rates this fact, and remarks that the weather should also be "very cold."*

We hence perceive, that the observations of Grew, Black, Clarke and Monge, as well as my own, all tend to the conclusion, that these crystals are more frequent and more regularly formed, when the atmosphere is in a state of quiescence-a conclusion which might have been readily anticipated, when we call to our recollection that a state of quiescence is considered essential to the crystallization of all other substances.

But Macquart informs us, that niveous crystals are observed at Moscow, "when it snows violently and the atmosphere is not too dry!"†

Dr. Black declares that they are pure icy concretions. That they are oftener formed in the clouds than upon the earth, Dr. Black very rationally supposes to be owing to the fewer obstacles which exist there to oppose the peculiar crystallic disposition of water. He thinks too, polarity has something to do with it. He does not believe that an admixture of saline or other particles is necessary to their formation, this being disproved on experiment; for the water of these crystals is purer than any other natural water. And hence he calls it a property of pure

water.

Beccaria supposest the crystals of snow as well as the drops of rain attributable to electrical agency. In snow it acts with less energy than in hail, hence, says he,

the difference of density. In like manner he adds, the drops of rain from thunder clouds are larger than those from others.

In the opinion of M. De Ratte, the agents to which these extraordinary phenomena are ascribable, are the following: "the degree of cold, its mildness or its rapid accumulation, (sa lenteur ou son accroissement rapide,) the direction and violence of the wind, the part of the atmosphere from whence the snow falls, and the various kinds of exhalation mingled with the congealing water."* The agency of any extraneous matters, whether saline or other exhalations, in the formation of these crystals, as suggested by this author and Dr. Grew, must be doubted, after what has just been stated from Dr. Black. Monsieur De Ratte is, no doubt, right in supposing the crystallization of snow to be more or less influenced by the rest of these agents; but in regard to the immediate cause of their production, as with all the other results of the minute affinities of matter, it is impossible perhaps ever to arrive at the truth. And it is as yet doubtful, whether philosophers have even approximated to this point. For without recurring to the less supposed influences, or taking any notice of Caloric, as connected with the explanation of this subject, we see the question still asked, whether or no, these phenomena are to be ranked in the great class of Galvanic or Magnetic agency. P. S. T.

syth united with his distinguished attainments as a man of letters, a soundness of judgment, keenness of perception, and general capaciousness of intellect that fitted him peculiarly for the survey of a country upon which so much has been said and written, and so little to the purpose. To be sure, there is Mr. Eustace, whose fine taste and classical enthusiasm have supplied us with many and glowing pictures of the remains of ancient art and magnificence that are scattered over the surface of Italy. His descriptions of the scenery and climate, too, of that enchant

ing land, can scarcely be surpassed in the richness and, we believe, truth of their colouring. His observations on paintings, statues, cameos, &c. may also be read with interest, nor are we at all inclined to quarrel with the vehemency of his invective against the late masters of Italy; neither is our spleen moved against him because he was a catholic, and, of course, an extreme admirer of the Pope and his cardinals, and a well-wisher to the order of things that subsisted in that best of all possible times, the period immediately preceding the Reformation-an event which we had always been accustomed to regard, erroneously, no doubt,-as the triumph of true religion, but which the Reverend Mr. Eustace has taken especial care to leave us no excuse for longer contemplating as such, by informing us that it sprang "from consciousness of power on one side, and the rage of innovation on the other,”—a very luminous and satisfactory explanation, and one which we take the liberty of recommending, as a model of brief and oracular exposition, to the supporters of the true Faith, whenever they are so unfortunate as to become entangled in controversy with Protestant prejudice and bigotry. Again, we say, it is not because Mr. Eustace looked upon the French Revolution as the alpha and omega of human crime and misery, or because he was a staunch adherent of the Romish Church, that we object to his lucubrations on a country where that Revolution has left some of its deepest scarsand where that Church is so maternally attentive to the spiritual welfare of her children, that all her ingenuity seems to be directed to the leaving them as little else to think about, as she well can. this we conceive, is very beautiful,-only rather late in the day, and not altogether adapted to the darkness of the present age, which in spite of the benevolent remonstrances of Mr. Eustace, and writers of that genus, appears determined to persist in its own crude notions, and to reject, as something partaking of the ridiculous, all his pathetic dissertations and panegyrics upon the divine origin, humbleness and sanctity of the only saving faith.-No, it is for reasons substantially different from objections of a religious nature, that we rank Mr. Eustace, as a writer and observer, in a very inferior rank to that which we would assign to the unprejudiced and eloquent author of the "Remarks," &c. a book which every person intending to visit Italy, should previously peruse-we can assure them it is no undelightful task-and deposit in their

All

malle du voyage, ready to be consulted among the scenes it so pictorially describes. It is the prejudice-the blind prejudice-that pervades the pages of Mr. Eustace-his determination to lift up the Italians-the modern Italians-above all other nations-the unbounded veneration for antiquity that makes him regard with a complacency truly amusing and edifying acts, which, had they occurred in modern times, he would, and very properly, have branded with reprobation-his absurd endeavours to underrate the value of French literature, and to place the feeble triflers of Naples above VOLTAIRE, MONTESQUIEU, and BUFFON-together with the affectation of archaiological sensibility which frequently assumes the appearance of a desire to impose himself upon you for an ancient Roman, and which in one instance, he does not hesitate to say, made him pass by, without visiting, a spot (among the mountains in the vicinity of Verona) inhabited by a very singular race of people, totally distinct from the general population of Italy, and supposed to be descended from the remains of the Cimbri and Teutones, defeated in this neighbourhood by Marius;-these constitute some of the grounds on which we would take our stand against Mr. Eustace as an Italian traveller :-the general aim and desire evinced in his volumes, and not seldom with considerable ostentation, seems to be, the holding forth the Romans, and pretty universally the Italians as the only people deserving the name of a civilized nation, or whose history and monuments ought to excite our curiosity and admiration. Now, we think that there were many features in the Roman character worthy only of unequivocal abhorrence :-sprung from a race of robbers, the Romans appear always, more or less, to have retained the undoubted tokens of their descent;-their arts their literature-were borrowed tastes-but for war and rapine they were cursed with an innate and almost savage predilection;-ambition in its simplestgrossest-form, was the true passion of this unrefined and cruel people the mere extension of their dominion furnished the single impulse by which they were actuated in all their foreign enterprises;-not that they were a martial, but that they were only a martial, people is it that we would point out the Romans as the very worst model for a nation to mould its manners and habits after;-the Greeks were ambitious, but their ambition was not confined to the object which formed its exclusive motive with the Romans-havoc, fraud, and oppression always followed in

the rear of a Roman force, and the lands that submitted to their arms became the victims of their tyranny;-the expeditions of the Greeks, most frequently justified by the aggressions of their enemies, generally ameliorated the condition of the people against whom they were directed, and by the introduction of the useful and elegant arts, more than counterbalanced the temporary evils unavoidably attendant on war. In their least civilized state, the Greeks have always appeared to us a more loftygenerous-souled-and in many points, a more refined-people than the Romans in the proudest periods of the Republic. Every success of the Romans was a curse -every conquest of the Greeks a blessing -to mankind. With the praise to which the primitive purity of their manners, and the intensity of their patriotism, unquestionably entitle them, we cordially agree, and unite with Mr. Eustace in his admiration of their literati, and the mighty and majestic monuments of their former power and magnificence;-but here we stop ;we are not prepared with him, to worship the purple either of the Cæsars or the Popes-we cannot forget that the guilty greatness of Rome was founded in the subjection and plunder of the world-that her eagles were the uniform harbingers of blood and destruction-that fraud and assassination were the steps by which she mounted to glory-and that the triumphs of her arms impeded, in an incalculable degree, the improvement and civilization of the human race. The countrymen of Washington should ever remember that the bases of true greatness are laid in the arts of peace, and that more real glory is derived from the noiseless labours of civil wisdom, than from all the false and glittering pageantry of military or imperial despotism.

Too long has Mr. Eustace detained us from the interesting and, indeed, delightful volume which we are solicitous to introduce to the notice of our readers. Never perhaps, has Italy been sketched with so elegant, vigorous, and masterly a pencil;-never have the vestiges of ancient grandeur, or the labours of modern genius and taste, been so clearly and vividly delineated as in the pages of Mr. Forsythyet it must not be supposed that the talents of the author are simply those of an archaiologist, or that he carried with him to Italy a mind intent only upon the beautiful, but inanimate, objects of art;-his intellect was too extensive in its grasp his powers of observation were too various and independent-to be confined to the analysis of buildings, and statues, and

pictures;-these, as we have said, he describes-and his remarks upon subjects that had exhausted the eulogistic or depreciating talents of his predecessors, have an animation and originality that must excite the surprise of all who reflect upon the difficulty of saying any thing at once true and novel upon topics which have been the themes of discussion for so many centuries;-but it would be doing this eloquent writer a great injustice to suppose that he travelled merely as a connoisseur-that he was so steeped in virtî, as to pass through a country like Italy without bestowing a thought upon any object that did not make an immediate appeal to his taste or imagination,-that the character, the manners, the pursuits, and political condition of her improving, though still degraded population, should not call forth any observations from a writer so eminently and variously gifted, would be a just cause of surprise, and to be accounted for only on the score of indolence, or by supposing him to have enjoyed too little leisure or opportunity for the exercise of other powers than those possessed by ordinary travellers. But if Mr. Forsyth were deficient in affording us information respecting the important and primary objects of enquiry to which we have alluded, he could not plead the want either of time or opportunity as a sufficient excuse for his sins of omission :—a résidence in Italy of two entire years would enable an acute and active mind (and the mind of Mr. Forsyth was active and acute in the highest degree) to collect and combine together a mass of usefel and instructive intelligence on the actual condition of the people-he had, besides, access to the highest and best informed society of the country, and as far as we can gather from his own unostentatious language, the esteem in which he was generally held afforded him every desirable means of obtaining, viva voce, information upon every topic which conversation was capable of elucidating-and now having stated to our readers what they have a right to expect from Mr. Forsyth, it seems but fair to inform them he has availed himself to the utmost of all his advantages, and given us a book upon one of the most interesting regions of Europe, superior in nearly every respect to the works that have hitherto fallen in our way. His style is original in a very eminent degree-brief, vigorous, and animated-nothing of the set air of regular composition about itno laborious effort at effect;-but in every page you meet with those unsought graces of diction which captivate the at

tention, when the studied beauties of fine writing would fail altogether of producing the slightest impression. It is not art, but its real or apparent absence, that lends to Mr. Forsyth's style its chief and prominent attractions-it has all the life and vivacity of high-toned conversationevery object is presented to you through a clear and transparent medium that permits you to form an idea of its outline and essential qualities as correct, nearly, as if you actually beheld it;-were we disposed to raise any objection, we should, perhaps, be tempted to say that the composition is too uniformly ambitious and brilliant, and maintains an elevation to which the minds of readers in general, are not always disposed to soar-it may be, that Mr. Forsyth is too constantly splendid-it is possible that he sacrifices a little too much to the desire of dazzling the imagination-and that the web of his diction would be improved were its rich and sparkling materials interwoven with threads of a less gorgeous tint ;-we cannot be always roving on the mountaintops-we love occasionally to descend into the valleys-to repose our wearied limbs, and refresh our exhausted faculties, in the calm and humble shades of their solitary retreats;-Mr. Forsyth was a man of unusually comprehensive and original in tellect-habituated to depend upon the dictates of his own judgment—and rarely drawn aside by prejudice or false enthu siasm-and this temperament of his mind is evinced in almost every subject upon which he touches. Seldom is it that he leans upon the crutches of another's opinion, where he has nothing valuable to offer of his own, he is usually silent-and the treasures of others are rarely rendered subsidiary to a mind wealthy even to overflowing in its own resources.-This intellectual independence, it is admitted, makes occasional inroads upon the grace and suavity of the general style-and here and there the self-love of the reader is a little revolted by bursts of disdainful observation, and the splenetic eruptions of a conscious superiority :-but really, when we consider how frequently we are offended by the unbounded and baseless arrogance of modern writers,-with all the pride, but none of the pretensions of genius-and turn in disheartening retrospect to the quantity of inane and impertinent trash which is almost diurnally disgorged from the press in every Protean shape of instinctive vanity-we do feel disposed to exercise a more than common patience and lenity towards a writer whose extraordinary claims to our atten

tion may well be pled in apology for an occasional and involuntary acerbity or even haughtiness of manner.

A short biography of the author is prefixed, from which we shall extract such passages as we think necessary to let our readers into a knowledge of the habits and dispositions of Mr. Forsyth.

Joseph Forsyth was a native of Elgin, in the county of Moray, in Scotland. His parents were respectable—his father was a merchant of long and reputable standing. Joseph was early sent to the grammar school of Elgin, where his progress was so rapid that his master pronounced him, when only twelve years of age, fit for the university. He was accordingly entered at King's College, Aberdeen, and here the superiority of his exercises, and the gentleness of his disposition soon won the attention of his tutor, Professor Ogilvy. "As he successively passed under the care of the professors, he found himself the object of their approbation and solicitude. Returning every summer to the bosom of his family, he devoted his whole time to study, and thus laid the foundation of that eminent knowledge of the Greek and Roman classics, which it was the business and chief pleasure of his life afterwards to complete. On concluding the four years usually employed in the Scotch universities, his parents left to himself the choice of a profession, but with a secret hope that he would prefer the church; his natural diffidence, and the little prospect he then saw of obtaining a patron, determined him on trying to turn his classical acquirements to some account in that universal mart-London." There he entered into an engagement with the master of a respectable academy in the neighbourhood of the metropolis-where for some time he officiated as assistant-but subsequently purchased the establishment

and for thirteen years conducted it "on his own account with the highest reputation and success. The drudgery and irksomeness of this business were too much for his strength and spirits. Having a tendency to pulmonary complaints, he was, during this period, twice reduced by them to the brink of the grave. Seeing the impossibility of struggling longer with such incongruous duties as the care of his health, and the conscientious superintendance of the education of nearly an [a] hundred boarders, he resigned the charge, and retired to Devonshire in the spring of 1801, to recruit his constitution.

The remainder of the memoir we should injure by abbreviation-it embodies the regrets of a relation-and the sacred