i 
~ 
attach us to mifery ; to connect a being 
who is interefted for himieif, and isin the 
conftant purfuit of his own proper happi- 
nefs——to connect fuch a being with the 
unhappy, and as, by an irrefiftible impulfe, 
introduce him toa partnerfhip in their 
affliGtions.”” Compafiion was implanted in 
us, not merely to come in aid of our good 
will on preffing occafions, which may juf- 
tify the pain it gives us, but that it might 
minifter to the fublimeft virtue of man, 
and difpofe us, on every occafion, to with 
and do well to the creature like our- 
felves. 
Hence the ftriking difference in the ex- 
ercife of this fenfe as referred to the real 
diftrefles of life; and to the fiitiotvs ones 
of tragedy. Inthe former cafe, the fym- 
pathetic feeling is pain unmixed, in order 
to give power and velocity tothe benevo- 
lent ftimulus; in the latter, the pain is 
mixed, and tempered with fomething that 
muft attend on every mind in the exercife 
of its beft affeions, a complacence fugh 
as a fuperior {pirit may be fuppofed to feel, 
if he were viewing the diftrefits of fome 
inferior fyfem. 
In an effay on the BEAUTIFUL in the 
human form, &c. the author fhews that 
the perfeétion of beauty, as an abfolute 
fiandard, muft be looked for in the middle 
form ef the whole colleéted human race, 
excluding all whom accident, violence, 
monftrous births, or the extremes of cli- 
mate, food and labour, may have dif- 
figured ; and alfo in the middle form be- 
tween the extremes of age, in whiclrthe 
fubjeét has not attained to, or veclined 
from the peint of perfection, becavfe.all 
the varieties of the human form feem to 
re(pest this medium both of number and 
age. He then offers good and fatisfactory 
reafons to prove that the ftatues which 
have been preferved as monuments of the 
Grecian art and tafte, do correfpond with 
thofe high conceptions of beauty in the 
human form, which both jentiment and 
yeafon lead us to entertain. : 
_ Ina defence of learning and the arts 
againft fome charges of Rouffeau, the Rev. 
SEoRGE WALKER has fhewn, 1. that 
Jearning is not the parent of politenefs, nor 
3s chargeable with the duplicity and dif- 
honefiy which he fuppofes to be her at- 
tendants ; and 2. That luxury and cor- 
rupt manners are not the progeny of {ci- 
ence and the arts. 
METEOROLOGY. 
From the experiments and_ obfervations 
see 
58 Praceedings of Learned Societies. 
fAug. tf; 
made by Mr. Joun DaLton, to deter- 
mune whether the quantity of rain and 
dew is equal to the quantity of water car- 
ried oif by the rivers, and raifed by eva- 
poration, it appears that the mean quantity 
of rain is equal to 31 inches of depth, and 
that of the dew to 5 inches of depth, mak- 
ing together 36 inches. He then takes 
the area of England and Wales at 46,450 
miles, or 1,378,586,880,000 fquare feet, 
and this multiplied by 26 inches, or 3 feet, 
gives 4,1 353760,640,000 cubic feet of 
water—i §3,176,320,000 cubic yards, or 
28 cubic miles, or 115 thoulsnd millions 
of tons in weight nearly. 
Mr. Dalton next affemes, but not with- 
out gocd reaions for the aflumption, that 
all the rivers in England and Wales carry 
off about 13 inches of rain, and that 
about 30 inches of rain is difpofed of by 
means of evaporaticn ; but then, as this 
exceeds the medium referve of rain of 23 
inches, he finds it neceflary to enquire 
whether there are not otuer circumftances 
which will account for this excefs of feven 
inches; and on the whole he concludes, 
that the rain and dew in general are equi- 
valent tothe quantity of water carried off 
by evaporation and bythe rivers. Hence he 
gives a general theorem for the quantity of 
water carried down into the fea by any 
river in any country, which will be in the 
compound ratio of the area of the country, 
and the excefs of the rain and dew above 
the evaporation. In the fection upon the 
origin of {prings, Mr. Dalton concludes 
that they are fupplied entirely by rain and 
dev. 
The moft important meteorological ob- 
fervations made by Mr. Dalton’ for the’ 
year Sox, are, x. That the ratio of the 
quantity of rain colleéted on the top 
of St. John’s fteeple, Manchefier, to 
that colle€ted on the ground in the 
Vicinity, about fifty yards below, is 
in fummer as 2: 3 nearly; in winter. 
1:2 nearly: 2. That the mean quantity 
of rain fallen at Manchefter for 8 years, 
is equalto 34.60 inches per annum, but 
at Kendal the mean annual rain for 14 
years is equal to 58.1 inches. 3. That 
for the laft year the prevailing winds have 
been N. E. and §. W. which, he obferves, 
are in faét winds that properly belong to 
the northern temperate zone, arifing from 
the two general currents of air tending 
from and towards the equator. 
[ The remaining papers of this volume on Natu 
ral Philofophy, €Fc. will be noticed incur next 
ber. 
J z “is MONTHLY 
