54 
Dr. Barnes on Poetry. 
tion. The tube P, p fhould be of the fame dia¬ 
meter as the vent of the bellows, and the com¬ 
munication (CC) fhould not be of a lefs fize, 
otherwife the water will rife into the bellows 
when they are worked. 
After this defcription, it would be fuperfluous 
to explain, that, in this procefs, there would be 
no lofs of fixed air or of time ; or to obferve, 
that from the known attraction between fixed air 
and quicklime, afufficient quantity of lime water 
might be freed from lime in a fhort time, fo as to 
fupply a flip’s company with little trouble or 
expence. 
On the Nature and ejfential Characters cf Poetry, 
as diftinguijhed from Prose. By Thomas 
Barnes, D.D. Read December 5, 1781. 
T O fettle with precifion the limits which 
divide poetic from profaic compofition, may 
perhaps appear, at firft fight, to be neither very 
difficult, nor very interefting. As, however, 
one great objett of this fociety is, the enjoyment 
of free and friendly converfation upon fubjedts 
connected with fcience, it is probable, that 
topics, which are not in themfelves of the greatefl: 
importance, may fometimes open a wider field, 
than others of more intrinfic excellence. Where 
much 
