In the Manufactures, we have an account of paper manufactured from withen bark, by Mr. Greaves, who has confequently received the premium of ten guineas for making paper from raw vegetable matter; and it appears probable, from the calculation fubjoined, that it may fuperfede the ufe of rags in prefs paper, and of ropes in making pafteboard. Mr. Davis feems greatly to have improved the colouring of marbled paper. We think it would be very fatisfactory to the fubfcribers, if specimens of this kind were bound up with the annual volume.

Mr. Swayne gives a good account of his management of filkworms. His apparatus is a neat and convenient one; and he prefers the white mulberry leaf; but the trees of this kind, though earlier, are fometimes preyed on by earwigs. Perhaps the difference between the white and black mulberry-tree is not confiderable. He has illuftrated one part of this little worm's œconomy very fatisfactorily:

I was willing to fave the chryfalides contained in them, for breeding; and that they might not be at all injured, I thought it most adviseable to fuffer them to remain in their filken tombs, and to make their way out thence in the method they are taught by nature this method, I believe, is conftantly termed, eating their way out.

The term is improper; they are fo far from eating their way out, that I have reafon to believe, when the filk is of its due ftrength, they never interrupt the continuance of the thread. As foon as the moth has burit from the hell of the chryfalis, and is fully formed, it ejects from its mouth a liquid, which, being abforbed by that part of the cocoon oppofite, diffolves the natural gluten by which the threads were made to adhere toge ther; when the infect, with its hooked feet, draws the thread afide by this means, and butting its head forward, it gradually makes an opening, fufficient to force itfelf through. The elafticity of the filk, as the moths creep through, has the effect of preffing out a kind of red meconium, no doubt greatly to their advantage, fince I have obferved that those which have been taken out of the cocoons before their last metamorphofis, have got rid of it with much difficulty.'

It afterwards appeared that he could unravel the whole cocoon, without finding the continuity of the thread at all interrupted. The chryfalis, he thinks, may be killed in the cocoon, by the heat of boiling water alone. The worms do not appear lefs hardy than many other kinds of the infecta lepidoptera; and may, in his opinion, be advantageously nourished in this kingdom. We have already obferved, that we are enforcing a practice, which is foreign to our habits and our foil, as well as that the fame pains and the fame capitals may be employed in attempts more congenial to both. Mr. Swayne's re

8

marks

marks have undoubtedly leffened the force of this opinion, though they have not wholly deftroyed it.

Mifs Ives's fpinning with a fpindle and whirl is very extraor dinary. With a pound of wool, fent her from fir Jofeph Banks, from a mixed breed of his Lincolnshire and Spanish sheep, the fpun 194 fkains: each fkain contains 560 yards; and of course the pound was fpun to the length of fixty-one miles and three quarters (61). She has fince fpun the pound into 209 skains. She hopes to be able to make a fhaul of a yard and half wide, which fhall weigh only two ounces. She has brought her fpinning fince to 256 fkains in the pound, equal to 81 miles 80 yards in length. It equals, Mr. Harvey of Norwich thinks, the thread of the Thibet and Cafhmere fhauls, but is not fo foft and filky. He finds that the finest part of a Norfolk fleece, culled of fufficient length, is full as foft as the long ftaple of the Spanish, and is fuperior in whitenefs of colour. The large Lincolnshire, marfh-fed sheep, he tells us, brought into Norfolk and fed upon dry heaths, will, in four or five years, completely change their breed, and produce wool exactly like the native Norfolk sheep. The Thibet fheep, which live, we have feen, in a cold country, though in lat. 30, produce a wool that is long, filky, and as foft as Eider-down.

Among the papers on Mechanics, we have fome fatisfactory accounts of the utility of the gun-harpoon, as killing at a greater diftance, and with more certainty than the hand-harpoon. There is a defcription alfo and a plate of a machine for twitching wool, a method neceffary for feparating its fibres and preparing it for the carder and fpinner: it is ufually done by beating. A plate of a very ufeful machine, called the road-harrow, invented by Mr. Harriott, for which he received the bounty of ten guineas; and an admirable fuccedaneum for a rudder, when it has been unfhipped in a ftorm, by captain Packenham, follow. The laft is made from materials which occur in every fhip.

In the department of Colonies and Trade, we have very pleafing information of the flourishing ftate of the cinnamontree in Jamaica. The mangofteen alfo is faid to thrive very well, and will produce an immenfe crop of mangos this year.

An account of the rewards adjudged by, and prefents made to the Society; a lift of the officers and chairmen of the feveral committees, are next fubjoined. In the Lift of Premiums we find fome new objects, and others which are refumed. We shall select those which appear most interesting:

No. 104. Stall-feeding Horfes with green Vegetables.-To the perfon who fhall keep the greatest number of horses, not

fewer

fewer than four, in the stall or stable, during the greatest num ber of months in the year, on carrots, potatoes, lucern, faintfoin, clover, vetches, or any other green vegetable food raised on land in his own poffeffion; the filver medal and ten guineas.

It is required that the number of hortes fo fed, the quantity of land employed in raiting the green vegetable food, the quantity of hay and corn (if any) confumed, the flate and condition of the horses, and an account of the work done by them, be fully and particularly specified.

The accounts and certificates to be produced to the Society on or before the second Tuesday in February, 1790.'

The following is refumed:

No. 152. Refining Fish Oil.-For difclofing to the Society an effectual method of purifying fish oil from the glutinous matter that encrufts the wicks of lamps, and extinguishes the light, though fully fupplied with oil, the gold medal, or fifty guineas.

It is required that the whole of the procefs be fully and fairly difclofed, in order that fatisfactory experiments may be made by the Society to determine the validity of the claim; and that certificates that not lefs than twenty gallons have been purified according to the process delivered in, muft, together with two gallons of the oil in its unpurified ftate, and two gallons fo refined, be produced to the Society on or before the fecond Tuesday in February, 1790.

The fame premium is extended one year further.

Certificates and famples to be produced on or before the fe cond Tuesday in February, 1791.'

The next appears to be now firft offered :

No. 164. Refining Black Tin.-To the perfon who shall difcover to the Society the best method of purifying or refining Block Tin, in fuch manner as to render it fit for the finer pur poses to which Grain Tin is now folely applied, the gold medal, or fifty pounds.

Certificates that not less than three tons have been refined or purified, with a full detail of the procefs, and a quantity, not less than one hundred weight, of the tin fo refined, to be produced to the Society on or before the first Tuesday in November, 1790.'

A premium for importing cinnamon, the produce of our Weft India islands, not lefs than twenty pounds, is alfo added: the reward is fixed at fifty pounds. The conveying the breadfruit tree, in a growing ftate, to our Weft India islands, is to be rewarded with the gold medal. This very advantageous vegetable is, we fufpect, by this time on its paffage.-Since writing this Article, we have heard that it is very nearly arrived, and the plants are in pretty good order.

The

The Four Gospels, tranflated from the Greek. With preliminary Differtations, and Notes Critical and Explanatory. By George Campbell, D. D. F. R. S. Edinburgh. In 2 Vols. (Concluded, from Vol. LXVII. p. 409.)

AS we have given a fufficiently full account of the form of

the work, and of Dr. Campbell's general plan, we shall, without farther preface, proceed to the fecond volume, which contains the tranflation and the notes.

Saint Matthew's Gofpel was very probably written in the Hebrew language; but it was fo foon tranflated into Greek, that the Hebrew was confined only to a few of the Jewish converts, and imperceptibly difappeared. The Greek may be ftyled the original, for the earlieft accounts which we have make no complaints of accidental errors, or more ftudied perverfions; and its general coincidence with the fcope and tenour of the other Gofpels, fhow that, if the present verfion is not the original, it is not inferior to it. On thefe accounts we are unwilling to engage in the controverfy which has been raised, refpecting the language in which this Gofpel was originally written: if it was tranflated, as fome commentators have fuppofed, by James, the brother of our Lord, its authority will have additional weight: it pretty certainly exifted in the Greek language previous to the corruptions of the Ebionites. St. Matthew's Gofpel was the earlieft of the four, probably written in the fixty-firft year after Chrift's death, while Paul was preaching the Gofpel at Rome, on his firft vifit to the capital, for it was prior to the Gospel of St. Luke, which, with its continuation, the Acts of the Apostles, was finished before the apostle's fecond journey. Dr. Campbell engages in a curious and entertaining difquifition, respecting the peculiar dialect in which this Gofpel was written. We have faid it was Hebrew, but it was not the Hebrew of the Old Teftament, and the language of the Prophets feem never to have been diftinguished by this appellation, which means only, beyond the river, as the Italians till diftinguish what is beyond the mountains, by a particular term, tramontane. The language of Palestine, at that time, has been called by Jerome, Syrochaldaic, which in reality it was; but the fource of this language must be traced more accurately.

Abram, it is faid, was called the Hebrew, as dwelling beyond the river-Tranfeuphratenfis; and the word is fuitably rendered by the LXX, fans. His language, that of Ur, must have been Chaldean, but it was loft by his refidence in the Land of Canaan; and his defcendants feem to have adopted the language of that diftrict: this language we call He

brew;

brew; and Dr. Campbell thinks, with Bochart, Walton, and Le Clerc, that it was the ancient Phoenician: Canaan, with its derivatives, is rendered by the LXX. Phoenicia, with its correfpondent appellations. The language of Canaan was, however, corrupted during the captivity, by the Chaldean, or Syrian language; for they are fuppofed by our author to be the fame, and this corrupted language was ftyled by the Jews Hebrew; it is, in fact, Syro Chaldaic, blended with former Canaanitish, or Phoenician idiom. After the destruction of Jerufalem, it became more nearly Syriac; though, in the time of our Lord, it differed confiderably from it. That the Greek is a verfion in our author's opinion, is fupported by Matth. v. 22. where raca is left unexplained, and where moreh would have been equally without interpretation, if its fimilarity with pw, fool, in the Greek character, had not led the tranflators to give it that interpretation. Dr. Campbell interprets raca, fool, and moreh he renders miscreant.

Dr. Campbell fuppofes, and indeed it is founded, as he obferves, on hiftorical evidence, that St. Matthew's Gospel was intended for the ufe of the Jews; and to recommend the doctrines of Chritt to them, he deduced his lineage from David, as it was prophefied that the Meffiah fhould come from the king of Ifrael. As the two first chapters have been confidered as interpolations, we shall extract from the notes our author's arguments in fupport of his opinion:

It is proper to obferve that, in the Heb. exemplar of this Gofpel which was used by the Ebionites, and called 7 be Gofpel according to the Hebrews, the two first chapters were wanting: -the book began in this manner, It happened, in the Days of Herod king of Judea, that John came baptifing, with the bap tifm of reformation. in the river Jordan. He was faid to be of the race of Aaron the priest, and fon of Zacharias and Elizabeth. But for this reading, and the rejection of the two chapters, there is not one concurrent testimony from MSS. verfions, or ancient authors. It is true the Alexandrian MS. has not the two chapters; but this is no authority for rejecting them, as that copy is mutilated, and contains but a very small fragment of Matthew's Gospel. No fewer than the twenty-four firit chapters are wanting, and the copy begins with the verb exela, cometh, in the middle of a fentence, ch. xxv. 6. By a like mutilation, though much lefs confiderable, the first ninet en verfes of the first chapter are wanting in the Cambridge MS. which also begins in the middle of a fentence, with the verb magadabei, to take home. And in the Gothic verfion all is wanting before the middle of the fifteenth verfe of ch. v. It begins likewife in the middle of a fentence, with the words answering 10 επι την λυχνίαν. Now if we abftrat from thefe, which prove nothing, but that the words they begin with were preceded by VOL. LXVIII. Od. 1789.

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fome