A N C A N E [47 and candour obliges us to declare. In the general outer}' : on the con- that it is equally unjust and impro- trary, it is highly probable, that per to consider the Greeks and Ro mans, with all their inaccuracies and defetts, as perfect models of imitation. Many an ancient writer, whose real beauties have been just- ly admire J, has also frequently been praised for his faults : thus his re- putation has been sullied ; instead of being indebted to his panegyrists, he has excited doubts and censures, where he had least deserved them. The remarks made in die preced- ing article, may with equal pro- priety be applied to the present subject : but we shall content our-
- with Observing, that those
persons whohai - ;d an early prejudice for the learning of the "ancients, are generally deficient in ac'tive discernment, and incapable of ascertaining the merits of mo- ck -niimp'-ovemt ANCIENT TIMES are those which refer to remote periods of antiquity. The degeneracy and corruption of modern times, as opposed to those of the ancients, have afforded a fruitful source of peevish invec- tive, and an endless cause of que- rulous complaint, to botli the 1 our successors will attribute more virtue's to us, than are possessed by themselves though, perhaps, nei- ther may be less virtuous, or more depraved, than the most celebrated nations (if antiquity. ANEMOMETER signifies a me- chanical instrument for ascertaining the power and velocity of the wind. Successful methods have been discovered to determine, with pre- cision, the various properties of the air, its temperature, humidity, and weight, by means of the thermo- meter, the hygrometer, and the barometer; but, till lately, no at- tempts have been made to ascer- the force of the wind. Seve- ral instruments for this purpose have, indeed, been contrived ; but they are in general more compli- cated, and less to be depended on, than the machine which we shall head of Ane- moscope. Wind-Flowt er, is the name of a plant chiefly led on ace mnt of its ttiful flowers, which, by the Greeks, were supposed not to opeii till the wind blows ; whence it has ed and the illiterate. It has been received its original name. Lix- the constant custom, at all times,, to declare every succeeding age more wicked than the former j to represent the world as perpetually increasing in vice and folly 5 to la- ment the good old days that are past, and to anticipate nothing but misery from the future. Yet, how- ever corrupt or vicious may be the age in which we live, let us but im- partially compare the history of past times with those of our own, and we shall find no great reason to unite N.i'. us enumerates twenty-one spe- cies, of which the following five deserve particular notice, though the first of these is not indigenous. 1. Anemone pralensis, L. the- dark-flowered, or Meadow Ane- ibe'd and represent- ed in Dr. W oodville's Medical Botany, vol. iii. p. 400, platen -48.— It produces beautiful dark violet, or almost black flowers, which blow in March and April*, and never expand.
- Some botanical writers confound tins plant with the Anemone Pulsatilla, h. which
is a distind species. — The Anemone prafnsis, L. is a native ot Germany, where it floweis in the beginning of May : it was thence imported into this country, ana first cultivated 111 cur gardens by the late, and justly celebrated, Mt l l e k, about the year 173 1, In
