118 Mr. Broad's Mouse-traps. Dogs should also be prevented approach ing the traps; and no person, except those employed previously in baiting and setting them, should be permitted to touch them; for animals of many kinds probably distinguish individuals of the human species from each other by their scent and smell; and the rats, after part of their number have disappeared, will sometimes take alarm at a stranger, and it will on this and other accounts be desirable to select such places for the traps, wherever that is practicable, as can be secured by locks. Should any particular trap be found not to take like the others, it will be proper to examine it, and make its doors fall, and set it again; for the falling of the bridge will sometimes be prevented by some substance getting under it, and it may also, where proper care has not been taken, rest upon the floor of the trap, in which case it cannot possibly be disengaged from the trigger by the weight of the rats. The preceding are all the instructions the author has to give respecting the destruction of rats; and here his engagement with the Agricultural Society of Herefordshire, and those gentlemen who have honoured him with their confidence and patronage, terminates: wishing, however, to make bis publication as use ful as possible, he proceeds to offer some directions for the destruction of mice. The only kind of trap which he has used for this purpose, is similar in construction to those recommended for rats, but much smaller, being only 7 inches long, 34 inches wide, and 34 inches high, inside measure. A dozen of these traps, if constantly set, and properly attended to, will be found fully adequate to keep a very extensive house and granaries wholly free from mice, and to diminish greatly their numbers in the barns of the farmer. For the latter purpose, however, traps capable of taking many at once, or of perpetually acting, might probably be invented, and employed with much advantage; for the mouse which frequents the barn is a very simple animal, and is very powerfully attracted by the ingredients which will be recommended. As a bait for this and the long-tailed field mouse, take about half an ounce of rich chcese, toast it moderately, without burning it, and then put upon it, with a slender feather, or the point of the finger, a very small quantity of the oil of carraways, onetenth of a grain will be sufficient for [Sept. 1, each trap. The bait, thus prepared, should be put upon the bridge of the trap whilst warm, and two small spikes should be there fixed to receive and hold it. When the traps are to be set in the garden, or forcing house, where the short-tailed field mouse often does much injury, it will be proper to place a piece of carrot under the scented cheese; for this mouse, the only remaining mischie vous species, is not fond of animal sub. stances, though it appears as strongly attracted by oil of carraways, in combination with its favourite food, as any of its congeners. In buildings of every kind, the trap will succeed best if placed close against a wall, and at a small distance from the passages through which the mice are supposed to enter, as recommended for rats; but it will not be necessary to mask the trap at all, nor to bait it previously to being set. Should any of those gentlemen who have placed sufficient confidence in the author to subscribe for his publication, or subsequently to purchase it, fail to succeed in a first attempt to the extent they may have anticipated, the author trusts that they will not so far withdraw their confidence as to decline further trial. In a case where so much precision is required, as in taking rats, the causes of failure are numerous: the oil of carraways may not have been good of its kind; the malt may not have been proper; and it is the scent of this substance, in combination with that of the oil of carraways, which appears to attract the rats. Even the quality of the straw is very important, for as the oil of carraways must be used in an exceedingly sinall quantity, it is easily overpowered. The evidence which the author can adduce of his own success is, he trusts, unquestionable; for it cannot be supposed that the gentlemen and farmers in whose presence the rats were taken, and whose houses and barns were cleared of them, have been deceived, as to the facts they state; and it is wholly impossible that those gentlemen, and the other members of the Agricultural Society of Herefordshire, could unanimously have joined in a plan to deceive the public. Mr. Broad, being anxious that every facility should be given to the purchasers of his pamphlet to secure to them the most complete success, has employed Mr. W. Garstone, of Hereford, to make an adequate number of traps, under his direction, which are singly inspected by the author himself. The rat-trap, capa ble of taking twelve or fourteen rats at a 1814.] Dr. Perkins on the Oriental Languages. 119 As might naturally be expected, the portal of inquiry, which should have adJ. GIBSON. mitted the light of information, was thus fall, is sold at 10s. 6d. and that for mice INQUIRY RESPECTING the REV. LEIGH HAVING felt myself much interested by the perusal of the Rev. Leigh Rich ond's recent publication of the " Annals of the Poor," a work which, in a singular and happy manner, combines religious sentiment, delineation of moral character, and beautiful description of natural scenery, I wish to know whether the Isle of Wight be not the station where the incidents of the various narratives took place. Perhaps the reverend author, or some of your readers whose eye this query may meet, may be willing to afford me the information. You will oblige, by the insertion of this letter, Your humble servant, London, July 19, 1814. B. L. Y. On the ORIENTAL LANGUAGES. LETTER II. THE favourable reception given by you to my first letter upon the history of the oriental languages, and the neglect of their study, induces me to continue my observations upon the former of these subjects. There is, perhaps, no circumstance more striking in the history of those inquiries which, since the restoration of letters to Europe, have been made into the philosophy, the construction, and peculiar merits of the languages of the east, than the absurd and superstitious reveries of most of their early admirers, The veneration in which the jewish records were held by these philologists, induced them to consider these writings themselves as stamped with the seal of the Almighty, as flowing from his immediate dictation, and the very characters in which they appear as participating in the divinity of their supposed author. It would be difficult, perhaps, exactly to ascertain how this and similar fancies have originated, and how it has happened that for a long period they took so deep a hold of the imaginations of many learned Hebraists; but it appears infinitely probable that the Christian expositors borrowed these reverential ideas from the Jews, the preceptors then generally resorted to for an insight into the sacred volume, and from the dreams contained in the Masora and Hebrew commentaries. unfortunately closed, and the world remained for a long period in darkness with regard to the merits of the Hebrew language in particular. It was not permitted us even to conceive it imperfect, or as needing occasional interpretation in its obscure passages by comparison with its sister dialects. Thus, although the first of the oriental tongues which excited the attention of the learned, it remained, for a great length of time, that one whose structure was the least understood. By many philologists it was contended that the earliest of languages was the Hebrew; and of this opinion were Bochart and Buxtorf, and more recently, Pfeiffer and Loescher. Some have imagined, also, that we should converse in this language when in a better world; this was the sentiment of Galatin, of Haymo, of Danhauer, Leusden, and others; while another party were for permitting us to make use of our maternal tongue; and a third, among whom is the celebrated Walton, fabled some unknown language of the angels, which was reserved for that purpose. Among the whimsies of the infancy of oriental philology, was the belief that mankind were instructed in the use of speech by demons or angels; this conceit, however, gave way, very shortly, to others equally impertinent. Some philosophers affirmed that language, in a state of perfection, was taught the parents of the human species by the Creator himself; while others more rationally supposed it to have been the natural at first imperfect and gradually improving offspring of our organs of voice, influ enced by our passions and our wants, our errors and our reflections. The direct divine origin of language, as well as of the immediate interference of the deity, was unquestionably an opinion of eastern birth, whence it found its way into the schools of Greece, and formed one of Plato's tenets. It was espoused, too, by Mahomet, and has since been defended by Brian Walton, Rousseau, and many German philologists. The opposite belief of its human origin has also to boast of able and learned defenders. It was favoured by the ancient mechanical philosophers, by Tertullian, and in later days by Richard Simon, by Hobbes in his Leviathan, by Histoire Critique du V. Test., liv. 1, сар. 14. 1:20 Dr. Perkins on the Oriental Languages. Maupertuis, by Condillac, by Moses Mendelsohn, and particularly and excellently by Herder." All those languages which we are accustomed to consider as most ancient, nay, all languages whatsoever, re ain, indisputably, some indications of the original tongues from which they were first derived; and it is now by far too late in the history of the world for us to decide which of them can most justly claim the priority. Independently of what I have noticed above, a variety of fancies have employed the pens of the learned in different countries-" Sua cuique pulchra Phyllis." Thus the Arabic, the Ethiopic, the Syrian, the SyroChaldean, the Samaritan, have found their partizans: others, again, have espoused the Chinese, the German, the Dutch, and the Swedish tongues; and have contended with eagerness for their presumed priority. If, however, the question were fairly put, which among the different known languages exhibit the purest indications of seniority, I should feel disposed to consider it as capable of easy resolution. Children of all nations first express their wants in monosyllabic accents; hence it follows that the first, the aboriginal language, consisted of words of one syllable, destitute of rules, little capable of flexion, and musical in its intonations. Hence we may conclude, that those languages which from time immemorial have consisted of monosyllabic words, differing in meaning only according as the tone with which they are enounced, retain in themselves the surest characteristics of primeval antiquity. This is, perhaps, most notoriously the case with the Chinese language; it is still monosyllabic, consists but of few roots, representing different ideas or things according to the different tone with which they are spoken, or more correctly, chaunted. It is, however, not my intention to af In his very learned prize dissertation upon the origin of languages, printed at Berlin, in 1772. This learned philologist's pamphlet is but little known in this country. Now, however, that the liberation of Europe has unshackled the chain which confined the intercourse of the learned, it is not impro bable that it may be rendered into our language by a learned friend of mine; but should this not be the case, and if I should recover that part of my library which is now on the continent, I may, however unequal to the task, undertake the translation, rather than let so classical and erudite a work remain unknown to my countrymen. [Sept. 1 firm that the Chinese is the most ancient of all languages; I merely maintain the idea that it contains indisputable internal tokens of great age, although such an opinion has been ably maintained in its full extent by some learned philologists.* The Chinese are one of those people who were the earliest acquainted with the use of writing; and their characters, whose roots are facile of comprehension, but whose combinations are difficult of recollection in consequence of their peculiarity of construction and number, still exhibit that inefficient poverty of inven tion which characterises the infancy of language.† The same characteristics of antiquity mark the languages of the East, although differing in origin from the Chinese; but these appear still one step more nearly approximated to cultivation and grammatical regularity. The majority of words in these latter are dyssyllables, and those which exceed that number are ever regarded as heteroclites, or compounds. We have thus gained admittance into the vestibule of the temple of oriental languages, and it now remains to prepare ourselves for inspecting the interior of the edifice itself. We shall find the many pillars which have supported it from antiquity very different from those we observe in Europe; but as soon as the eye shall have been accustomed to the different scale upon which they are constructed, new and unusual beauties will appear, and new interest be excited in our bosoms. In my next, I shall consider the various parts of this structure which are of Semitic origin, beginning with the He brew, as the most in use, and best known in this country, and proceeding to those tongues which are related to it, the Syrian, Chaldean, and Arabic. I shall endeavour to give some abridged account of their probable age, their grammatical formation, the epochs in which they have attained their greatest perfection, the best writers, both ancient and modern, who have written in or upon them, and their utility. I hope that it may be in my power to of oriental languages to an useful ac demonstrate that we may turn the study See John Webb's "Historical Essay endeavouring a probability that the Language of the Empire of China is the primitive Language." London, 1669, 8vo. + Paw's Recherches Philologiques. Re naudot sur les Sciences Chinoises. Kircher, and du Halde, 1814.] Will of Mr. Nat. Lloyd-The Black Slug. count, by employing them for the advancement of our philological knowledge, and that by imitating their power of expression, and borrowing from their store of riches, it may even he practicable to benefit our mother tongue. The exertions which have of late been made for the more general diffusion of the Bible, in the various languages of the world, must, it appears to me, awaken the studious from their classic lore, and direct their attention to the language in which it was originally written, and to those sister dialects which, in a multitude of instances, are its best expositors. The oriental languages have, at different periods, been favoured by the patronage of European potentates; the possessors of the papal throne were among their earliest protectors; their example was followed at the Escurial, afterwards by France, Holland, Austria, and by private individuals of our own country, but of late, munificently, learnedly, and splendidly, by the Danish court, which fitted out the mission to Arabia, whose details have been published by the ingenious Niebuhr, the sole survivor of the embassy. May we not hope that this illustrious example will be followed by our government? Through its firmness and its wisdom, the din of arms has ceased, affrighted Peace has returned to bless the world by her hallowed presence, and the arts and sciences have obtained leisure to flourish in tranquillity, and claim the assistance and protection of our enlightened Prince. JOHN PERKINS, M. D. Coventry, July 12, 1814. SINGULAR WILL of NATHANIEL LLOYD, ESQ. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine. THE annexed copy of a singular will I found the other day in looking over some old papers: it has no date on it by which I can discover the time of the tes tator's death. If you think it will prove What I am going to bequeath, I 121 pray ve, fairly, my good will, In perfect charity with all mankind. NAT. LLOYD. On the ENCOURAGEMENT of QUACKS. IT has often been matter of astonish ment and concern to me to observe the encouragement that is given in this. country to all sorts of impostors, who 122 On the Encouragement of Quacks. prey upon the vitals of the public by pretending to infallible specifics for every complaint incident to the human frame. No sooner does one of these charlatans begin to grow too familiar with the public, and his nostrums to fall into disrepute, than another starts up with some wonderful discovery to cure all the ills incident to our mortal frame. Strange tales are told, and some of them sworn to, before civic magistrates, so that no reasonable doubt can be entertained of the profound skill of the doctor, or of the veracity of his grateful patients. Time, however, exposes the ignorance of the quack, and destroys the credit of his medicines. Well would it be if the intellects of the people could be as easily purged; but unfortunately, even repeated detections of the grossest frauds cannot prevent the intrusion of fresh deceivers, for the multitude are always ready to swallow any new fallacy if it comes sufficiently gilded with the marvellous. There is at this time living a fellow, who from being a journeyman carpenter, has continued to pick up a handsome fortune by pretending to an infallible receipt for the eradicating of worms, and many of your readers must have seen his shop windows filled with bottles exhibiting the figures of strange and direful animals, said to be of the class of worms, when in fact they were neither more nor less than the ingenious species of mechanical contrivance, manufactured from the intestines of sheep, similar to the famous dragon formed out of a dead rat, by the skilful professor Bobart. I know another of this learned tribe, who was some years ago a journeyman blacksmith, after which he kept one of those honest receptacles of miscellaneous articles, commonly called an old iron shop, first in St. Giles's, and next in Wapping, where also be practised the mysterious art of astrology, his success in which enabled him to move farther to the westward, till he pitched his tent in a street near Bedford square, where he now continues, like the renowned Dr. Case, to cure bodily ailments, and to unfold the book of fate. How well qualified this impostor is to do either one or the other, may be gathered from this, that he contrived to help two very worthy acquaintance of mine out of this world, by mistaking their complaints, and prescribing violent remedies before I knew any thing of the matter. Our ancestors, who certainly were not deficient in credulity, did not think [Sept. 1, so lightly of empiricism as we do; for in the reign of Edward VI. one Grigg was set in the pillory at Croydon, and again in the borough of Southwark, for pretending to cure the diseased by looking at their water. Under James the First, who was a believer in the occult sciences, several quacks, and some who assumed the solemn title of doctor in medicine, were brought to public justice, and compelled to find security for their future good behaviour. Even so late as the time of King William, one Fairfax was fined and imprisoned for vending a specific which he called aqua cœlestis, and others of a like description, have at various times suffered heavily for administering dangerous drugs to the people. How happens it that in this enlightened æra, our journals should be daily crammed with offensive advertisements, detailing what no modest person can read without disgust, that the eye is offended with similar papers at every corner of the streets, and that the most ignorant and impudent pretenders to the most difficult and important of all the branches of science should be suffer. ed to obtrude their filthy packets into our hands as we walk abroad, and into our very houses? Yours, &c. VERITAS. MUSICAL HINTS. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine. SIR, AS your miscellany seems the best medium at the present day for conveying new ideas, both in the practice and theory of art, I transmit you two plans for the improvement of musical instruments, which are likely to be lucrative to any artist that will undertake them. The first is for a ready acquirement of a facility in singing duetts, trios, glees, &c. a species of musical amusement that would be often undertaken in cheerful domestic parties in the country, if it were not for the difficulty of getting together people sufficiently skilled in the theory of singing so as to sing at sight; and it will also have the power of producing instrumentally the full effect of vocal harmony, a thing that cannot now be done by the best performer on the organ, as the treble, tenor, and counter-tenor, being all played with the right hand, must of course be all played upon stops of the same quality of tone, which is not analogous to an effect of distinct voices executing each separate line. My object, therefore, is te construct |