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mometer at 66°, weighs 252,422 parliamentary grains; from whence all the other weights may be derived.

As a fummary of what has been done, I hope it may now be faid, that we have attained these three objects;

ift. An invariable, and at all times communicable, measure of Mr. Bird's fcale of length, now preferved in the house of commons; which is the fame, or agrees within an infenfible quantity, with the ancient ftandards of the realm.

2dly. A standard weight of the fame character, with reference to Mr. Harris's Troy pound.

3dly. Befides the quality of their being invariable, (without detection,) and at all times communicable, thefe ftandards will have the additional property of introducing the leaft poffible deviation from ancient practice, or inconvenience in modern use.' P. 174.

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On a comparison of Mr. Troughton's fcale with a variety of others, its accuracy is firmly established. The greatest poffible error in this fcale fcarcely exceeds part of an inch, and the chance is nine to one that it is not fo great: the mean probable error is =,00016, and it is four to one that the error does not exceed .00002. This accuracy is about three times as great as that of Mr. Bird's fcales, and nearly equal to that of the divifions of our author's equatorial inftrument, made by Ramfden. The following note from this paper deferves tranfcription.

As I am now upon the fubject of foreign measure, it may not be quite out of place to fay a word on the length of the ancient Roman foot, which I am enabled to do with fome precision.

• Some years ago, when I was in Italy, I had feveral opportunities of afcertaining the length of this meafure, by actual examination of the Roman foot rules, of which I have met with nine, viz. two in the Capitol at Rome; one in the Vatican; five in the museum at Portici, near Naples; and lastly, one in the British Museum, fent from Naples by fir William Hamilton. They were all of brafs, except one half-foot, of ivory, with a joint in the middle, resembling our common box or ivory rules: and, by reference to my journal kept at that time, I find the mean refult from` all the nine rules, viz. by taking both the whole and the parts of each, (for they were divided into 12 inches, and alfo into 16ths, or digits,) gave, for the length of the old Roman foot, in English inches, correfpondent to Mr. Bird's measure, 11,6063.

In confirmation alfo of this conclufion, and agreeably to the idea of Monf. de la Condamine, in the "Journal of his Tour to Italy," I took the dimenfions of feveral ancient buildings, viz. the interior diameter of the temple of Vesta; the width of the arch of Severus; the door of the Pantheon; and the width of the base of the quadrilateral pyramid of Ceftius, which, it is curious to obferve, I found exactly 100 old Roman feet, and 125 feet high,

This I do not remember to have feen noticed by any former traveller.

The mean refult of these experiments

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I may add, that in the Capitol is a ftone,

11,617 English inches.

11,606 ditto...

11,612 ditto.

of no very ancient date however, let into the wall, on which is engraven the length of feveral measures, from whence I took the following:

The ancient Roman foot,
The modern Roman palm, = 8,82 ditto.
The ancient Greek foot, = 12,09

11,635 English inches.

ditto.' P. 169.

IX. A new Method of computing the Value of a flowly converging Series, of which all the Terms are affirmative. By the Rev. John Hellins, F. R. S. and Vicar of Potter'sPury, in Northamptonshire. In a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Mafkelyne, F. R. S. and Aftronomer Royal.'

This new method will greatly facilitate the labours of the aftronomer. A flowly converging feries may, by its affiftance, be computed to ten or twelve places of figures in a few hours, and to fix or feven in a very thort time.

The meteorological journal of the fociety concludes the volume.

Ariftotle's Ethics and Politics, comprising his practical PhiloSophy, tranflated from the Greek. Illuftrated by Introductions and Notes; the Critical Hiftory of his Life; and a new Analyfis of his fpeculative Works; by John Gillies, LL. D. &c. 2 Vols. 4to. 21. 2s. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 1797.

AMONG the illuftrious fages of antiquity, no one can be named whofe mind took a wider range over the varied fields of knowledge than Ariftotle. Under the comprehensive divifions of God, man, and nature, he has treated of almost every fubject that is most interefting to his fellow-creatures, whether confidered as individuals, or as members of civilifed fociety. It may also be remarked, in honour of this profound philofopher, that he is minute as well as great; that, to the most elevated views, he adds a patience of research, and a habit of investigating every fubject in its first principles, which no other writer ever difplayed to fuch extent. In confequence of these excellencies, his works may be confidered as an univerfal abftract of science. But various caufes have tended, at different times, to obfcure his remains, or to throw over them a

falfe luftre, His books have been mutilated and corrupted. Theologians have in one century profcribed him, and in the next almoft adored him. Sophifts have endeavoured to fhelter themselves under his authority, and to establish their miserable productions under the fanction of his name. His doctrines and his tenets have been mangled and diftorted by unskilful tranflators, or mifreprefented by the prejudice and ignorance of a numerous herd of commentators. He himself, indeed, on many occafions (if we can truft to the text that we now poffefs), feemed too fond of abstraction, and too much inclined to fubtilife, with fuperfluous difquifition, on the mere figns of things, and what can only be regarded as the implements of science. This habit unfortunately caught the falfe taste of the scholaftic ages, on the revival of letters; and those portions of his works which are now (perhaps defervedly) neglected, were the only parts that were then ftudied. In this refpect, Plato and Ariftotle have nearly experienced the fame fate. It seemed high time, therefore,' fays Dr. Gillies, to draw the line between those writings which ftill merit the most ferious attention of the modern reader, and those of which the perufal is fuperfeded by more accurate and more complete information.'

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Of the works which are here prefented to the public, we cannot give a better account than by adopting the language of the tranflator.

The "Ethics to Nicomachus and the Politics" ought never to have been disjoined, fince they are confidered by Ariftotle himfelf as forming effential parts of one and the fame work; which, as it was the laft and principal object of his studies, is of all his performances the longeft, the best connected, and incomparably the most interefting. The two treatifes combined, constitute what he calls his practical philofophy; an epithet to which, in comparifon with other works of the fame kind, they will be found ресиliarly entitled. In the Ethics, the reader will fee a full and fatisfactory delineation of the moral nature of man, and of the difcipline and exercife beft adapted to its improvement. The philofopher fpeaks with commanding authority to the heart and affections,. through the irrefiftible conviction of the understanding. His morality is neither on the one hand too indulgent, nor on the other impracticable. His leffons are not cramped by the narrow, nor perverted by the wild spirit of system; they are clear inductions, flowing naturally and fpontaneously from a copious and pure fource of well-digefted experience.

According to the Stagirite, men are and always have been not only moral and focial, but also political animals; in a great meafure dependent for their happinefs and perfection on the public inftitutions of their refpective countries. The grand inquiry, there

go.

fore, is, what are the different arrangements that have been found under given circumstances, practically moft conducive to thefe main and ultimate purposes? This question the author endeavoured to answer in his "Politics," by a careful examination of two hun dred fyftems of legislation, many of which are not any where else described; and by proving how uniformly, even in political mat ters, the refults of observation and experiment confpire with and confirm the deductions of an accurate and full theory. In this incomparable work, the reader will perceive "the genuine spirit of laws" deduced from the specific and unalterable diftinctions of vernments; and with a small effort of attention, may difcern not only those discoveries in science, unjustly claimed by the vanity of modern writers, but many of those improvements in practice, erroneously afcribed to the fortunate events of time and chance in these latter and more enlightened ages. The fame invaluable treatise discloses the pure and perennial spring of all legitimate autho rity; for in Ariftotle's "Politics," and HIS only, government is placed on fuch a natural and folid foundation, as leaves neither its origin incomprehenfible, nor its stability precarious: and his conclufions, had they been well weighed, must have furmounted or fuppreffed those erroneous and abfurd doctrines which long upheld defpotism on the one hand, and thofe equally erroneous and ftill wilder fuppofitions of conventions and compacts, which have more recently armed popular fury on the other. Vol. i. p. vi.

But Dr. Gillies does not appear before the public in the humble office of a mere tranflator. He will be found to be an able commentator and a very useful guide to the ftudent who wishes to appretiate fairly the merits of the venerable Stagirite. His Analyfis, or Review of the Speculative Works, is replete with erudition, and fhows how little originality the metaphyficians (as they are called) of modern times have to boast: at the fame time, the reader will be astonished at the afperfions that have been caft on this philofopher, and at the fentiments which have been falfely attributed to him by Hobbes, Malebranche, and others. The fact is, that few writers have read Ariftotle in the original; but the majority have embraced the erroneous opinions of his commentators.

We fhall give a few extracts from this part of the work, which will do honour to the great original, as well as evince the learning and affiduity of Dr. Gillies. On the Organon

In as few words as feemed confiftent with perfpicuity, I have thus endeavoured to explain the nature and defign of Ariftotle's Organon; a work which has often been as fhamefully misreprefented, as it was long most grofsly mifapplied. In that fcholaftic jargon, which infolently ufurped during many centuries the name of philofophy, fyllogifms were perverted to purposes for which their inventor declares them totally unfit, and employed on subjects in

which his uniform practice fhews that he confidered them as altogether useless. Our acquaintance with the properties of things, he perpetually inculcates, muft be acquired by patient obfervation, generalifed by comparison and induction; but when this foundation is once laid, the words by which our generalizations are expreffed, deferve not merely to be regarded as the materials in which our knowledge is embodied, or the channels by which it is communicated, but to be confidered in the two following refpects, as the principles or fources from which new knowledge may be derived. First, by means of a skilful arrangement of accurate and wellchosen terms, many proceffes of reasoning may be performed by difcerning the relations and analogies of words, with a certainty as great, and with a rapidity far greater, than these proceffès could pof fibly be carried on, were we obliged, in every step of our progress, to fix our attention on things. Every general term is confidered by Ariftotle as the abridgment of a definition, and every definition is denominated by him a collection, because it is the refult always of obfervation and comparison, and often of many observations and many comparisons. The improvements in mathematics have advanced from age to age, chiefly by improving the language, that is the figns, by which mathematical truths are expreffed; and the most important discoveries have been made in that noble science, by continually fimplifying the objects of our comparifons; or, in other words, by finding clear expreffions for ratios, including the refults of many others. In all other fciences, this investigation is of the utmost importance; and, in many of them, our knowledge will be found to advance almost exactly in proportion to the fuccefs with which our language is improved. When terms, therefore, are formed and applied with that propriety which perpetually shines in the Stagirite's writings, his general formulas of reafoning afford an analytic art, which may be employed as an engine for raifing new truths on thofe previously established; and if modern languages do not afford the fame, advantage precifely in the fame degree, it is not from the inefficacy of words as figns, but from the inefficacy of figns ill chofen and ill arranged; from impropriety of application, contempt of analogy, and abuse of metaphor.' Vol. i. P. 78.

Ariftotle's vindication of truth, in oppofition to the Skeptics, is an admirable fpecimen of his acumen and ftrength of mind; but the paffage is too long for quotation.

On fpace and time

Ariftotle obferves, that the four kinds of change or motion, formerly defcribed, all finally refolve themselves into lation, or change of place; and that place is only a modification of space, that unfubftantial being, of which no other definition can be given but that it is the recipient of body. As our conception of space originates in that of body, and our conception of motion in that of space, fo our conception of time originates in that of motion;

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