Stella. Where, brother, where-mercy, fhew me! Sure I do not eat too many wild plumbs-where does the complaint lie? I feel the pain, but cannot discover the feat of it.' We can have only one objection to this fcene, which is, that its beft ftroke is borrowed from the tragedy of Tom Thumb, where king Arthur, having fallen in love with Glumdalca, queen of the giants, is for fome time uncer tain, whether it be love, or the "wind-colic." That we may render our readers as complete judges as ourfelves of the merits of Robin Hood, we will lay before them in a very brief manner, one ftroke of our author's fublime, and two or three pieces of his wit. A fhort colloquy between Robin Hood and Edwin fhall fuffice for the firit. Robin. It grieves me I cannot perfuade you to remain with us, time and reflection, with cheerful company and the sports of the chace, would alleviate your pain. Edwin. No, no-I have tried every means in vain: three years abfence has not leffened, but encreafed my paffion and my griefeven hope, that fweetening balm, which attends the martyred wretch ftrained on the rack in his laft pangs of torture, is denied to me.' The wit of Mr. Mac Nally will be fufficiently confpicuous in the following extracts. < Rüttekin. The Friar is really most porterly drunk. John. True, tinker, and being porterly drunk, he is able to carry his liquor.' John. Prudent foul; how the looks forward to a young fami ly I will maintain you by my wit, my girl; a means by which many great folks hold up their heads; befides I have goods and chattles, all the furniture you have seen in my cottage fhall be yours, and egad, will throw all you have not feen into the bargain." But perhaps the non-pareil of this performance, is, the final interview and discovery of Edwin and Angelina, when fhe and her companion Annette, after their tedious wanderings, arrive in difguife at the hermit's cell. The recogni tion itself does not pafs upon the stage, but immediately after its having taken place. ling. Enter Edwin and Angelina from the cave. Ruttek. That is natural; after high words they fall to wrest Annette. Yes, and the hermit will probably get the better of the pilgrim. But we muft now take leave of the opera of Robin Hood. And we fhould betray our trust to the public, did we quit it without obferving, that, in refpect of invention of fable, merit of poetry, humour of character, and eafinefs of dia logue logue, it is, to fay the leaft, fo far as we know, the very humbleft dramatic performance of the larger kind, that ever, from the theatre, was intruded into the closet. R. ART. III. The Obferver. 8vo. 6s. boards. Dilly. London. HE fuccefs of Addifon in his Spectator was infinitely extenfive, and moft pointedly flattering: He could not fail, of confequence, to produce imitators; and, thefe have appeared with profufion not only in our own, but in foreign nations. This fashion, however, has for fome time fubfided; if we except that in Scotland, a paper called the Mirror has run, of late, a promifing career. Our present author, is, no doubt, an imitator of the kind we have in view; but instead of sending out his effays into the world fingly, he gives them in their order in a volume. His matter like that of his predeceffors is mifcellaneous and like them too he is a candidate, not only for humour and wit, but for knowledge of life and manners. He is a friend to morality and virtue; and he is ferious in the promotion of their interefts. When he attacks folly he means to correct it; and when he attacks vice it is not to punish, but to reform. He wishes every where to pleafe; and we find not that he has at any time defcended to perfonalities. His intentions are most amiable; nor is his execution without merit. To the young of both fexes, and in schools and academies his book may be exceedingly useful. Our readers will be pleafed with the following obfervations which he has made on the fubject of gaming. • I fhall not take upon myself to lay down rules for kings, or af fect to pronounce what a fovereign can, or cannot, do to discountenance gaming in this kingdom; but I will venture to fay, that fomething more is requifite than mere example. "It was in the "decline of Rome, when the provinces were falling off from her 66 empire, whilst a virtuous but unfortunate prince poffeffed the "throne, that the greatest part of Africa was in revolt: The Ge"neral who commanded the Roman legions, was a foldier of ap"proved courage in the field, but of mean talents and diffolute 66 manners. This man in the most imminent crifis for the interefts "of Rome, fuffered and encouraged fuch a fpirit of gaming to ob "tain amongst his officers in their military quarters, that the fineft "army in the world entirely loft their difcipline, and remained in"active whilst a few levies of raw infurgents wrefted from the Roman arms the richest provinces of the empire. Hiftory records. "nothing further of this man's fate or fortune, butleaves us to con"clude that the reproaches of his own confcience and the execra"tions of pofterity were all the punifliment he met with. The 66 4 "empire "empire was rent by faction, and his party rescued him from the แ difgrace he merited." The laft refource in all defperate cafes, which the law cannot, or will not, reach, lies with the people at large: It is not without reafon I state it as the laft, because their method of curing diforders is like the violent medicines of Empirics, never to be applied to but in abfolute extremity. If the people were, like Shakespear's Julius Cæfar, never to do wrong but with juft caufe, I fhould not fo much dread the operation of their remedies; I fhall therefore venture no further, than to exprefs an humble with, that when it fhall be their high and mighty pleasure to proceed again to the pulling down and burning of houfes, thofe houfes may not be the repofitories of science, but the receptacles of Gamefters. When a man of fortune turns Gamefter, the act is fo devoid of reafon, that we are at a lofs to find a motive for it, but when one of defperate circumftances takes to the trade, it only proves that he determines against an honeft courfe of life for a maintenance, and having his choice to make between robbery and gaming, prefers that mode of depredation which exposes him to least danger, and has a cowards plea for his vocation. Such an one may fay with Antient Piftol "I'll live by Nym, and Nym fhall live by me, "And friendfhip fhall combine and brotherhood: In the juftice of his league I do not join with Antient Pistol, but I am ready to allow there is fome degree of common fenfe in this clafs of the brotherhood, of which common fense I cannot trace a fhadow amongst the others. A preference therefore in point of understanding is clearly due to the vagabonds and defperadoes; as to the man, who, for the filly chance of winning what he does not want, rifques every thing he ought to value, his defence is in his folly, and if we rob him of that, we probably take from him the only harmless quality he is poffeffed of. If however fuch an inftance fhould occur, and the dæmon of gaming fhall enter the fame breaft, where honour, courage, wit, wifdom refide, fuch a mind is like a motley fuit of cards, where kings, queens and knaves are packed together, and make up the game with temporary good fellowship, but it is a hundred to one that the knave will beat them all out of doors in the end. As there are feparate gangs of Gamefters, fo there are different modes of gaming; fome fet their property upon games of fimple chance, fome depend upon fkill, others upon fraud. The Gamefters of the first defcription run upon luck; a filly crew of Fortune's fools; this kind of play is only fit for them, whofe circumftances cannot be made worfe by lofing, otherwise there is no proportion between the good and the evil of the chance; for the good of doubling a man's property bears no comparison with the evil of lofing the whole; in the one cafe he only gains fuperfluities, in the other he lofes neceffaries; and he, who stakes what life wants against that, which life. wants not, makes a foolish bett, to fay no worfe of it. Games of chance are traps to catch fchool-boy novices and gaping country-fquires, who hegin with a guinea and end with a mortgage; mortgage; whilft the old ftagers in the game, keeping their paffions in check, watch the ebb and flow of fortune, till the booby they are pillaging fees his acres melt at every caft. In games of fkill, depending upon practice, rule and calcula tion, the accomplished profeffor has advantages, which may bid defiance to fortune; and the extreme of art approaches fo closely to the beginning of fraud, that they are apt to run one into the other: in thefe engagements, felf-conceit in one party and diffimulation in the other are fure to produce ruin, and the fufferer has fomething more than chance to arraign, when he reviews the wreck of his fortune and the diftreffes of his family. The drama of a Gamefter commonly has felf-murder for it's catastrophe, and authors, who write to the paffions, are apt to dwell upon this fcene with partial attention, as the ftriking moral of the piece; I confefs it is a moral, that does not strike me; for as this action, whenever it happens, devolves to the fhare of the lofing, hot of the winning Gamefter, I cannot difcover any particular edification, nor feel any extraordinary pathos, in a man's falling by his own hand, when he is no longer in a capacity of doing or fuffering further injury in fociety. I look upon every man as a fuicide from the moment he takes the dice-box defperately in hand, and all that follows in his career from that fatal time is only fharpening the dagger before he strikes it to his heart. My proper concern in this fhort effay is to fhew, that gaming is the chief obftructing caufe, that affects the state of fociety in this nation, and I am fenfible I need not have employed fo many words to convince my reader that Gamefters are very dull and very dangerous companions. When blockheads rattle the dice-box, when fellows of vulgar and bafe minds fit up whole nights contemplating the turn of a card, their ftupid occupation is in character; but whenever a cultivated understanding ftoops to the tyranny of fo vile a paffion, the friend of mankind fees the injury to fociety with that fort of aggravation, as would attend the taking of his purfe on the highway, if upon feizure of the felon, he was unexpectedly to difcover the perfon of a judge.' It only remains for us to obferve, that our author has contrived to intermingle with his effays fome curious papers upon the literature of the Greeks. Thefe include a chain of anecdotes from the earliest poets to the death of Menander. ART. IV. The Hiftory of the Abforbent Syftem, Part the firit. Containing the Chylography, or Defcription of the human lacteal Veffels, with the different Methods of difcovering, injecting, and preparing them, and the Inftruments ufed for thefe Purposes.. Illuf trated by Figures. By John Sheldon, Surgeon, Profeffor of Anatomy in the Royal Academy of Arts, and Lecturer of Anatomy and Surgery. 4to. 11. Is. Sold by the Author. IN N the introduction to this work, which is dedicated to Sir Jofeph Banks, Mr. Sheldon, after affigning feveral reafons for the difficulty there is in tracing the lymphatic fyftem, proceeds to give the hiftory of the feveral difcoveries that that have been made from time to time in this curious and ufeful branch of anatomy.-The first of these discoveries was of the lacteal yeffels in 1622 by Cafpar Afellius. Soon after this, Rudbeck, Bartholine and Jolyffe difcovered the lymphatic vaffels, and Pecquet the thoracic duct. It still remained doubtful whether the lymphatics conftituted the abforbent fyftem; for no part of this fyftem had yet been found in birds, amphibia, and fifh. The veins were then fuppofed to be the medium by which abforption was carried on. Mr. John Hunter, and Mr. William Hewfon were the first who difcovered the abforbent fyftem in the above-mentioned animals. Deficiency of former publications relative to the abforbent fyftem. Mr. Hewfon's, the most complete of the kind, delineates only the lymphatics of the extremities and the trunk. This work is defigned to fupply the deficiency. • In the first chapter, Mr. Sheldon lays down very precisely the method of difcovering, injecting, diffecting and prepar ing the absorbent veffels. The art of injecting minutely, and particularly with quickfilver, feems rather to have been kept up as a kind of arcanum among anatomifts, and none of them have before taken the pains to give full instructions upon this point. Students are therefore the more obliged to this accurate and laborious anatomift, for giving them this neceffary affiftance in their anatomical purfuits, upon this difficult and important fubject. The inftruments to be employed for this purpose are defcribed and carefully delineated in one of the annexed plates. In the fecond chapter the author treats in a more circumftantial manner of the difcovery of the lacteal veffels. The account of this difcovery by Afellius, is curious and interefting. That anatomift, on the 23d of June 1622, having opened a living dog, foon after he had taken food, to make experiments on the recurrent nerves and diaphragm, faw a number of white threads on the furface of the mefentery and inteftines, which he foon found to be diftin&t from any fet of veffels he had before feen there. Sufpending therefore his other experiments, he made an opening into one of thefe white threads. No fooner was this done, than he faw a fluid like milk, or cream, iffue from the cavity of the veffel. "Afellius could not contain his joy at the fight of this "phenomenon, and turning round to Alexander Tadinas, and the fenator Septalius, who were prefent, he invited them to enjoy this fpectacle, which, he adds, was of short duration, for the dog died, and the veffels difappeared." Subfequent experiments confirmed this interefting discovery. Mr. Sheldon then proceeds to defcribe the ftructure of the coats |