I know not how far his veracity, in point of circumstances, may safely be trusted. It was his original de. sign to penetrate through the North East Passage; and he actually followed the coast of Asia as high as the latitude of 67° 35', till his pro・gress was stopped by the ice, in a streight between the two continents, which was only seven leagues broad. Thence he descended along the coast of America, as low as Cape Mendocin; but was repulsed by contrary winds, in his attempts to reach the port of Acapulco. The journal of his Voyage, with his original charts, is now at Versailles, in the Depot des Affaires Etrangères; and if you conceived that it would be of any use to you for a second edition, I would try what might be obtained; though I am not ignorant of that mean jealousy which you yourself have experienced, and so deservedly stigmatised. I am, &c. Dr. Robertson to Mr. Gibbon. SIR, I HAD the honour of your oblig. ing letter, and I should be a very proud man indeed, if I were not vain of the approbation which you are pleased to bestow upon me. As you will now have had an opportunity to peruse the book, which you had only seen when you wrote to me, I indulge myself in the hopes, that the favourable opinion you had formed of it, is not dimi. nished. I am much pleased with your mentioning my friendship with Mr. Hume; I have always con. sidered that as one of the most fortunate and honourable circumstances of my life. It is a felicity of the age and country in which we live, that men of letters can enter the same walk of science, and go on successfully, without feeling one sentiment of envy or rivalship. In the intercourse be. tween Mr. Hume and me, we always found something to blame, as well as something to commend. I have received frequently very valuable criticisms on my performances from him; and I have sometimes ventured to offer him my strictures on his works. Permit me to hope for the same indulgence from you. If, in reading the history of America, any thing, either in the mat. ter or style, has occurred to you as reprehensible, I will deem it a most obliging favour if you will communicate it freely to me. I am certain of profiting by such a com. munication. I return you thanks for your frank offer of executing any lite. rary commission for me. I accept it without ceremony, and am flat. tered with the idea of receiving such aid from your hands. I know nothing of Beniofski's Adven. tures, but what was published insome newspapers. If one can rely on his veracity, what he reiates must be very interesting to me. If you had been writing the history of America, the question concern. ing the mode of peopling it, might not perhaps have occupied your attention very much. But it was proper for me to consider it more fully. Beniofski (if he may be credited has seen what it may be useful for me to know. I can see no reason why the court of France should be shy about communicat. ing his journal, and the charts which illustrate-it; possibly my name may operate somewhat to. wards obtaining a copy of both; ' your your interposition, I am confident will do a great deal. It will be very illiberal indeed, if such a communication were refused. My Lord Stormont (by whose attention I have been much honoured) would not decline to give his aid, were that necessary. But if your court resembles that of Spain, I am afraid every proposal from an ambassador is received with some degree of jealousy. Your own private application will, I apprehend, be more effectual. As it is probable a second edition may go to press early in the winter, it will add to the favour, if you can soon inform me concerning the success of your negotiation. As this is something in the style of the Corps Diplomatique, allow me to recommend one of its members to you. Mr. Ful. larton, the new secretary to the embassy, is a particular friend of mine. He is a young man of such qualities both of head and heart, that I am sure you will esteem and love him. Please remember me to him. I have the honour to be, with great respect, Your obliged humble servant, Sir William Jones to Mr. Gibbon. Lamb Buildings, June 30th, 1781. DEAR SIR, I HAVE more than once sought, without having been so fortunate as to obtain, a proper opportunity of thanking you very sincerely for the elegant compliment which you pay me, in a work abounding in elegance of all kinds. My Seven Arabian Poets will see the light before next winter, and be proud to wait on you in their. English dress. Their wild pro ductions will, I futter myself, be thought interesting, and not vene. rable merely on account of their antiquity. In the mean while, let me request you to honour me with zecepting a copy of a Law Tract, which is not yet published: the subject is so generally important, that I make no apology for sending you a professional work. You must pardon my inveterate hatred of C. Octavianus, basely surnamed Augustus. I feel myself unable to forgive the death of Cicero, which if he did not promote, he might have prevented. Besides, even Mecænas knew the cruelty of his disposition, and ventuged to reproach him with it. In short, I have not Christian charity for him. With regard to Asiatic letters, a necessary attention to my profession will compel me wholly and eter. nally to abandon them, unless. Lord North (to whom I am already under no small obligation) should think me worthy to concur in the improved administration of justice in Bengal, and should appoint me to supply the vacau y on the India Bench. Were that appointment to take place this year, I should probably travel for speed, through part of Egypt and Arabia, and should be able, in my way, to procure many eastern tracts of literature and jurisprudence. I might become a good Mahomedan lawyer before I reached Calcutta, and. in. my vacations, should find leisure to explain, in my native language, whatever the Arabs, Persians, and Turks, have written on science, history, and the fine arts. My happiness by no means de pends on obtaining this appoint.) ment, 、 ment, as I am in easy circumstan. ces without my profession, and have flattering prospects in it; but if the present summer and the ensuing autumn elapse without my receiving any answer, favourable or unfavourable, I shall be forced to consider that silence as a polite refusal, and having given sincere thanks for past favours, shall entire y drop all thoughts of Asia, and," deep as ever plummet sound. ed, shall drown my Persian books." If my politics have given offence, it would be manly in ministers to tell me so. I shall never be personally hostile to them, nor enlist under party banners of any colour, but I will never resign my opinions for interest though I would cheer. fully abandon them on conviction: My reason, such as it is, can only be controuled by better reason, to which I am ever open. As to my freedom of thought, speech, and action, I shall ever say what Charles XII. wrote under the map of Riga, "Disu me l'a donnée; le diable ne me l'otera pas." But the fair answer to this objection is, that my system is purely speculative, and has no relation to my seat on the bench in India, where I should hardly think of instructing the Gentoos in the maxims of the Athenians. I believe I should not have troubled you with this letter, if I did not fear that your attend ance in parliament might deprive me of the pleasure of meeting you at the club next Tuesday; and I shall go to Oxford a few days after, At all times, and in all places, I shall ever be, with undissembled regard, dear Sir, your much obliged and faithful servant, W. JONES Edward Gibbon, Esq. to the Right Honourable Lord Sheffield. L Lausanne, Nov. 14, 1783. LAST Tuesday, November 11, after plaguing and vexing yourself all the morning, about some business of your fertile crea tion, you went to the House of Commons, and passed the afternoon, the evening, and perhaps the night, without sleep or food, stified in a close room by the heated respiration of six hundred politici. ans, inflamed by party and passion, and tired of the repetition of dull nonsense, which, in that illustri ous assembly, so far outweighs the proportion of reason and eloquence. On the same day, after a studious morning, a friendly dinner, and a cheerful assembly of both sexes, I retired to rest at eleven o'clock, satisfied with the past day, and cer tain that the next would afford me the return of the same quiet and ra. tional enjoyments. Which has the biter bargain? Dr. Adam Smith to Mr. Gibbon. Ediburgh, Dec. 10, 1788. MY DEAR FRIEND, I HAVE ten thousand apologies to make, for not having long aga. returned you my best thanks for the very agreeable present you made, me of the three last volumes of your history. I cannot express to you the pleasure it gives me to find, that by the universal assent of every man of taste and learning, whom I either know or correspond with, it sets you at the very head of the whole literary tribe at pre. sent existing in Europe. am, my dear friend, most affectionately yours, I ever ADAM SMITH. NATURAL URAL NATURAL HISTORY. Some Particulars in the Anatomy of a Whale. By Mr. John Abernethy. From the Philosophical Transactions, Part I. THERE are some particulars in the anatomy of the whale, which, I believe, have either entirely es caped, or have not been as yet communicated to the public. The parts which in the whale cor. respond in situation and office with the mesenteric glands of other ani. mals, differ considerably from those glands in structure. These peculiarities are not only curious in themselves, but are illustrative of circumstances hitherto esteemed obscure, in the anatomy and economy of the lymphatic glands in general. I therefore take the liberty of submitting the following account of them to the inspection of this learned society. The animal, from which the parts that I am going to describe were taken, was a male, of the genus named by Linnæus balana. Being desirous of making an anatomical preparation, to shew the distribution of the mesenteric vessels and lacteals of the whale, I procured for this purpose a broad portion of the mesentery with the annexed intestine; and proceeded in the first place to inject the blood vessel. The mesentery had been cut from the animal as close to the spine as possible: had a less portion been taken away, the parts which I am about to describe would have been left with the body, for they are situated upon the origin of the blood vessels belonging to the intestines; and this, perhaps, is the reason why they have not been ob. served before. When I threw a red-coloured waxen injection into the mesenteric artery, I saw it meandering in the ramifications of that vessel; but at the same time I observed it collecting in several separate heaps, about the roots of the mesentery, which soon increased to the size of eggs. At the time, I imagined that the ves sels hid been ruptured, and that the injection in consequence had become extravasated; but I was conscious that no improper degree of force had been used in propelling the injection. I next threw some yellow injec tion into the vein, when similar phenomena occurred; the branches of the vein were filled, but at the same time the masses of wax near the root of the mesentery were increased by a further effusion of the injection. These lumps had now acquired a spherical form, and and some of them were of the size ated these last vessels with much of an orange. greater facility than it did the After the injection had become cold, I cut into the mesentery, in order to remove these balls of wax; when I found that they were con. tained in bags, in which I also observed a slimy and bloody-coloured fluid. On the inner surface of these bags a greater number of small arte. ries and veins terminated; from the mouths of which the injection had poured into their cavities. There were seven of these bags in that piece of mesentery which I had to examine; but I am not able to determine what number belonged to the animal; for I do not know whether the portion of mesentery that I possessed was complete. Having removed the injection from these bags, I observed on the inside of them a soft whitish sub. stance, apparently containing a plexus of lacteal vesseis. This sub. stance entered the bags at that part of them which was nearest to the intestines, and went out at the part next to the spine. I now poured some quicksilver into those lacteals which appeared to lead to this soft substance; the quicksilver soon entered the vessels which were contained in it, and thus its nature was ascertained. A number of lacteals having entered one of these bags were ob erred to com. municate with each other, then again to separate, and form other vessels, which went out of the bag. It was some time before the quick. silver passed through the plexus of vessels contained the first bag, but after having perv dd it, it passed on to a second bag, in which was concealed a simrexus of factcals. The quicks/her perme. I afterwards stuffed two of the bags with horse-hair, dried them, and preserved them as an anatomi. cal preparation. In this state great numbers of arteries and veins, but chiefly of the former vessels, are seen terminating on their inside, in the same indistinct manner an the foramina Thebesi appear when "the cavities of the heart are laid open: the bristles also render vi sible the termination of a certain number of lacteals. I examined the sides of these bags, which were moderately thick and firm; but I did no see any thing which, from its appearance, I could call a mus. cular structure. From the circumstances that have been related, it appears, that in the whale there are two ways by which the chyle can pass from the intestines into the thoracic duct; も one 1 |