Rome. Whether or not we are in like manner to congratulate him on his admiffion into the brotherhood of Free-Mafons, is a question which, at prefent, we are not prepared to anfwer. He appears, however, greatly fatisfied, and highly pleafed, with his new alliance, and continues in this fermon, as he had done in his late Charge †, to proclaim the excellence of the renowned order of Free-Masonry; an inftitution which he places next to Christianity. From Heb. x. 249 he deduces a laudable exhortation to the exercife of benevolence and charity. Let us then, my brethren, fays he, as we are exhorted by St. Paul, confider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works. Let us confider what we are, and what we ought to be. First, and principally, let us reflect that we are Chriftians; a character infinitely beyond any which may be acquired by a mere human inftitution. In the fecond place, let us confider that we are FreeMafons. Of the great importance of this, you cannot but be fenfible. These are the two nobleft characters we can enjoy. Having confidered what we are, let us reflect on what we ought to be: true to our profeffions, faithful to our obligations. Natural and revealed religion are blended and interwoven with Free-Mafonry; we cannot therefore become good Mafons, without being at the same time good men, and good Chriftians.'

४

Our Author introduces fome terms into his difcourfe, fuitable, perhaps, to the character of a Mafon, but not very fuitable to the gravity and dignity of the pulpit; as when he tells us, that the good Mafon is properly faid to live on the level with all men, &c,'The following fhort defcription of our myftic fcience, within the Compass of prefcribed bounds, &c. Again, Laws to which the true Free Mafon ftrictly adheres, and by which he invariably Squares his conduct;' farther, The general depravity and incapacity of mankind, have made it expedient to tyle, or conceal fecurely, our myfleries, or fublime truths, by hieroglyphic and fymbolical reprefentations.'-The drift, however, of this difcourfe, to recommend love and good works in all their extent, is certainly commendable and useful;—and this, we are told, is the intent of Free Masonry.

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the MONTHLY REVIEWERS.

GENTLEMEN,

I beg leave briefly to observe, that the date of A. D. 660, affigned

by your Correfpondent in the clofe of your Review for September, to the ufe of organs in the church, is much too early; for we have the express teftimony of the celebrated Thomas Aquinas, who flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century, that, in his time, "the church did not ufe mufical inftruments, left the fhould feem to judaize." See Peirce's Vindication of the Diffenters, p. 3, c. 3, or p. 106, 107, Eng. ed. And the learned Bingham, a ftaunch churchman, in his Antiq. of the Christian Church, b. 8, c. 7, §*14, or v. 1, p. 314, fol. ed. fays, "'Tis now generally agreed by learned men, that the use of organs came into the church fince the time of

See this Month's Review, p. 396.

Thomas

Thomas Aquinas, anno 1250." He adds, "that Marinus Sanatus, who lived about the year 1290, first brought the use of them into churches. The ufe of the inftrument was indeed much ancienter, but not in church service; the not attending to which distinction impofes upon many writers." I will just add,-that allowing the or< gan to be very ancient, there is no ground to think that the inftru ment we have rendered organ in the Old Teftament, bore any refemblance to the modern organ; as the Hebrew * Gaugab, is very indeterminate, and only imports that it was a favourite or delectable inftrument; accordingly the Septuagint render it, in the four places in which it occurs, by three different Greek words.

I am, Gentlemen, your humble fervant,

S.

... The Editor of COLUMELLA prefents his compliments to the Gentlemen concerned in the Monthly Review. He takes entirely in good part their judicious ftrictures on that trifling work. He is only forry to have his harmless raillery on Dr. Priestley's useful and aftonishing difcoveries in chemistry, cenfured as "an attempt to ridicule them. He has the highest regard and veneration for Dr. Priefley's uncommon abilities, as well as for his moral character. The only opinions of Dr. P.'s, which the Editor of Columella could with to fee exploded, whether by argument or ridicule, are his fyftem of materialifm-as he thinks nothing less than a power of working miracles, or at leaft of demonftrating them inconteftibly, can warrant the publication of opinions of fo fatal a tendency-For though truth, like gold in the crucible, can never fuffer by the ftrictet fcrutiny, yet the operation may raife fumes very pernicious to the by-ftanders.

icth Nov. 1779.

Æ.

+++ In your laft Month's Review 1, a catalogue of books, with a fhort character of them, by M. Denis of Vienna, was mentioned, and the Reviewers faid it was the best thing of the kind they had feen. A conftant Reader has long wished to fee a work of this kind in English, or, if that could not be had, in Latin or French; and would be much obliged if the Monthly Reviewers would recommend one in their next Number.

Y. Z.

We are of opinion that a tranflation of the work compiled by M Denis would be well received in this country; or, rather, perhaps, a new production on the fame plan ;-to which the labours of the learned librarian might largely contribute.

ERRAT. in the REVIEW for August; viz.

In the account of Brown's Reports, p. 144, l. penult. for model, I. mode.

*F.om

עגב

Adamavit. Vide Stockii Clavim V. T. in vocem.

Vid. Art. II. of the Foreign Literature.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For DECEMBER, 1779.

ART. I. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS of the Royal Society of

London.

Vol. LXVIII.

10 s. 6 d. fewed. Davis.

For the Year 1778. Part 2. 4to. 1779.

PAPERS relating to ELECTRICITY.

Article 37. Experiments on Electricity, being an Attempt to fhew the Advantage of elevated pointed Conductors. By Mr. Edward Nairne, F. R. S.

WE

E are forry, that we cannot give a very particular account of these ingenious and well imagined experiments; in confequence of the want of the plates by which they are illuftrated. They are well adapted to prove, fo far as the queftion feems capable of being proved by our artificial electrical apparatus, that elevated and pointed conductors are preferable to those which do not rise above the building, and which terminate in balls.

Among other particulars, they fhew that a pointed conductor was not ftruck, nor an explosion produced, when it was expofed to an artificial cloud (or prime conductor electrified), at any diftance whatever beyond a twentieth of an inch; when the electric fire ran to it in a very small stream :-that, beyond that' diftance, the point only appeared luminous, and continued fo, till it was removed to the diftance of fix feet :-that this power of the point to prevent an explofion, depended on its having a perfect or uninterrupted metallic communication with the earth; for that an explofion to the point would enfue, if any difcontinuity, or interruptions, were made in the fubftance of the pointed conductor.

From fome other of thefe experiments, it appears that, though an artificial cloud, A, hanging over a pointed conductor, and which receives a charge, or fpark, from time to time, from another artificial cloud, B, placed near it, will in YOL. LXI.

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fac

fact strike into the point, immediately on receiving fucceffive fparks from the cloud, B, if the artificial cloud, A, be fixed: yet, if the latter be moveable (as is the cafe in real clouds, which are not fixed but floating bodies), though the distance continue the fame, the artificial cloud, A, recedes from the point, and does not ftrike it. From fubfequent experiments, it appears, that when the pointed conductor had a swift motion given to it, under the charged prime conductor, it was ftruck; but a fmall ball, moving as fwiftly, was ftruck at a greater distance; and a large ball at a distance still greater. - We, fhall have occafion to reconfider thefe experiments in the fucceeding article.

A fingular appearance prefented itfelf in fome of the Author's experiments. A ball of one inch diameter, communicating with the earth, being presented near the end of a large prime conductor, ftrongly charged; fparks appeared till the ball was gradually removed to the diftance of two inches. The sparks ceafed, and were fucceeded by a luminous appearance on the ball, attended with a hiffing noife, while the ball was gradually removed to the distance of ten inches. The noise then ceased, and the light difappeared; and the fparks again began to strike the ball, and continued to do fo till the distance was about fifteen or fixteen inches.

Article 36. Reafons for diffenting from the Report of the Committee appointed to confider of Mr. Willon's Experiments; including Remarks on fome Experiments exhibited by Mr. Nairne. By Dr. Mufgrave, F. R. Ś.

In this paper, which fhould have fucceeded the preceding, Dr. Mufgrave attempts to invalidate the conclufions drawn by Mr. Nairne, from the foregoing fet of experiments; and to reconcile fome of the appearances prefented in them, with those exhibited in the trials of Mr. Wilfon at the Pantheon. The moft material obfervations relate to the different circumftances which enable pointed conductors to prevent an explofion in one cafe, and to receive it in another.

Before I attempt,' fays the Author, to fpecify the particular cafes in which the fharp and the blunt terminations are respectively more liable to electrical explosion; it may be of use to fhew (what many gentlemen feem not to be thoroughly aware of) that fharp points having the most perfect communication with the earth, are not wholly exempt from receiving them.' My first authority,' he adds, fhall be Dr. Franklin himfelf;'--and he then gives the following paffage from his letters, in proof of his affertion.

"Let a perfon," fays he, p. 60. "tanding on the floor, prefent the point of a needle at twelve or more inches from it, [the prime conductor] and while the needle is to prefented, the conductor cannot be charged; the point drawing off the hire as

faft

fat as it is thrown on by the electrical globe. Let it be charged, and then prefent the point at the fame distance, and it will fuddenly be difcharged." The word fuddenly means, I fuppofe,' adds the Author, that it will receive an explosion; that being the most natural and obvious proof of the fuddennefs of the difcharge.'

Surely Dr. Mufgrave, on reconfidering this paffage, must be fenfible of the unfairness of the conclufion, which he has drawn from this quotation from Dr. Franklin; and of this mifreprefentation of his meaning, obviously founded on a mere ambi guity of expreffion, if indeed it may be fo called. The Author, nevertheless, afterwards avails himself of this forced interpretation of the word "fuddenly;"-and fays, it has been already fhewn, from the acknowledgment of Dr. Franklin-that electricity, accumulated to a certain degree, will explode upon a point.'

Dr. Franklin's meaning, in the preceding quotation, is obvi ous enough, even without confidering the context. He means, that the prime conductor, on prefenting a point to it, will be fuddenly, or rapidly, but, at the fame time, filently discharged, and without explofion. In the very lines immediately preceding this quotation, the prime conductor mentioned in it, is reprefented as being of fuch a fize and power, as to strike the knuckle at near two inches diftance; and his principal object is to fhew, that a point prefented to it would not be ftruck at any distance, but would quickly rob it of its electricity. Dr. Mufgrave furely cannot be ferious when he preffes Dr. Franklin, the great discoverer of the power of points, into the fervice of his party; and extorts from him a declaration, that this very prime conductor would produce an explosion, at the distance even of twelve inches, on prefenting the point of a needle to it; when it would not give an explosion, or a spark, to the knuckle or a blunt conductor, at a greater diftance than two or three inches!

The queftion refpecting the most advantageous method of terminating conductors may, in our opinion, be thus most clearly, or, at leaft, briefly ftated. It is agreed, we believe, on all hands, nay, it is certain, that pointed conductors draw off the matter of lightning from a cloud, as it gradually approaches the zenith of the conductor; and, by thus diminishing the quantity, may, in many cafes, prevent an explofion, which might have taken place, had a blunt or rounded conductor been prefented to it; which no one pretends to poffefs any power of that kind. But another cafe exifts, or may exift; in which the fuperiority of the pointed over the blunt conductor may not appear quite fo manifeft, or, at leaft, fo confiderable.

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