derwood, Dr Rutherford, Dr Hare, &c.; Mr T. Dickson and Mr P. Neill, the secretaries, acting as croupiers. Many very appropriate toasts were given, and several excellent songs promoted the entertainment of the evening. Remarks on PINKERTON'S Etymology of the PICTS. To the Editor of the Scots Magazine. SIR, THOEVER has read Pinkerton's History of Scotland, will be apt to imagine that it was written with the sole intention of decrying the Celts, and panegyrising his own darling Picts. The epithets bestowed on the Scottish Celts are such as disgrace even decent abuse, and impress an indelible stain on the Author.When a man thus prejudiced, and perverted, attempts any investigation, the result must be erroneous. Having chosen a favourite hypothesis, he moulds every thing to answer it. Every author who differs from him, is a mean ignorant fellow, a low quibbler, an unprincipled forger, &c. and when the whole store of sinister epithets is exhausted, he threatens to make Torfaus swallow them alive at one mouthful without salt. Of all his eccentric attempts, that of endeavouring to derive his favourite Piks from the Gothick language is not the least laughable, and to that I shall at present confine myself. "Vol. I. page 367. He gives us the names of the Piks, according to the Anglo Belgic writer, viz. Peohtas, Peahtas, Pehtas, and then from the Saxon Chronicle, Pihtus, Pyhtas and Pehtas. He next quotes Ethelwerd for Peochta and Pihti. Winton, he says, calls them Peychts, Pechts and Pihts. Wittichind names. them Pehiti or Pehti. The Greek and Roman writ ers, (he adds) call them Piki and Peukini, in their original seats on the Euxine sea, being the real names Pihts and Peughts mollified and rendered more distinct," He then proceeds, (page 368) to inform us that the writers of a declining age unfortunately termed them Picti, which gave rise to great confusion, tho' only the real name of Pihts softened to Roman, pronunciation.After a short digression, in which he abuses Claudian for using the expres sion, nec falso nomine Picti, he again proceeds thus: "But to return to the Picti, the Romans unhappily not catching from the pronunciation the old name Peukini, must have been puzzled how to modify this Barbaric term; for as Piki in Latin signified Wood-Peckers, a victory over these Piki would have sounded odd in their annals. The Cumraig Britons called them Phichtiaid, and the Romans could only have latinized this name Ficti, which was worse and worse; for a battle with feigned people would have been matter of laughter. From Scandinavian pronunciation the name was, Vici, towns,-or Victi, conqured,-or Vecti, carried, so that the confusion was endless. Picti coming first to hand, took the place of all." From this very consistent narration we draw the following important facts, Imo, That the Romans were acquainted with the Welch and Scandinavian pronunciation. 2do, That they were in a terrible dilemma to find a name for their newly conquered enemies; and, lastly, that they were in no dilemma at all, but took the first name that occurred. Our author then calls to his aid the following names, every one of whịch he identifies with the word Pik, viz, Vecturiones, Vect-Veriar, Vika, Vikir, Vicha, Vichir, Vets, Vets, and Pihir. The only conclusion he draws, is a sort of indirect hint, that the Pik are, like the Norwegians, the men of Vik. This is a result hardly to have been expected from so redoubted a Champion as Pinkerton, especially when the cause of his favourite Piks was at stake, for after all his labour, instead of giving us any satisfactory analyses of the name, he tells us in effeet, that they were Picts because they were Picts. It is much to be regretted that Pinkerton's predilection for Pikism has led him so completely astray, for every man of candour must allow, that the materials he has collected, are of the very first importance, notwithstanding his misapplication of them; and even from these, without Ofurther aid, I hope to give a satisfactory solution of the Picts. Claudian beforementioned has the following line, Nec falso nomine Picti. That is, the Picts aptly so called, or the Picts so called from painting them=selves. Isidorus, in his Origines, says Scoti, propria lingua nomen habent a picto Corpore, eo quod Aculeis Ferreis cum atramento variarum figurarum Stigmate annotantur, i.e. The Scots have a name in their own language from their painted bodies, because they are marked with the resemblance of various figures, by ink, and iron needles. Unfortunately for Pinkerton, the famous Chronicon Pictorum, on which be lays so much stress, and which he so highly eulogizes, contains the very words now quoted from Isidorus, with the exception that Picti is written instead of Scoti, a matter of no importance whatever; if the Picts were only painted Scots, a circumstance highly probable, as the same Isidorus speaking of the Scythians, adds, De quibus originem duxerunt Scoti et Picti, i. e. from whom the Scots and Picts drew their origin. Tho' every authority, which Pinkarton has quoted, is point blank against his hypothesis, still he persists, and hopes to make good his point, by hinting that the Picts are the men of Vic. The Chronicon Pictorum asserts that the Picts had a name in their own language, from painting their Bodies. Claudian says the same, and both are corroborated by Isidorus. Pinkerton has ransacked every dialect and ramification of the Gothic language in vain, in search of the name, and it must follow that the Gothic was not the language of the Picts. Indeed it would not have been beneath the dignity of Pinkerton, to have searched for this name in the Gaelic, where so many concurring testimonies declared it was to be found, and I shall now endeavour to supply the defect. In the Gaelic, Pick (synonimous with the Latin Pica) signifies a Magfye, and its regular adjective Pichtach, signifies Pye-coloured, or variegated, and hence the Romans formed their Picti. The other Gaelic name of the Picts, viz. Cruineacht, also signifies Painted, and the verb Cruinicam signifies to Paint. Memoirs of the Progress of Manufactures, Chemistry, Science, and the Fine Arts. THE Board of Ariculture lately ex amined some experiments on timber proposed by Capt. Layman, for the purpose of preparing forest trees for immediate conversion on being felled, by which the specific gravity is much diminished, and the sap-wood rendered useful, as well as the strength and duration of timber considerably increased. The following was the result: Experiments on Pieces of Wood 12 inches in length and 1 inch square. 1. Poplar unprepared, broke with 2. Ditto, prepared in three hours, from a tree in a growing state, bore 3. Seasoned oak, unprepared, broke with 4. Seasoned oak, prepared, bore This piece, when broken, proved to be naturally imperfect; but a sound piece prepared by Capt. Layman appears to have sustained 5. Sap oak, prepared, by removing the cause of decay, bore A counter-part piece of ditto, unprepared, appears to have broken with only 586 lb. exclusive of its tendency to decomposition cwt. lb. 0 6. Common foreign deal un cwt. Ib. prepared, broke with 3 3 7, Ditto, ditto, prepared, bore 4 60 Being an increase in strength of one half, exclusive of duration given to the wood. The importance of this discovery, by which the consumption of timber, so essential to the strength and prosperity of the nation, may be very considerably reduced, and trees of rapid growth naturalized to the inferior soils of Great Britain, rendered su perior to what we have for many years supinely depended on foreign countries to supply, even for the means of supporting our navy, requires no explanation. M. Lechenault, the botanist attached to the Expedition of Discovery 32 of the celebrated D'Entrecasteaux, has afforded the first scientific account of the celebrated Upas tree of 6 1007 Java. The Anthiar, Fr. Antiaris toxicaria, forms a new genus in the class Monæcia, Linn.-Male Flowers. Many, contained in a common receptacle inverted; open at the apex; situate on a long footstalk. The inside of this receptacle is thickly.co. vered with scales, curved at the top, and inclosing the antheræ, numerous; 34 and which have short filaments and are bilocular.-Female Flowers. Ca lyx imbricated from 10-12, succulent; corolla 0; styles 2, divaricated; the germ forms a drupe of the shape of an acorn, with the styles persistent. The leaves obtusely ovate, rigid and firm to the touch, and slightly scabrous; the wood of the tree is white; the gum it produces viscous and bitter; of the colour of milk, with occasionally a yellowish tinge, and flows abundantly on incision. This experiment was made to shew in how short a time wood could be prepared for use from a growing tree-but a young growing Weymoth Pine, three days in preparing, was increased in strength from 213 to 4504. On On the Beauty of the Human Form. (From the Italian of Sauverio Bettinelli.) PROPOSE to treat of the human figure, contemplated in its exterior appearance. Nothing, among visible objects, is so worthy of admiration, or does any excite such, rapture in the beholder. Painters and sculptors became immortal by a single statue and representation of human beauty, which their successors for ages studied, but never equalled: how then will it be with the living and original beauty? Man in paradise was certainly perfect, because formed by the Supreme Author in love and favour, outwardly even after his own image; but men born after the fall no longer possessed perfect beauty; they had it distributed in various portions, and always combined with defects. Hence artists, in their endeavours to form a beauty truly complete, were forced to seek these portions in different persons, to select the flower of every beauty, and expunging the defects, to combine a complex figure of their own invention. Thus a perfect model of beauty has been transmitted to us only in the Grecian statues, because the Greeks confessedly succeeded in such an undertaking better than any other nation, and knew how to unite all, or almost all, the perfections dispersed thro' the species. Among us, Raphael, above all others, studying these examples, was the painter of beauty. All men speak of this quality, all judge of it, nor is there any subject of discussion more frequent among societies of both Is the judgment which they form uniformly correct? All trust to their eyes, follow their taste, their prejudices; but do they understand the subject, or have they even studied it? A philosopher must divest himself of prejudices, must rise above the senses, must ennoble his thoughts; the subject is loftier and more abstruse than is commonly imagined. sexes. The best observers maintain, that Sept. 1812. . to qualify the mind to judge well of beauty, it must be elevated, and the heart pure; hence sensual and vicious men are unfit for such a judgment.— The sentiment of beauty is in itself innocent, and even sublime; modesty and shame form part of it, whence the licentious painter, or poet, can never attain it. According to Plato, it is easier to say what beauty is not, than to define precisely what it is. Its essence is a secret of nature not yet discovered, altho' it has been excellently treated of by great philosophers. We see it, we feel it, we admire it, with a transport proportioned to the sensibility of our character; but each forms the idea of it according to his own taste, as with regard to food, without any general rule. Some have gone so far as to say, that there is no real beauty existing in nature, because philosophers themselves differ in opinion respecting it, and much more those who are not philosophers. In fact, say they, every nation has a different idea upon this subject. The Chinese and Japanese prefer little eyes, a flat. nose, a broad face, and a thick body. They cramp the feet of their females, till they are reduced to the size of two of our fingers joined together. The northern nations delight in white and fair complexions, the southern in brown. In Flanders and Germany, a fat and succulent habit is preferred; hence Rubens made even his Venuses corpulent; because he believed that habit the most beautiful: he gave them the colour of milk and cream. The French, on the contrary, are rather pleased with a slight degree of leanness and a temperate colour of the skin. But France presents another more manifest contradiction. Fifty years ago, the ladies were anxious to appear pale, and made themselves be let blood in order to seem beautiful; but for some years past they have sought after a red complexion with the same view. Individual opinions are still more more contradictory. Some love beauty lofty and dignified, others pretty and gay; some grave and modest; others bold and lively. An hundred times have I heard one man praise, another despise the very same countenance. Every one judges according to his own disposition, and by the sensation which he experiences. Differ ent ages judge differently. The young easily find beauty, because they are blinded by the senses; old men are more fastidious. From all these contrarieties it is argued, that beauty has no real existence, but consists merely in every one's imagination. But such persons do not see that they thus confound beauty with that which does not belong to it; let us examine their prejudices. The principal is that of taking colour for beauty. But he who considers well, will clearly perceive, that colour aids or injures beauty, but does not constitute it. Fine marble statues are perfect models of beauty, though without colour. Equally fine models may be found in statues of bronze, of granite, of basalt, the colours of which are black or grey.— All travellers report, that when the eye is accustomed to the colour of the Moors, it finds in their countenance whatever is attractive in beauty. It is the prejudice of education which makes us believe the Moors incapable of pleasing. On the other hand, many find, that the great whiteness of the English complexion becomes at length insipid and inanimate, though found in persons well formed, and with all the other requisites of genuine beauty. Generally speaking, indeed, white pleases more, because it reflects a greater number of rays, and thence makes a more sensible impression. But beauty will never consist in a colour : no, nor in a fine skin, tinged with lilies and roses, nor in languishing and humid eyes, nor in an air either melancholy or gay. In what then does it consist? seeing Andromeda chained to the rock would have believed her a marble statue, if the wind had not agitated her beautiful hair, and if a few tears had not dropt from her eyes." For this reason all our most excellent painters and sculptors have studied after these statues injured by time, which consumed the paintings, and the more they have applied themselves to imitate these, the nearer they have approached their object. For nearly three centuries, from Cimabue to Raphael, painters never could exhibit fine figures, because they did not think of the ancient statues. Raphael was the first who did so, and is still the great painter of beauty. This serves to remind us, that the eyes are not sufficient to distinguish beauty, and that it is often talked of at random. Studying in this manner the statues, and reflecting at the same time upon the idea of beauty, we recognize, that there is one beauty of form, and another of expression; the first being that of a body considered without life, the other that of an animated being. Let us treat first of the beauty of form. The fine forms of bodies ought to have certain measures and proportions, and these ought to agree with each other. Every human body is divided into three parts, each of which is subdivided into other three. The countenance, for example, has three lengths of the nose. The whole stature consists of six feet. The foot, with the ancients, was the best measure, being never spoiled by bandages ours; and it was one of their most esteemed like |