120 Path of the 
efpecially if we know that the inhabitants 
of thofe countries, where fuch expreffions 
are ufed, had at fome period an intercourfe 
with the Grecians ; it is not certainly un- 
reafonable to conclude, that many of 
thefe forms of diétion fo employed have 
been borrowed, or at leaft imitated, from 
the language of Greece. ‘This remark is 
in a more particular manner applicable to 
fome of the modes of expreffion made ufe 
of in the Latin tongue ; fince, waving at 
prefent any difcuffion relative to the Gre- 
cian origin of the Roman Janguage*, we 
are well fatisfied that the Romans, upon 
every occafion, ranfacked the ftores of 
Greece to adorn the language of Rome. 
Among other beautiful forms of expref- 
fion, which the Romans condefcended to 
borrow irom the Greeks, they fom: times 
adopted the phrafeology of employing two 
or more negatives in denoting negation ; 
but, as they have employed it very! {par- 
ingly, they can {carcely be faid to have in- 
corporated it into their own language. 
I fhall fet down two or three paffages 
from Roman authors, in which they ap- 
pear to have departed from the Latin idi- 
om, and to have fubftituted this phrafe of 
the Greeks, in order that Mr. Singleton 
may be fatisfied the paflage in Vireil’s 
' ZEneid, lib. g, 1.428, 429, 1s not uzigee in 
its kind. 
Cicero,in his Treatife de finibus boncrum 
& malorum, has imitated this phrafeclogy, 
where he fays, Quanquam zegent nec vir- 
tutes, ec vitia crefcere. Lib. 3, chap. 15. 
‘Terence too has made ule of the fame 
phrafe in Eunuch. aét. 5, feene 8.1.47: 
Nec magis ex ufu tuo 
Nemo eft. 
And again in. Adelph. act I. feene 2, 
I 346522: 
Non eft flagitium, mihi crede, adolefcentulum 
Scortari, negue potare, non eft. 
It is perhaps unneceffary here to point 
out more paflages in Roman authors,where 
this phrafe has been adopted. It is in- 
deed a manner of expreflion that appears to 
me peculiarly beautiful and iublime ; and, 
had the Romans ufed this elegant phrafe- 
ology of the Greeks more frequently and 
with greater extent than they have done, 
I could veryreadily have pardoned them. 
The Greck language every where 
abounds with pleafing and expreffive forms 
of diétion, of which perhaps no others were 
fo fully fulceptible, and therefore ftands 
unrivalled in excellency. And the lan- 
guages of the Eaft, of Paleftine, and Rome, 
_ mult in point of elegance yield the palm 


& Dionyf. Halie.. Wb. 1. Antiq. Koman, 
hrs treatedon this fubjectat large. 
‘to that of ancient Greece. 
Comet 1799. [ March r, 
Plato, indeed, 
in the etymological obfervations introduced 
into his Cratylus, where he notices the 
great changes made in the language of the 
Greeks, by means of the derivation and 
compofition of words, tells us that his 
countrymen went fo tar as to facrifice truth 
to elegance : Nox d2 durig ixnrivect 7d tvoea, 
EYETOM!'AN sect aatioves 
WOoepeevos THES 
rot , 
QAnTEILS. 
It is the barmony. of the pro- 
nunciation on which Flato here remarks ; 
but if they regarded fo much the minutiae of 
the language, we may reafonably inter the 
fuperior part of it was not neglected. 
JOHN ROBINSON. 
Ravenftonedale, Fan. i. 

ON THE PATH OF THE COMET 1799. 
ROM various obfervations-and calcu- 
lations, the particulars of which are 
detailed in the Geographifche Ephemeriden, 
the celebrated altronomer M. VON ZaCuy 
Director of the Obfervatory at Seeberg, 
near Gotha, and Editor of that excellent 
periodical publication, has obtained what 
he believes to be the true path of the co- 
met, as accurately, at leaft, as it is poffible 
to determine it ; for his elements, during 
a period of 7o days, and through a {pace 
of five figns or 1:50 degrees, always give. 
the calculated place of the comet in the. 
heavens fo exagtly, that neither in the lon- 
gitude nor latitude the error exceeds one 
minute. ‘ This (fays M. von Zacu,) is 
as much as can be expected or attained 
with refpect to comets, efpecially the pre- 
fent one, as it was dificult to be difco- 
vered, and could not be obferved according 
to the beft and ftriéteft methods. Obfer- 
vations with the circular micrometer, Dr. 
Oxusers himfelf declares to be certain to 
only within 3 of a minute ; and I mytelf 
have found from experience, that, with 
regard to fixed ftars, though much more 
ealy to be obferved, yet errors of 1’ 37 
may be committed. To which we mutt 
add the, for the moft part badly determined, 
places of the fmaller ftars with which it 
was often neceflary to compare the comet, 
and the flowne(s of its medium diurnal mo- 
tion as it wandered among the northern 
conftellations, which rendered it difficult 
accurately to determine the direé&t afcen- 
Gon. It muft be farther confidered, that, 
in the calculations of the path of this 
cornet no regard was had either to its par- 
allaxes, or the aberration of the rays of light. 
As great, then, as are the errors of my 
elements, equally great is the uncertainty 
of the obfervations themfelves. It would 
therefore have been a very unneceflary and 
thanklefs labour, to. endeavour to deter- 
mine this path to a ftill greater degree of 
ex~ 
