Take skimmed milk, one quart, (or one Paris pint)-fresh flacked lime, fix ounces-oil of carraway, or linfeed, or nut, four ounces-Spanish white, fay whiting, five pounds.

Put the lime into a veffel of ftone ware, and pour upon it a fufficient quantity of milk, to make a smooth mixture; then add the oil by degrees, ftirring the mixture by a small wooden fpatula, then add the remainder of the milk, and finally, the Spanish white. Skimmed milk in fummer is often curdled, but this is of no confequence, as its fluidity is foon reftored by its contact with the lime. It is, however, abfolutely neceffary that it fhould not be four, for in that cafe it would form with the lime a kind of calcarious acetite, fufceptible of attracting moisture.

The lime is flackened by plunging it into water, drawing it out, and laying it to fall to pieces in the air.

It is indifferent which of the three oils above mentioned we ufe; however, for painting white, the oil of carraways is to be preferred, as it is colorlefs. For painting with the ochres, the commoneft lamp-oil may be used.

The oil, when mixed with the milk and lime, disappears, being entirely diffolved by the lime, with which it forms a calcarious foap.

The Spanish white must be crumbled, and gently fpread upon the furface of the liquid, which it gradually imbibes, and at laft finks; it must then be stirred with a ftick. This paint is coloured like diftemper, with charcoal levigated in water, yellow ochre, &c. It is ufed in the fame manner as diftemper.

The quantity above mentioned is fufficient for painting the first layer of fix toifes.

One of the properties of my paint, which we may term Milk Diflemper Paint, Peinture au lait de trempe,) is, that it will keep for whole months, and requires neither time nor fire, nor even maniputation; in ten minutes we may prepare enough of it to paint a whole house. :

One may fleep in a chamber the night after it has been painted. A fingle coating is fufficient for places that have already been painted. It is not neceffary to lay on two, unless where grease ipots repel the first coating; thefe fhould be removed by washing them off with ftrong lime water, or a ley of foap, or fcraped off. New wood requires two coatings. One coating is fufficient for a stair-cafe, paffage, or cieling.

I have fince given a greater degree of folidity to this method of painting, for it has been my aim, not only to fubftitute it in the place of painting in diftemper, but also of oil paint.

Refinous Milk Painting.

For work out of doors I add to the Milk Diftemper Painting-flacked lime, 2 ounces-oil, 2 oz.-white Burgundy pitch, 2 oz. The pitch is to be melted in the oil by a gentle heat, and added to the fmooth mixture of milk and oil. In cold weather the mixture fhould be warmed, to prevent its cooling the pitch top

fuddenly, and to facilitate its union with the milk, and lime. This painting has fome analogy with that known by the name of encaftic.

[ There appears to be a mistake refpecting the quantity of Milk, occafioned, no doubt, by the tranflator two quarts of Milk are requisite for the materials mentioned, or they may be fo far diluted as to fpread conveniently with a brush.

The cheapnefs of the articles for this Paint, makes it an important object for thofe people that have large wooden houses and fences.

An experiment has been made with this Paint in this country, and it, at prefent, appears to answer perfectly the defcription of the inventor.].

BIOGRAPHY, and NOTICES of DISTINGUISHED PERSONS.

T

TITUS LIVIUS, THE ROMAN HISTORIAN.

ITUS Livius may be ranked among the most celebrated hiftorians that the world has ever produced. He composed a hiftory of Rome from the foundation of the city, to the conclufion of the German war conducted by Drufus, in the time of the emperor Auguftus. This great work confifted originally of one hundred and forty books; of which there now remain only thirty-five, viz. the first Decade, and the whole from book twenty-one to book forty-five, both inclufive. Of the other hundred and five books, nothing more has furvived the ravages of time and barbarians than their general contents. In a perfpicuous arrangement of his fubject, in a full and circumftantial account of tranfactions, in the expreffion of characters and other objects of defcription, in juftnefs and aptitude of fentiment, and an air of majefty pervading the whole compofition, this author may be regarded as one of the beft models extant of hiftorical narrative. His ftyle is fplendid without meretricious ornament, and copious without being redundant; a fluency to which Quintilian gives the expreffive appellation of lactea ubertas. Amongst the beauties which we admire in his writings, befides the animated fpeeches frequently interfperfed, are thofe concife and peculiarly applicable eulogiums, with which he characterises every eminent perfon mentioned, at the clofe of their life. Of his industry in collating, and his judgment in deciding upon the preference due to diffentient authorities, in matters of teftimony, the work affords numberlefs proofs. Of the freedom and impartiality, with which he treated even of the recent periods of history, there connot be

more convincing evidence, than that he was rallied by Auguftus. as a favorer of Pompey; and that, under the fame emperor, he not only bestowed upon Cicero the tribute of warm approbation, but dared to afcribe, in an age when their names were obnoxious, even to Brutus and Caffius the virtues of confiftency and patri etifm. If in any thing the conduct of Livy violates Qur fentiments of historical dignity, it is the apparent complacency and reverence, with which he every where mentions the popular belief in omens and prodigies: but this was the general fuperftition of the times; and totally to renounce the prejudices of fuperftitious education, is the laft heroic facrifice to philofophical fcepticifm. In general, however, the credulity of Livy appears to be rather affected than real; and his account of the exit of Romulus, in the following paffage, may be adduced as an inftance in confirmation of this remark.

His immortalibus editis operibus, quum ad exercitum recenfendum concionem in campo ad Capre paludem haberet, fubita coorta tempeflate cum magno fragore tonitribufque tam denfo regem operuit nimbo, ut confpectum ejus concioni abftulerit: nec deinde in terris Romulus fuit. Romana pubes, fedato tandem pavore, poftquam ex tam turbido die ferena tranquilla lux redüt, ubi vacuam fedem regiam vidit ; etfi fatis credebat Patribus, qui proximi fteterant, fublimem raptum procella ; tamen veluti orbitatis metu icta, meftum aliquamdiu filentium obtinuit. Deinde a paueis initio facto, Deum Deo natum, regem parentemque urbis Romana falvere univerfi Romulum jubent ; pacem precibus expofcunt, uti volens propitius fuam femper fofpitet progeniem. Fuiffe credo tum quoque aliquos, qui difcerptum regem Patrum manibus taciti arguerent: manavit enim hac quoque, & perobfcura, fama. Illam alteram admiratio viri, & pavor prafens nobilitavit. Confilio etiam unius hominis addita rei decitur fides: namque Proculus Julius follicita civitate defiderio regis, infenfa Patribus, gravis, ut traditur, quamvis magnæ rei auctor, in concionem prodit. "Romulus, inquit, Quirites, parens urbis hujus, prima hodierna luce celo repente delapfus, fe mihi obvium dedit: quum profufu horrore venerabundufque aftitiffem, petens precibus, ut contra intueri fas effet; Abi, nuncia, inquit, Romanis, Cæleftes ita velle, ut mea Roma caput orbis terrarum fit: proinde rem militarem colant: feiantque, ila pofleris tradant, nullas opes humanas armis Romanis refiftere poffe. Hæc, inquit, locutus, fublimis abiit. Mirum, quantum illi viro nuncianti bac fidei fuerit; quamque defiderium Romuli apud plebem exercitumque, faca fide immortalitatis, lenitum fit.

Scarcely any incident in ancient history favors more of the marvellous than the account above delivered respecting tho first Roman king and amidst all the folemnity with which it is related, we may perceive that the hiftorian was not the dupe of credulity. There is more implied than the author thought proper to avow, in the fentence, Fuiffe credo, &c. In whatever light this anecdote be viewed, it is involved in perplexity. That Romulus affected a defpotic power, is not only highly probable, from

his afpiring difpofition, but feems to be confirmed by his recent appointment of the Celeres, as a guard to his perfon. He might therefore naturally incur the odium of the Patricians, whofe importance was diminished, and their inftitution rendered abortive, by the encrease of his power. But that they fhould choose the opportunity of a military review, for the purpose of removing the tyrant by a violent death, feems not very confiftent with the dictates even of common prudence; and it is the more incredible, as the circumftance which favored the execution of the plot, is reprefented to have been entirely a fortuitous occurrence. The tempeft which is faid to have happened, is not eafily reconcilable with our knowledge of that phenomenon. Such a cloud, or mift, as could have enveloped Romulus from the eyes of the affembly, is not a natural concomitant of a thunder-ftorm. There is fome reason to fufpect, that both the noise and cloud, if they actually exifted, were artificial; the former intended to divert the attention of the spectators, and the latter to conceal the tranfaction. The word fragor, a noife or crash, appears to be an unneceffary addition where thunder is expreffed, though fometimes so used by the poets; and may therefore imply fuch a noife from fome other cause. If Romulus was killed by any pointed or fharpedged weapon, his blood might have been difcovered on the fpot; or if by other means, ftill the body was equally an object of public afcertainment. If the people fufpected the Patricians to be guilty of murder, why did they not endeavour to trace the fact by this evidence? and if the Patricians were really innocent, why did they not urge the examination? But the body, without doubt, was fecreted to favor the impofture. The whole narrative is ftrongly marked with circumftances calculated to affect credulity with ideas of national importance; and to countenance the defign, there is evidently a chaẩm in the Roman history immediately preceding this tranfaction, and intimately connected with it.

Livy was born at Patavium, and has been charged by Afinius Pollio and others with the provincial dialect of his country. The objections to his Patavinity, as it is called, relate chiefly to the fpelling of fome words; in which, however, there feems to be nothing fo peculiar, as either to occafion any obfcurity or merit reprehenfion.

Livy and Salluft being the only two exifting rivals in Roman hiftory, it may not be improper to draw a fhort comparison between them, in refpect of their principal qualities, as writers. With regard to language, there is lefs apparent affectation in Livy than in Salluft. The narrative of both is diftinguished by an elevation of ftyle: the elevation of Salluft feems to be often fupported by the dignity of affumed virtue; that of Livy by a majeftic air of hiftorical, and fometimes of national importance. In the drawing of characters, Salluft infufes more expreffion, and Livy more fullnefs into the features. In the fpeeches afcribed to

particular perfons, these writers are equally elegant and animated.

So great was the fame of Livy in his own life-time, that people came from the extremity of Spain and Gaul, for the purpose only of beholding fo celebrated a hiftorian, who was regarded, for his abilities, as a prodigy. This affords a strong proof, not only of the literary taste which then prevailed over the most extenfive of the Roman provinces, but of the extraordinary pains with which fo great a work must have been propagated, when the art of printing was unknown. In the fifteenth century, upon the revival of learning in Europe, the name of this great writer recovered its ancient veneration; and Alphonfus of Arragon, with a superstition characteristic of that age, requested of the people of Padua, where Livy was born, and is faid to have been buried, to be favored by them with the hand which had written fo admirable a work.

ΤΗ

JOHN WALLIS, D. D.

HE Originals of the following Letters, written by this great Mathematician, prove the vaft power of abstraction which his ftrong and energetic mind poffeffed :

"December 22, 1669.

"In the dark night, in bed, without pen, ink, or paper, or any thing equivalent, I did, by memory, extract the fquare-root of $3,0000 00000, 00000, 00000, 00000, 00000, 00000, 00000, which I found to be, 177205, 08075, 68077, 29353, ferè; and "did the next day commit it to writing."

"February 18, 1670, ftylo Anglia.

"Johannes Georgius Pelfhower (Regiomontanus Boruffus) "giving me a vifit, and defiring an example of the like (when I "had for a long time been afflicted with a quartan ague) I did "that night propofe to myself (in bed by dark) without help to my memory, a number in fifty-three places.

"2,4681, 3579, 1012, 1411, 1315, 1618, 2017, 1921, 2224, "2628, 3023, 2527, 2931, of which I extracted the fquare root of 27 places, viz.

"157, 1030, 1687, 1482, 8058, 1715, 2171, proximè ; which "numbers (as well as the other) I did not commit to paper till "he gave me another vifit March following, when I did from my memory dictate them to him, who then wrote them from "my mouth, and took them with him to examine.

"Oxford, Febr. 16, 1680.

"Yours,

"For Mr. Thomas Smith, B. D. "Fellow of Magdelen College.”

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