1797-] 
The troubled depths in circling eddies rife, ~ 
And heave the fable fands. in whirlwinds to 
the flies. WaARTON. 
The extravagance of the concluding 
line in this tranflation is very remote 
from the chaftenefs of the original ; yet, 
on the whole, it is much more oes than 
Dryden’s verfion of the dame paflage. 
One of the moft highly-wrought fea- 
pieces in Homer is introduced where 
Paris and Heétor together ruth to the 
field, and rally the Trojans: 
They mov’d like furious whirlwinds in their 
courfe, [earth 
That wing’d with Jove’s own thunder, ruth to ' 
And mingling with the main tumultuous, raife 
Vhe boiling waves unnumber’d, {welling high, | 
Foaming, and preffling on, behind, before, 
O’er the refounding deep: thus clofely wedg’d, 
‘Rank after rank, the Trojans, bright in arms, 
Behind their leaders march’d. In. xth. 795. 
The comparifon is ole double. The 
two chieftains are ‘refembled to. the 
whirlwinds, and the Trojans, to the 
waves fet in motion by them. Wo fimi- 
litude need be more exact; and the in- 
trinfic merit ‘of the def cription is very 
great, cericalalt pil the lines expreff- 
ing the tumbling and foaming of the 
waves, which, in the original, are a 
wonderful inftance of the found corre- 
{ponding to the fenfe. 
The inexhauttible variety of natur 
affords a new feene, by which Home 
ftrongly exprefies the comtention and norfe 
of baitle. 
As wherethe heaven-{prungriver difembogues, 
The big wave roars conflicting with its tide, 
While to the dafhing brine the fhores around 
And rocky points rebellow : fuch the faout 
Sent from the Trojan hoft. In. xvii. 269. 
Here it is to.be obferved, that though 
the poet, according to his ata! manner, 
only mentions one circumftance, the 
noife, in his application of the fimile, ye 
he undoubtedly had alfoin his mind, ae 
fhock and conHiét of the two oppoling 
currents, as a paralle el to the conteft of 
the two armies, about the body 
troclus. [ To be continued. | 
sa ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
neve many times witneffed a cir- 
cumftance, which I never faw no- 
ticed by any writer upon Natural Hif- 
tory, though it appears to deferve atten- 
JA. 
SS 
tion. I mean the exiftence, in the bodies’ 
of earwigs, of fine white worms, which 
i have often found above two inches 
long, fometimes two in one earwig, but 
more commonly not above one. Infome. 
feafons, I have met with them of ftner 
than. in others, I have viewed them 
Worms in Earwigs...+» Englifh Orthography. 
oe Esa 
lg 
again and againin the microfcope, after 
putting them into a {mall glafs of water, 
where they live fome time, and are very 
ative, though without that precaution, 
they dry up and die in a few minutes. 
Heo 1M. Your's, W. D. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
THE defective orthography of the 
Englifa lag aguage is allowed by evc- 
ry one cenverfant with the fubje ect, to 
be one Principal caufe of its being 
lefs fiudied by other nations, thaa 
from its importance one would expect it 
Lobe lee remedy this defect, many 
curious ane ufeful treatifes hese been 
publithed, but, they have not produced 
any very sonhderspl le improvement ; in- 
deed, it feems li ikely, that no fade al- 
teration can, or perhaps ought, to take 
place. ,We mufi be contented, gradu- 
ally to bring about a reform; and ee 
this view, more good may pro »bably 
done, in “occalionally pointing out im- 
proprictics by popular petiodical works, 
than by voluminous treatiles, which may 
fail by propoting too much at once. 
very abfurd imprepriety has, for 
fome time paft, gained ground among 
our writers, whic +h TL much wihh' to fee 
exploded; perhaps, if it 1s noticed «im 
the Monthly Magazine, it may be 
amended; [ allude to he anee Sy in 
which’ az one is at prefent almoft con- 
flantly written. 
Were we, according to the judicious 
plan of the ingenious Mr. Elphiniton, 
to {pell as we, pronounce, we fhould 
write @ woz. Do the authors of the 
prerent day with us to pronounce- am one 
ey > or are our ears to be delighted 
with the delicare and harmonious founds 
an won'? tor one of thefe modes of pro- 
nunciation mu come into ufe, if we 
conuinue fo ridiculoufly to write az one. 
« But, fir, you do not recolleét, that 
we mult always put the article az be fore 
words beginning with a vowel.” To 
this, I repiy, that the o in oe ought no 
more to be reckoned a vowel than the 
yin youth, or the w woman; and who 
would-ever think of writing cm youth, or 
an woman, yet this would not be more 
abfurd, than it is towrite a7 one. 
That we fhould have the courage to 
break through old forms, and write WON, 
is more than I expeé; sue I think it 
juft poffible, that we may have fenfe 
enough to find out, that the vowel a 
-does not require to have n added to it, 
in order to make the found a perfeét. 
Feb. 10, 1797: Ss. M. 






