(412) AGRICULTURAL REPORT, FOR MAY, 1797. [May, The almoft uninterrupted continuance of cold and wet WEATHER, for fix weeks at the latter end of the laft, and beginning of the prefent month, has operated very unfavourably upon high, expofed, and clayey moift foils; on dry and warm fituations, particularly on the South and Weft, the rain fell very opportunely, and corn and grafs is, in confequence, in a very promifing, and highly flourishing state. All our reports from North-Britain and the eastern and midland diftricts, defcribe the WHEATS, in general, as very thin, and the BARLEY and OATS as much starved. However favourable the season may turn out, it is conceived that, on cold foils, they can fcarcely amount to a tolerable crop. The Spring Corn, not being fo far advanced, may poffibly recover. The FALLOWs, from the fame caufe, are remarkably backward, and very few POTATOES or TURNIPS are yet in the ground. In the midland counties, the GRASS LANDS and BEANS are in good condition. The prices of CATTLE and SHEEP are generally on the advance, and are likely to continue unufually high, from the great demand for both. SMITHFIELD MARKET, during the month, has had a fhort fupply, with increafing prices. Beef averaged, on the 29th, about 4s. Mutton 5s and Lamb 5s. 8d Grain, throughout the island, is either falling in price, or nearly ftationary. The average, by the last return, was, for Wheat, 498. 5d. and for Barley 24s. 7d. R. H. C. is informed, that we shall particularly esteem any new Communications concerning Econo mical Botany." The Letter on the Conftruction of Roads is too technical for our Purpofe. The fenfible Letter of Publius, concerning a Hiftory of the prefent Century, is rather addressed to intended Authors, than to the Readers of a Magazine. The Letter of Dr. Belknap to Dr. Kippis, with the accompanying Documents, is rather out of Date for us; and we are pretty certain the Subject has already been laid before the Public. The Topic of the agricultural Ufe of Lime has, we think, already had a fufficiens Share of our Notice... C. S. is miftaken in his Conjectures refpecting the Author of the Letter on Education, figned Diogenes, and his Reply is rather too prolix for our Purpose. Indeed, though we shall readily infert original Remarks on the Subject, yet we must be excufed from entering on a direct Controversy, which we forfee would run out to an indefinite Length, and could not but fall into a beaten Track. The Thoughts on Public Worship, by Beræus, is rather fuited for feparate Publication, than for our Mifcellany. Our fenfible and worthy Correfpondent, the Poor Northumbrian, must permit us to seleɛi, among his long Communications, fuch alone as we think could intereft our Readers. The copious analytical Account of Reinhard's Hiftory of religious Opinions, is an Article proper for a Review, but does not fuit the Plan of our Work. The Objection of Cambrobritannicus, concerning the ufual Theory of the Earth's Orbit round the Sun, we confider as already fufficiently answered. The metaphyfical Paper of P. H. would, we fear, be paffed over by most of our readers. M. muft be fenfible that an Attack on the Character of a Perfon by Name, requires the Name of the Perfon making the Attack. If S. E. compares our Biographical Notices with those of our Competitors, we think he will not find them inferior in quantity of real Fuct aud valuable Remark. Common-place Panegyric and trivial Detail are what we rather ftudy to omit than to dilate upon. N. O's Communication is left as defired. The Lady of the Bull Family is, perhaps, not aware of the Difficulty of fucceeding in the Kind of Writing attempted. Eufebius has justly obferved, that we have (through inadvertence) inferted some Pieces before made public, in other Forms; but the great Number of original Performances with which we are favoured, makes us defirous of avoiding fuch Re-publications, where we know them to be fuch. And we are forry, on this Occafion, to be obliged to complain of fome Correspondents, who have designedly misled us in this Matter. A great Number of Pieces, both Profe and Verfe, are at prefent under Confideration, and shall receive fome particular Notice hereafter, and we beg Leave to affure all our friendly Correfpondents, that their Favours, even though we may finally think proper not to make use of them, are entitled to our Gratitude for their kind Intentions, * About the 12th of July, will be published THE SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER, containing a great Variety of valuable and interefting Original Matter, and the TITLE, INDEXES, &c. &c. to Volume the Third. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, I INCLOSE, for the ufe of your interefting Mifcellany, the following brief notice of WIELAND, the celebrated German poet, and of a confiderable number of his publications.-The reputation of WIELAND is now at its zenith on the continent; he is confidered there as the moft fertile and brilliant genius that Germany ever produced. Critically familiar with the productions of the ancients, well verfed in English, French, Italian, and Spanish literature, and confcious of the dignity of his powers, he has attempted various kinds of compofition, and borne away the palm in all. A number of his countrymen have tried, in their turn, to imitate him, although hitherto without fuccefs: his works have in them a lightness, a grace, an originality, which feems to fet competition at defiance. The French critics, many of whom have fought all occafions to depreciate German literature, are not infenfible of the merits of this writer. One of thefe published, in 1782, a masterly sketch and review of German productions, under the title of Tableau de l'Allemagne, de la Littérature Allemande. In this we find the following honourable eulogium on the writings of WIELAND: "Les ouvrages hiftorico-poëtiques de WIELAND, font honneur à la littérature Allemande. Cet auteur s'eft approprié le génie des Grecs, & on peut l'appeler le On peut même dire, que de tous les poëtes Allemandes, c'eft lui qui a le plus de fraicheur dans le coloris," &c. Lucien Allenande. CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND, counfellor at the court of the reigning duke of Wiemar, was born in the imperial city of Biberach, Sept. 5, 1733, being defcended of an ancient family, MONTHLY MAG. No. XVIII. which, at that epoch, had, for upwards of fifty years, borne the most important offices in the city. On the completion of his third year, his education was com menced, by the direction of his father;at the age of feven, he read, with avidity, the lives of Cornelius Nepos, and at thirteen, he could read and understand Virgil and Horace, better than his tutor. From the age of twelve to fourteen, he compofed a prodigious number of verses in Latin and German, the greater part of which were, according to his own opinion of them, beneath mediocrity, but which, however, announced his decided prefer ence for poetry. At thirteen, he also began an epic poem, on the deftruction of Jerufalem. The year following, he was fent to Klofterberg, near Magdeburgh, a feminary then under the fuperintendance of the fanatic Steinmetz. Here he remained two years, making the most rapid progress in his ftudies; his active mind, however, impregnated with the enthufiaftic ideas which he had acquired at this school, was attentively ranging in a chimerical world, for the aliment which the real world, at that time, did not afford; and by exploring the unknown tracts of metaphyfics, he may be faid to have gained an acquifition of intelligence which the ftate of human knowledge then refused him. Here it was that he wrote a dif fertation to demonftrate the poffibility of Venus's being born of the froth of the fea; a differtation which involved him in fome difagreeable altercations during the remainder of his refidence at Klofterberg. The writings of Xenophon, with the Spectator, Tatler, and Guar dian, in English, were now his favourite ftudy. At the age of fixteen, he removed to Erfurth, where he paffed a year in the fchool of Doctor Baumer. Under tha 3 H learne 414 Life and Writings of Wieland. learned man, he added confiderably to his ftock of philofophic knowledge, having the advantage of private leffons, as well as the general tuition of the fchool. In thofe private conferences, they read through Don Quixote together.. On his return to his father's houfe, he found there Mademoiselle Sophia Gutterman, an amiable young lady, who became the object of his first affections, and contributed more, perhaps, than any other perfon to unfold and direct his tafte and talents. Particular circumftances, however, prevented their union, and Mr. WIELAND, full of a love the moft ardent, yet the moft platonic, at the age of feventeen, repaired to Tubingen, to enter on a courfe of jurifprudence. There overpowered, as it were, by his Jively imagination, and the confcious fenfe of his fuperior talents, he fecluded himfelf from company, and in the space of about a year and a half, published the first poems which he ever compofed. Thus in the fame year, 1752, four pieces of his were printed, 1ft, The Anti-Ovid, or the Art of Love; 2d, Moral Letters, in verfe; 3d, Tales; and 4th, The Nature of Things. The three former of these were printed at Heilbronn, and the fourth at Hall. This last poem. compofed by him in about three months' time, exhibits a picture of the philofophy of Plato and Leibitz, finished in the moft brilliant ftyle of colouring. Its fuccefs was very confiderable, and it had, particularly, a very extenfive fale in Switzerland. It also pro. cured for the author, the friendship of Meffrs. Breitenger and de Blaueren, to whom he was under material obligations in the fequel. He had fent to the celebrated Bodmer, the five first cantos of a poem of his, in hexameter verfe, entitled, Arminius, without revealing his own name. For fome time, Bodmer and Hagedorn were at a lofs in confidering the different authors of reputation to whom they fhould afcribe it; when Mr. WIELAND, difcovering its real author, proved it to be the work of a young man fcarcely nineteen years of age. * Mademoiselle Gutterman married, after.wards, M. de la Roche, minifter at a German court, and, under this name, has published feveral pieces, in German and French, which have procured her a diftinguished reputation. The Memoirs of Mademoiselle de Sternheim, and the Caprices of Love and Friendship, are among the effufions of her pen. [June, our Here originated the friendship between Meffrs. Wieland and Bodmer, which was maintained during fo long a time afterwards. Bodmer prevailed upon young poet to repair to Zurich, and Mr. WIELAND, with no lefs eager curiofity, went to fhare the apartment of the patriarch of German poets. The Trial of Abraham (Der-Geprufie Abraham, in 1753) was the firft fruit of the affem blage of their combined talents. The Letters of the Dead (Briefe-der-Veftorbenen, in 1753) fucceeded to this; a work in the manner of our Rowe, although abounding more with philofophy, and flights of imagination. Mr. WIELAND published alfo in the fame year, three volumes of the collection of The Polemical Writings of Zurich, for the Improvement of Tafte (Sammlung-der Zurcherifchen Streitfchritten, &c. in 1753). In the following year, he wrote A Treatise on the Beauties of the Noachis, an epic poem of Bodmer (Abhandlung von den Schoenbeuten des Epifchen Gedichts dem Noah, in 1754); and alfo published, in concert with Bodmer, a number of different pieces of fugitive poetry, in the manner of tales., In 1755, appeared his announcement of a German Dunciad (Ankundigung einer Dunciade fux-die Teutfchen). In 1758, he printed, 1. Remarks on Milton. 2. Thoughts on renewing the patriotic Dream of the Confederation. 3. Remembrancers to a Lady. 4. The Sympathies. 5. Lady Jane Gray. And, 6, he began the Collection of his Works in profe. In thefe different pieces we have a difplay of Petrarch's fenfibility, combined with the profoundnefs of Shaftfbury's philofophy. A year afterwards, he published Arafpes and Panthea, a moral hiftory ;-Clementina de Poretta, a tragedy;—and his Poetical Writings were collected for the first time in 1762. In this collection, I must not omit to mention Cyrus, a heroic poem, in fublime verfe, in which the poet fpeaks the language of Xenophon and Plato. WIELAND lived in Switzerland till towards the middle of the year 1759The laft of thefe years he paffed at Berne, where he met with the fame fafeven years' refidence in Switzerland, and vourable reception as at Zurich. His the connections he had formed there, proved highly advantageous to him in the fequel. In 1760, he was recalled into his country, to take his feat in the fenate; and foon after was elected Greffier, and Director 1797.] Life and Writings of Wieland. Director of the Chancery of the city.In this honourable station he remained till 1769, devoting to the mufes whatever time he could fpare from occupa tions which accorded fo ill with his genius. While refiding at Zurich, with Bodmer, he had spent much of his time in the study of English, French, and Italian literature, making it a point to read no work in German, and particularly the Journals written in that language. Till 1768, he had no correfpondence whatever with the writers and learned men of Germany; availing himself of this kind of ifolated ftate, to accomplish feveral different literary enterprises. In 1762, he entered on a complete tranflation of the Plays of Shakspeare, which he finished fuccefsfully in 1766, in eight volumes. In 1764, he wrote an agreeable romance, entitled, The Triumph of Nature over Fanaticifm; or, the Adventures of Don Sylvio Rojalva (Sieg der Natur uber die Schwarmerey. Ulm, 1764, Leipzig, 1772, 2 vois). A work which, not having feen, I can only judge of it by wretched extracts, or pitiful tranflations, which disfigure it, and mifconftrue the sense of the author-its fole object is to aim a fatal blow at fuperftition and fanaticism. His Comic Tales (Komische Erzæblungen, at Zurich, in 8vo.) appeared in 1766. It may be called the Secret History of Olympus, fet off in the moft brilliant colours, and written in a vein of fatire, not unworthy of Lucian. Agathon, a romance, compofed with fo much art, that it interefts alike the learned and the ignorant, was published in 1766 and 1777. Mufarion, or the Philofophy of the Graces, a work dictated by the graces themfelves; and Idris, an heroi-comic poem, in five cantos, as rich in comic adventures as in characters varied and fhaded by a philofophical poet, appeared first in 1768. Mr. WIELAND had at first many difficulties to furmount on his arrival at Biberach; but after a little time, he acquired the confidence of the religion ifts of both communions, and won the hearts of all his fellow-citizens. They parted with mutual regret, when he accepted the offices of Counsellor of Government, and Profeffor of Philofophy in the univerfity of Erfurt, which were tendered to him by the Elector of Mentz, Emmerick-Jofeph. He paffed, at Erfurt, three of the most agreeable years of his 415 life, and there renewed his acquaintance with German literature, which he had neglected to fuch a degree, as to be even infenfible of the reputation which his own writings had procured him in Germany. Being invited afterwards to the court of Weimar, with the character of Counfellor to that court, he there became greatly in favour with the Duchefs Dowager, regent, and had the principal management of the education of the two princes, her fons. His affiduities were liberally recompenfed in the sequel, fo that he was enabled to spend the refidue of his days in eafe and affluence, and at full liberty to confecrate his time to the mufes. I had forgot to mention, that Mr. WIELAND married, Oct. 21, 1755He fpeaks thus, in a private letter, of the lady whom he had felected as his companion for life: The twenty-two years that I have spent with her, have elapfed without my withing fo much as once to be again unmarried: on the contrary, her exiftence is fo_clofely interwoven with my own, that I cannot be ab fent from her for eight days together, without experiencing a return of the most fombrous melancholy. Of thirteen children, whom he has borne me, ten are yet living, and conftitute, with their mother, the principal happiness of my life." Let me refume, however, the notice of his publications. In 1770, he publifhed The Dialogues of Diogenes of Sinope, wherein the natural philofophy of Diogenes is happily contrafted with that of Socrates; a number of interesting histories are alfo judiciously introduced and blended in the work. The fame year he published, in two volumes, Memoirs, ferving to a particular Hiftory of the Underflanding of the human Heart, drawn from the Archives of Nature: a work of great value, teeming with the most profound obfervations on the paffions of men, and demonftrated by hiftories and particular travels. Alfo, Combabus, a mélange of pleafantry and fenfibility, truly original; and The Graces. The New Amadis (Der neue Amadis, 2 vols.) a fatyric hiftory of chivalry, appeared in 1771. Here we find, as ufual, the talents of its author, difplayed in a feries of adventures, which please, intereft, and excite the most mirthful fenfations. The following year, 1772, he produced four new pieces: 1. The Golden 3 H 2 Mirror; 416 Original Similarity of Languages. Mirror or the Hiftory of the Kings of Schefcbiau, a political romance. 2. Thoughts on an ancient Infeription; these are characterized by a happy vein of fatirico-philofophical humour, which runs through them. 3. Cupid under Accufation, a fprightly and agreeable poem. And, 4, Aurora, a lyric drama. In 1773, he published two new lyric dramas, Alcefies, printed at Leipzig; and The Choice of Hercules, printed at Weimar. In the fame year he undertook the German Mercury (Der Deutsche Mercure) a periodical publication, which he continues to this day, with the greateft fuccefs. In 1777, he published, in two volumes, the collection of his new eft poetical pieces, from 1770 to that year (Neufte Gedichte, vom jahre 1770 bis 1777, 2 vols.) Afterwards appeared Rofamonde (Man heim, 1778) a lyric drama. Oberon, one of his finest compofitions, was published in 1780. It is the history of Fairyifm, but worked up with all the pomp and bustle of an epic poem. The richness of imagination, the harmony of the verfes, and the aftonishing variety of fituations, difplayed in this piece, leave nothing to be defired by the moft faftidious critic. In 1782, he published a new edition, corrected and augmented, of his Able rities (Die Abderiten) the former edition of which was out of print. In the fame year, he alfo tranflated the Epiftles of Horace, adding introductions and hiftorical notes. In 1784, he made a felection of his poems, which he published in feven volumes. After fo many labours, and fuch extraordinary fuccefs, Mr. WIELAND had doubtlefs acquired the right of repofing in a literary leifure; ftudy, however, his predominant pallion, and the defire of rendering himself ufeful, did not allow him to claim this indulgence. In 1788, he published a tranfiation of Lucian, which is confidered, by the critics, as a chef d'oeuvre, in the effential requifites of ftyle and fidelity. The foregoing are the principal productions of WIELAND-productions which will certainly be fought after by pofterity, and will render his name iminortal. If any of your correspondents [June, can furnish any additional notice rela- To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. THE obfervations of your learned cor refpondent MEIRION, on the structure and antiquity of the Welch tongue, are fo intereling, and fo important to the hiftory and ftudy of languages that, in my mind, nothing tending to illuftrate or confirm them, ought to be withheld from the public eye. With this view it is, that I fend you the following account of an old man whom it was my fortune to fee frequently in France, a few years ago, and whofe opinions correfponded exactly with thofe of Meirion, at the fame time that they were carried to a much greater length. M. le BRIGANT, the man I mean, was a native of la Baffe Bretagne; but, from his name, and, as he faid, from tradition, he was led to conclude, that his family derived its origin from the Brigantes, and had removed to the continent, when the part of our island which that people inhabited, was difturbed by the irruption of Saxons from the fouthern provinces. Like all the defcendants of the ancient Britons, he had ever entertained a high idea of the antiquity of his nation and language; but to the latter he had paid little attention, till about twenty-five or thirty years ago, when fome novel opinions were promulged in the literary world.-At that time it was that, the celebrated Court de Gebelin, and several other of the French literati, after very deep philological refearches, concurred in affirming, that if any original language exifted, each fimple found or fyllable it contained, must express a diftinct and fimple idea; and that all the polyfyllables muft neceffarily convey complex ideas, according to the fenfe of the particles of which they were compofed. M. le Brigant having a vague perception of thefe qualities in the Bas-Breton, his mother tongue, which is well known to be a dialect of the ancient Gaelic, or Celtic language, employed himself in a critical examination of its structure, and The ancient inhabitants of Yorkshire, was |