1805.] 
contrary to the fair tenor of the evidences, 
their credit is forfeited, and their utility 
is at an end. Yours, &c, 
N. N. 
= 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
TOO, Sir, feel extremely well difpofed 
to refer the caufe at iffue between 
M. D. and mytfelf to the decifion of the 
impartial readers of the Monthly Maga- 
zine, without wifhing for any further evi- 
dence on either fide of the queftion. 
Gratitude, however, for the informa- 
tion which I have received from your 
correipondent, with refpect to phyfical 
{cience, will not permit me to take my 
final farewel of him without making an 
obfervation or two which may, perhaps, 
not be altogether uf-lefs to him in the fu- 
ture controverfies which this gentleman’s 
Ingenuity and acumen may tempt him in 
fucure to participate. 
It is not, Sit, to provoke further dif- 
cuffion that I now take up my pen. I 
have neither time nor inclination for ex- 
traneous purfuits, and the remarks which 
I am about fubmitting to the perufal of 
M. D. and your other readers, are too 
felf-evident to admit of doubt or difpu- 
tation. 
My firft obfervation, Sir, is that per- 
‘fonalities fhould always be avoided in con- 
troverfial difcuffions. 
This is a very obvious truth, a very 
common-place oblervation; yet, like many 
other truths equally fimple and obvious, 
it is too much difregarded by thofe even 
whofe profefled cbjeét in their enquiries 
is the attainment of truth. 
I proceed, Sir, to remark, ftill with the 
fame candid tranquillity with which I be- 
gan and intend to conclude my letters 
that the implication in one charge, of two 
individuals entirely independent of each 
other, is not juftifiable by the laws of 
found philofophy, good fenfe, or good 
breeding. And TI with further to imprefs 
on the mind of M. D. that not only in 
medicine, or in phyfical fcience in gene- 
ral, are faéts required for the formation 
of legitimate conclufions. 
Now; Sir, the juftice of the above re- 
marks is furely beyond controverfy ; and 
M.D. well knows, that the application, in 
pa'ticular inftances, of gen<ral principles, 
willbe more aptly and duly made, if thefe 
principles are not merely afiented to, but 
bec me the fubject of frequent reflection. 
I beg leave to exprefs the gratification 
which M. D. afforded me by ftating his’ 
Dr. Uwins’s Reply.—Warks of Ritfon. 
477 
intention of difregarding any further il- 
luftration of Brunonian principles. I 
could net, without much regret, have oc- 
cafioned any difappointment, even to the 
angry, although I am ready to believe 
weil-meaning, M.D. and I had previoufly 
relolved to forego, in confequence of the 
fuggeition of fome of my friends, my 
Original intention ; your correfpondent’s 
refufal to honour my lucubrations by pe- 
rufal, mutt, of courfe, be an additional and 
powerful motive to confirm me in my 
prefent refolution. I fhall never, I hope, 
ungiatefully forget the kind forbearance 
of M. D. to fhake Drs. Reid, and Uwins? 
confidence in their favourite theory, 
and in leaving them in pofleffion of * the 
true golden bough’’ without wrefting ie 
from their hands by the exertion of his 
powers, or tranfmuting it into bafer metal 
by the magic of his irrefiftible eloquence. 
_ [have now, Sir, to exprefs my obliga- 
tion to Dr. Reid for his polite and unme- 
rited compliment of my defultory eflay, 
not in vindication of bz, but of the prin- 
ciples which he has adopted; and I Gncere- 
ly hope that his, my opponent’s, and my 
own exertions, confined as M. D. may 
fuppofe the latter, may be unremittingly 
and fuccefsfully continued in the moft 
important aod benevolent of all purfuits. 
lam, Sir, Yours, &c. 
Davipd Uwins, M. D. 
Somers Place, St. Paucras, 
Dec. 2, 1304. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
es a work entitled Literary Memoirs 
of Living Authors, which was pubs . 
lithed in 1798, in two volumes oétavo, are 
the following paffages relative to the late’ 
Jofeph Ritfon, Efq. ‘¢ In the year 1788, 
he publifhed, with his name, a well-ex- 
ecuted tranflation, with notes, of the 
Hymn to Venus which has been afcribed 
to Homer.” . * All of his publications, 
except the Tranflation of the Hymn to 
Venus, have been anonymous.”’ 
In looking over a litt of the works of 
the Jate Mr. Jofeph Ritfon, as given in 
the Monthly Magazine, [ have not found ' 
the tranflation of Homer’s Hymn to 
Venus mentioned in the number. That 
he did not tranflate this Hymn, feems evis' 
dent from his biographer in the Monthly 
Magazine, who, at page 376 of number 
107, informs us that Mr. Ritfon ‘* was 
at all times ready to coniefs his ignorance 
of the learned languages ;°° and: another 
gentleman 
