STILLINGFLEET's Tranflation of Mifcellaneous Tracts. 321 difplay in parts that require the utmost energy of paffion, be happily concealed. The mafk, fock, and bufkin, conftituted the most material differences between the antient and modern players. The fock and buskin were the antient appendages of tragedy and comedy; the former is defcribed by fome to be a kind of a high fhoe, reaching above the ancle; others fay, it was only a low common fhoe, the ufe of which on the theatre was confined to comedy. The bufkin was a purple-coloured boot, of a quadrangular form, which reached above the mid-leg, tied under the knee, and richly ornamented with jewels. The thickness of the fole gave a confiderable elevation to the ordinary ftature; it was the peculiar diftinction of tragedy. It is faid to have been worn promifcuously by either sex; and that the Roman ladies used it to raise their height; however, the fock and buskin have ever fince been the characteristics of comedy and tragedy.' K-n-k Mifcellaneous Tracts, relating to Natural Hiflory, Husbandry, and Phyfic. Tranflated from the Latin, with notes by Benja min Stillingfleet. 8vo. 3 s. fewed. Dodfley. THE HE ftudy of natural hiftory is at once fo delightful to the fpeculative, and fo advantageous, in its confequences, to the bufy part of the world, that inftead of wondering, with fome, how perfons can employ their whole lives in minute refearches into animal and vegetable nature, we are furprized, on the contrary, that it doth not ftill more forcibly attract the attention of the fenfible part of mankind, and meet with more general encouragement from thofe who are the guardians of the economical interefts and political happiness of nations. I can scarcely condemn mankind,' (fays the ingenious tranflator of thefe tracts) for treating with contempt a virtuoso whom they fee employed in poring over a mofs or an infect day after day, and fpending his life in fuch feemingly unimportant and barren fpeculations. The first and most natural reflections that will arife on this occafion, must be to the difadvantage of such pursuits. Yet were the whole fcene of nature laid open to our view, were we admitted to behold the connections and dependencies of every thing on every other, and to trace the œconomy of nature through the smaller as well as greater parts of this globe, we might perhaps be obliged to own we were mistaken; that the Supreme Architect had contrived his works REV. April, 1759. Y in in fuch a manner, that we cannot properly be faid to be unconcerned in any one of them; and therefore, that studies which feem upon a flight view to be quite useless, may, in the end, appear to be of no fmall importance to mankind. Nay, were we only to look back into the history of arts and sciences, we must be convinced, that we are apt to judge over-haftily of things of this nature. We should there find many proofs, that he who gave this inftinctive curiofity to fome of his creatures, gave it for good and great purposes, and that he rewards with useful difcoveries all thefe minute researches. It is true, this does not always happen to the searcher, or his contemporaries, nor even fometimes to the immediate fucceeding generation; but I am apt to think, that advantages of one kind or other always accrue to mankind from such pursuits. Some men are born to obferve and record, what, perhaps, by itfelf is perfectly ufelefs; but yet of great importance to another, who follows, and goes a ftep farther ftill as ufelefs. To him another fucceeds, and thus by degrees; till at laft one of a superior genius comes, who laying all that has been done before his time together, brings on a new face of things, improves, adorns, exalts human fociety.' If any apology were neceffary for engaging in fo pleafing and beneficial a purfuit, we prefume that of Mr. Stillingfleet is unexceptionable nor is his motive for tranflating the tracts before us, lefs laudable; as they were not before fo generally known in England, as to give much hope of their being ufeful. The pieces themfelves are felected from the juftly-efteemed publications of the learned members of the University of Upfal; of which the celebrated Linnæus is prefident. The firft is an oration, concerning the neceffity of travelling in one's own country, delivered by Dr. Linnæus, at Upfal, Oct. 17, 1741, when he was admitted to the royal and ordinary profesfion of phyfic. In this piece are many curious particulars, relating to the natural hiftory of Sweden, in which confifts its greateft merit: for, as an oration, though it be declamatory enough, it carries little of the force of genuine elocution. The fecond is a treatife on the economy of nature, by Mr. Biberg, published in 1749 By the economy of nature is meant, the all-wife difpolition of the Creator in relation to natural things, by which they are fitted to produce general ends, and reciprocal ufes. Under this head are confidered the means of propagation, prefervation, and deftruction, through the foffile, vegetable, aud animal kingdoms. There is little advanced, however, on any of these subjects, that is new, to those who are familiarly acquainted with the writings of our own countrymen, on natural hiftory. The following obfervations, indeed, relating to the migration of birds, are particular and curious. • What I have obferved, fays Mr. Biberg, in a few words con. cerning the migration of birds into foreign countries, gives me an opportunity of illuftrating this fubject farther by inftances. The Starling, finding with us [our Readers will remember it is a Swede that fpeaks] after the middle of fummer, worms in lefs plenty, yearly goes into Scania, Germany, and Denmark. The female Chaffinches every winter, about Michaelmas, go in flocks to Holland; but as the males ftay with us, they come back the next spring, unless fuch as choose to breed no more. In the fame manner, the female Carolina Yellow-hammer, in the month of September, while the rice on which the feeds is laid up in granaries, goes towards the fouth, and returns in the fpring to feek her mate. Our aquatic birds are forced by neceffity to fly towards the fouth every autumn, before the water is frozen. Thus we know that the lakes of Poland and Lithuania, are filled with Swans and Geese every autumn, at which time they go in great flocks along many rivers as far as the Euxine. But in the beginning of fpring, as foon as the heat of the fun molefts them, they turn back, and go again to the northern pools and lakes, in order to lay their eggs. For there, and especially in Lapland, there is a vaft abundance of gnats, which afford them excellent nourishment, as all of this kind live in the water before they get their wings. "The Woodcock lives in England in winter, and departs from thence at the coming on of fpring, after they have paired. The (wallow-tailed Sheldrake croffes Sweden in April, and does not stop till fhe has reached the White Sea. The Cobler's Awl goes every autumn into Italy. The arctic Diver goes into Germany every fpring and autumn. • The miffel Thrush fills our woods in the fpring, but leaves us in the winter. The pied Chaffinch during the winter, being obliged to leave the Alps, haftens into Sweden, and often into Germany. The Gulls vifit Spain and Italy. The Raven goes into Scania. Y A By 1 By thefe migrations birds alfo become useful to many different countries, and are diftributed over almost all the globe. I cannot forbear expreffing my admiration here, that all of them exactly obferve the times of coming and going, and that they do not mistake their way.' The third tract relates to the foliation of trees, or the time when they put on their leaves. Written by Mr. Barck, and publifhed in 1753. It contains, among other interesting obfervations relating to husbandry, a table expreffing the order in which many trees begin to put forth their leaves in Sweden; as an improvement on which, our judicious Tranflator has added another, expreffive alfo of the time of the leafing of several trees and fhrubs in England, agreeable to his own observations in Norfolk, in the year 1755*. The fourth is a declamation on the ufe of curiofity, by Mr. Gedner, published in 1752. This is an ingenious and wellwritten piece, recommending the moft earnest enquiries into the fecrets of nature, however infignificant at first view, or however apparently trifling they may appear, to the ignorant and injudicious. The fifth concerns the obftacles to the improvement of phyfic, written by Mr. Beyerftein. This is a fenfible and judicious cenfure on the prefent practitioners in phyfic; although it contains hardly any thing but what is also the common complaint of every judicious and confcientious person of the faculty. The fixth piece, entitled the Swedish Pan, is written by Mr. Haffelgren, and treats of different plants as the proper food of different animals. To this the Tranflator has added a tract of his own, relating to the feveral different fpecies of graffes; and their propriety for the meliorating the turf, for the use of cattle. He appears to have treated the fubject in a very methodical and judicious manner, fumming up the whole with the following remarks upon graffes in general. As to graffes in general, I muft obferve, fays Mr. Stillingfleet, first, that thofe graffes only which throw out many leaves from the root, feem to be worth propagating for hay or pafture, for a reafon given in one of the foregoing treatifes, viz. that cattle will not touch the flowering ftems, as every one must have observed, who has obferved anything about graffes. Secondly, I am fenfible that we cannot have what graffes we please on every ground. But it does not follow, because we cannot have the beft, that we must have the worst. I saw the laft fummer, at Lhanberis in Carnarvonfhire, the poor inhabi-, tants, with infinite labour, mowing grafs for hay, which confifted chiefly of the purple hair grafs, genus ninth, which was of fo hard a nature, that it required a stroke like what would have felled a small tree to mow it, and this not ripe till the latter end of Auguft. Now had thefe people the practice of getting good grafs feeds, they might be furnished with a grafs much fooner ripe, which is of great confequence in a place where there is very little fertile ground, and where the fun never reaches for full three months in the year; for they would procure a better after-math, have more nourishing fodder for the cattle in winter, and not be at the tenth part of the pains in mowing. Thirdly, it is furprizing to fee almost all over England, that the lands which the farmer pays the most for, are the most neglected. I mean grafs lands, which are generally filled with rubbifh. This happens, I believe, in part, because the farmer thinks it is the nature of fome lands to run to bad grass. This I have heard many times afferted, and the affertion is thus far right, that if ground be not properly drained and cleaned, the grafs moft natural to a bad foil will prevail, let him fow what grafs he pleases; but this will likewife be the cafe of his corn-fields: if he neglects them, they will no doubt be over-run with weeds, and his crop will come to nothing. I have feen fields of barley fo full of corn-marygold, that the crop was not worth cutting. Fourthly, I have known a gentleman deterred from newlaying with grafs the grounds about his houfe, where the turf was but ordinary, because the farmers told him, it would take feven years to get a good turf. I agree with them in part, but I am against limiting the time to feven years. They might have faid feventy times feven, for in their way of going to work Y 3 they |