nounced it an empirical puff, and the production of Mr. Perkins; and had the knavery also to misquote the title, by printing it PRACTICAL, instead of Poetical Petition, &c. The next assailant of Perkinism, of whom I shall take notice, is Dr. James Anderson. This ingenious gentleman condescended to amuse the readers of his Recreations in Agriculture with the following falsehood, in proof of the falling reputation of Perkinism. "The price of the tractors is now reduced to four guineas the set!!" But perhaps a gentleman of Dr. Anderson's fertile imagination and inventive genius ought by no means to be confined within the boundaries of truth. Had the doctor been obliged to state useful facts, and probable theories, merely, his Recreations might possibly have been published in a sixpenny pamphlet, instead of the tedious and voluminous work he has contrived to botch together. Another assailant of Perkinism is a Mr. Corry. One would, however, feel little disposition to censure this character, as his low situation in life exposes him to temptations, which, it is to be hoped, he would otherwise resist. This, however, is no excuse for his employers. In a book against quackery, he attacks the tractors most furiously, and in support of his opinion of their inutility, adduces a statement of a number of experiments, purporting to have been made by one Mr. Wilkinson, at Avondale, near Stratford upon Avon. Mr. Perkins has been at the trouble to ascertain the correctness of this statement, and has found that neither the said Wilkinson nor Avondale ever had existence!! In short, the whole is a fabrication. I have to mention only one more of these gentlemen assailants. The late lord Henniker was a friend and promoter of the metallick tractors. He purchased at different periods, during three years, three sets for the use of his own family. Being a fellow of the royal society, and considered a gentleman of superiour judgment and talents, the zeal with which he supported them, it may well be imagined, gave pain to many. Accordingly, at the death of that nobleman, some person conceived the idea of obliterating from the mind of the publick any impression which might have existed in favour of the metallick practice, in consequence of his patronage; and for that purpose the following paragraph was inserted in a biographical sketch of lord Henniker, in the Monthly Register, for April 1803. 'No one sooner adopted a prejudice, but no one more readily submitted it to that test, which suited it, and upon no one had an original prejudice less effect in dazzling a subsequent judgment. The numerous testimonies in favour of a celebrated nostrum induced his lordship to become a purchaser. Having obtained it, he immediately put it to the proof, and discovered its absolute inefficacy. His lordship immediately returned the nostrum, with a pecuniary present to its inventor. "You will consider as your own what I have already paid for your tractors. Employ the enclosed notes to embark in some more honest business, and no longer impose on the credulity of the publick." From another letter in the Monthly Register of the succeeding month (May) it appears there never occurred between lord Henniker and Mr. Perkins any circumstance which could give the least colour for such a representation. To the time of his death he remained a firm advocate of Perkinism. Two more assailants might be mentioned, but their deeds are already alluded to in the fourth canto of the poem. I have now mentioned every publick writer of whom I have a knowledge, against Perkinism, and given a specimen of their arguments. The more private opposers, who employ that unruly member, the tongue, are a hundred fold more numerous, and not less malicious. After this exhibition of the spirit which has influenced the opposition to the metallick tractors in Great Britain, can there be found one honest man who will say that they have met with such treatment, as ought to have been expected from a liberal and enlightened profession; or that the author of the present poem has commenced an unprovoked attack on honourable and deserving characters? Perkinism is supported by no mean and common pretensions. Five years has it buffetted the storm of interest and prejudice, and all true friends to humanity, acquainted with its merits, will congratulate each other on the result. The two following facts will place the evidence in favour of this discovery in a fair point of view. Not an individual of those persons, who have communicated their experiments and remarks in favour of Perkinism (among whom are eight professors in four different universities, twenty-one regular physicians, nineteen surgeons, and thirty clergymen) has publickly or privately, so far as my knowledge extends, retracted his good opinion of the metallick tractors. 2. The contest respecting the merits of the tractors has lain entirely between disinterested persons who have approved of them, after a cautious and faithful experiment (Mr. Perkins never published any facts on his own authority) and interested or prejudiced persons, who have condemned them without any trial whatever, generally indeed who have never seen them. This fact is demonstrated by the report of the committee of the Perkinean society to their general meeting, conveying the result of their application, indiscriminately made to the possessors of the tractors in the metropolis, for their concurrence in the establishment of a publick institution, for the use of them on the poor. It was found that only five out of above a hundred objected to subscribe, on acccount of their want of confidence in the efficacy of the practice, and these, the committee observes, there is reason to believe, never gave them a fair trial, probably never used them in more than one case, and that perhaps a case in which the tractors have never been recommended as serviceable. Purchasers of the tractors would be among the last to approve of them, if they had reason to suppose themselves defrauded of five guineas. I am now willing to express a confidence that the candid and unbiassed reader will be persuaded that the author has been engaged in a cause not unworthy of his best exertions; and that every real friend to humanity and useful science will wish him success. It remains to speak of the plan and design of the poem. The author's ambition has been to produce an original performance, and avoid all" servile trick” and “ imitative knack" of ordinary dealers in rhyme. He would rather introduce indefensible eccentricities, and run the hazard of the lash of the critick, than to "threat his reader, not in vain, with sleep." Although the attacks upon the metallick tractors are the principal subject of the following poem, still the author has painted and he is sorry to say that our modern philosophers furnish such a multitude of " idle things," which they call discoveries and inventions, that he need never lay his brush aside for want of proper subjects upon which to exercise Iskill in his vocation. Were the mere inutility of their researches the only objection which could be urged against them, they might be permitted to follow their frivolous pursuits without molestation. But when, in addition to inutility, their experiments are accompanied with the grossest inhumanity, the indignation of the reflecting mind is roused at so wanton a misapplication of time, and prostitution of talent. It has given the writer no small satisfaction to find the opinion entertained by professional criticks, who have examined the former editions, that "the attack on some of the cruel and indecent experiments of certain modern naturalists, which seem limited to the gratification of a licentious curiosity, having for their object the attainment of no one practical good, is just and commendable. The author has not merely rhyme, but very frequently reason on his side in his satirical remarks." (Antijacobin Review of April, 1803, on the first edition of this poem.) In the present edition, another variety of this species of philosophers has received some attention, although not fully equal to what their demerits require. These are they whose atheistical theories and speculations appear to have no other object than to annihilate a belief in an overruling Providence, and cancel every religious and moral obligation. In this department I have dwelt upon the theories of an author (Dr. Darwin) whose "Sweet tetrandrian monogynian strains |