my own mind, and affords room for reflections that may not be unacceptable to the curious. The fact is well known, that Virgil, Pliny,' Dionysius, and many of the ancients, never conceived any other origin of the silk of the Seres, than that it was a fine down, carded from the leaves of some tree in the East; that the down was spun into a thread, and that the thread was made up into a web of a very fine fabric. And if it seems strange that these several writers should never have discovered that the silk of the Seres was the produce of an insect, it is equally true that Aristotle, who gives the history of the insect, the thread, and the web, never mentions the Seres; the reason is, that the name of that nation was probably not knowu in Europe when he wrote. I shall now produce the passage as it stands in the original, to which I shall subjoin a correct translation, with some verbal and literal remarks, and finally offer some observations on the intelligence we acquire from this curious natural history of the insect and formation of the fabric. 4 Ἐκ δέ τινος ΣΚΩΛΗΚΟΣ μεγάλου ὃς ἔχει οἷον κέρατα καὶ διαφέρει τῶν ἄλλων γίνεται δὲ πρῶτον μὲν μεταβαλόντος τοῦ ΣΚΩΛΗΚΟΣ, ΚΑΜΠΗ ἔπειτα ΒΟΜΒΥΛΙΟΣ, ἐκ δὲ τούτου ΝΕΚΥΔΑΛΟΣ· ν ἓξ δὲ μησὶ μεταβάλλει ταύτας τὰς μορφὰς πάσας· ἐκ δὲ τούτου τοῦ ζώου καὶ τὰ Βομβύκια ἀναλύουσι 1 Classical Journal, No. XI. p. 215. 2 De Generat. Animal. lib. v. c. xix. ...... 3 Incognitum genus arborum tenui eas obduci lanugine quibus addita arte è Bombyce vestes confici. Plin, v. 1. Salm. 209. 4 Aristotle, lib. v. De Gen. Animal. મ τῶν γυναικῶν τινες ἀναπηνιζόμεναι κάπειτα ὑφαίνουσι. Πρώτη δὲ λέγεται ὑφᾶναι ἐν Κω Παμφίλη Λατώου θυγάτηρ. Athenæus refers to this passage, (lib. viii. p. 300. i. e. 352 Schweighæuser) and perhaps gives us both a sentence, which seems to have dropped out of the text of Aristotle; and an additional circumstance, which, though not correct, contributes one link more to the chain of the insect's existence. Ἱστορεῖ [Αριστοτέλης] ὅτι καὶ ἐκ τῆς τῶν φθειρῶν ὀχείας αἱ κονίδες γεννῶνται, καὶ ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ Σκώληκος μεταβάλλοντος γίνεται κάμπη, ἐξ ἧς Βομβυλιός, ἀφ' οὗ Νεκύδαλος ὀνομαζόμενος. The circumstance added is, that the worm' springs from a nit engendered by lice: this is not true; but if it had been said that the worm issues from an egg of the animal as small as a nit, it would have been consonant to the fact. With this allowance, then, we have the transformations of the insect from its birth to the end of its existence; and all that is wanting to make Aristotle's account perfect is, that he had not observed the deposition of the eggs by the papilio. Due respect had to these circumstances, we may now give the translation of the two passages united in the following terms: There is a worm which issues from [an egg as small as] the nit of lice, it is of a large (A) size, and has [protuberances bearing the resemblance of horns, (B) [in which respect] it differs from other worms. The first change it undergoes is by the conversion of the worm into a caterpillar; it then becomes a grub, or chrysalis, and at length a moth. The whole of this transformation is completed in six months. There are women who wind off a thread from this animal," which it spun while it was in the state of a caterpillar; and that is the material from which they afterwards form the texture of the web. This invention is attributed to Pamphila, a woman of the Isle of Cos, (F) and daughter of Latoius. We have here self-evidently the exact process of the manufacture of a silk, as it is conducted at this day both in China and Europe ;but whether it be the true silk we now have, or produced by the true silk-worm, remains still to be considered. In the first place, A.-it is not a large worm, but a very small one, at its first appearance, and before it becomes a caterpillar; neither can it properly be called a worm,3 as distinguished from the caterpillar. A caterpillar is discriminated from a worm by its small protuberances which serve for legs, and is called xáμn in Greek, from its bending or undulating motion: these legs of the reptile may be hardly distinguishable at its first production, which may have induced Aristotle to call it a worm. 'Aristotle's knowledge on this head was not accurate; the title of his 19th chapter proposes to treat of insects produced by generation, or automatons. Caterpillars, he says, are automatons from cabbages. 2 Here is a link of the chain wanting; it is not from the animal, but from the cocoon. 3 It is scientifically called a small black worm.—Encyclop. II. B. The silk-worm of China, and that which we have in Europe, has no horns; this circumstance therefore must constitute a distinct species. III. C. Boßuids, by Aristotle written Boußuxos, is the Chrysalis Aurelia, or grub: the Lexicons give Boußuan, equivalent to Boußunes. Pliny, who knew not the worm itself, calls the silk manufactured Bombyx.' IV. D. Nexudaλos, the moth. I find that some commentators propose that Βομβυλιός and Νεκύδαλος should change places in the text, imagining, it should seem, that Nexúdanos should express something as dead as a grub, and that Boußudies followed the analogy of Papilio. Hesychius, Hoffman, and Salmasius, do not countenance this transposition; and yet a reference to Nixùs and Años affords a beautiful allusion to Homer: 'Ως δ' ότι τις ΔΑΛΟΝ σποδιῇ δ' ἐνέκρυψε μελαίνη 1 own the δαλός σπέρμα πυρὸς does so represent the spark of life remaining in the chrysalis, that I yield to authority with regret. Schweighæuser gives Bombylius and Necydalus without translation, but takes great care to tell us that Necydalus should be written Necydallus. 3 V. E. 'Avaloμeva. Pliny quotes this passage of Aristotle twice, once expressly, and once incidentally: in the first instance he renders it thus, unde fœminis nostris labor geminus redordiendi fila rursusque texendi; but by fila he does not mean the thread wound off from the cocoon, but the thread reeved out from a web, and wove up again; that this is his meaning is proved by the parallel passage, where it is said, Romanæ fœminæ sericas vestes ex Assyria allatas filatim resolvebant, iterumque subtiliori stamine texebant:-the whole of this is set right by Salmasius, who proves demonstrably that Aristotle means by avausva the winding off a filament from the cocoon; that is, unwinding what the caterpillar had wound on, and forming this filament into a thread for weaving: under this form it passed from China into Europe, either by sea from India, or by land through Bactria, Persia, or Assyria; by either conveyance it was an article known in the Custom-Houses of the Roman Empire, by the title of mua Enginóv. VI. F. The Isle of Cos. Pliny has turned Cos into Ceos, but Salmasius shows that Ceos is an Island on the coast of Attica, and Cos in the neighbourhood of Rhodes, and that K cannot be rendered by Ceos. REMARKS. We must now allow Aristotle full credit for describing a manufacture similar to the process of fabricating silk from the silk-worm; but whether this Coan web was identically silk, remains still to be con sidered. Bombyx in Co. Plin. xi. 27.and yet in another passage, Superior pars Egypti gignit fruticem, qui defert fructum, cujus ex interiore Bombyce lanugo netur. 1. xix. 3. Here Bombyx is cotton. |