preparing a wholesome antifcorbutic drink ought to be provided. So much has been faid, and very properly, in favour of malt and its effence, effence of fpruce, &c. that I fhall not take notice of them at prefent; but instead of thefe, or where they cannot be procured, I would recommend treacle-beer, or what may be called hop-beer, to be used. For this purpofe a quantity of hops and molasses should be taken on board of fhips which are likely to be long without refreshments; and from thefe a liquor not only extremely falutary, but pleasant, may be prepared at fea with very little trouble or expence, by boiling the hops in water flowly for an hour, in the proportion of 10 pounds to 288 gallons, or eight barrels of water; and adding one hundred weight of molaffes, when the decoction is fufficiently cool. They fhould be well stirred together, then tunned into casks, a little yeaft added, and left to ferment. The management afterwards is the fame as that of spruce beer.

The quality of the beer here proposed is equal to that of the small beer in ufe in the navy; but the proportion I have used in making hop-beer, was one ounce and an half of hops and one pint of molaffes to each gallon of water; and the beer prepared from this was excellent.

An hundred weight of molaffes is equal in ftrength to eight bushels of malt; and with ten pounds of hops, or the extract (if properly prepared) from the fame quantity, will make three barrels of beer equal in ftrength to porter.'

Mr. Thomson, after defcribing à method of preferving yeaft, and propofing fubftitutes for it, in cafe of a deficiency, recommends the ufe of fermented bread instead of biscuits; an alteration which, without doubt, would greatly conduce towards the prevention of the fcurvy. He obferves, that as the ovens in Brodie's fire-places, in common ufe in the navy at prefent, are fufficiently large to bake bread for the fick and convalefcents, without any additional expence of fuel, they appear preferable to any thing of the kind which has hitherto been invented; and he supposes that with thofe ovens, and a little additional fuel to bake in the night, bread enough might be prepared to fupply the whole fhip's company. It is certain that fuch an improvement would be of the utmoft advantage to the navy. For, as our author obferves, if the men are fupplied with good fermented bread and beer, fuch as he defcribes, they will have little reafon to dread the fcurvy. In point of convenience, his propofal feems to be unexceptionable; as he informs us that the quantity of flour fufficient to make bread for three months will not require more room than one month's biscuit.

With respect both to the prevention and cure of the fcurvy, Mr. Thomfon has favoured the public with many other judicious obfervations, which are highly worthy of attention; and, in a

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fubfequent

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fubfequent part of the volume, he adduces very ingenious and forcible arguments to difprove the opinion that salt, taken in a moderate quantity with food, has any tendency to generate a fcorbutic diathefis in the fluids. The author intimates à defign of hereafter publishing fome experiments relative to the fame difeafe. We fhould be glad to fee this intention accomplished, as we doubt not, from the prefent performance, that he would treat the fubject with particular advantage.

ART. V. The Loiterer; a periodical Work, in Two Volumes. First published at Oxford in the Years 1789 and 1790. 8vo. 10s. boards. Prince and Cooke, Oxford; Egertons, London. 1790.

PERIODICAL effays are a fpecies of writing happily

calculated both for entertainment and inftruction. The multiplicity of fubjects which they admit affords them perpetual variety, at the fame time that the narrowness of their usual limits exempts the reader from that disgust which compofitions of a different nature are often apt to produce. This mode of communicating to the public an author's ideas was introduced into England, with great fuccefs, at an early period of the present century, and has fince, in a few inftances, been followed with no fmall degree of approbation. It is certain, that, among a people where the defire of novelty and the caprice of fashion, are conftantly giving rife to changes in the habits of life, nothing can be more conducive towards maintaining propriety in behaviour, than the occafional fentiments and obfervations of philofophical and ingenious men, especially when conveyed in such a manner as gratifies the tafte, as well as improves the understanding.

The Loiterer began to be published at Oxford in January 1789, and continued to make its appearance every Saturday till the 20th of March, 1790. We find, from an acknowledgement in the last number, that fix or feven gentlemen of the univerfity have contributed their affiftance to the work; but the projector and principal author of it is Mr. James Austen, of St. John's College, who, to speak in the most moderate terms, has no caufe to be ashamed of the production. It abounds in good fenfe, agreeable fpeculation, and juft obfervations on life and manners; expreffed in correct language, and, in general, more in the ftyle of the Rambler, than of the original models of fuch effays. As a fpecimen of the work, we shall prefent our readers with the following number, which treats of the pleasures of elegant fociety, and points out fome errors in converfation. . When,

When, in compofing a Loiterer, or in following any other ftudies, I have infenfibly fallen into more intenfe thought than is congenial to my fyftem, I find certain and immediate relief in the converfation of a few friends, whom many fucceffive years have gradually placed at my fide, and in whom commanding talents are fo tempered by complying manners, that if at any time I feel more than ordinary felf-complacency, it is when I reflect that I have been able to draw round me fuch a circle: living in rivalship without enmity, and familiarity without diftafte, we mutually derive from converfation affistance in study, and delight in relaxation.

Most of my readers of both fexes have also their little circles, in which they enjoy the fatisfaction of talking and being talked to; and however they may be divided which affords most pleasure, there are few but will agree, that little can exift where they are precluded from both. I am inclined to believe that the most converfible are, if not the most happy, yet the leaft unhappy members of fociety; for grief, fear, and anxiety, are abftracted and filent; but joy, hope, and contentment, have an ear open to every tale, and a tongue ready to fill every pause.

Perhaps the pleafure of converfation is often exclusive of any actual wit or fense contained in it; for who but has liftened with pleafure to the bewitching nothings of a pretty woman, and thought her periods fufficiently rounded by a fweet and voluble utterance, and fufficiently pointed by a piercing eye?

But though converfation may be generally a fource of pleasure, and rarely of pain, it not unfrequently wearies and offends by impertinence. In many inftances, indeed, the company can ftifle or promote a topic, filence or encourage a speaker, at will; but where fuperiority of age or fortune fanction prolixity or infipidity, the remedy is not always practicable, and if one man will expofe himself, the reft muft fubmit to look on. I fhall therefore recall to my readers a few characters, which probably every one of them has met and condemned; in which he who is free from their errors may fee his danger and avoid it; and he who has inadvertently fallen into them may perceive his folly and reform. And it is certainly more defirable that a man fhould difcover his own want of wisdom, than that others fhould be reduced to the neceffity of informing him that he is a fool.

In the circles of men, few characters are more frequent than one who fastens on fome ftranger who happens to have vifited or to refide in his neighbourhood, with whom he runs over a catalogue of names, and a register of minute circumftances, unintelligible to others, and unimportant to himfelf. Enumerating every perfon with whom he has dined or danced, he details their concerns without intereft, and characterises them without difcrimination. Unwearied in inquiries, not prompted by defire of rejoicing with the fortunate or condoling with the wretched, he liftens to the relation of calamity without pain, of good fortune without pleasure. Whether the objects of his inquiry be finking into poverty, or rifing into wealth, whether fick,

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dying,

dying, or dead, he hears their story with the fame vacant compofure of muscle, the fame complacent nod of apprehenfion. Happy is the company when the fortunate lapfe of a letter in the recollection of a name, or fome confufion in afcertaining a particular day or place, fufpends his volubility!

Equally frequent and wearifome is the man who is in the oppofite extreme. As the converfation of the one is more copious than fluent, that of the other is more fluent than copious: the one bewilders himself among a thousand different perfons and things, the other confines himself to a very few favourite topics. It is fometimes amufing to obferve with what dexterity he conducts the discourse round to his darling fubjects, and with what delight he expatiates on the well-known ground. I have an old and refpectable acquaintance fomewhat of this defcription; and when he falls into these harangues, he fometimes brings fo lively to my recollection the place and time in which I first heard them, that I almost doubt whether all which has intervened is not a dream, and half perfuade myself that I am several years younger, and in quite a different part of the kingdom, than I afterwards find I really am. But let me be just to his merits. One fometimes is indifpofed to talk or liften, yet neither affects filence or folitude; at such seasons, what hours of indefcribeable luxury have I paffed in the converfation of my friend!

Another leading perfonage is one who fits mute while the con-` verfation continues general, and scarcely feems to exift till he has turned it against fome unfortunate individual: unable to fhine by his own light, he feeks relief in the darkness of another. One of this character is found in most small societies, and two or three in every common room. He may be easily distinguished; for when he enters the company, argument is relinquifhed and laughter fubfides, and a general filence of expectation and apprehenfion prevails, till it appears who is to be fingled out for the evening's perfecution. When once the fpirit of raillery is conjured up, every one becomes inte. rested in fixing it in its circle, and the whole evening waftes away in the diftreffes of one man, and the ungenerous triumph of the rest : and while all are actuated by one illiberal feeling, and unite in one fruitless purpose, no mutual courtefies refine the manners, no collifion of fentiments ftrengthens the taste, no interchange of information enriches the mind.

But of all impertinents he is the most infufferable who talks from books in great fwaths.' He is pofitive in his affertions, because he believes he has read them, and angry if they are controverted, because he has not a fingle idea by which he can maintain them. In what inextricable confufion have I feen fuch a man involve himself and all around him, by having turned over two leaves together, or overlooked a comma in a critical place. Such a character generally poffeffes a feeble intellect, which entirely bends under the weight of ftudies which, with violence to nature, he pertinaciously impofes on 1 himself. You may track him through all the labyrinth of his reading by the thread of his converfation: his mind is a shallow ftream, where every acceffion of rubbish appears above the furface. • Difgufted

Difgufted at the frequent recurrence of fuch characters among men, we fly to female circles. In women we perfuade ourselves trifling will lofe its infipidity, ignorance its arrogance, and mirth its licentioufnefs. A little experience teaches us that the converfeable qualifications of both fexes are very equally poifed.

In most companies we obferve a lady who draws her chair clofe to one of her own fex, with whom she difcuffes all those important topics which transfer the burden of entertainment from the brain, which is fufceptible of every exertion, to the tongue, which is proof against all fatigue. While the thus breaks the current of conversation, she wonders at its want of fluency, and by the fignificant glances which fhe darts around her at every pause, filently reproves an inattention in the men which the feems ftudious to provoke. At length she retires from the company full of complaints of its infipidity, forgetting that to one who mixes not in the difcourfe, fenfe will often feem dull, and wit pointlefs; and that they who bring indifference. into fociety, will depart with difguft.

Another character equally frequent is one who, after the cuf tomary forms of falutation, addreffes herself to none, and if any man addrefs her, inclines to him with frigid compofure of feature and averted eye. Not content to withhold by her filence the contributions due from herfelf to the general fund of amusement, by her prying looks and intent pofture the becomes a refraint upon others. Not a compliment paffes on one fide, or an acknowledgment on the other, but that at her return home she details it to a maiden aunt or a younger fifter, with a vivacity and volubility, an hundredth part of which, feasonably exerted, would make her one of the most agreeable companions in the world.

• But above all in folly is the whom the weak of both fexes term a fenfible woman. To compliment her is an impeachment of her understanding; to argue with her, an infult to her charms. If a man contradict her, he openly affronts him; if he affent, she secretly defpifes him. She is faftidious to fhew her judgment, and farcaftic to exercise her wit. If the company be gay, he is all gravity and referve; if ferious, all vivacity and levity: fhe is invariably careful never to join in the prevailing topic, at which fhe is ever difpofed to fneer, as too fuperficial, or too profound.-If a character of this defcription be of an age verging on thirty, and yet of the filterhood of virgins (which not unfrequently happen), the becomes particularly troublesome to the men, whofe company fhe avowedly affects, declaiming on the inanity of her own fex; a preference, for which the one feels little gratitude, and the other little concern.-Such a character is generally a very extenfive and excurfive reader. Her favourite volume is a thin folio, which takes up much room and contains little matter. One fubject is not more difficult to her than another, except as it employs a greater number of pages; and if a fentence be but fairly printed, the feldom finds any obfcurity. -There is a very literary lady, efteemed a great ornament to our family, who often lays down Reid and Horsley, and runs over the Loiterer without the leaf remiffion of the wifdom which, on thefe occafions, fhe fummons

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