with the fentence; who, when he acknowledges the juftice of the intend ed punishment, fènds a cloth to put over the delinquent's head, together with a large difh of falt and lemons. The unhappy object, whether prifoner of war, or malefactor, is then tied to aftake; the people affembled throw their lances at him from a certain diftance, and when mortally wounded, they run up to him, as if in a tranfport of paffion; cut pieces from the body with their knives; dip them in the dish of falt and lemon-juice; flightly broil them over a fire prepared for the purpofe; and fwallow the morfels, with a degree of favage enthufiafm. Sometimes (I prefume according to the degree of their animofity and refentment) the whole is devoured; and inftances have been known, where with barbarity still aggravated, they tear the flesh from the carcafe with their mouths. To fuch a depth of depravity may man be plunged, when neither religion nor philofophy enlighten his fteps! All that can be faid in extenuation of the horror of this diabolical ceremony, is, that no view appears to be entertained of torturing the fufferers; of encreasing or lengthening out the pangs of death: the whole fury is di rected against the corfe; warm indeed with the remains of life, but paft the fenfation of pain. I have found a difference of opinion in regard to their eating the bodies of their ene mies flain in battle. Some perfons long refident there, and acquainted with their proceedings, affert that it is not cuftomary; but as one or two particular inftances have been given by other people, it is juft to conclude, that it sometimes take place, though not generally. It was fuppofed to be with this intent that Raja Neabin maintained a long conflict for the body of Mr. Nairne, a moft refpectable gentleman, and valuable fervant of the India Company, who fell in an attack upon the campong of that chief, in the year 1775*.' There is a peculiar diffidence in Mr. Marsden's manner, which entitles him not only to our candour, (which is the due of every one) but to our most cordial esteem; and we certainly give him full credit for every pofitive affertion he has publifhed. Many judicious obfervations occur in the courfe of the work, which it is impoffible for us particularly to notice: but we think great national ** I find that fome persons still doubt the reality of the fact, that human flesh is any where eaten by mankind, and think that the proofs hitherto adduced are infufficient to establish a point of fo much moment in the history of the fpecies. It is objected to me, that I never was an eye-witness of a Batta feast of this nature, and that my authority for it is confiderably weakened by coming through a fecond or perhaps a third hand. I am fenfible of the weight of this reasoning, and am not anxious to force any man's belief, much less to deceive him by pretences to the highest degree of certainty, when my relation can only lay claim to the next degree. I can only fay, that I thoroughly believe. the fact myself, and that my conviction has arifen from the following circumstances, fome of less, fome of more, authority. It is, in the first place, a matter of general and uncontroverted notoriety in the island; I have talked on the fubject with natives of the country, who acknowledge the practice, and become ashamed of it when they have refided among more humanized people: it has been my chance to have had no less than three brothers, chiefs of the fettlements of Natal and Tappanooly, where their intercourse with the Battas is daily, and who all affure me of the truth of it. The fame account I have had from other gentlemen who had equal or fuperior opportunities of knowing the cuftoms of the people; and all their relations agree in every material point: a refident of Tappanooly (Mr. Bradley) fined a raja a few years fince, for having a p ifoner eaten too close to the company's fettlement; Mr. Alexander Hall, made a charge in his public accounts of a fum paid to a raja in the country, to induce him to fpare a man whom Mr. Hall had feen preparing for a victim: "Mr. Charles Miller, in the Journal before quoted, fays, "In the fappeou, or house where the raja receives ftrangers, we faw a man's skull hanging up, which the raja told us was placed there as a trophy, it being the skull of an enemy they had taken prisoner, whose body (according to the custom of the Battas) they had eaten about two months before." Thus the experience of later days is found to agree with the uniform teftimony of old writers; and though I am aware that each and every of these proofs, taken fingly, may admit of some cavil, yet in the aggregate I think they amount to fatisfactory evidence, and such as may induce any perfons not very incredulous, to admit it as a fact, that human flesh is eaten by inhabitants of Sumatra, as we have pofitive authority it is by inhabitants of New Zealand, advantage might be derived from a proper ufe of fome of Mr. Marfden's remarks. ART. II. The Progrefs of Refinement. Pm. In Three Parts. By Henry James Pye, Efq: 4to. 35. Dodfley. WHETHER we confider the obvious and important defign of this production, or the masterly execution of a plan fo truly laudable; the philanthropy of the fentiments, or the eafe and elegance of the diction; we are alike charmed with this delightful performance, which is certainly one of the most compleat poems in our language. In his first part, the ingenious au thor, after a beautiful Introduction, tres man from a state of nature, through the firft fcenes of his emerging from barbarifm; and, reprefentin ≈ pastoral description and aftronomy, as the earliest attempts of his mind, proceeds to mark the progress of the various arts, through the feveral polifhed nations of antiquity; Where Opulence and Refinement, producing Luxury and Corruption, the irruptions of barbarous nations arain plunge him into rudenefs and ignorance. In the fecond part, Mr. Pye gives us a fketch of the Northern Barba rians, with the establishment of the feudal fyftem, from whence he very properly derives the origin of chiVally; then adverting to the fuperftition which accompanied the Romish peruanon of chriftianity, he mentions the Crufades as the caufe of the enfranchisement of vaffals, the enlargement of commerce, and the origin of romance, the Mufe's infant dream; though the remains of fcience, confined to monafteries, and in an unknown language, ftill conceal coy Reafon's golden beam; till, at length, on the recovery of the Roman jurifprudence Wisdom unfeals charm'd Reafon's drowly eyes, And once again Aftrea leaves the skies.' He then traces the revival of the arts in Italy, the encouragement of learn ing by Leo X. the invention of printing; the eftablishment of the refor mation in England, with it's effect even on those countries which retained their old religion; and the flourishing ftate of the arts in this kingdom during the reign of Elizabeth. Mr. Pye now reprefents the arts as checked by the civil war, but patronized by Lewis XIV. of France; and notices the great injury which tafte received in England from the profligate reign of Charles II. At length, Britannia's fons with transport view Another Queen their ancient fame renew; Once more the prize in Arts and Arms obtain, And fee Eliza's days revived in. Anna's reign." They were, however, again neglected by the first princes of the house of Brunfwick; but are encouraged by his prefent Majefty, who has yet overlooked our poet's favourite art. This gives rife to a most beautiful addrefs to the King: after which he takes a general view of the present state of Refinement among the feveral European nations; laments the increafing influence of French manners; and, adverting to the rapid progrefs of civilization in Ruffia, glances at Afia, Africa, and America, and concludes this part with the newly discovered islands, and European colonies. In his third and laft part, our Poet enters into a comparifon of ancient and modern manners, and re marks the peculiar foftnefs of the latter; afcribing cur humanity in war, as well as our genuine politeness, to the purity of the Chriftian religion, and the remaining effects of chival Edward the Black Prince, after the ry. He contrafts the behaviour of battle of Poitiers, with a Roman triumph; fhews the tendency of fire, arms to abate the ferocity of war; re marks on the prevalence of love in poetical compofitions, with the foftnefs of the modern drama; and most judiciously obferves, that Shakespeare is admired, but not imitated. The diffufion of fuperficial knowledge is then animadverted on; with the prevalence of gaming in every ftate of mankind; the peculiar effect of the univerfal univerfal influence of cards on modern times; luxury in general, with the reafon why it does not threaten Europe now, with the fatal confequences it brought on ancient Rome; advantages derived from a free intercourfe with the fair-fex, who diflike effeminate men; the martial spirit of European nations preferved by their frequent wars; point of honour; hereditary nobility; and peculiar fituation of Britain. After which, Mr. Pye laments the effects of commerce, when carried to excefs; defcribes the danger of money's becoming the fole diftinction; warmly and pathetically addreffes men of ancient and noble families; politely hints to the ladies the decline of their influence, which he confiders as a fure fore-runner of felfish luxury; recapitulates his plan; and concludes one of the very beft poems we ever read. As it is impoffible for us fufficiently to gratify our inclinations, in making extracts from this excellent production, we must content ourfelves with the affurance, that every reader of taste will be tempted, by the famples we fhall produce, to become poffeffed of the whole. The opening of the poem furnishes a beautiful general idea of the Progress of Refinement. As when the stream, by casual fountains fed, Or grace or foftnefs to the human heart; A flood deftructive o'er the enervate foul, Having thus given a fpecimen of the beginning of Mr. Pye's delightful poem, we fhall present our readers with the conclufion. Ah, Britain! while, with radiance all divine, While thy bold fons with steady eye pervade Tho' Commerce wide her general bleffings shower, The Hind that labors, and the Lord that owns: Yet when, forfaking every manlier thought, But on the uncertain aid her force fupplies; The race, who draw their worth from wealth Nor other rank, nor other merit own, The braft that Education never form'd, Knows Knows not with mirth untinged by fcorn to pleafe, give diftinctions chance may make their own. "Ye ancientiords of Britain's fair domain! But guard it's rights, for they protect your own. To drown reflection, and to deaden thought. To court the ftranger to the friendly gate; Long may ye mock, in this fecure defence, And you, ye fair! forgive the honeft lay, In fabled times, by Ida's lofty wood, 'From Albion far may Heaven's benign decrees Sees the dread hour of Justice yet to come, But let not man attempt, with bounded skill, As 1 As ftorms and fultry gleams o'ercome the flower ART. III. De Morbis quibufdam Commentarii. Auctore, Clifton Wintringbam, Baronetto, M.D. Colleg. Medic. Londinenfis et Parifienfis Socio, Societatis Regia Sodali, et Medic. Regio. 8vo. 5s. Cadell. [Reviewed by a Correspondent. ] THE learned author of these Commentaries is not one of thofe fpeculative writers, who employ themfelves in forming new and fanciful theories, and adapt their prefcriptions to their preconceived hypothefes, but appears to be, in the higheft fenfe of the word, a rational phyfician, who has minutely and accurately attended to the operations of nature, the fymptoms of difeafes, the indications of cure, and the efficacy of medicines. His work is divided into four hundred and nineteen aphorifms, or fhort obfervations on almost every disease, founded on the experience of forty years. In the difcrimination of dif. eafes, and the detection of certain errors, which have been committed both in phyfic and furgery, the author fhews a difcernment which indicates the judicious physician and the true philofopher. It may perhaps be objected by fome modern theorifts, that he has too frequently adopted the doctrines of the Boerhaavian school. But on this account, we apprehend, it would be the height of temerity to cenfure the excellent author of thefe Commentaries: for who can pretend to fay, that his own fpeculations will ftand the teft of time, and fubvert thofe principles which Boerhaave established on an intimate knowledge of the Materia Medica and the nature of difeafes; on a long course of practice, and a great variety of actual experiments? 'Time,' fays Cicero, overthrows the illufions of opinion, but establishes the deci fions of nature.' A wise man will therefore be very cautious in trufting to a NEW HYPOTHESIS; which, in a courfe of years, may difappear, like the bafelefs fabric of a vifion.' ART. IV. The Man in the Moon; or, Travels into the Lunar Regions, by the Man of the People. 2 vols. 12mo. 5s. Murray. S the Editor of thefe Lunar A Travels has given a very mo deft and not unfavourable account of bis own abilities, eftimated by the Man in the Moon, (who previously pronounces Dr. Samuel Johnfon, Dr. Gibbon, Mr. Burke, Mr. M'Pherfon, the Bishop of London, Dr. Price, Dr. Prieftley, and feveral other equally illiterate gentlemen, unqualified to pen this fublime narrative) he cannot be difpleafed if we recommend his eulogium to the attention of our reas ders, though profeffedly that of a Lunatic. Mr. Student, you fhall be my editor yourself. You have a candour in your nature, which difpofes you to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth. Your imagination is vigorous, and you exprefs things as you feel them, You never facrifice fenfe to found; and though your ftyle is not always either harmonious or elegant, yet you have the talent of fitting the turn of your language to every subject, and of expreffing the fentiment and hitting the point in question; and this, in my mind, is the true criterion of writing.' ART. V. Pictures of the Heart, fentimentally delineated in the Danger of the Paffions, an Allegorical Tale; the Adventures of a Friend of Truth, ax Oriental Hiftory, in Two Parts; the Embarrafments of Love, a Novel; and the Double Disguise, a Drama, in |