1799. 
and affite, ** tider up caw ;” let him that 
is up firft, call the reft.—North. 
The word tyde is ufed very generally 
over the ifland in fome words, and means 
time, as Shrove-tyde, Whitfun-tyde, &c. 
Chaucer ufes the word fyde, for time, 
more frequently than our writers do at 
prefent. 
*¢ And by day in every tyde, 
‘* Ben all the dores open wyde ”” 
} Third Book of Fame. 
Again, in Thyfbe of Babiloyne, 
** And, for the feldes ben fo brode & wyde, 
** For to mete in o place at o tyde, 
** They fet markes,’’ 
and not always for the purpofe of arhyme, 
for the following is from a profe tranfla- 
tion— 
** Thou devydeft the fwyfte tydes of the 
nyght, whan the hote fommer is comen.”? 
Firft Book of Boeciusy 
The Saxon word tid, Mr. Grofe fays, 
means, in Englith, time. 
The words tyde and time, have fimilar 
meaning—the difference between them in 
the {pelling, is an objetion to their having 
the fame original derivation—and here is 
a want of proof, which might deter me 
from going further into this enquiry; but 
for reafons derived from the ftate of the 
people and the country, to whom I fufpeét 
the word belongs, I fhall venture further. 
The word tid is northern—the northern 
countries of Europe, next Britain, have 
much coaft, and the inhabitants (perhaps 
originally in moft countries fixed next the 
fea and great rivers) perpetually faw ocean 
rolling his ¢yde up and down their fhores, 
and along their great rivers. Thus fitu- 
ated, they beheld the progrefs of the fall 
and rife of the fea—they fithed for fub- 
fitence—the fuccefs and other conveni- 
ences of fuch an occupation, were influ- 
enced by a proper choice of the tyde—the 
choice of tyde regulated, and was extended 
to other occupations of life—regularity 
was introduced, and a proper tyde or time 
chofen—Life was improved ; and the true 
jeavoir vivre (not the brutal proftitution 
of appetite and fenfe of modern days) was 
thus begun. 
~ It would be eafy to mark the tide in its 
progrefs.—At Chepttow, for example, the 
tydé viles generally about 60 feet ; that is, 
to feetan hour; by an upright poft then, 
marked with foot divifions, I could find 
2} feet wathed by the tyde every } hour— 
a divifion of time, or tyde, exact enough to 
regulate the commencement and duration 
of molt of the common occupations of life 
in earlier ages. 
Art has fuperfeded nature—and the tyde 
no longer ufed to mark the fleeting courfe 
i things—-the word time is now trans- 
Mr. Wakefield on the Style of Hume. 
265 
ferred to mean other motions thas the wa- 
ters of the ocean, as the diffolution of 
king Alfred’s three candles, each of which 
burned 8 hours—the motion of the fun, 
marked by the fhadow on the dial plate, 
and the motion of fand through an hour 
glafs, and of the hands of a watch over a 
graduated circle ;—but the end of all is 
the fame, and mutt all coincide with the 
never ceafing retrograde and progreflive 
motions of the tydes.—It is agreeable to the 
admirers of Nature, to find, if Art has fu- 
perfeded Nature, fhe is ftill founded on her 
inftitutions. 
The frequent ufe of the word betyde in 
Chaucer, is in favour of the above con- 
jecture. 
Bath, 29, Rivers fireet. M. D. 
att r 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
A® Mr. Hume retains a great reputation 
for the excellence of his ftyle, and his 
political propenfities would probably lead 
him to particular exertion in his charaéter 
of Charles II. perhaps it may not be un- 
entertaining to fome of your readers, if I 
give a flight examination of the compojfition 
in his delineation of that monarch, in this 
and fome future numbers, What is liable 
to no f{pecific exception in point of impro- 
priety, but is merely infipid, inelegant, 
and flovenly, I fhall diftinguifli by the 
Italic letter. 
«¢ If we furvey the character of Charles 
II. in the different lights, that zt wll ad- 
mit of, 7t will appear various, and give rife 
to different and even oppofite fentiments.”* 
Survey is an improper term in this ap- 
plication. Accurate writers employ it 
with reference to large and extended ob- 
jeéis, not to the niceties of minute in/pec- 
tion. And is the reader much enlightened, 
who learns, that a charater, that admits 
of different lights, appears various ? How 
flat the fentiment! how meagre the com- 
pofition ! . 
«© When confidered as a companion, 
he appears the moft amiable and engaging 
of men; and indeed, in this view, his de- 
portment muft be allowed altogether unex- 
ceptionable.” — z 
Appears, recurs too foon after it’s ufe in 
the former paragraph 3; but carelefinefs of 
this kind is abundant in this hiftorian. 
«© His love of raillery was fo tempered 
with good breeding, that it was never 
oifenfive.”” 
This inharmonious claufe proves the 
writer unacquainted with thofe charms of 
rythmical cadence, that give exquifite de~ 
light to readers of fenfibility, and are the 
criterion of true tafte in compofition. 
Better 


