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The Terebella, furnished as it were with an augre, pierces the rocks, and, coufigned by nature to its dark dwelling, refts in fecurity, till the hungry Crab, with its cheliferous claw, drags him from his lurking place and devours him.

The Triton, inferting its body in the holes of the rocks which lie concealed under water, throws out its head and cheliferous tentacula, whereby it feizes the unwary prey which happens to crawl or fwim within reach. But he has likewife many enemies to encounter; the Crab, Afterias, Cuttle, &c. The Lernæa affixes itself behind the gills of various fishes, and, like the Leech, draws forth its nourishment by fuction.

The Scylla, affixed by its back to the fucus floating in the ocean, underneath spreads out his foliate tentacula, and affumes fuch food as chance may throw in its way during the course of the voyage; but the Shark, Porpoife, and other fish riot in its deftruction.

The Clio, from its ftructure, feems more calculated as a prey, than to prey upon others. Nature, therefore, has provided it with funnel-formed fheath, into which it withdraws itfelf when neceflity urges.

The Cuttle, fo frequently a prey to Turbot, and many other marine animals, often eícapes by blackening the water around with the liquor which Providence has furnished him with, and which he ejects as occafion requires. He is not lefs voracious in his kind, and is the destroyer of many weaker animals. Some of this genus are of an alarming magnitude, and, with their strong tentacula, will pull a boat under water, if they are not cut off with an ax; an inftrument commonly carried by the Indians in thofe feas where they frequent.

The Medufa, a gelatinous fubftance, appearing like a lifelets lump of jelly, floating on the furface of the ocean, and plying underneath with its tentacula, embraces the fmall fry, and devours them: they are gregarious animals; and though they are faid to occafion, when touched, the fame alarming fenfation as the Laplyfia, the ravenous Shark, with malignant eye, darts fide-long at them, and devours many of them at a mouthful. Thefe animals when dead foon diffolve to a thin lucid water, and nothing fubftantial of them remains which leaves any traces of their former animated state. To examine the nature and properties of thefe beings, it is neceflary to preferve them in a large glafs filled with fea water, which fhould be changed

daily.

The Actinia, Afcidia, and many others, might be inveftigated by the fame means, and much pleasure and improvement in the knowledge of the ways of these creatures derived therefrom.

We are now come to the Afterias; an animal apparently poffeffing ftronger animal functions and properties than the preceding genus, though its motion is flow, when we confider the number of fafciculi which furround its rays, and ferve the animal as feet, by which means it moves either fideways, backward or forward, and in any direction the creature requires; with them it likewife elings to the rocks, and preferves itself from being dashed about by the tempeftuous waves. They are likewife as tentacula to the animal, with which it feizes its prey, and conveys it to the mouth; their rays are of fo brittle a nature, as eafily to be broke off, but in time they grow again, as the claws of Crabs and Lobsters do, when loft. It fubfifts on young crabs, fmall fhell-fish,'&c.

The Echinus is an extraordinary creature, though common; armed with fpines, which ferve the animal as feet, it moves in every direction, and occafionally throws out tentacula, with which it grapples to the bottom of the fea, at the approach of a storm. But nature has ornamented this creature in a most surprising manner; the finest sculptor could not, with the moft confummate skill and labour, imitate its ornaments, with fuck regularity, beauty, and numerous excrefcences; which are the joints to which their fpines are affixed, and made moveable by, all over the calcareous covering: fome are as it were, laid out in avenues, like unto a parterre; others are reticulated, in the manner of the most beautiful and exact net-work, interfperfed with excrefcences of a minute glabular form. Some have their habitation round, others oval; and again there are that have them round, oblong, and flat: as various are the forms of their fpines; round, quadrangular, octogonal; fome formed like brif-tles, others like pillars belonging to a fine building. Their colour, when stripped of their fpines, which foon fall off after the ani mal's deceafe, is beautifully various: fome being green, yellow, purple, red, brown; and others blushing with the tinge of the Tyrian dye. So prolific is nature in all her works, fporting with her amazing powers over all the creation, and proving the vast fource of wisdom from whence her opera tions flow.

A Go

A General DIET of the States of Poland being foon to meet at Grodno, we have, for the Entertainment of our Readers, extracted the following Account of that Affembly, and the Manner of holding their Seffions, from Mr. Coxx's TRAVELS, lately published.

ΤΗ

HE General Diet of Poland enjoys the fu→ preme authority: it declares war, makes peace, levies foldiers, enters into alliances, impofes taxes, enacts laws, in a word, it exercifes all the rights of abfolute fovereignty.

Some hiftorians place the earliest diet in the reign of Cafimir the Great; but it is very uncertain whether it was first convened in his time; and still more doubtful, of what members it confifted. Thus much is unquestionable, that it was not until the reign of Cafimir III. that this national affembly was modeled into its prefent form.

The place of holding the diets depended formerly upon the will of the kings; and Louis even fummoned two in Hungary. In thofe early times Petricau was the town in which they were most frequently affembled; but in 1569, at the union of Poland and Lithuania, Warfaw was appointed the place of meeting; and in 1673 it was enacted, that of three fucceffive diets, two fhould be held in this capital, and one at Grodno in Lithuania. This regulation has been generally followed, until the reign of his present majefty, when the affen.blies have been uniformly fummoned to Warfaw.

Diets are ordinary and extraordinary; the former are convened every two years, the Latter as occasion requires. In 1717, the ufual feafon for the meeting of the ordinary diets was fixed for Michaelmas; but during the prefent reign it has been occafionally changed to the month of October or November.

The king, with the advice of the permanent council, convokes the diet, by means of circular letters ifiued to all the palatines in their respective provinces, at leaft fix weeks before the time appointed for its meeting: thefe letters are accompanied with a fhort fketch of the business to be agitated in the diet.

The constituent parts of the diet are the three eftates of the realm, namely, the king, the fenate, and the nobles or gentry, by their nuntios or representatives.

1. The king, confidered in his capacity of prefident, is only, as it were, the chief of the diet: he fubfcribes all acts; signs all decrees agreed to by the affembly; iffues out all ordinances in his own name, and that of the republic, without enjoying the right of a negative in any of these particulars.

In all queftions, he has no vote, excepting upon an equality of fuffrages; but is at liberty to deliver his fentiments upon any quefLion His prefent majesty is esteemed one of

the most eloquent among the Polish orators: he has an agreeable tone of voice, and much skill in fuiting and varying his cadence to the fubjects of his difcourfe; he harangues with great energy of style and dignity of manner; and his fpeeches always make a confiderable impreffion upon the members of the diet.

When he is difpofed to speak, he rifes from his feat, advances a few steps, and cries out, "I fummon the minifters of state to the throne." Then the great officers of the crown, who are fitting at the lower end of the fenate-house, come forward and stand near the king. The four great marshals strike the ground at the same time with their ftaffs of office; and the firft in rank fays, "The king is going to fpeak;" after which his majesty begins.

2. The fecond eftate, or the fenate, is composed of spiritual and temporal fenators.

1. The bishops or fenators fpiritual have the precedence over the temporal fenators. The archbishop of Gnefna is primate and chief of the fenate, and is viceroy in cafe of an interregnum.

2. The temporal are Palatines, Caftellans, and the great officers of state.

In

The palatines are the governors of the provinces, who hold their offices for life. time of war, when the army of the republic is fummoned, the palatines levy and lead the force of their palatinates into the field, according to the tenure of feudal fervices; in time of peace they convoke the affemblies of the palatinates, prefide in the county courts of justice, and judge the Jews within their respective jurifdiétions, &c.

The Caftellans are divided into Grand and Petty Caftellans: their office, in time of peace, is merely nominal; but when the military or feudal fervices are required, they are the lieutenants of the palatines, under whom they command the troops of the feveral diftricts in the palatinates.

The great officers of the republic, who fit in the fenate, are ten in number, namely, the two great marshals of Poland and Lithua• nia, the two great chancellors, the two vicechancellors, the two great treaturers, and the two fub-marshals.

All the fenators were formerly appointed by the king; but by the late change of government, his majefty's choice is reftricted to one of three candidates prefented by the permanent council. The fenators, once nominated, cannot be deprived of their charger excepting by the dict. 3. The

3. The third eftate is formed by the nunties or representatives of the equestrian order. These representatives are chofen in the dietines or affemblies of each palatinate, in which every noble or gentleman, at the age of eighteen, has a vote, or is capable of being elected. There is no qualification in point of property required, either for the electors or elected; it is only neceffary that the nuntio fhould be a noble, that is, a perfon not engaged in trade or commerce, poffeffing land himself, or the fon of a perfon pofleffing land, or of an antient family which formerly poffeffed land. Each nuntio must be twenty-three years of age.

The general proceedings of the diet are as follow: The king, fenate, and nuntios firft meet all together in the cathedral of Warsaw, and hear maís and a fermon, After fervice, the members of the fenate, or upper-houfe, repair to the fenate-houfe; and the nuntios, or lower-house, to their chamber, when the latter choose, by a majority of voices, a marfhal, or fpeaker, of the equeftrian order: in order to preclude unneceffary delays, the election is required to take place within three days after their meeting. Two days after the choice of their speaker, the king, fenate, and nuntios, affemble in the fenatehoufe, which is called the junction of the two houses. The nuntios then kifs the king's hand, and the members of the diet take their places in the following order:

The king is feated, in regal state, upon a raifed throne, under a canopy at the upper end of the apartment. At the lower end, oppofite the throne, fit, in armed chairs, the ten officers of state. The bishops, palatines, and Caftellans, are ranged in three rows of armed chairs, extending from the throne on each fide; and behind thefe are placed the nuntios upon benches covered with red cloth. The fenators have the privilege of wearing their caps, but the nuntios remain uncovered.

All the members being feated, the Pacta Conventa are read, when the fpeaker of the equestrian order, as well as each nuntio, is empowered to interrupt the perufal by remonftrating against the infringement of any particular article, and demanding at the fame time a redrefs of grievances. Then the great chancellor propofes, in the king's name, the questions to be taken into confideration; after which, his majefty nominates three fenators, and the fpeaker fix nuntios, to prepare the bilis. The diet, by majority of voices, chufes a committee to examine the accounts of the treasury.

The members of the permanent council are next ballotted for. This council confifts of the following perfons:1. The king as chief, or prefident.-2. Three bithops,

among whom the primate of his own right fhall prefide during two years, but shall have no feat the two following years.-3. Nine lay fenators, two of whom may be elected either from the minifters or fenators.-4. Four from the miniftry of the republic, namely, one from each department.-5. The marthal of the equeftrian order, and, in cafe of hus death or abfence, the first counfellor of the equestrian order according to the turn of the provinces.-6. Eighteen counfellors of the equestrian order, including the marihal.7. The fecretary of the permanent council elected from the referendaries and the national

notaries.

Trefe preliminary tranfactions must be difpatched in the pace of three weeks; at which period the two houses separate: the nuntios retire into their own chamber, and all the bills undergo a separate difcuffion in both boufes. Thote which relate to the treafury are approved or rejected by the fentiments of the majority. But in all state-matters of the highest importance no refolution of the diet is valid, unless ratified by the unanimous affent of every nuntio, each of whom is able to fufpend all proceedings by his exertion of the Liberum Veto.

The diet muft not fit longer than fix weeks: on the first day, therefore, of the fixth week the fenate and nuntios meet again in the fenate-houfe. The ftate-bills (provided they are unanimously agreed to by the nuntios, an event which feldom happens in a free diet) are paffed into laws; but if that unanimity be wanting to them, they stand rejected; and the business relating to the treasury, which has been carried by a majority, is read and registered.

While the bills are debating in the lower houfe, the king, fenate, and eighteen nuntios, form a fupreme court of judicature, by which all nobles accused of capital crimes are tried; and all appeals from inferior courts determined in the laft refort. The majority decides, and the king gives fentence.

At the conclufion of the fixth week the laws, which have paffed, are figned by the fpeaker and nuntios, and the diet is of courfe diffolved.

The extraordinary diets are fubject to the fame regulations as the ordinary diets, with this difference, that they cannot, by the con ftitutions of 1768, continue longer than a fortnight. The fame day in which the two houfes affemble in the fenate-houfe, the queftions are to be laid before them; and the nuntios return immediately to their own chamber. On the thirteenth day from their first meeting, the two houfes are again united; and on the fifteenth day, after the laws have been read and figned, the diet breaks up as ufual.

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For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

On the LITERATURE, WIT, and TASTE of fome EUROPEAN NATIONS. (Continued from page 333. }

the English, our German's perfuafion rity would certainly be attended with more judges is lefs liable to fufpicion, than one that is private and concealed.

en their immoderate adoption of foreign ideas, it would prove effentially pernicious to their general welfare.

His notions were, that we should not make any people whatever a fubject of imitation that we ought to confider ourselves in the fulleft latitude as penitus toto divifos arbe Britannes." Receive with open arms," would he fay," all comers to your island; but beware of importing any thing farther than their perfons and their industry."

But of all things, he recommended an oppofition to the frivolity of taste fo remarkable in the literary amufements of several of our neighbours. This was, in his opinion, an infection of the most dangerous kind, as it debilitated the mind, under the plaufible colour of affording it refreshment.

He was very fevere on the legislature of thofe countries that inflaved the preís; but was no lefs inexorable, on the other hand, on the Universities, for not exerting their powers in the difcouragement of worthlefs productions. Let people print what they please, faid he, without any legal impediment: but how meritorious and ufeful would it be, were a law to pafs, that fuch members of those bodies as are of known abilities, fhould felect among themselves a fufficient number to infpect whatever was written! To their judgment every man fhould be bound to fubmit his performance; not for licence of publication, but for a grant or a refufal of their acknowledgment of its deferving to be printed. Inftead of an Imprimatur, the fingle word, Approved, or Difapproved, fhould stand at the top of every title page; and under this condition an author might ufher his productions into the world, without applying for any further permiffion.

Such a method, he thought, would obviate all complaints; the liberty of the prefs would be duly preferved; and yet few men would be fo hardy and venturous, as to dare stand alone against the united judgment of perfons profeffedly deputed by the public to decide on what was proper or unfit to be laid before it.

Much, I am aware, may be faid on this fubject: but the general idea is what few will condemn.It has in fome meafure been adopted by the establishment of the numerous reviews, and critical examinations, fo common over all Europe: but notwithftanding their merit, a public fanction of autho EUROPEAN MAG.

From the combined fpeculations of judicious obfervers, an idea has been formed and gained ground among the intelligent world, that the liberty of the prefs would never produce all the good that may be expected from it, until fome regulation of this fort has been admitted. It has long been a complaint, that licentiousness reigns as fully in the critical performances with which Europe abounds, as in the innumerable works which are fubject to their revifion.

A frank and open avowal of one's felf, is one of the most effectual restraints on impro prieties of every denomination; for which reafon it has often been reasonably propofed, that neither authors nor their critics should remain anonymous: the first would be more correct, and the fecond more temperate and difcreet.

There is a branch of literature, in which, till of very late years, the French thought themselves decifively fuperior to the English. It was an eminent branch indeed, no lefs a one than that of Hiftory. A celebrated wri ter of our own country did not deny their pretenfions: Bolingbroke, in his Letters on the Study of Hiftory, allowed the French to excel us in that particular.—But the cafe is much altered fince his days; the French themselves, at present, acknowledge a Hooke, a Hume, a Robertfon, a Lyttelton, a Gibbon, to have no fuperiors in France.

Before the appearance of thefe illustrious Hiftorians, the French literati made, as it were, a divifion of abilities with the Eng

lish.

The diverfity of talents for conveying in Aruction to men is not lefs, faid they, than the variety of fubjects wherein they require to be inftructed.

The molt effential portion of human knowledge is that of one's felf: they confeffed their writers were not fo happy as ours in the abstract and metaphysical part of this know ledge; but in that which defcribes the effects of the paffions, and reprefents man in a ate of action, they deemed themselves fuperior.

Philofophical difquifitions are of two kinds Theory and Practice. The first is moft dife ficult of inveftigation, and lefs within the reach of ordinary capacities, as it requires uncommon depth of ftudy and meditation; it is therefore difguftful and fatiguing to moft 3 G perfons;

perfons; and from the toil with which it is attended, the generality of men are difcouraged from attempting it: none but vigorous and perfevering understandings dare to enter upon fo arduous a taik.

But the fecond, which is that of practice, affords a more open and pleasant field to range in. Facts prefent themselves in meet arrangement; fancy has chiefly the bufinefs to perform, and little or no labour is left to inquiry and reafoning.

In this.fecond divifion is comprehended the most inftructive, and at the fame time the mott amuting of all the departments of liberal knowledge. This is Hittory; which, without forcing the attention into rugged paths and intricate roads, leads it, as it were, gently by the hand, along an easy, beaten track; where it difcovers on every fide a variety of profpects, of which it retains a due imprefGion, and of which it lays up the remembrance for ufe on future occafions.

No ftudy is accompanied with more facility, nor with more profit: leflons that are Tearned with pleafure are the laft of any forgotten. This rule is peculiarly applicable to Hiftory; to which it may be added, that no study has more abundantly contributed to the formation of great men; and that without it no man is able to make a confpicuous figure in the world, and to become of effectual confequence and utility in the tranfactions of political life.

It was unquestionably the peculiar glory of the French, till latterly, to excel us in this field of literary competition. It were unneceffary to cite the names they produced in proof of their fuperiority, fince, as already obferved, thofe which our ifland affords at this day, are fuch as place an equality on our part beyond the reach of difpute.

Nor do they contend any longer for a fupremacy in those narrative productions, in which invention and ingenuity bear a prinipal part.

It s obfervable, however, that the refpective genius of the two nations follows them elofe, even in thefe playful effufions of a luxuriant fancy. The novels that flow from the pens of French writers, however fenfible and interefting, difplay a mirthfulness and gaiety that principally characterife them, and form the animating and conftituent part throughout the whole.

An English novel, on the other hand, with no lefs of wit, vivacity, and humour, ftill goes deeper into the characters defcribed; it probes failings to the quick; calls out latent motives of action; investigates the paffions; in thort, philofophifes more in all the cirCumflances that concur in making up the principal event,

The French are fo aware of this truth, that numbers of them are convinced, that were an English novel tranflated into French, with ever fo artful a fubititution of French names of perfons, places, and other national and local circumstances, the deception would be discovered in spite of every precaution.— The fame may be said of any French novel tranflated into English.

It has of late years been often a point of warm contention, which of the two species of writings is most conducive to form the mind, and to give it a juft idea of men and things-history, or well-written novels.

On the fide of history, the arguments are very ftrong. When a man perutes the com mon reports of the day, though expreffed in language wherein the embellishments of style are out of the question, and little more is found, or indeed expected, than a bare narrative; yet how keenly is he affected at any paffages that contain any thing moving and interefting in its nature!

When we read, on the other hand, the most affecting parts of the best written novels, even while the tears may flow, like thofe we shed at a pathetic tragedy, they wet our cheeks, it is true, but are quickly dried, while grief has not penetrated to our hearts.

The truth is, that unlefs we are convinced of the reality of what we read, or hear, the impreffion it makes is not fufficiently profound to be lafting. We may be struck with admiration at the beauties of invention; we may be charmed with fome characters; we may feel an intereft in the plot, that will not let us rett until we have feen how it ends: but when we are come to the conclufion, we treat the whole as an agreeable story well told, and wherein the ingenuity of the writer has availed itfelf of thote incidents a lively reprefentation of which muft neceffarily awaken the pattions...

:

But allowing the utmost that can be said, ftill as belief is not moved, the heart is but flightly touched, and feels but tranfiently.— We lay down the book after perufal, as we rife from a play in fhort, we are amufed, but not affected enough to fubmit to any weight of concern on account of what we have been reading: we confider it in no other light, than as the birth of imagination and judgment blended together for our en

tertainment.

Such, on the contrary, is the force of truth, that, however plainly told, it finks in to our mind, as it were by its own weight, and without any collateral helps; we view it with a kind of refpect; it commands our attention, and dwells upon our feelings.

It is entirely from facts that we regulate our notions of things... No perion has yet ..thought

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