from the authors whom he follows. He is never animated with the grandeur of his theme. On furveying the fubject before him, he never breaks into those general observations which excite curiofity; he never ventures upon any of those reflections which convey inftruction; and, in a word, he feems to have undertaken this work without having fufficiently informed himfelf concerning the nature, the object, and the aim of history. ART. XI.,The Maid of Arragon; a Tale. By Mrs. Cowley. 4to. 2 s. 6 d. L. Davis, &c. T 1780. O this tale in blank verfe are prefixed a Dedication, and what our poetical termagant calls a Deprecation; in each of which the difplays a degree of irritability fuperior to that of Male Scribblers. She is indeed "tremblingly alive all o'er." The Dedication is intended to be pathetic; but the acid humour of the Writer, jealous of affront, runs over into a note. To Mr. PARKHOUSE of Tiverton, Devon. Accept, dear parent! from a filial pen, The humble off'ring of my penfive Mufe: Its mufic in your ear will fweetly found; Its page, with fond delight, you'll traverfe o'er: Dear other Parent! guiltless hold my heart, Though unadorn'd my numbers with your name; It is near three years firce the above lines were written, and the First Part of THE MAID OF ARRAGON finished; though other avocations have prevented the publication till now. This circum. flance is mentioned, to fhew that they were prompted by the heart, and not by the defire of imitating the Author of an admirable Novel, which was addreffed to a Father fince that period.' Now comes, in proud humility, the DEPRECATION! Off with your hats, and hear it recited! I entreat the Reviewers to have compaflion on me. From the beginning of my literary warfare, thefe unmerciful Wits have purfued me with the sharpest arrows of Criticifm: and I have had nothing to confole me, alas!-but the approbation of the Public. How fhall I cfcape efcape now, when to all my other faults are added, fo many outrages in Geography? With what triumph of critical fagacity will they fay, (after the neceffary ftrictures on the flory, thoughts, and verfes)" If our Author was determined to fend her Pegafus into Spain, in queft of adventures, the ought to have confulted Salmon about the fituation of its provinces. She would there have found that Arragon is fifty miles from the fea; and that the Moors could not poffibly have debarked on its confines, unlefs, like fish to the London markets, their fleet had arrived by land-carriage. With equal facility, the troops of the King of Leon are brought across Old Caftile to Sarageja in about thirty hours-another miracle; which was doubtlefs accomplished by the interpofition of a friendly necromancer, who furnished the army with wings, in exchange for fome chatte damfel, or beautiful princefs. Had this Lady-Writer's reading extended to a tranflation of the Iliad, he would have found no examples of fuch liberties there. Homer gives an exact map of the countries he carries us through; and from Ithaca to Troy not a village or river is mifplaced." • True: but Homer (I name him as a modern painter mentions a Corregio, and a Raphael) Homer united the Hiftorian with the PoetI deal entirely in fiction. It was enough for me, that Spain, through a fucceflion of ages, had been fubject to the ravages of Africa; and that during this period, fovereigns had been robbed of their crowns, and been obliged to refign their fceptres to their fwarthy conquerors. The relation of the particular events of these remote times, the Hiftoric Mufe has generally left to her creative Sifter, who never fails to profit by their obfcurity, in relating them to the world in her own manner; the geography of the heart, and the history of the paffions, are the only realities to which the attends. If, in defcribing these, 【 thall be found deviating from the laws of Truth and Nature, I thall have failed in my intention; but I proteft, if the cacocthes fcribendi fhould continue on me, or if I thould ever wander again into the regions of Romance, I fhall treat oceans and provinces with as little ceremony as rivulets and meadows: I will avail my felf of the eftablished privileges, and raife mountains, feas, or kingdoms, in any part of the habitable globe that hits my fancy; or, if it ftrikes me, build a temple to Dulnefs in the chamber of a Reviewer.' This Deprecation was evidently written in the hour of infolence and vanity-probably juft after the treasurer of the theatre had humbly offered the balance of three benefit-nights of The Belles Stratagem, a new comedy, which has, we hear, been attended with great profit to the stage, and to the Writer-" Nothing to confole me, alas !-but the approbation of the Public." -But the approbation of the Public?-Kind Public! Cruel Reviewers! But after all, why, Madam, fin against geography? and where is the imagination discovered in the trefpafs? The madman, and the lover, and the poet, Ate of imagination all compact. True! and yet the madman, or mad woman, and the poet, are not quite the fame thing. The "fine phrenzy" of the poet is, er or ought to be, in fome measure regulated, and not like the fancy of the lunatic, entirely difordered. One fees more devils ihan vaft hell can hold, The madman But the imagination of the poet, or as the Greek term fignifies Creator, moins, bodies forth forms, and affigns to airy nothing probable habitation and name. The idea of Shakespeare tallies exactly with the precept of Horace, Fica voluptatis caufâ fint PROXIMA VERIS. Good poets, with a kind of holy witchery," lie like truth." The geography of the heart, and history of the paffions are beft delineated by adhering to the real map of the world, and not departing too wantonly from authenticated facts. If the fair Writer fuppofed the wreck of a veflel on the coaft of Bohemia, an inland country, to be one of the brighteft paflages in the Winter's Tale of Shakespeare, why does fhe, with more conformity to geographical truth, make the troops from Leon enter at the Western gate of Arragon? In from the Weflern gate, like bees returning Shameful accuracy! Scandalous breach of the poetical privilege to raise mountains, feas, or kingdoms, in any part of the habitable globe that hits my fancy! And how fatally has our Poete's been blinded by her refentment, when the winds up this fentence, and concludes her Deprecation by adding Or, if it ftrikes me, build a temple to Dullness-in the chamber of a Reviewer.' This circumftance being enumerated as the boldeft of fictions, and the climax of all improbability, is the higheft compliment that has ever yet been paid us. We fhall endeavour, however, mortal men as we are, not to fuffer our impartiality to be warped or biaffed by menace or flattery. The Tale before us, as far as we can judge from this first part of it, is wild and romantic, here and there affecting in its circumftances, and delivered with much freedom, fometimes perhaps tedioufnefs, of narration. The blank verfe is, in general, eafy and flowing; but the measure is often unneceffarily, as well as inharmoniously, deficient or redundant, and the ftyle abounds with inaccuracies of expreffion. Rhyme, perhaps, on this occafion, would have been more agreeable to the generality of readers than blank verfe: at least the admirers of Dryden's Fables will not be among the blindeft idolaters of Mrs. Cowley. To the Tale of the Maid of Arragon are fubjoined fome lines in imitation of our Poetefs's great namefake of illuftrious memory. The lines are pretty enough, but not fo much crouded with thought thought and metaphyfics, as the verfes of the original Cowley. The following paffage has little or no refemblance to him: Thefe lines are fucceeded by a Monologue to the memory of Chatterton, deploring his fate, and celebrating his genius. Why this Monologue, or the lines in imitation of Cowley, fhould be annexed to the Maid of Arragon, we cannot difcover. Uncommon excellence is not their recommendation. ART. XII. Conclufion of our Account of the PHILOSOPHICAL TRANS- MATHEMATICS. Problems concerning Interpolations. By Edward Waring, M. D. F. R. S. and of the Inftitute of Bononia, Lucasian Profeffor of Mathematics in the Univerfity of Cambridge. HE method of interpolating, now fo well known and fo often practifed by aftronomers, was firft invented by our countryman Mr. Briggs, Savilian Profeffor of Geometry in the University of Oxford, and put in practice by him in the calcu lation of logarithms. The principles on which he proceeded were afterwards explained by Reginald and Mouton in France. Sir Ifaac Newton, in Lemma v. book iii. p. 486, Phil. Nat. Princip. Mathemat. edit. 1726, gave a moft elegant folution of the problem for drawing a curve line through the extremities of any number of given ordinates; and in the fubsequent propofition applied the folution of this problem to that of finding, from certain obferved places of a comet, the place of it at any given intermediate time. Dr. Waring fays, perhaps a ftill more elegant folution of the problem, in fome accounts, has fince been given by Meffrs. Nichole and Stirling: and he adds, the fame problem is refolved, and rendered fomewhat more general in the paper before us, without having recourfe to finding the fucceffive differences. The paper confifts of two theorems and a problem. In the theorems, the Profeffor demonftrates certain properties which belong to a series of the differences of numbers, or to a series of numbers which have given differences; for both amount to the fan fame thing.-In the problem, he fhews how, from thefe properties, to find certain corrections, which being applied to a feries of numbers, found from certain affumed ones, according to any given law, the fums or differences may be equal to the refults deduced from certain other numbers according to the fame law and he adds, that from thefe theorems, feveral others of a fimilar nature may be easily demonftrated. Art. IX. On the general Refolution of Algebraical Equations. By the fame. In this Article Dr. Waring informs us, that in 1757 he fent fome papers to the Royal Society, which were printed in 1759, and copies of them given to feveral perfons at that time: that thefe papers, fomewhat corrected, with the addition of certain properties of curve lines, were publifhed in 1762, with the title of Mifcellanea Analytica; and reprinted, with additions and emendations, in the years 1767, 1768, and 1769, and published in 1770 under the title of Meditationes Algebraica. He farther informs us, that thefe papers contained, among many other inventions, the most general refolution of algebraical equations yet known; as it contains the refolution of every algebraical equation of which the general refolution had then been given; namely, the refolution of quadratic, cubic, and alfo of M. De Moivre's and M. Hudde's equations; likewife of the equation of which Mr. Berout has fince published the refolution. It moreover difcovers the refolution of an equation of any given number (n) of dimenfions, the fame number (n) of its roots being alfo given; and alfo deduces innumerable equations of any given number (n) of dimenfions, which contain -1 independent coefficients. From which the Doctor infers, that it is probable this new method of his contains the most general refolution of algebraical equations that ever has, or perhaps ever will be invented. Having thus given us the hiftory of his publications on this head, he proceeds to lay down the general formula for the refolution of equations, and then luftiates it by examples in the efolution of equations of particular dimenfions. Dr. Waring's principal motive, in the publication of this paper, appears to be, the vindication of his claim to the invention of this general mode of refolving algebraical equations; which, as we gather from the paper before us, and what he has faid in the preface to his Medit. Analyt. for we have not feen the work which he refers to, has been fince published by fome foreign mathematicians of the first rank, without fuch acknowledgment, as the Doctor feems to think was neceflary, of his being the firft difcoverer of them. If this be not the cafe, *M. M. Euler and Le Grange. we |