CAN 
conduct of the piece uniform and consis- 
tent. The plot, it must be allowed, is very 
simple, the intricacies of it arising only 
from those unforeseen impediments which 
were thrown by rival beauties in the way 
of tlie royal bride, and which tlireatencd to 
deprive her of the object of her attachment. 
The catastrophe is the triumph of honour- 
able love over the allurements of seduction, 
and the security of virtuous enjoyment over * 
the torments of jealousy and illicit fruition. 
Secondly, considered as a parable ; like 
other parables, while it conveys a literal 
sense interesting and appropriate, it con- 
veys likewise a religious lesson ot supreme 
importance. Now the method of decypher- 
ing a fable or parable is, not by seeking un- 
der the veil of tlie allegory certain maxims 
of recondite wisdom, which bear no resem- 
blance to tiie literal sense, but by facts ge- 
nerally known and fully understood : nor is 
the interpretation to be deemed true, unless, 
as in the case of tiie parable of N atlian, or tliat 
of the sower, there subsists an obvious and 
characteristic analogy between tlie simple 
and the metaphorical acceptation. On this 
principle, it is apprehended tliat, in the pa- 
rable of the Canticles, tlie bride means the 
Jewish religion, and the royal spouse the 
Jewish nation, represented under the name 
and person of their ruler and chief ; and 
the object of it is to delineate, under images 
borrowed from the connubial state, the 
conduct of the Israelites at large, and that 
of Solomon ill particular, in respect of tlieir 
knowledge and worship of Jehovah. In 
proof of this position, it would be neces- 
sary to enter farther into the subject than 
our limits will allow ; the reader is there- 
fore referred, for a justification of this the- 
ory, to Rees’s New Cyclopedia. 
CANTO, in music, the treble, or, at 
least, the higher part of a piece. 
CANTON (John), in biography, an in- 
genious natural philosopher, was bprii at 
Stroud, in Gloucestershire, in 1718 ; and 
was placed, when young, under the care of 
Mr. Davis, an able mathematician of tiiat 
place, with whom he had learned both vul- 
gar and decimal arithmetic before he was 
quite nine years of age. He next proceeded to 
tlie higher parts of the mathematics, and par- 
ticularly to algebra and astronomy, in which 
he had made a considerable progress when 
his father took him from school, and set 
him to learn his own business, wliich was 
that of a broad-cloth weaver. Ail his leisure 
time was devoted to the assiduous cultiva- 
tion of astronomical science j by which he 
CAN 
was soon able to calculate eclipses, and to 
construct various kinds of sun-dials, even at 
times wlien he ouglit to have slept, beii^ 
done without the knowledge and consent of 
his father, who feared that such studies 
might injure his health. It was during tliis 
prohibition, and at these hours, that he com- 
puted, and cut upon stone, with no better 
an instrument than a common knife, the 
lines of a large upright sun-dial, on which, 
beside the hour of tiie day, were shewn the 
sun’s rising, his place in the ecliptic, and 
some otiier particulars. When this was 
finished, and made known to his father, he 
pemiitted it to be placed against the front 
of his house, where it excited tiie admiration 
of several neighbouring gentlemen, and in- 
troduced young Canton to their acquaint- 
ance, which was followed by the offer of tiie 
use of their libraries. In the libraiy of one 
of these gentlemen he found Martin’s Phi- 
losophical Grammar, which was the first 
book tliat gave him a taste for natural phi- 
losophy. In the possession of aiiotiier 
gentleman he saw a pair of globes j a cir- 
cumstance that afforded him great plea- 
sure, from the great ease with wliich he 
could resolve tliose problems that lie had hi- 
therto been accustomed to compute. 
Among otlier persons with whom he be- 
came acquainted in early life was Dr. Henry 
Miles, of Tooting, who perceiving that 
youfig Canton possessed abilities too pro- 
mising to be confined within the narrow 
limits of a country town, prevailed on his 
father to permit him to come up to London. 
Accordingly he arrived at the metropolis 
the 4th of March 1737, and resided with 
Dr. Miles at Tooting till the 6th of May 
following, when he articled liimself, for the 
term of five years, as a clerk to Mr. Samuel 
Watkins, master of the academy in Spital 
Square. In this situation his ingenuity, di- 
ligence, and prudence, were so distinguish- 
ed, that on the expiration of his clerkship, 
in May, 1742, he was taken into partner- 
ship with Mr. Watkins for three years j 
which gentleman he afterwards succeeded 
in the school, and there continued during 
the remainder of his life. 
Towards the end of 1745, electricity re- 
ceived a greatimprovementby tlie discovery 
of the famous Leyden phial. This event 
turned the thoughts of most of the philoso- 
phers of Europe to tliat branch of natural 
philosophy ; and our autlior, who was one 
of the first to repeat and to pursue the ex- 
periment, found his endeavours rewarded 
by many notable discoveries. Towards the 
