cufable, by the brevity he seems to have prescribed to himself, for his whole treatise does not exceed eight fheets in duodecimo, with three copper plates. The design is certainly laudable, being intended, at this critical conjuncture, not only to excite in the public a defire of attaining some knowledge in this necessary fcience; but alfo, to affift them therein, at an eafy expence.

ART. V. PHILOSOPHICAL VISIONS. Tranflated from the French, 12mo. Pr. 3 s. Griffiths.

HESE vifions were written (as we are inform'd by the

tranflator) by the Marquis d'Argens, author of the Jewish Letters, a work well known, and well received by the public: The little fatyrical pieces before us, by the fame hand, though many parts of them are fuperficial, and unequal to the reft, will afford fome entertainment to our readers; as the sprightlinefs of a creative fancy, and the fallies of a fertile imagination, are apparently vifible in almost every one of them. If we can not compare them with the golden dreams of Homer, they are at least preferable to the agri fomnia mention'd by Horace, and we cannot but rejoice, whilft our author's too wakeful countrymen are disturbing the peace of mankind, to find one honest Frenchman, who has slept for the pleasure and advantage of society. The volume confifts of twenty-two vifions, in each of which fome new thought is started, and concluded with the chapter, which occafions no difagreeable variety. As we are always glad rather to praise than cenfure, we fhall felect for our readers a few of thofe paffages, which appeared to us moft worthy of their author.

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Vif. 2. We meet with the following characters of the French and English nations, which are certainly not ill drawn, with what degree of justice must be left to the determination of the public. The kingdom we were now in, (fays the author) ⚫ was that of the * Changcables : these people are descended (by an incestuous love) from the genii fire, and the goddess of levity. They feldom remain two days in the fame opi'nion; in other refpects, they are polite, agreeable, and fprightly; but these qualities only ferve to make their friends uneafy, at the little ufe they make of their understanding; and wish the poffeffion of fuch fine talents might make them

*The French.

⚫ more

← more folid and rational: for their enemies frequently take advantage of this inconftancy of temper, to expose them to ridicule. During the first five days, that we were amongst thefe people, we were obliged to alter the fashion of our • dress, fix different times. One day, in particular, when • we imagin'd ourselves equip'd intirely in tafte, we were much furpris'd to find, by five o'clock in the evening, that we • were regarded as a couple of antiques, and, of consequence, the rest of the day expos'd to the laughter of every company we were in; for they, in general, love raillery to excess: • and tho' they behave with the utmost politeness to strangers, they (thro' their love of, and propensity to, this vain foible) • take all opportunities to ridicule them. They look upon themselves as fuperior to the reft of the world, and imagine ⚫ wit to be their appenage only; totally excluding every other nation. This way of thinking difgufted my friend. "Thefe "people," faid he, "are an hundred times greater monkeys "than those of a little ifland, near Apeland, where we fend "all our countrymen who are difordered in their intellects. "They jump, they gambol, whistle, and talk, all in a breath, "They are agreeable, it is true; but they are pernicious; "extravagancies of a facetious, engaging nature, are infinitely more dangerous than those that have a more serious turn. "Let us fly, my dear friend," said the Ape, let us fly from a country where inconftancy is, among high and low, an "univerfal paffion; where folly has graces even to feduce "wifdom; and where the moft rigid virtue is in danger of falling a facrifice to a vicious gaiety."

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• I confented to his request; and from thence we went to the kingdom of Libertines. The name perfectly agrees with the conftitution of the people who inhabit it: they paffionately love liberty; but they carry that regard to fuch a degree of extravagance, that, in order to be free, they are * flaves to the fear of fubjection. In fhort, their liberty very often better deferves the title of libertinifin. Many of them write, without any refpect, against their fovereign: they believe they preferve the deference due to their prince, if they perfonally attack only his miniftry, whom they often treat with the most cruel contempt; believing fo infolent a conduct abfolutely neceffary, and effential to the liberty of The Engl. • their

their country: nay, to that extravagant pitch has this unreftrain'd, ungovernable paffion hurry'd them, that they • have massacred each other in their civil wars, which have been very frequent amongst them. One brother murders another; while a father, perhaps, is plunging a dagger in the bofom of this fon. Hence, there are few families amongst them, of whom fome have not been hang'd, or ⚫ beheaded. They have naturally judgment and penetration; they love the study of arts and sciences, and encourage philofophy; which, however, only ferves to improve their un⚫derstanding, not to reform their manners: for as they are

naturally felf-sufficient, their learning produces but very little "effect on their hearts and minds, which are, in general; too vain to be fufceptible of good impreffions. They not only • despise strangers, but even hate them; generous and com⚫ paffionate to those who really are objects, but 'jealous of

any thing that may reflect upon their honour; and yet, "what is a feeming contradiction, they have no idea of hofpitality; at leaft it appears, by their conduct, that they have none. They delight in hedding human blood; and for ⚫ their amusement, encourage gladiators: are wife enough to tolerate the practice of different religions, though they hate thofe who differ from their eftablish'd opinion: and what • even exceeds credit, is, that the major part of them do not believe, that what they profess, is better, or more comform* able to truth, than what they hate in the profeffion of others. In fhort, the libertines, confidered in one refpect, are a people to be efteemed above any in the univerfe; but, in another, are to be regarded as the moft fenfelefs and unhappy.'

Let us go," faid my friend, to me, "from amongst a "nation whose conduct gives us room to doubt, whether we "fhould most esteem them for their perfections, or despise them * for their foibles."

• In the eleventh vifion, our author dreams, that the eyes of all the human fpecies were glass, and that those of many, produced, in every refpect, the effects of the microscope; 'to thefe people the most trifling objects appear inconceiveably great; an ant, in their eyes, feems as tall as an elephant; • their minds, accuftom'd to the largeness of the objects re• prefented

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• prefented to them, confider, alfo, all things as if they were an hundred times more confiderable then they really are.' He then describes, with fome humour, the abfurdity of the microscopists, who magnify every circumstance in life, and contrafts them with another clafs of men whom he calls the Concavifts, whofe eyes are form'd (like the myopes glaffes) ⚫ concave on both sides, and every object appears to them much Smaller than they really are; their minds are accustom❜d to - think of spiritual things, as their eyes judge of the material. .There is fomething in this thought, which is striking, but the author has not, in our opinion, been happy in his choice : of circumstances to illuftrate it.

• I was firmly perfuaded (fays he, Vif. XIII.) that I had no body. My foul (I thought) was in a great fea; in the middle of which it swam, with many other spirits, that ap'pear'd to be form'd like thofe little angels often represented by painters, in their most celebrated pieces, having only a 6 head fupported by two wings. I thought myself, also, converted to fuch an one; and congratulated the liberty I en'joy'd; which appear'd, to me, the state of perfect glory.' He then proposes, to a brother-fpirit, to traverse the ocean, and fee if there were not other fpirits to be found there, more or lefs happy than themselves: accordingly (says he) having swam ⚫ fome time, we perceiv'd a great space of sea surrounded by a

net, which made, as it were, a park, or inclosure, in the 'middle of the waves: in this space were imprison'd a great • number of spirits, who appear'd, to me, so meagre and ema

ciated, that I faid, to my companion, these spirits have ⚫ somewhat the nature of our fpecies; but it is, however, impoffible, that theirs can be intirely of the nature of our souls, Do you not obferve how feeble they are? their wings are • so small, that they are scarcely perceptible: they cannot ele· vate themselves in the air. Obferve,' continued I, how they fall down into the water, when they attempt to fly. That,' fays my companion, is not furprifing. Do you not fee that there is a kind of grate which confines them like prisoners in their habitation: they are furrounded, on all fides, by fillets and net-work; fo that they can neither swim in the wide fea, nor fly in the open air.'

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The moment my comrade had spoken thus, I observ'd many of these captivated spirits pass their noses through the intervals of the net-work; which, I thought, teftify'd their ' eager defire of playing in (i. e. of regaining their) liberty: it appear'd, alfo, that their ambition of flying in the air confderably increas'd when they perceiv'd us; but they fail'd in • all their attempts, and were forcibly drawn back to the middle ⚫ of the inclosure. We now beheld a woman fuddenly arife from ⚫ the bottom of an abyfs: fhe elevated herself a little abov❤ the water, and approach'd the inclofure: fhe was arm'd with C a flaming torch. On a fillet, which was round the middle of it, was written, fuperftition. Whenever the perceiv'd any • fpirits put their noses without the bands, fhe ran to them, and burnt them with her torch: nor dar'd any of these unfortu⚫nate beings, after her appearance, venture to the edge of their prifon, for fear of the like punishment.'

We are informed, in an advertisement prefix'd to this work, that it made its first appearance at Berlin, in the year 1746, where the author had taken refuge, being threatened with a prosecution for the freedom of his writings, a circumstance, which our readers will not be furpris'd at, who perufe the contents of his fourteenth vifion, which is nothing less than a most severe fatire on his prefent moft Chriftian Majefty, and those whom it is equally dangerous to make free with, his We, and his confeffor.

'I faw a number of idols (fays he) fitting in their chairs of state, who had neither tongues, hands nor feet. When these idols have any thing to fay, the favourite, or principal do'meftic, who is always behind the chair, advances, takes his 'tongue out of his mouth, and puts into that of his mafter, • who then speaks juft as the favourite judges proper: for as it ' is his tongue that speaks, so it is his mind that dictates every answer; and my lord lofes, with his tongue, the use of his voice. When he wants to write, the fame attendant takes his hand from his arm, and fixes it on that of his mafter; who, accordingly, writes as he fpoke: And if he has occafion to 'walk, he makes use of the fame faithful domeftic's feet.'

"But the most fingular thing (fays our author) which I saw in this hall, was, a woman who was fighting, behind a chair,

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