1800. } 













Thefe columns will exprefs the new 
manner, which is perfectly as eafy ag the 
other. The reafons for my not dividing 
the circie into 32 initead of 16, are, firft, 
to have as fimall fums as poffible, which 
are always better to make comparifons 
with : fecondly, becaufe in a town, where 
only the wind is likely to be regiftered, it 
is diverted by the different ttreets and 
buildings, fo that in general there can be 
no certainty in fimaller divifons; but 
fhould it be praéticable to obferve to fingle 
points, itis only ufing the degrees and 
the fraétions thus ; 
N.E. by E., | rh | 23 | | | 
I forgot to fay, that the obfervations 
are made every merning about 8 o'clock. 
The room that the thermometer is in has 
a north alpeét, and there is no fire- place 
in the room, or within nine or ten feet of 
it ; and the thermometer without is hung 
outfide the window of the fame room, with 
the fame north afpect, and is about fixteen 
feet from the furface of the ground, 
The latitude of Leighton is about 
51° 54’ 56"3 ; longitude 0° 40! 437. W. 
of Greenwich Oblervatory. 
Your’s, &c. B. Bevan. 
NT PO Pea 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
MALLET’s Tranflation and II- 
* luftrations of the Edda certainly 
contributed greatly to throw light on the 
hiftory of Northern antiquities ; but, with 
all due refpeét for this ingenious author, 
I may be allowed to obferve, that his fer- 
vices would have been much more valu- 
able, if, according to the principles which 
he himfelf recommends, he had employed 
his labours more on the development of 
the intrinfic fources of information which 
thefe fables prefent. ‘* The moft requi- 
fite preparation for the well underftanding 
Allegorical Interpretation of the Edda. 
109 
this work (jays he), but which hath not 
always been obferved, is to enter as much 
as poffible into the vicwseof its author, 
and to tranfport ourfelves as it were into 
the midft of the people for whom it was 
written. — Vol. ii., Pref., p. 16, Edda 
Tranf. He feems to have been fufficiently 
fenfible of the allegorical nature of the 
poem ; but, inftead of exploring the root 
of theallegory, has contented himéelf with 
exhibiting to us the fymmetry of its 
branches and the beauty of its flowers. 
Whatever may be thought of the inter. 
pretation of thefe fables which Iam about 
to offer, it has at leaft the merit of having 
been fought, after M. Maliet’s dire&tion, 
in the hittory of the people for and among 
whom they were compofed. It is briefly 
this, that by the giants, who ast fo con- 
{picuous a part in this poem, we are to 
undertiand the Celtic natives of th- North, 
and by the gods their Scythian invaders. 
_ The word fz is ufed indifcriminately 
in the Edda, as well as other Icelandic 
writings, to fignify lords and gods, or 
Afiaiics—Vid. Mallet, vol.ii., p.4, &cs 
Every one knows the artifice of the Sey- 
thian chief in afluming the name of Odin, 
which, before his arrival in the North, was 
appropriated to the defignation of the Su- 
preme Being. Now what is. more likely 
than that the fame policy which led the 
chief to aflume the charaéter of a god, 
fhould induce him to procure the title and 
credit of inferior divinities tor his foilow- 
ers? Whatever may be {aid in behalf of 
the pure monotheilm of the ancient Celtes, 
we know, that, after the irruption of the 
Eaftern hordes at leaft, they were far from 
being ferupulous in the application ef the 
title god; and the gods, as well as the 
giants, in the Edda, are repre‘ented as 
equally the produdiion of one all-creative 
ower. | 
That it was net only Odin him‘elf who 
adopted the policy of perfonating a divine 
charaSter, but that his example was fol 
Jowed by his companions, appears evident 
from the name. by which we ftill diftin- 
guith our Northern ancettors, It is ftrange 
that it fhould have efcaped all our etymo- 
logifts, at leaft as far as my information 
extends, that the word by which all the 
Teutonic languages expre!s the Divine Bes 
ing, which we write God, the Germans 
Gott, and which in the old Gothic is {pelt 
Goth, was the origin of the name by 
which the Eattern fettlers in Scandinavia 
were diftinguifhed from the origmal inha- 
bitants. 
We 
