1798. ] 
favage paffions which our nature contains: 
the thrvad which Ariadne gave to The- 
feus, a certain divine power connected 
with him: and the /asyrizth, the obli- 
quity and abundant variety of life. The- 
feus therefore being one of the moft ex- 
cellent characiers, vanquifhed this impe- 
diment, and freed others together with 
himfelf.”’ 
Referving a farther difcuffion of this 
interefting fubjeét to another opportunity, 
{ remain, your's, &c. 
Maznor- Place, Tuo. TaytLor. 
Walworth. 
ee - | 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, . 
i the fame page of your Magazine for 
laft month there are two queries from 
correfpondents, which betray a degree of 
ignorance of the moft common places of 
philofophy, that one would hardly have 
expecied to meet with at the. prefent day 
‘from any perfon who had at all turned 
his mind to that ftudy, and from thofe 
who had not, fuch queftions are not to be 
expected. 
Mr. W. E. if he had ever attended to 
the Lavoifierian chemiftry, as he is pleafed 
-to term it, muft have known that azote Is 
found im confiderable quantities in a very 
large tribe of plants,viz. all the cruciform, 
which comprehends the wild-crefs, muf- 
tard, &c. found in every pafture; and the 
experiments of Bertholt, prove that it is 
‘alfo prefent in a very great variety of 
other vegetables. It is ftrange indeed 
that any man who ever perceived the 
{mell of putrid cabbage, fhould affert that 
azote exifts in zo. vegetable whatever. 
But even allowing this negation, let 
us attend to Lavoifier’s own wards; 
** Azote is one of the principies moft 
abundantly diffufed through natvre. Com- 
bined with caloric, it forins azotic gaz, 
which conftitutes two-thirds of the com- 
mon atmofpheric air.” Might not then 
-any quantity of it be combined with the 
animal organization, by the act of refpi-, 
ration, which is fo often repeated during 
life, even if none were veceived by the 
ftomach. 
To Mr. E. L’s query about the bell, it 
is fufficient to obferve that the vibrations 
of the air within the glafs-receiver, are 
communicated to the receiver itfelf, and 
by that means to the external air. The 
accuracy of this experiment is doubted by 
many ingenious philofophers, but on other 
grounds than thofe ftated by E. L. If 
your correfpondent will apply his hand 
to the walls of a fteeple during the ring- 
¥ 
Anfwers to Queries Poetry of Spain 
Ii 
ing of a peal, he will be convinced of the 
power of bells, to communicate their vi- 
brations to folid bodies. A. B. 
———— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazines 
SIR, 
PERMIT me to correét fome errors in 
my account of Lupercio and Barto- 
lome Leonardo. I afferted, from the 
Parnafo Efpanol, that no edition of their 
works had been printed fince that of 
Zaragofa, 1634: I have now procured 
one publifhed fince the Parnafo. Don 
Ramon Fernandez, the editor, has pre- 
fixed a fenfible preface: ‘* One of the 
principal caufes,” he fays, “ of the bad 
tafte obfervable in the greater part of the 
poetry of the prefent day, is the fcarcenefs 
of good authors, who might ferve as mo- 
dels to our youth; while the multiplied 
editions of the corruptors of our poetry 
are in the hands of all, maintaining and 
"perpetuating a bad tafte.” He remarks 
the vague enlogies lavifhed upon the 
Spanifh poets by their editors, applying 
to them indifcriminately the phrafes of 
purity, elegance, enthufiafm, beauty, 
&c. and proceeds to point out the cha- 
racteriftic and peculiar merit of the two 
Argenfolas. In this preface there isa 
very curious trait of the national vanity. 
After mentioning the rich and harmo- 
nious verfification of thefe authors, he 
adds, this has at all times been an en- 
dowment peculiar to the Spanith poets, 
for if we confider well, we fhall find 
that they gave a harmony and eafe to the 
Latin metres which is not to be met with 
in the poets anterior to Lucan and Seneca. 
The choruffes of the three genuine trage- 
dies of this great tragedian, incomparably 
exceed thofé of Horace in their flowing- 
_‘nefs and harmony ; and the excellent hex- 
ameters of Lucan, have, in thefe points, 
a great advantage over thofe of Virgil. 
And even what Cicero* fays of the Cor- 
dovan poets confirms this, though fome, 
from wrongly underfianding the paffage, 
interpret it as a reproach: for Tully, in 
this place, {peaks only of their pronuncia- 
tion and accent, which to Roman ears, ace. 
cuftpmed only to fweetnefs, might appear 
firange and harfh; this by no means proves 
that their verfes were bad or deficient in’ 
harmony ; inftead of this I prefume, that 
the too great fwell and fullnefs of the Spa- 
nifh poets, that /oguiore rotundo, that os 
magna fonaturum, which Horace fo much 
~ 

* Cordubz natis poetis pingue quiddam 
cantibus atque pceregrinum. Cicer. pro Archia. 
Cz recommends 
