Had our author possessed a competent knowledge of this subject he must have been aware of this horizontal pressure; and, being so, he might easily have shewn how to guard against it, by proceeding farther with his geometrical construction, that is, by making his secant a new radius, and repeating the operation; then the secant to that new radius would be the proper length of the voussoir, when the arch is completely equilibrated; and, the voussoirs acting collectively, the first construction only determining their lengths when acting individually. To those who are in possession of the work here commented upon, these hints will be sufficient; but, to such as are not, some farther information is necessary for comprehending what has been advanced. It must therefore be observed, that this author's equilibrium may be expressed by sec. Xx Rad. =L, being put for length of voussoir at the vertex, and L for augment. ed length. And then the second opera sec. XL tion will be expressed by Rad. when L' is put for second augmented length; but the length of the voussoirs when in complete equilibrio may be expressed by one equation, thus, sec. 2xx Rad, 2 L. I shall not offer any arguments to prove the truth of those theorems, but refer the reader to my former paper. Thus much for the immediate purport of this discussion. But, Mr. Editor, with your indulgence, I shall farther observe, that my grand motive for thus commenting upon the works of others, is the detection and correction of such errors as have a tendency to mislead the practical builder and young theorist, in a science that has long been my favorite study, which has been aided by a tolerably extensive practice in the executive part, having this day completed the twentieth MONTHLY MAG, No. 232, bridge. But, while thus referring to my practice, I wish not to be understood as claiming any extraordinary popularity or even patronage, more than what I at present enjoy, and the privilege of disseminating such useful knowledge as I have acquired, through the medium of your Magazine, which, from its superior arrangement and extensive circulation, is a proper vehicle for that purpose. Therefore, without assuming any other addition to my name, than what is descriptive of the humble sphere in which I move, I conclude by subscribing myself, Bridgewater, Aug. 1, 1812. JAMES PARRY. For the Monthly Magazine. CONTRIBUTIONS to ENGLISH SYNONYMY. Quickness-Activity-SwiftnessCelerity. UICKNESS is a Saxon word, an Qswering nearly to the Latin acti vity; and swiftness is a Saxon word, answering precisely to the Latin celerity. Quickness and activity may be displayed by motions on the same spot. Swiftness and celerity may be displayed only by motion from one spot to another: they describe velocity of progress. Quickness and activity define the motive force exerted; swiftness and celerity the movement produced. Quickness announces swiftness; as celerity results from activity. In their proper acceptation, quickness and activity are nearly undistinguishable; not so in their metaphoric employment. As quick originally signifies alive, sensa tions animated; and active originally sig mind denotes rapidity of perception, nifies busy, hasty, stirring; quickness of whereas activity of mind denotes rest lessness of attention. He is intellectually quick, who conceives readily; he is intellectually active, whose mind is always busy. Mental quickness is the reverse of stupidity; mental activity, of indolence. The adjectives swift and celer, on the contrary, being originally of like meaning, and both signifying speedy, the words swiftness and celerity do not differ in their metaphoric application. Swift of foot. Swift of speech. Swift of inference. Ve locitas corporum celeritas appellatur. Cicero.-Celeritas ver borum. Quintilian.→ Celeritas percipiendi. Quintilian. To Approach-To Accost-To Address. To approach is to draw nigh, (Fr. proche,) to accost is to approach the side (Fr. coste) in order to gain the ear; and Ee to to address, is to approach straight for wards, (Sp. dereçar,) for the purpose of obtaining attention. To approach implies previous distance; to accost suggests some intimacy; and to address announces solemnity of purpose. We cannot approach the great with out some kind of ceremony. Education teaches us to accost the ladies with civility; but to approach them requires some assurance. Our address shall some times please; when our deportment shall disgust. Trusler. Forest-Wood-Plantation-Grove. All these words describe laud begrown with trees; of which a forest is the largest, and a grove the smallest, assemblage. Foresta e luogo di fuori separato dall' abitazione degli huomini. Della Crusca. Of a wood, the trees are already thick. A plantation is produced by the art of man. A grove is a hollowed priracy, (grabe,) a walk covered by trees meeting above. Of a forest, the extent is vague, and the growth wild. Forest-Chase-Park. Technically, these words describe ha bitations for beasts to be hunted. Forests and chases lie open; parks are inclosed. The forest is the most noble of all, being a franchise pertaining to the king: if he transfer one to a subject, it becomes a free chase. If any one offend in a park or chase, which are private property, he s punishable by the common law; but a forest has laws and officers of its own, as foresters, verderers, rangers, and agisters, Velocity Rapidity. Velocity and rapidity differ nearly as the English adjectives swift and sudden; velocity being a command of space, and rapidity a command of time. The velocity of lightning, when you wish to draw attention to the quantity of space i traverses in a given time: the rapidity of lightning, when you wish to draw attention to the shortness of time, in which it traverses a given space. The chariot wheel has velocity in proportion to the ground it travels over; rapidity in proportion to the number of its rotations on the axic. Dingle-Dell. Dingle, says Saldine, is an unexpected little valley in a flat country: a deli is that dingle ornamented. Both words are provincial, or obsolescent; but they are employed by Milton. I know each lane, and every alley green, Camus. Intention-Project-Design-Purpose." From incipient to decisive volition the progressive steps are many, and are successively described by these words. Intention is the feeblest effort, a mere stretching (in and tendo) of the mind toward its object. In a project, (pro and jacere) the object is already flung before the contemplation. When the mind has planned an entire scheme, it is said to have formed a design (dessein); and, when the means of execution are pub forth, (propositum,) the purpose is complete. Contemplative benevolence is a soothing pastime; we intend relief to our suffering fellow-creatures, we project aerial castles of consolation, and design such good deeds as are within reach of our means; but how often indolence frustrates the kindness of our purposes. Archetype-Model-Likeness-Copy. Apelles paints a head of Jupiter. The statue of Phidias was his archetype, if he paints after it from memory, from idea. It was his model, if he paints after it in presence of the statue. He paints a likeness, if the resemblance is striking. If he makes a second painting in imitation of the first, he takes a copy. The griev ing soldier in Vandyke's Belisarius, was the archetype of the grieving soldier in West's Death of Wolfe. Barry was, in painting, what Glover was in poetry: he chose his models in heroic and classical art; his costume is Greek, his delineation has a cast of the antique; but his colours, ing is flat, his expression cold, and his works escape popularity, notwithstanding the omnipresence in them of his tasteful and accomplished mind, In Raphael's accurate likeness of Pope Julio II, there is something of the stiffness and anxious precision, as well as of the finish and detail, of Holbein. Julio Romano made many copies, which have the value of originals. To Rise To Get Up. To rise, is to lift up the head; to get up, is to lift up the person. He rises who, having been lain along on a sofa, is about to sit upon it. He gets up who, having been lying or sitting, is about to stand upright. To rise is but a part of the effort to get up. The sun rises, not the sun gets up. To get up a ladder. He gets up in the world whose fortune, he rises in the world whose rank, is progressive. Who acquire money by vile means, may get up in the world without rising in it. The Saxon risan means to shoot upwards, to grow tall, and is allied to reis, a sprout; the word pretty, is an adjective and an epithet; it is a part of speech, and an ornament of diction needless to the sense. In the phrase, Severe virtue does not attract affection: the word severe, is an adjective, not an epithet; without it, the sense would be incomplete; it is employed, not for decoration, but for definition. In the line of Dryden, With plume and scarf, jack-boots, and Bilbo blade;' the word juck is an epithet, though perhaps not an adjective. Satire-Lampoon. Both words describe censure ambitiously composed, in rhyme or with comic eloquence. Censure, written to reform and not to rex, is called satire; written to vex and not to reform, is called lampoon. Of course, lampoon is the meaner, and satire the nobler, expression and employment. Satire is usually general, lampoon usually personal. Pope could elevate lampoon into satire, and degrade satire into lampoon. Generosity-Magnanimity. Noble, disinterested, great, and lofty actions flow both from generosity and magnaninity; yet generosity (generosus, of good race) is more an affection of the heart, an innate tendency; and magna nimity, (magnus, great, and unimus, mind,) more a character of the head, an açquired habit. Generosity is munificent, is forgiving, from the abundance of its kindness; magnanimity, because it des· pises littleness in giving and in hating. Generosity endows others, in order to indulge its genius; magnanimity, in order to merit admiration. Generosity is less select in its objects, magnanimity in its means. Generosity has more of humanity, and magnanimity more of heroism. Generosity is the virtue of opulence, magnanimity is the virtue of power, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, Ter of Aston and precentor of York, HE late Rev. William Mason, rec well known as the author of Caractacus, Elfreda, &c. who died about twelve years since, bequeathed all his manuscripts to his executors, with an injunction that they should publish, with all convenient speed, a new edition of his works, and that the profit of that publication should be paid to the funds of the Lunatic Asylum at York. William Burgh, esq. of York, one of the executors, at the request of the others, undertook the publication; and, as he ap. peared tady in his proceedings, he was frequently called upon by the governors of the Asylum to bring forward the work, but he died about a year since without having, as it is supposed, advanced one step in the business. This delay on his part is supposed to have arisen in consequence of a disagreement between him and the other executors as to the extent of the publication; because Mr. Burgh, who had been intimately acquainted with Mr. Mason, who knew the whole that he had writ ten, and was probably consulted by him at the time, is supposed to have been desirous of giving the world a full and fair collection of his works; or, if over-ruled in that desire, to have been unwilling to stand forward as the author of a mutilated and imperfect publication. An edition, however, of Mr. Mason's Works, as this collection is called, has lately been published, but it is most inperfect, some of his best works, some of the keenest and best written satires in the English language are omitted. Mr. M. was the author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir W. Chambers, of the Ode to Pinch beck, of the Letter to Soame Jennings, of the Archæological Epistle, of several others, under the sign of Malcolm M'Gre. gor, and of various other political squibs, essays, and satires. Of all these writings Mr. M. made no secret at the time, and the writer of this, as well as many other persons now living, whom he could name, have had communication with the author on the subject of them, when they were written, and have copies of the different publications presented to them by him. Why the editors have suppressed this, perhaps the best part of Mr. Mason's works, it is not easy to imagine; surely they have not done it from any change of opinion on public affairs, much less is it to be presumed that they have acted thus disingenuously with the public, and thus E e 2 indirectly indirectly imposed a falsity upon them, from fear of offending the powers that be. However, let the cause be what it may, the writer does not hesitate asserting that Mr. M. was the author of the works alluded to, that his executors know him to have been such, and that, if they make no reply to this, their silence must be taken as a full confirmation of it. GREGOR M'Gregor. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, I respondent H. in a late Number, as N reply to the inquiries of your cor to "the effect of Iron-pipes on Water," permit me to make the following remarks, the result of observation and experience. The quality of water, merely by its passage through iron-pipes, is, I apprehend, but little liable to be affected, especially through pipes of large diameters; but, if suffered to remain therein in a state of rest, (which must necessarily be the case in all service pipes, perhaps forty or fifty hours at a time, while shut off from the main,) it will certainly be affected to such a degree as to become a strong cha Jybeate. As a proof of this I appeal to the observation of such persons as have witnessed the drawing of the plugs on the iron pipes, both at the east and west end of the town, which for several minutes run of a deep red color, tinging even the stones with rust. This impregnated fluid, however, if the turcock should neglect to observe the precautionary operation above alluded to, is of necessity conveyed into the cisterns of the consumers; and, even with all imaginable precaution, the inner surface of those cisterns will, without very frequent cleansing, generally be coated with a red calx or oxide. Many persons, who, for the sake of encouraging a new company, or under the idea perhaps of saving a few shillings annually, have been induced to make the experiment, can bear witness to the truth of these allegations. Iron, as a medicine, is administered in various forins, and is justly considered as one of the most powerful tonics known; but the healthful subject cannot take with impunity what is highly beneficial when used as a remedy for general languor and debility, or to restore the action of some diseased organ. Such a stimulus, received into the system, in large quantities with our daily food, may prove ex tremely injurious, and in those of robust and plethoric habits may not improbably produce fatal consequences. Its effect, therefore, on water for culinary purposes, and also for washing, it is presumed, must be detrimental; yet, perhaps it is too early to pronounce a final judgment as to what extent. "Pure water," in the language of a scientific author, "is a limpid colorless fluid, without smell or taste, simple and volatile. But such a definition will not include the waters impregnated with metalline, stony, saline, and other fossil sub oxygen. There appears to me to be an easy method of deciding this dispute, and of confuting or confirming the modern doctrines respecting atmospherical air on this head. Mr. Gay-Lussac-Nouv. Bullet. des Sciences, No. 145,-says, that nitrous oxyde is composed of one part oxygen and two parts azote, in bulk; that nitrous gas is formed of equal bulks of azote and oxygen; and that nitric acid is produced from one part of azote, and twice the bulk of oxygen. Atmospheric air consists of three hundred parts, in bulk, of azote, and one hundred parts of oxygen. Consequently, then, four hundred parts, in bulk, of atmospheric air, and fifty parts of oxygen, ought to form nitraus oxyde; four hundred parts, in bulk, of atmospheric air, and two hundred of oxygen, should produce nitrous gas; and four hundred parts, in bulk, of atmospheric air, and five hundred parts of oxygen, should constitute nitric acid. As the experiments may be easily made, they ought to be tried, and the results should be laid before the public, whether they be in favor of the modern doctrines or not; and I am in hopes that the public will very soon be acquainted with those results through the inedium of your justly esteemed Magazine. P. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, ment which presses them upon the attention of the patient, as the chief me of information to your inquiring correspondent Redpath's Short-Hand was printed in 12mo. 1687. Labourer and Facy are enumerated in a list of short-hand writers, prefixed to Cole's Treatise, published in 12mo. 1672. Facy is also particularly noticed by Nicholas, whose book was posthumously published in 12mo. 1694. Lloyd's Characters may be seen in Prosser's Collection of Short-hand Alphabets, a recent publication. Vauxhall, Aug. 3, 1812. STENOGRAPHICUS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, HE comments of your correspondent on to the Corinthians, "Let your women keep silence in the churches," are by no means satisfactory or conclusive. Y. Z. supposes that by the injunction to "keep silence," nothing farther is intended than that the women should refrain from "ask ing questions;" but how a female can be admitted to "preach," and yet he said to "keep silence,” is a paradox which requires explanation, especially when the apostle concludes his admonition by observing that, "it is a shame for women to speak in the churches. Woburn, Aug. 4, 1812. W. E. PILGRIM. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, SIR, 10 speak generally, and the subject can be more dangerous or futile, than for persons unlearned and unpractised, to take upon them the office of medical prescription, either for themselves or others; nothing more trivial, incongruous, and uncertain in their effects, than pri wate family nostrums. But there is a strange fatality in this matter; and we have a thousand proofs, that the best education and the strongest mind do not secure a man from the most vulgar pre judices relative to the nature and effects of medicine. Herein such persons rival the believers in witchcraft. Ought we then to wonder at the universal success of quack medicines, even whilst it is no torious, that they are fabricated for the express purpose of curing poverty, that their chief virtue resides in the advertiso sists in that of finding money wherewith to advertise? There is, moreover, a never-failing species of regular medical quackery, in the puffing of fashionable and transient systems, and of specifics grounded on partial experience and hasty decision, which are destined soon to resign their specific pretensions to others of a newer cut, therefore by consequence of superior efficacy. Family medicines, the nostrums of old wives and prescribing gentlewomen, so often the annoyance and ridicule of all their acquaintance, are either of mere fortuitous origin, selected from old and obsolete compilations,prescriptions which, having succeeded in a particular case, are thence deemed infallible; or the in beats about the bush with wonderful and useless assiduity, in order to obtain that which has been already long at hand in a more simple and efficacious form. I have an example of this last now before me, in the Monthly Magazine, but to point it out might appear invidious. The general character of these remedies, to be sure, is harmless insipidity, whence they have been long since charitably baptised with the naine of chip in por ridge; but their modus operandi is not intituled to commendation, inasmuch as it is too often delusive, and preventive of recourse to remedies of real efficacy. In cases of vital consequence, nothing can be more perilous, or even more nearly allied to insanity of conduct, than a dependence upon home-bred nostrums administration; breaches of common sense can only be accounted for, upon the principle of that strange fatality above cited. When me thods like these are seriously recommended, for the cure of that most tremendous of all human maladies and misfortunes, canine madness, the power of words sinks beneath the task of ridicule or reprobation, and we must be contented with simply asserting that such fatuity, together with that other perfectly congenial, a denial of the existence of the rabid disease, are only proofs of a new species of madness. The custom of thoughtlessly and bu sily recommending inapplicable and exploded nostrums, in our Newspapers and Magazines, never fails to be a co-cpidemic with that of madness in dogs. Forth |