'1802.] On the Word uped$u—Tnvention of the Life-boat. — 108 
Videé chimerique que l’on fe forme du 
bonheur d’autrui.”” 
Should any thing fuggefted in this hafty 
and imperfect fketch induce but one indi- 
vidual to bear, with increafed refignation, 
the affli&ive difpenfations of Providence, 
my fatisfaétion will be great, as it will 
afford me the pleafing refletion, that one 
Jeifure hour, at leaft, has not been em- 
ployed in vain. 
, Colcheffer, 
Aug. 10, 1802. 
PHILO, 
Ee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
OBSERVATIONS om” the WORD apertw in 
BION. 
OU will oblige a conftant reader by 
inferting the following brief remarks 
in your amufing and inftruétive Mifcel- 
lany. 
It is perhaps needlefs to obferve, that 
it was a cuftom amongft the ancients for 
the furvivor of one who died much efteem- 
ed, to be prefent, and receive with a kifs 
his laft breath, or, as it were, his love 
and foul: Venus, on Bion’s Epitaph on 
Adonis, is introduced, imploring this 
kifs, and here the word auedZw is ufed, 
which Fawkes, in his poetical but alfo 
paraphraftical verfion omits, or tranflates 
in a free way, ‘imbibe thy love,’’ which 
is a more immediate interpretation of the 
following line :—ex d¢ mim-rov Eewre, The 
vo de ce yauxu Oarreov aero is thus turn. 
ed in Mr. Du Bois’s elegant profé tran- 
flation <I will fteal away thy fweet 
love,”’ or breath. That the word auertw 
fignifies to ffeal, is proved by Arifto- 
phanes’s uft of it in that fenfe in Eq. 326, 
which may juftify Mr. Da Bois’s inter- 
pretation, but we mutt confefs that we 
prefer the common meaning of the word 
as given by the Latin tranflators in exugo, 
to fuck, or, in a manner, milks which, if 
objeéted to as a phrafe too bold, and with- 
out precedent in our language, we beg 
leave to do away fuch delicacy, and to 
five countenance to this forcible expref- 
fion, by adducing the authority of Pope, 
who, in his Eloifa to Abelard, feems to 
have proved himfelf the be(t tranflator of 
the verfe in queflion :— / 
Thou, Abelard! the laf fad office pay, 
And fmooth my paflage to the realms of 
oC aah me, | 
See my lips tremble, and my eye-balls roll, 
‘Suck my laft breath, and catch my flying foul! 
\iPall-Mall, 
Sug. 7, 1802. &; 
a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazines 
SIR, 
N confequence of what appeared im 
your Magazine of laft month refpeéting 
the life-boat, I have taken the liberty to 
reque(t your infertion of the inclofed pa- 
per, undertaken for the purpofe of ftimu- 
- lating fome of your learned correfpondents 
toturn their thoughts to a fubjeét, which 
has been unaccountably fuffered to lie dor- 
mant fo long, or, more properly, has ne- 
ver been communicated to the public ex» 
cept through the medium of the newf- 
papers. 
I am firmly of opinion that Mr. Great 
head has very little claim to the merit of 
the invention ; yer, by a ftrange kind of 
fatality, he has pocketed the fruits of it. ° 
It is rather a fingular coincidence, that 
a letter from Wouldhave, claiming the. 
invention, was communicated to the Lite- 
rary and Philofophical Society of New- 
caltle the day after the receipt of your Ma- 
gazine, containing the paper above-men- 
tioned. ‘That letter he handed to me fome 
days before, and has fince declared he has 
no knowledge of your correfpondent who 
figns himfelf A’ Son of the Tyne. 3 
In order to fhew you the opinion of the 
original committee, who offered the reward 
for the models, to be as ftated by your cor- 
refpondent, I annex an extra& from theit — 
certificate to Greathead, taken from thé 
report of the Committee of the Houfe of 
Commons, from which it plainly appears, 
that they did not confider Greathead as 
the inventor, but only the builder ; it is 
artfully worded, but certainly does not 
exprefs what the public had aright to ex- 
pect from them on the fubjeét. 
Greathead’s allowed invention’ feems 
only to refpect the curvature of the keel, 
which, in my humble opinion, will turn 
out a defect, if the fubjeét fhould be clofe- 
ly inveftigated. -However, fit is to thefe 
points I wih particularly to direct the 
attention of your learned corréfpondents, 
The courfe of a life for the moft part 
fpent in hard manual labour, cannot be 
fuppofed to leave time for the acquire= 
ment of a requifite knowledge of the rules 
of compofition, to appear with much pro 
priety in your mifcellany. Yet all thefe 
circumitances confidered, I am emboldened 
to folicit your correétion of the enclofed, 
and, if not judged unworthy of a place in 
the Monthly Magazine, that it may be in- 
ferted in this month, in which cafe it will 
be received at Newcaftle juft in time to fol- 
low up Wouldhave’s letter, which will be 
taken 
