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This work, which is printed at Turin, is a kind of summary of the various bafes which conftitute the doctrines of modern metaphyficians, with an exception to the new German fchool alone.

The author, who divides his work into ten chapters, begins as follows: "The questions concerning the nature of which we now treat, hang by a fingle hair; we ought not to shake it too much, left it fhould break. Pfycology fhould be reduced to what it may, and ought effectually to be: a fcience founded, like natural philofophy, on obfervation, and which, like it, also depends upon facts."

Part I. treats of the nature of our ideas; and on this occafion, M. Barol undertakes to difcufs the queftion, whether an idea be the primitive operation of the mind, or only the refult of it? His own definition is, "That an idea is the reprefentation of things, nearly in the fame manner that figns reprefent ideas themfelves." He allo infifts on the neceffity of diftinguishing fenfation from perception. Part II. is occupied refpecting the diftinction of ideas; parts third and fourth, with abftractions; pact fifth, with a comparifon between ideas and things; part fixth is continued to the fubject of analyfis; part feventh, to reafening and obfervation; part eighth, to method; part ninth, to the faculties of the human mind; and part tenth is occupied about the imagination.

The author, who was formerly a fubject to the King of Sardinia, and has lately become a French citizen, although born and bred a foreigner, writes in the French language with all the ease and facility of a native.

Mémoires de la Société Médicale d'Emulation," &c.-Memoirs of the Medical Society of Emulation; 1 vol. 8vo. adorned with Copper-plates.

This, which is the fifth annual publication on the part of the Medical Society, is preceded by the éloge of Xavier Bichat, by Le Vacher de Lafeutrie; it alfo contains a Memoir on Canine Madness, by Bofquillon; four Memoirs on the Climate of the Antilles, or Windward Weft India Inlands appertaining to France, by Caffan; Obfervations on fome Points of the Mechanifm which produce Motion in Mankind by, Barthez; and a Differtation on the Attributes and Surnames of Apollo the Phylician, as well as of the

Monuments in which he is reprefented in this Character, by A. L. Millin.

The volume is terminated by a letter of the celebrated Fontana, relative to the difeafe of corn, called l'érgot, in France, as well as refpecting a plant, known by the name of tremella. According to the obfervations of this learned naturalift, the grain affected by the ergot contains a quantity of eel like animals, while the tremella is the laft link of an immenfe chain, that connects organized bodies and yegetables together.

"Dictonnaire Univerfel de la Langue Françaife, avec le Latin, et Manuel d'Örthographe et Neologe; extrait comparatif des Dictionnaires publiés jufqu'a ce Jour; contenant-1. Les Nomenclatures, l'Orthographe, l'Analyfe, et la Comparison des Definitions des Dictionnaires de l'Academie Française, Edition de 1778, fas Citation; de 1798, de 1803, des Diction naires de Trévoux, Richelet, Ferraud, Reftaut," &c. &c.-An Univerfal Dictionary of the French Language, with the Latin Terms, and a Manual of Orthography and Neology; together with a comparative Abtract of all the Diction aries hitherto publifhed, &c. &c. vol. 4to. and 2 vols. 8vo.

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This is the fecond edition of a dic tionary, in which the compilers have en deavoured to unite in one general plan, every thing hitherto confidered as ufeful in all preceding publications of a fimilar kind.

"L'Efprit de l'Histoire ; ou, Lettres Politiques et Morales d'un Père à fon Fils, fur, la Manière d'Etudier l'Histoire en général, et particulièrement l'Hiftoire de France; par ANTOINE FERRAND, Ancien Magiftrat. Seconde Edition."-The Spirit of Hiftory; or, Letters, Political and Moral, from a Father to his Son, on the Manner of Studying Hiftory in general, and particularly the Hiftory of France; by Anthony Ferrand. Second Edition, 4 vols. 8vo.

The author commences his introduction with certain plain and incontestable pofitions, and he is extremely delirous to imprefs his fon with the idea, that his studies in this or any other branch of know, ledge, can alone be rendered ufeful by the application and obfervance of order and regularity. He then lays down the bafes of ancient hiftory, after which he confiders the laws, manners, and cultoms of the Jews, affuredly the most wonderful people upon earth.

According to him, the first traces of re

ligious

ligious and political fociety are to be found in the Decalogue; and he adds, that he is unacquainted with any laws, which are not more or lefs immediately derived from thefe ten primary inftitutions. Among other luminous remarks,

he obferves:

1. That the book of Deuteronomy is the only complete code of laws which was ever given at once to any people.

2. That it is the fole entire body of laws that has been handed down to us.

3. That it is the only one of ancient date, that still regulates an exifting people. And, 4. That the nation governed by it, being difperfed over the whole furface of the earth, it is the only one equally obferved throughout the four quarters of the globe. Not confining himself to general reflections, he enters into particular details, fuch as the rights of fathers over their children, the severity of punishments, the project of infulating the nation from all others. Thefe and many other confi derations of a fimilar import, incline him to think, that the work of Mofes demonftrates a primitive and original legif lation. He remarks on the falutary mercy of that law which put an end to the bondage of the Jews at a ftated period, viz. during the jubilee; and he obferves, that fo jealous were the Jews respecting the rights of property (a new acquifition on their part) that they punished every inva fion of it, and even adultery itfelf, which they confidered in this point of view, with

death.

In a fucceeding letter he confiders the history and fituation of the Carthaginians, the Phenicians, &c. The Egyptians, with their religion, their laws, their kings, their education, their burials, and modes of em. balming, the conftruction of the pyramids, c. next pass under review. He remarks one of the greateft of their punishments to have been the denial of the rites of fe pulture, which, in the opinion of this fu perftitious people, expofed them even after death to a real and corporeal pain. "This was a fublime law (exclaims he) which connected together all the links of the focial chain; and which, by a fingle privation, which feemed only to extend to the inanimate remains of the criminal, at once constituted the punishment of the dead, as well as a leffon for the living.* Such is the attachment of M. Ferrand to the inftitutions of remote ages, that he even defends that very impolitic law, by which children were prohibited from following any other profeffion than the one practifed by their fathers.

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Paffing from the Egyptians to the Affyrians, the Perfians, and finally the Greeks, he pays a moft fcrupulous attention to the legislature of the Lacedemo nians, one of the most fingular nations of antiquity. An account of the policy of the Romans follows immediately after; and it is the opinion of the author, that this nation was one of the most corrupt, and Rome one of the most debauched cities in the universe.

"Description du Departement de l'Oife, par le Citoyen CAMBRI; avec un Recueil de 46 Planches d'Objets gravés relatifs à la Defcription."-Defcription of the Departiment of the Oife, by the Citizen Cambri, 1 vol. 8vo. with a Collection of 46 Defcriptive Plates.

Citizen Cambri, for fo he styles himself in the title-page, is not only a member of feveral learned focieties, but also Prefect of the department, which he now undertakes to defcribe. As he fufpected the hafty ftatistical account entered on the archives of each department, in confequence of an order from the Convention in 1793, and was well aware that the of ficial reports of the population, as well as territorial riches, were greatly exaggerat ed, he determined to make a progress through the whole extent of his govern ment, in order to visit and examine every thing with his own eyes.

Upor this occafion he was accompanied by a chemit, a botanist, and a landicap pai terar thefe he furveyed all the hills and pins, the farms, the manufac ture the towns, hamlets, and villages he alo paid the greatest attention to the woods, the nature of the foils, the minerals, &c. &c. produced in this department. Among other objects of his attention, he traced the numerous banks of foffil fhells, which every where abound; nor did he forget antiquities, for he collected more than nine hundred medals, which were found in places formerly frequented by by the Roman legions. In fhort, nothing connected with public utility, education, agriculture, arts, manufactures, or fcia ences, appears to have been omitted on his part.

No fooner had he formed his plan, than he traverfed the four circuits (arrondiffe mens) which compofed his prefecture; beginning first with that of Beauvais, and then proceeding in rotation to those of Clermont, Compeigne, and Senlis. He ftopped for fome time in the chief villages, or large towns, of every canton, that he might form a juft eftimate of the nature of the foil and the industry of the inha

bitants;

bitants; and as he paid a particular at tention to all the old buildings, whether lay or religious, he was enabled not only to exhibit an idea of the arts of the ancient Gauls and the Romans, but alfo thofe of the moderns, beginning with the tenth century.

The deftruction is here pathetically lamented of the fhrines belonging to faints, the chalices adorned with paintings in enamel, the ftatues, the various arabefques, the old books, the ancient tapeltries, adorned with party coloured dreffes in fcenes, in which ingenious dreams were worked up, fimilar to the romances and the days of chivalry. We are affured that thefe, as well as a number of other interesting materials for the hiftory of art and of man, were deftroyed in 1993; but M. Cambri tonfoles his countrymen with the recollection, that feveral curious works have escaped from the improvident fury of the reformers, more particularly thofe appertaining to the treasury of the cathedral. Thefe chiefly confift of tablets in ivory, different fculptures appertaining to ftalls, ftained glafs from the church windows of Beauvais, &c. Among the frag. ments preserved in the facrifty of St. Stephen's, are fome original heads in the very beft ftyle, if we except that they are rather overcharged; nor ought it to be omitted, that they exhibit a great affinity to thofe painted on the carton of Leonardo da Vinci.

that corrupt language which the Germans brought with them into Gaul.

8. On the peculiarities of the foil of each commune. This article, which is particularly interefting, alfo contains details which are not a little calculated to contribute to the formation of a mineralogical defcription of France.

9. On the establishment of the fociety of agriculture of Beauvais.

10. On the manufacture of tapestry. 11. This article contains a number of inftructive anecdotes of a miscellaneous nature;

And, 12. One memoir on the medals dug up, and another relative to the plants which grow in this department, a cata. logue of which is here exhibited.

Thofe fond of antiquities, even in this country, will perhaps be happy to hear that the Prefect has found at Beauvais, Beauvoir, and Brutuspance, several gold medals in the highest prefervation, which he terms Gallic (Medailles Gauloifes), exceedingly well calculated, as we are told, to develope the ftate of the arts, the cuf toms, and the dreffes of a remote period. He also boasts that he is in poffeffion of a gold medal, 'tending to demonstrate, that all the declamations relative to the low ftate of the arts among the ancient Gauls, are abfolutely unfounded. He maintains, on the contrary, that this people not only were in poffeffion of a few of the common and neceffary arts, th_but of all the arts; and that they scattered them by means of their conquests throughout a great number of the states of Europe.

In vol. 1. we are also proted an account of all the celebrated me belonging to this department. etalogue is numerous, and along with the lift of individuals, proofs of their merit and talents are given by reference to the feveral branches of fcience, &c. in which they have excelled.

Immediately following this, we find notes and notices,

1. Relative to the rivers, the courfe of which ought to ameliorated; and also concerning fuch canals as might be opened for the purposes of commerce.

2. Concerning the military establishments that it might be neceffary to make for lodging the troops.

3. On the advantages that may be derived from the breed of horfes.

4. On the customs of different balliages.

5. On the erection of an office for regiftering the poor.

6. On the Moreillettes de Beauvais, a fpecies of repafts which takes place after the celebration of marriage in the church.

7. On the Picard (la langue Picard), composed of the Latin, the Celtic, and

This volume terminates with an ac count of the administration of the department; the topography, and divifion of its territory; the population of the principal towns and villages; a list of the juftices of the peace; an account of the public feminaries for education; the ftate of the hofpitals, the prifons, the ftage-coaches, the poft-office, the national domains, the revenues and expences; the price of lands and of labour; the quantity of corn produced; the produce of the national woods; an account of the commodities and manufactures; a methodical nomenclature of rivers, both navigable and unnavigable; lifts of fairs, markets, roads, mills, quarries, brick-kilns, &c.

We shall hereafter notice the fecond volume of this very valuable work.

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12th Year, 1 vol. 12mo. Price one Fr. (about Ten-pence English.)

The Almanack of the Mufes is the most ancient, the most celebrated, and 'undoubtedly the best of all the literary almanacks published in France. It has of course given birth to a great number of periodical collections of a fimilar xind, which have had more or lefs fuccefs, according to their respective merits. A fuccessful example, indeed, produces a prodigious effect in that country; for it is well known that the Lettres Perfannes, of the Prefident Montefquieu, engendered the Lettres Chinoifes, Turques, Siamoifes, Orientales, Africaines, Athéniennes, Juives, and Peruviennes. Such was the influence of the celebrated work alluded to above, that the tranflator of the romances of Clariffa and Grandifon thought proper to publish the one under the title of Lettres Anglaifes, while the other affumed that of Nouvelles Lettres Anglaifes. Nothing was more common than for the Parifian bookfellers of those days to fay, "Write us fome Perfian letters; and immediately appeared Lettres Flamandes, Hollandaises, Portugaifes, Ecoffaifes, and Illionaifes, most of which being but feeble imitations of a great original, they have all, two or three only excepted, been long fince configned to oblivion.

It is exactly in the fame manner, that the very fortunate work now before us, has given rife to the Etrennes du Parnaffe, Etrennes d'Apollon, l'Almanach des Graces, des Mufes Allemandes, des Dames, de Leonore, du Chanfonnier, des Etrennes de Polymnie, and all the Almanachs Lyriques, Poetiques, Anacreontiques, Enigmatiques, Dramatiques, &c.. M. d'Orfeuil, in 1783, conceived the idea of analyfing 164 almanacks in two volumes, 12mo.; but he foon found that a few pages would have been fufficient to give the spirit of nine-tenths of thefe ephemeral collections.

M. Sautreau de Marfy, who was one of the writers in the l'Année Litteraire, le Journal des Dames, and le Journal de Paris; and who, in conjunction with Imbert, published the interefting collection called les Annales Poetiques, in 40 vols. duodecimo, was alfo the perfon who conceived firft the idea of l'Almanach des Mufes, which he conducted, from its firit publication, until the beginning of 1799. Some of the best poets of France did not difdain to infert their productions in this MONTHLY MAG. No. 117.

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M. Sautreau was fucceeded in the editorfhip by M. Vigée, a literary man of confiderable ability, who excelled in poetry, and had acquired fome reputation by his talents for the drama. The various crifes, however, to which the French republic was by turns fubjected were not favourable to the republic of letters; and the lyre of Apollo produced only feeble and plaintive founds, amidst the miferies occafioned by civil discord. It was then that a compilation which had contained the fugitive productions of fuch men as Voltaire, Collé, Piron, Marmontel, Bernis, Dorat, Laharpe, Nivernois, Greffet, Colardeau, and St. Lambert, began to decline, for the first time, until a fhort interval of peace, added to the amazing conquests of France, gave new vigour to her poets.

The Almanack of the Mufes for the 12th year, conftitutes the 40th volume of that collection. Among the poets whofe verfes are preferved in it, we diftinguish Armand Gouffé, one of the authors of the Vaudeville; Arnault, to whom the French theatre is indebted for Marius at Mintur na (Marius à Minturna) as well as feveral tragedies; Aubert, who in the department of fables acknowledges no other matter than the inimitable Lafontaine ; Baour Lormain, the French imitator of Offian; Boifard, whofe fables have already paffed through many editions; De Guerle, who has tranflated Petronius into verfe, and written an original work, entitled " Eloge des Perruques ;" Delille, who has compofed more productions than Homer, Virgil, Taffo, and Milton united, and who, in the opinion of his countrymen, is not only the most voluminous, but all the firft, poet of the prefent age. In addition to thefe, we ought alfo to mention Duault, no unequal rival of Bertin and Parny; Ducis, one of the first writers of tragedy now living; Fayolle, a good poet, and man of letters, Gaiton, the tranflator of the Eneid; Guinguiné, proSA

feffor

feffor of natural history at the Lyceum, editor of the Decade, author of the Confef fion de Zulmé, &c. Patifot, who on ac count of his fatirical vein has obtained for himself a number of enemies; Parny, the firft of the French poets for love vertes; Madame Pipelet, who stands in no need of indulgence on account of her fex; Pons de Veraun, at once a magistrate and a writer of verfes; Saint Ange, the tranflator of the Metamorphofes; Segur, who in the language of fome of his countrymen "cultivated, without deriving any glory from the intercourfe, thofe very Mufes during the monarchy, which have rendered him diftinguished during the republic." It would be unpardonable, upon this occafion to omit M. Mauduit, a celebrated mathematician, and who at an advanced period of a life devoted to science, exhibits all the fpirit of a youthful votary of Par

naffus. It was left to him to refolve the problem-" If mathematics can form an alliance with poetry, the lyre with the compafs, and algebra with Pindaric tranfports?"

66

The following is a paraphrafe of the Pfalm, beginning Quare fremuerent gentes?" &c.

De quelles rages meurtrières
Vois-je frémir les nations!
Peuples vains! vos fureurs guerrières
N'enfantent que des factions!
Grand Dieu! contre ta loi fuprême,
Contre ton Chrift, contre toi même,
Les rois, les princes conjurés,
Ivres de fang et de carnage,
Au plus terrible brigandage
Traînent leurs fujets égarés.
Servez le Seigneur avec crainte,
Faites refpecter les autels,
Banniffez la vile contrainte,
Méritez l'amour des mortels.
Pour l'orphelin dans fa misère,
Ayez des entrailles de père;
Comptez vos jours par vos bienfaits;
Sachez que l'homme du menfonge
S'évanouira comme un fonge,
Dans l'abyme de fes forfaits.
The following madrigal by Madame
Conftance Pipelet poffeffes much grace:
"Ah! fi je le voyois le cruel qui m'outrage,
Difois je, il connoîtroit ce qu'il a dédaigné !
Pour calmer mon cœur indigné,
Sans doute il déploîroit fon perfide langage;
Mais l'honneur offenfé foutiendroit mon cou-
rage:

Il a trahi-l'amour l'a condamné,"
Eh bien! je l'ai revu, j'ai revu le volage→→

Il n'a rien dit, et j'ai tout pardonné. "Les Culottes de St. Griffon," &c. St. Griffon's Breeches, a new Imitation from Calti. 8vo.

It has been ftated in one of the official journals of France," that all thofe fuper ftitious practices ftill preferved in fome of the rituals, and which were either produced in the days of ignorance, or engendered fince by warm heads, are calculated to degrade religion, and have been pros fcribed by the Concordat" Under cover of this, the author of the present satire, avowedly imitated from Cafti, has undertaken to ridicule certain practices, by means of a modern tale, and even to fati"rize fome late events. We fhall here pre fent one or two specimens: "Voltaire eft mort et Geoffrey le remplace. Bientôt la foi renaîtra parmi nous: De nos péchés nous ferons tous abfous, Et nous verrons le bon Dieu face à face. L'églife eft fombre et prête aux rendez-vous. Comme autrefois nos femmes à genoux, Aux confeffeurs conteront leurs fredaines,

Et nos maris n'en feront pas jaloux.

Avec la foi renaîtra la morale.
En attendant, je vais raconter
Comment alors fans le moindre fcandale,
Aux bons maris on en faifoit porter.

Here follows the portrait of the hero of the adventure:

Fra Nicolo paffoit dans le canton
Pour l'héritier de certaine relique,
Très-efficace à chaffer le demon,
Voir à guérir de tout mal hiftérique
Et qu'il difoit tenir de St. Griffon.

Les reins fanglés, les pieds nus, l'œil obliques
L'air anodin et le cou de côté,

Fra Nicolo, fous l'habit monaftique,
Etoit confi dans fon humilité;

Mais fous les plis d'un capuchon de bure,
A la fraicheur unifoit la beauté :
Son teint fleuri bourgeonnoit de santé,
Et fes regards pétilloient de luxure:
C'étoit d'ailleurs un homme universel ;
Il poffédoit les quatre Evangélites,
Le Teftament, les Pfeaumes, le Miffel.
Contre Voltaire et tous nos vains fophiftes
Dans un journal tonnoit tous les matins.
De Cabanis eût fappé le fyftême.
Prêchoit toujours, citoit les livres faints,

Et fans jamais fe convertir lui-même,

Convertiffoit tous les Beneventins, &c.,

"Epitre au Premier Conful fur l'Enfeignement de la Langue Grecque dans les Lycées."-An Epittle to the Firit Conful, on the Propriety of Teaching the Greek Language in the Lyceums.

The national inftitute, about four years fince, propofed the following quel tion for one of its prizes: 66 Quels font

* Le Sénateur Cabanis, auteur d'un ouvrage fur les Facultês de l'Homme, auffi remar quable par la profondeur des raifonnemens que par l'élégance du ftyle,

les

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