1801; ] 
then muft be fought for which as yet is 
either unknown or unexplained. | 
I thall take the opportunity which now 
prefents itfelf of afking your numerous 
readers, whether any of them remembers 
to have obferved, or to have feen any 
mention of the « Sog which covered Eu- 
rope and -ifia during the whole fummer of 
1783” alluded to by Mr. Cowper in the 
2d book of the Tafk, ; 
Your’s, &c. truly, 
P. 
Cae ee mere 
To the Editor of ihe Monthly Magazine, 
Sir, 
'N an age in which we have been com- 
4 pafling the earth to fupply the Iflands 
of the South Sea with the animal and 
vegetable productions of Europe, it can- 
not furely be unintereftine to confider 
whether thofe of our own ifland may not 
receive a valuable addition from. other 
countries, efpecially at a period when we 
are threatened with a {earcity which 
feems to arife not fo much from tempo- 
tary as from permanent caufes, 
What gave rife to thefe refletions was 
that part of Carver’s Travels in the in- 
terior of America, in which he mentions 
the wild rice. Since the publication of 
that work it has fo often been deferibed, 
that its nature and qualities are well 
known; but as far as my information 
extends, no attempt has been made to 
cultivate it in this country, although it 
feems to me that the experiment might 
be tried with every prolpect of fuccefs. 
According to Carver it grows in great 
abundance to the North-Welt of Lake 
Superior, in latitudes nearly the fame 
‘with thofe of the South of England ; but 
although the climate in that port of 
America is much milder than in the 
fame parallels on the eatern coaft, there 
cannot be a doubt but that itis much 
colder in the winter, and that the averape 
heat of the fummer is lefs than in any 
part of England, Jt alfo grows, accord- 
ing to Carver, in latitudes on the Miffit. 
fipi in which grapes come te perfection, 
fo that it feems highly probable that it 
might be cultivated with advantage in 
many parts of Europe. 
I need not enlarge on the advantages 
that would arife from the fuccefs of fuch 
an experiment. ‘The county in which I 
am Now writing contains fome thoufands 
pi acres, which, jn their prefent {tate, 
produce little except reeds and water 
fowl, but which, by this means, might 
perhaps contribute to the fupport of 
thouiands, 
‘Thefe hints I tranfmit. to your valu 
ale Mulcelleny, in hopes that they may 
Culture of Wild Rice—Orientgl Poetry. 
519 
fall into the hands of fome one who may 
be able and willing to try an experiment, 
whofe fuccefs cannot fail to enrich him. 
felf, and to produce great and real advan- 
tages to mankind in general, 
Cambridge, Dec. 11, 1800, i Buhay, 
. 
rewire 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazines 
SIR, | 
R. GIBBON, in his Decline and 
M Fall of the Roman Empire*, mens 
tions the Ifland of Zara as having cherry- 
trees which produce our incomparable 
MARASQUIN. Being unacquainted with 
what this is, and unable to difcover, if 
any of your correfpondents can inforae 
mie, I shall efteem it a favour, 
Hack eye xX. 

To the Rditor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
T is a common obfervation that Ori« 
I ental poetry is not reducible to the 
fame code of laws which have very gene- 
rally prevailed over ancient and modern 
Europe. This obfervation is, for the 
moft part juft: there is an audacity of 
figure, an abruptnefs of fentence, and ain 
uniform Juxuriance of language in the 
former, which we fhould vainly look for 
in the moft dithyrambic poets of Greece 
or Rome, and which would not pals withe 
out cenfure in the court of Ariftotle or 
Quintilian. At the fame time, there are 
relemblances between the poetry of Eu- 
rope and Afia that sre truly attonilhing, 
and that will aford a harveft of abundane 
delight to the curious, who will be at the 
trouble of comparing them. ‘The fable, 
plan, and peripetia of Sacontala; or, 
“ The Fatal Ring,” a.drama, written, if 
there be any truth in eaftern chronology, 
ages before the epoch of Heficd and Ho- 
mer, allowing them the earlieft date that 
can poflibly be contended for, has been 
already fo ably unfolded, and commu. 
nicated for the purpofe of contrafting it 
with dramas of later times, by the much 
lamented Sir W. Jones, that there can be 
no necedity for examining it in the pres 
ferit place. I fhall dwell as fhortly, for 
the limit of an individual letter will ad- 
mit of nothing more than a mere glance 
on the poetical works of the good and 
benevolent Sadi, throughout the whole 
of whofe writings there is a found and 
fterling morality, fevere as the fatires of 
—_e———————— ee 
* Vol. 6. page 143, note, quarto, 
Juvenal, 
