1808.] 
nounced every beast unclean in Which 
there appeared any signs of disease; not 
so the modern Jew butchers of White- 
chapel, who, I have reason to think, ne- 
ver reject an animal, which they have 
purchased, for such a trifle as the adhe- 
sion of the lights.” 
with any of the persons whom your Cor- 
respondent designates as the“ imodern Jew 
butchers of Whitechapel,” nor with their 
practice; but “ I have reason to think,” 
that no animal is ever eaten by the Jews 
in which there is any blemish whatever. 
Tn this town and its neighbourhood, how- 
ever, I have not only “ reason to think,” 
but to know the practice of the Jews to 
be in perfect conformity to the Mosaic, 
law in this respect ; they uniformly reject 
as unclean, every beast or fowl in which 
there are “ any signs of disease,” and 
even “ for such a trifle as the” least ap- 
pearance of “ adhesion of ‘the lights.” 
The minutest blemish in the animal is a 
sufficient cause for it to be rejected by the 
person who is appointed, - the high= 
priest, to kill for the Jews. 
Tam not a jew, but “a friend to the 
friendless,” the despised, and persecuted ; 
should be impartially administered to 
every class of my fellow creatures as well 
Your's, &c. 
Portsmouth, March 8, 1808. S. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LYCEUM OF ANCIENT LITERA- 
LUCRETIUS. 
‘E are now to consider Lucretius 
is entitled to our, commendation, how- 
ever we may detest his principles as a 
the most captivating and perspicuous 
that can result from an equal combina- 
and impressive episodes, render it, per- 
haps, in excellence, as it ce rtainly is in 
antiquity. 
In consequence of the cloud that for 
era, hung over the epicurean system, 
which it is the professed object of Lucre- 
rally neglected or proscribed; till at last, 
it was rarely to be met with, but in the 
panied, however, Epicurus in his fall, it 
was destined to be a partaker of his rise ; 
and am only desirous that “ justice” 
as to every species of animals. 
nae 
TURE.—No. XVII. 
\ merely as a poet; and here, he 
philosopher. The language of his poem, 
tion of simplicity and elexance—its noble 
point of time, the first didactic poem of 
many centuries posterior to the Christian 
tius to develope, this production was gene- 
libraries of the learned. Having accom- 
and hence, on the revival of letters, in 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature—Lucretius. 
Tam notacquainted ° 
cO0T 
the thirteenth century, when the atomic 
doctrine became again a subject of in- 
vestigation, the Nature of Things was res- 
cued from its learned dust, and its beau- 
ties as a poem acknowledged and un- 
folded. 
It is comprised 1 in six books, and some 
have been of opinion, that it was still 
farther extended; but this seems to be 
a mistake, for in those books is com- 
prised the whole doctrine, and all the 
philosophy of Epicurus, as far as relates 
to the explication of nature, or natural 
causes and effects, and there is nothing 
left to be said on the subject. Add to 
tliis, the clear and obvious connection of 
one book with another, and the judicious 
method he has observed in arranging 
the several objects of which he treats. 
In the first book, he speaks of the prin- 
ciples of things; in the last, of meteors, 
and of the heavens. This bas been con- 
stantly practised by all who have made 
the knowledge of nature the professed 
object of their studies. Even Epicurus 
himself has observed the same disposi- 
tion, as appears by the few surviving re- 
mains of that philosopher, his three epis- 
tles to Herodotus, Menzceus, and Py- 
thocles. 
The poem opens with the invocation 
to Venus, and dedication to Memmius; 
Lucretius praises Epicurus whose doc- 
trines he foliows, and endeavours to clear 
them from the charge of impiety. He 
then enters on his subject, and sets out 
with the principle, that nothing can be 
reduced into nothing; that there are 
bodies, which though imperceptible to 
the eye, may bé conceived by the mind, 
and of which all things are made. To 
these corpuscles he subjoins a void, and 
attempts to prove that there is nothing but 
body and void. Hecontutes the doctrine 
of Heraclitus, who held that fire is the 
principle of all things, and that of Em- 
pedocles, that things are not composed 
of the four elements. He derides the 
opinicns of those who believe, that there 
is a centre in the universe to which all 
heavy things are continually striving, 
and the light work upwards of their own 
accord. In the second bock, he treats 
of the properties or qualities of seeds or 
atoms ; which ideal system comprizes 
cleary ‘all the physical theory of Epi- 
curus, and was fully explained in our last 
number. The third book also opens with 
the praise of Epicurus, whom: he extols 
for having been the first who taught, 
that this world, and all things in it, were 
not made by the deity, but by a fortui- 
tous 
