1797*] 
Well pleas’d they flack their courfe, and many 
a league, 
Cheerd with the grateful {mell old Ocean fmiles. 
i Par. L. iv. 159. 
It is true, he immediately adds, 
So entertain’d thefe odorous fweets the fiend ; 
but it is obvious, that the only real com- 
parifon is that of the fragrance of Pa- 
radife to the Arabian gales. The paf- 
faye is, however, tn an exquifite ftrain 
‘of poetry, and its fcenery moft agreeably 
varies the delicious profpeéts of the gar- 
den of Eden. 
Another more exactly applied fimile, 
in which the failor’s art 1s almoft techni- 
cally defcribed, is that in which the 
winding and circuitous track of the fer- 
pent, in his cautious approach to Eve, 
is refembled to the working of a fhip : 
As when a fhip by fkilful fteerfman wrought 
Nigh river’s mouth or foreland, where the wind 
Veers oft, as oft fo fteers and fhifts her fail: 
So varied he. PAR, 1.1X. 513. 
Nothing can be more perfeétly illuf- 
trative ef the thing intended, than this 
fimilitude ; which, however, cannot, I 
think, be confidered as original. In Dr. 
Newton’s edition of Milton, a quota- 
tion is given from the Latin poems of a 
Scotch writer, Andrew Ramfay, pub- 
lifhed in 1633, in which the fame image 
is given in words fo nearly fimilar, and 
applied to a fimilar fubjeét, that I fee 
not how it is poflible to rejeét fuch ftrik - 
ing marks of imitation. ‘The poct is treat- 
ing of Chrift’s temptation, and the only 
difference in the application of the fimile 
is, that it refers not to the corporeal mo- 
tion, but to the wiles of the ferpent. 
Thefe are the lines : 
~—— Ut vento portum qui forte reflante 
Non potis efk’capere, is malos & lintea vela 
Carbafeofque finus obliquat, tendcre reéta 
Qua nequit, incurvo radit vada cerula curfu 5 
Sic gnarus verfare dolos, & imagine falfa, 
Ludere Tartareus coluber, &c. 
Mitton has another fimile in which 
a fhip is introduced, as a comparifon for 
a woman richly drefled and adorned, the 
fair and wanton Dalila : 
But who is this, what thing of fea or land ? 
Female of fex it feems, 
That fo bedeck’d, ornated, and gay, 
Comes this way failing, 
Like a ftately thip 
Of Javan or Gadire, 
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, 
Sails filled, dnd {treamers waving, 
Courted by all the winds that hold them play. 
Samps. AGON. 734. 
The eafy motion and graceful figure 
of a fine woman could not be more hap- 
pily illuftrated, than by the image here 
‘painted. [Io be continued. | J. A. 
Monruiy Mac. No, XVIII. 
Similes of Homer, c....Tour of England. 429° 
%, 
we 
To the Editor of ihe Monthly Magazine. ~ 
SIR, 
ye correfpondent, J. W. in y or 
Magazine for April laft, paz. 273, 
has fallen into other miftakes befide thofe 
pointed out by A. B. in the Magazine 
for May, page 339. J. W. propofes 
this query, ‘¢ Prefcot, is there any fuch 
place in the county ?’’ there certatnly is 
fuch a place3.it lies between Uffculm 
and Culmftock. At Prefcot there is a 
congregation of Baptifis; the minifter’s 
name is Tommas; they reckon them- 
felves the largeft fociety of that deno- 
mination in this county, Plymouth only 
excepted. 
The academy for educating young 
men for the miniftry, fupported by the 
congregational fund, in Londen, was 
formerly at St. Mary Ottery, under the 
tuition of the Rev. John Lavington, who 
died in the year 1764 0r 1765; the Rev. 
James Rooker, of Bridport, Dorfet, fuc- 
cecded him as tutor, and the academy 
was removed to that place: after his 
death, which happened in 1780, it was 
removed to Taunton, Somerfet, under 
the Rev. Thomas Reader, who died in 
the year 1794. This academy is now 
under my care, as fiated by Mr. Crack- 
NELL, page 121 of the prefent Vclume. 
Mr. Buncombe never was tutor of it; he 
kept a grammar-fchool to the time of 
his death. 
I am, fir, your’s, &c. 
Axminfler, fune7,1797. JAMESSMALL. - 

TOUR OF ENGLAND, 
(CONTINUED). 
Journal of a Tour through almoft every county 
in England, and part of Wales, by Mr. Joun 
Houseman, of Corby, near Carlifle; who 
was engaged to make the Tour by a gentle 
man of dittinétion, for the purpofe of col- 
leGing authentic information relative to 
the ftate of the poor. This Journal com- 
prifes an account of the general appearance 
of the country, of the foil, furtace, build- 
ings, &c. with obfervations agricultural, 
commercial, &c. 
Ma* 27, 1 left Newark, and reached 
LINCOLN, 16 miles.—Surface level ; 
foil generally a fort of rufty gravel, 
mixed with moorifh earth and a little 
clay, except about two miles from the | 
extremities, where it is more loamy aid 
fertile. This isa barren dreary. diftriét ; 
only two folitary farm-houfes, fituated 
near the road, prefent themfelves to the 
traveller’s view. Wood fucceeds here 
pretty well, and appears to be encou- 
raged; the road is lined, for feveral miles 
together, with thickets of oak and brufh- 
wood, fo as almoft to preclude any 
3K profpect 
