converfing with them; Lord Limington's character is fuperior to his quality and fortune; and in Mr. Digby you find (befides probity and good manners) a molt fweet and eafy temper, an hereditary and reigning quality in his houfe; in fuch company you can want no other: yet in good earnest I am forry you have theirs, who contribute fo much to the honor and intereft of their country at home. Prefent my best service to Mr. Digby, and tell him I hoped to have heard the French air had given him all the relief he expected from it, and I would fain flatter inyfelf that ne feeks at prefent to have his health confirmed, not reftored; but if he has any remaining indifpofition, I am fure nobody prays more heartily he may be de HO-MER. ON POPE's MY DEAR P. A by the periphrafe night of vapors: thus confounding the mift with the night, to which in the original it is pointedly oppofed. The fame unaccountable inattention runs through the reft of the verfion. Having before called the mist a night of vapors, he expreffes the night itself by another periphrafe, midnight Jade: and drops without fcrupte another oppofition, very strongly marked by Homer, between the different effects produced by this temporary darkness on the fhepherds and on the thief. Ποιμέσιν ετι φίλην, κλεπτη δε τε νυκτος αμείνω. "Unfriendly to the one, but more favorable to the other than even night itself.” Then can you excufe? I am fure you cannot approve, the feeble paraphrale, into which the thought is drawn out in the third line: Swift gliding mifts the dusky fields invade; which is merely a repetition of what had been more poetically expreffed in the full couplet. Not fo much a repetition, perhaps you will fay, as a narration of the progrefs, which the mift makes. It is firft fhed on the tops of the mountains, and thence defcends on the fields below. How far this progrefs be according to the courfe of nature I will not detain you now to examine. One thing is certain, we have nothing of it in Homer; and, to confefs the truth, is it inferted here fo much for the fake of the ideas, which it conveys; as of the rhyme, which it fur nifhes for the next verse ? To thieves more grateful than the midnight fbude. Was it the difficulty of tranfmitting correfpondent ideas through the medium of the English language, under the reftraint of rhyme and metre? or the ambition of improving upon his author? and exchanging, as the ingenious Efay ift expreffes it, an offencing circumftance for a beauty? which betrayed Pope into these evident improprieties, as alfo into a general dereliction of his author's fenfe and manner. The circumftance of a man's not feeing during this temporary darkness beyond a fone's throw appears to the ingenious Effayift a mean idea, compared with that which, be fays, Pope has fubftituted in its ftead, the difficulty which the fhepherds experience of furveying their flocks." On iuch a point how are we to determine? By what cirterion are we to decide? Tatte is fo vague and capricious, that I am always dil to mifruit my own; especially when it runs conater to the opinion of a writer, who has hewn fo much accuracy of forth the offending circumftance in as fâ- I have hitherto confidered this admired paffage, and the improvements which Pope is faid to have made on the original, under the fame foun, as the ingenious Eflayift appears to have viewed it. But I cannot dismiss the fubject without remarking, that in the warmth of his admiration he has been betrayed into an extraordinary error. Pope has not exchanged the offending circumstance for a beauty; he has dropped it altogether, without fubftituting any thing whatsoever in its ftead. The plain fentiment, simply expreffed in the Greek text by three words of difcrimination and critical perfpicacity in his valuable Effay. Let it, however, be allowed me to examine the pallage without prejudice or partiality by the eftablished rules of criticiin. The Poet, as is utual with him, illuftrates his fubject by the most common and familiar circumstances. Amongst thefe that of throwing a stone teems, no doubt, fufficiently trivial and unimportant. The bufinets of a thepherd furveying his flock does not appear very far exalted above the common tracks of life. Does the meannefs of the idea confift in the act? or in the inftrument employed? Would the thought be railed to a proper degree of elevation? if, inftead of a stone, the difc or javelin were fubftituted: these were warlike inftruments, which heroes ufed in their martial games and exercites: or rather, does not much of the offence, which, is indeed not eafily ftrikes fo forcibly on this elegant writer's feelings, arife more from the expreffion than the thought? He feems in his profe verfion purpotely to have lowered the diction, that Pope on comparison may appear to greater advantage. Allow me to render the lines with equal fidelity to the text, and more juftice to the Author. "As Notus fheds a mift on the tops of the mountains, unfriendly to the thepherds, but more favorable to the thief than even night itfelf; during which temporary gloom a man cannot fee farther than he can throw a ftone." In order to eltimate their refpective merits more accurately, let Pope's tranf. lation be taken out of rhyme and metre, and compared with that given above. "Thus when Notus heds a night of vapors on the heads of the mountains, the mifts gliding fwiftly invade the dusky fields, which (mits) are more grateful to thieves than the midnight fhade; during which time the fwains fcarcely furvey their feeding flocks, which are loft and confufed as the day grows thicker. Dees I will not teaze you with captious exceptions to particular expreflions. Take the whole together and tell me, there really appear to you to much ad vantage on the part of Pope, as the ingeaicus Eflayith feems to difcover? The comparison, perhaps it may be faid, is not fairly inftituted. By confronting the two pieces in this form Pope is deprived of his characteristic excellence, the charms of his feducing verfification. If this fhould be infiled on in Pope's behalf, I will adventure one couplet, merely to fet discovered amidst the heap of extraneous And as a mountain-mift glides o'er the plains, On the whole, whatever beauty the ingenious Eflayit may fee in thefe lines of obtain it? Can you think a tranflator Pope, has not too much been facrificed to justified in giving fo different a caft to the original compofition? in altering fo the piece? and prefenting an image fo fo materially the characteristic features of reign, and bearing fo little refemblance of the model, which he profeffes to copy? The ingenious Effayift lays it down as the first law of translation, that it should give a complete tranfcript of the criginal." On this fundamental law I will venture to reft whatever you have heard from me on thefe fubjects. Adieu, O. P. C. ERRATUM.-In page 165, col. 2, line To from the bottom, for cloud of vapors . night. S'R, To the EDITOR of the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. THOUGH you have already, in a former Magazine, given fome Account of "VAILLANT's New Travels into the Interior Parts of Africa," yet as no fpecimens of the Book are adduced, it is prefumed that the following particulars may not be uninteresting to your Readers. They may ferve as a Comment on, and in a meature a confirmation of, your original Criticifm. Your third obfervation on Mr. VAILLANT's fuccefs in correcting many vulgar errors in Natural Hijtery, will be exemplified in two or three initances. I do not find that you take notice of a very general prejudice that has prevailed againit this Author's veracy, Travellers in this particular, more perhaps than in any other, experience a fevere, and fometimes an unreasonable judgment. To determine the exact boundaries between truth and falfhood, in what is derived from human teftimony, is beyond the attainment of human wiidem. Whether he believe too little, or too much, the hearer and the reader is equally liable to mistake. Nething, fays fome one, is more credulous than incredulity; and the knowledge of him who only believes what he has been able to obferve himfelf, will be neither certain nor comprehenfive. There was a time when the Anthropopbag of Travelers were claffed among the Giants and Fatries of Romance; and even in the prefent day extraordinary cuftems or occurrences are often rejected as wonders, though, in other refpects, not def titute of marks of authenticity. Perhaps it is the best objection to the lioneaters in Shaw, and in Bruce to the feeders on living fiefh, that the like had been never feen or related before. What part, or whether any, of Mr. Le Vaillant's narration be unworthy of the Reader's credit, he must determine for himtelf. Different perfons, as Mr. Lecke obferves, will ule different meatures of probability. Let him not, however, forget to difcriminate between the extraordinary and the incredible; for that which is extraordinary in one fituation may excite in another neither fur prife nor curiofity. Let me be permitted, however, to obferve to more fcrupulous and wary readers, that the prefent work is not near fo fertile in marvellous tranActions as the former Travels of our Author on the African coaft. I agree with you in thinking, that it is equally moral, animated, and inftructive. The Introduction, which, with the Dedication and Preface, confifts of o pages, refers chiefly to local and temporary concerns at the Cape of Good Hope; the only fubject reated that is generally interefting relates VOL. XXXI. APRIL 1797 I am, Sir, &c. R. R. to experiments made by our Author on the power different animals poflefs of enduring abftinence from food for a great length of time. He found that a large garden spider, inclosed under a glass bell, faftened round the bottom with cement, continued ten months together without nourishment, and during the whole period vigorous and alert. The only alteration it appeared to fuftain was a diminution in its belly, from the fize of a nut to that of the head of a pin. Another ipider of the fame kind being placed along with it, the original inhabitant, after a long conflict, destroyed and devoured the stranger, and foon after became as plump as at the first moment of its confinement. It appeared, by a comparison of the effect on the ftomach of animal and vegetable food, that the former was much better adapted for the prolongation of life. Two fparrows, of the fame age, and in equally good condition, were reduced by the want of nourishment to fuch a itate of weakness, that neither of them was able to take what was offered them. Some bruifed feeds were then forced down the throat of one of them, and of the other a little minced flesh." In a few miButes the latter was quite well, and the former, two hours after, died. Of the amufements, and mode of education, of the African children, the fol lowing particulars are mentioned in the firit volume, which, as they alfo defcribe a new method of killing mall animals, I think interefting. "With the Africans, the only amufe. ment the children know feives at the fame time as the commencement of their education. "It is customary, when the cart or waggon belonging to a planter is not employed, to leave it in the open air by the I i The Reader will, probably, not be unin terested in the detail of his retinue. "On the 14th I made a general mufter of my equipage and my people. Including the wife of Klaas, and my Inspectorgeneral Swanpool, I had all together nineteen perfons, thirteen dogs in high condition, one male and ten female goats, three hories, of which two, handicmely caparifoned, were thofe given me by Boers; three milch cows, thirty-ix draft oxen for my three waggons, fourteen for relays, and two to carry the baggage of my Hottentots. Thele fifty head of horned cattle were fufficient for the prefent fervice; but I meant to increale them as it should become neceflary, and as I advanced farther from the colony, when in the way of barter I should be able to purchase them at a cheaper rate. The cock that in my first journey (fe the former Travels of the Author) had afforded me intervals of pleasure, fuggefted the idea of having one again, and that it might be happier than my other had been, I gave it a mate. Lally, for my amufement, and I may alto fay for fociety, I took my ape Kees; Kees, who, chained up during my abode at the Cape, had apparently lost his gaiety, but who, from the moment he regained his liberty, gave himfelf up to fports and antics that were extremely diverting. fide of the houfe. As foon as the children can climb to the board that ferves for a feat, they place themtelves upon it, and, with a whip in their hands, exercife themselves in commanding the oxen, which are fuppofed to be prefent, calling them by their names, ftriking the place of any one that is thought not to obey with fufficient readiness; in a word, in directing the course of the waggon, in making it turn, go on, or recede, precitely as they with. After having fueceffively handled, in this manner, whips fuited to their age, they arrive at laft to the management of a bamboo, nicely tapered, fifteen or fixteen feet in length, with a thong at the end of it still longer; and with this inftrument they can ftrike, at the diftance of more than twenty-five feet, a pebble that is pointed out to them, or a piece of money thrown upon the ground. I have already mentioned a pleafant amufement of this kind, which one of the Slabers procured me, who fingled out, with aftonishing addrefs, among a multitude of birds, fuch individuals as I was defirous of having. Swanpool alfo, the companion of my journey, would feldom mifs a partridge flying; and, notwithstanding his age, applied his whip with fo much force, that in one of our excurfions I faw him ftrike, perfectly dead, a duck, of a much larger Species than the common one of Europe." Though the Author of this Article is willing to allow a fuperiority of adroitnels to the favages of Africa, when compared with the inhabitants of civilized ountries, yet he could have wished that. Towards the clofe of the First Volume as our Author has enlarged his duck beyond the measure of European magnitude, he had alfo defcribed, with more precife minutenefs, the mode by which the artift, with the lash merely of a whip, could fo instantaneously deftroy it. At page 74 there are three curious and well-authenticated instances of the power of fafcination exerted by ferpents towards the objects of their food, and even man himfelf. Thefe I am the more willing to believe, as I myself have been witnefs to fimilar energies put forth by a cat towards birds. For a more particular narration of these fingular phenomena in Natural History, the Reader is referred to the work at large, as the extracts have been already anticipated in a former Magazine. Our Author defcribes, in lively colours, the efcorte with which he adventured on his first expedition of the new Travels to explore the African coaft. "Such was the company I affociated with in my enterprile, and which I had conceived to be neceffary, either to infure its fuccefs, or for the purpose of affording me fome pleafant relaxations." there is a wonderful escape of our Author from the danger of drowning, in crothing, on a raft drawn by Hottentots, the Queer-boom, an extremely broad and rapid river. The danger was much increafed by M. Le Vaillant's inability to fwim, and his being incumbered beûdes by his powder flasks and two fufees. For a moment his fituation appeared hopelefs, as the fream was conveying h them with an irrefiltible current toward the fea. The vigorous and perfevering exertions of his Hottentots at laft landed him in fafety. In the beginning of his tour into the courtry of the greater Nimiquas, our t Author obferved a curious cacumitan in Natural Hiftory. I will recite it in his own words: "Every time I difcharged my picce at thefe (the fpring back) antelopes, their rumps immediately, and at the fame moment, all became white; and thole thofe thousands of red backs flying before me, formed, as it were, one theet of inow, which feemed difplayed only to dilappear again in an inftant." "I have already spoken of that fingular property of the fpring-back antelope. which has the faculty of changing at will the colour of its rump, which is red, and of making it fuddenly become white, as if by a kind of enchantment. A phenomenon of this nature prefents at first to the mind fomething marvellous; it is, however, ftrictly true, and may be eatly comprehended after the following explanation. "The long thick hair which covers the rump of the spring-back antelope is, in gereal, of a tawney hue: but though it appears to be entirely of that colour, it is only the furface that is really fo, for underneath it is of a pure white, and in its natural situation this part is entirely concealed: now all the hair on the rump grows from a ftrong tiffue of mufcular fibres, by means of which the animal can, at pleature, extend or contract the fkin; fo that, when extended, the upper hair is laid flat to the right and left, and that below only, which is perfectly white, remains expofed to view, and even covers the reft. I cannot better defcribe this operation, than by comparing it to the action of opening and shutting a book placed on its back." Mr. Le V. remarks on the prodigious multiplication of thefe antelopes, notwitaltanding the country they inhabit is inteted with carnivorous animals, that the herd he had routed, in a very rapid curte, employed three hours to país the defile. The account of a Rhinoceros Hunt, though it be fomewhat long, is too fingular and interefting to be withheld from the Reader. I will endeavour, therefore, to abridge it, without oinitting any important circumstance. in cafe it should be neceffary. We were obliged to take a long circuit to gain the lee fide of them, left they hould smell us; and we reached the river under cover of the large trees which grew on its banks One day Klaas came in great hafte to my tent to inform me, that he had ob.erved, at fome diftance from my camp, two thinocerolles, standing quietly close to each other in the middle of the plain. To attack two fuch formidable enemies it was neceflary to ufe great precaution, and that we should approach them in fuch a manner as they might neither fee nor finell us. I gave myself up, therefore, to the entire direction of my favages, and we fet out armed alike with a good fulee. I caufed two of my ftrongeft dogs to be led in a leafh, in order that they might be let loofe on the rhinocerofles "As one of thefe animals was much larger than the other, I fuppofed them to be a male and female. Notionleis, by the fide of each other, they stood with their notes to the wind, and, confequently, prefented to us their rumps. I was giving fome orders to my company, when Jenker, one of y Hottentots, requested that I would permit him to attack the two animals alone, as a bekruypar. "I have before obferved, that in Africa it is impoffible to get within reach of certain wild animals but by creeping on the belly. Thofe who have acquired this art are called bekruypars. As Jenker's propotal could not impede our general plan, I granted his requeft. He then tripped himfelf naked, and, taking his fufee, proceeded towards the animals, creeping on his belly like a ferpent. In the mean time, I pointed out to my hunters the different posts they had to occupy. As for me, I remained on the fpot where I was, with two Hottertots, one of whom held my horse, and the other my dogs; but, to avoid being feen, we pofted ourselves behind a buth. Jenker flowly advanced, with his eyes fixed on the two monsters. If he law them turn their heads he stopped, and remained motionlefs. One would have taken him for a large stone; and in this refpect I myself was deceived. He con. tinued creeping, with various interruptions, for more than an hour. At length I faw him proceed towards a large bush of euphorbia, which was only two hundred paces from the animals. Being then certain he was concealed, he rofe up, and made preparations for firing. I waited with impatience for the report of his gun; and was told by the Hottentot who stood near me, that Jenker could not fire till one of the rhinoceroffes, thould turn round, that he might, if possible, take aim at its head. "Prefently, the largest of the two hav ing looked behind, was immediately fired at being wounded, he fent forth a horrid cry, and, followed by the female, ran furiously towards the place from which the noife had proceeded. Jenker threw himfelf down with his belly on the ground, and they paed clote by his fide without perceiving him, 【ia and canie ftraight |