406 Toulmin’s Defence of Dr. Prieftley.... Mr. Loft on Aftronomy. [Dec. 
confute the affertion of this anonymous 
author. But I will venture a ftep fur- 
ther in this argument: and though I 
would hope that the author has not 
been guilty of a de/figned milreprefentation, 
but has been mifled, I aver, on the au- 
thority of thofe who beit knew Dr. 
PRIESTLEY and every thing concerning 
him, that the affertion he has {o invidi- 
oully and rafhly made without producing 
any evidence of it, is NOT TRUE. 
I am, Sir, your conttant Reader. 
jJossua Toummin. 
Taunton, O&. 27, 1798. 
EE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
i iar by my miftake or by an 
omifiion of the printer, a contra- 
diétion appears in the remarks I fent on 
the appearance of Venus and the Moon. 
T only meant to fay, the Moon, fo near the 
conjunction, had no phafe difcernible to 
the naked eye (at lealt to mine) the very 
fmall illuminated portion of her difk ap- 
pearing like a radiant point. 
It may intereft fome of your readers, 
to be informed that /pots are now again 
vilible onthe /uz. They are approaching 
its centre. ‘Chere.are two large and well 
defined, the {maller of which is very 
round. Near the larger 1s-a confiderable 
number of {mall granular fpots. I faw 
them on the 21ft in the afternoon. They 
had been obferved the day before. 
May I be allowed to remark on an ufe, 
which appears to be ftealing into the 
rench language ot maxing Planete, Comete, 
and fuch words, feminine nouns, contrary 
to analogy and to etymology, confider- 
ing them as immediately derived from the 
Greek ; befide, though we are ufed to it 
in /hips of war, there is no great elegance 
in making the male deities of the Pagan 
mythology migrate into a female appella- 
tion. This ill fuits Mars, Fupiter, and 
Satura: And with refpe& to the only 
planet in the fyftem (except our moon) 
where it zs proper that the feminine per- 
fonification fhould be retained, it is ealy 
to avoid the word Planete. 
When Boyer wrote, Planette was the 
erthography ; and this almoft compelled 
the word to be conftrued with a feminine 
adjeétive: ftill, as he very juftly obferved, 
afironomers employed it as a mafculine 
fubftantive. And indeed, if they had 
not, there would have been a ftrange con- 
fufion, befide the other objections, in 
paffing from aftronomical papers in the 
frenc& tanguage to thofe of Ha/ly and 
Newton in the Latin. At prefent, when 
the right {pelling and pronunciation 1s 
‘ 
| 
reftored, there is to more neceflity to con-. 
fider thefe nouns as feminine, and fcarcely 
more propriety, than in making Athlete — 
fo. Iremain your's fincerely, 
CaPeL LOFFT. 
November 23, 1798. 
ae a ae 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ) 
YOME valuable pages of your maga- 
zine have been applied in pointing 
out the plagiarifms and imitations of au- 
thors ; and whilft they adminifter prefent 
amufement to your readers, will doubt- 
lefs contribute to abridge the labours of 
future editors. Allow me then to offera 
{mall contribution. of this kind, and to 
hope that as fimilar diftoveries occur, they 
may not be deemed unworthy of infertion. | 
There is acelebrated paflage in one of bi- 
fhop Atterbury’s letters to Pope, that has 
gained many admirers, and certainty not 
without reafon, as a beautiful fpecimen 
of climax; it is as follows :—*‘* What is 
every year of a wife man’s life but a cen- 
fure or critic on the paft ? Thofe, whofe 
date is the fhorteft, live long enough to 
laugh at one half of it: the boy defpifes 
the infant, the man the bey, the philofopber 
both, and the chriftian all.’ In Sir Henry 
Blunt’s Voyage to the Levant, the eighth 
edition of which was printed in 1671, he 
fays, ** thus of old, the Egyptians de- 
fpifed the Grecians, they, the Romans ; 
the Romans all the world; and at this 
day, the Papifts us; the Jews them; the 
Mahometans ail.”? p. 142. If this be co- 
incidence, it will be allowed to be fingu- 
larly ftriking.—Again ; in a pamphlet 
entitled ‘* 4 Young Man’s Reafons for 
marrying an Old Woman,” the date of 
which I cannot at prefent furnith, though 
Tthink it pofterior to Atterbury, is this 
paffage ‘* the body may quickly fail the 
mind, the mind the delire, the defire the 
fatisfa€tion, and all the man.”’ 
Be pleafed, in the next place, to compare 
the following lines cf Otway’s Orphan, 
at the end iof A&t III., 
What mighty ills have not been done by 
woman ?> 
Who wast betray’d the capitol ? a woman. 
Who lof& Mark Antony the world ? a woman. 
Who was the caufe of a long tem years wary 
And laid at laft oid Troy in athes ? woman. 
Deftru€tive, damnable, deceitful woman. 
Woman to man firft as a bleiling givn, 
When innocence and love were in their 
prime 
Happy 
