are too much enlarged; while others are too brief. The long articles, or rather treatifes, on Divination, Games, Oracles, Temples, would have been better arranged under different heads. On the other hand, to tell us that Noemon, Prytanis, and many more fuch worthies, are mentioned by Homer, or Virgil; of what ufe is it? These heroes are not likely to be seen, nor fought, excepting in perufing Homer or Virgil. Why then infert the names of men, of whom nothing more could be related, than what the reader already fees before his eyes?

We did not expect to find Homer, Hefiod, nor Confucius, in a Pantheon. Our refpect for them makes us wifh to fee them. claffed with better company than fabulous beings. Thefe articles belong to History, or Biography; and fo do thofe of Amafis, Clelia, Paulina, and fome others. Buthrotum, Byblus, Byrfa, Colchis, Creta, Dulichium, &c. belong to Geography; and though Europe, Asia, Africa, Britannia, Germania, &c. are fometimes emblematically reprefented on coins and medals, yet they were not confidered as real beings, any more than many of our modern perfonifications. It may be faid, that it is useful to fuch as ftudy coins, &c. to know the fymbols by which these countries are defignated. It is fo: but there are numifmatical books and dictionaries enough to answer the purpose of such ftudents, who will never feek for what they want, of this kind, in a Pantheon. Amphictyons, Apaulia, Areopagus, Buftuarii, Chlamys, Circumpotatio, Feciales, Pater patratus, &c. belong to dictionaries of the rites and cuftoms of antiquity. Chiromantia, Idolothyta, Mythology, Pagan, Polytheism, Theogony, &c. are mere explanations of terms; and belong to etymology. The first of thefe words is alfo erroneously explained. It is faid to be the art of foretelling events by infpecting the lines of the head,' instead of the hand. Befide, we believe the art itself to be of modern invention. It is not enumerated in this work among the ancient modes of divination.

An article is allotted, with no great propriety perhaps, to the Jewish month Ab, or as it is fometimes called Abib, and its fafts: but if this had any claim to be mentioned in such a work, certainly Nifan, Yihar, and the reft of the Jewish months had an equal claim. Of the Gnomes, we have a particular account: but, on turning to the Sylphs, we are referred to Aura, under which title we find nothing more about the Sylphs than these few words at the beginning of the article: the auræ were a fort of aerial beings refembling the Sylphs of our own poetry.' No mention is made of the other beings of the Roficrufian philofophy. None of Urda, Valdandi, and Skulda; the Scandinavian Parce, or Weird Sifters. Nothing is faid of Balder, Frea, or Friga, Lok, and others of the Northern mythology: nothing of

the

the Egregori, Azäel, Shamhozai, or Semiazas of the Rabbinical mythology. Under the article Alcithoe, fhe and her two fifters, Arfinoe and Leuconoe, are named as the three daughters of Minyas, or Mineus: but under the word Mineides, thefe daughters are named Leuconoe, Leucippe and Alcithoe; and the two former are faid to have been called, by Ovid, Clymene and Iris. To the words Minyas, Leuconoe, Leucippe, and this Iris, no articles are affigned. Under the word Clymene, a fifth of that name is faid to have been the daughter of Mynias, and mother of Atalanta, by Jafus. Here both the father's and the hufband's names are wrongly fpelled. At the end of the article Alcithae, there ought to have been a reference to Mineides, under which laft fome additional particulars of the ftory are recorded. Siaha, the fynonymous title of Budha, is emitted. Under the article. Aphthas, weread: See Opas,' which latter name is not to be found. No account is given of Zamban-Pongo, the god of heaven, a fuperior deity of the Africans; though an article is allotted to the Mokiffes, or genii, who are fuppofed to be fubordinate to him. Philonis is faid to be an appellative of Chione, whom Diana rendered immortal;' from which, a reader must conclude that Diana, for fome reafon or other, had conferred a fignal reward on this nymph: but, on turning to Chione, we find, on the contrary, that Diana put her to death, becaufe fhe infolently attributed the chastity of that goddess to a want of perfonal charms. Under the article Argonauts, Athamas is faid to have divorced his wife Ino for the fake of Nephele, who was difcarded in her turn for the repudiated Ino: but under the article Ino, Nephele is called the first wife of Athamas; and under the article Phryxus, we are told that Athamas married Ino on the death of Nephele. Liber, one of the names of Bacchus, is faid to be derived from Auw, while no etymology is affigned to Lyaus, which is really derived from that word. Under the

article Brama, we are told that his brother Rutrem had no particular functions allotted to him: but under the articles Paraxacti, and Vifnu, it is faid to be Rutrem's office to destroy what his two brothers created and preserved.

In many articles, we meet with much of the frigid conceit and canting quackery of petty artifts and dilettanti, who pretend to discover a multitude of beauties and hidden expreffions, in minute and infignificant parts of a ftatue, or of a picture, which are abfolutely invifible to any eye but their own; and of which the moft diftant conception probably never entered the head of the ftatuary, nor of the painter. This is applicable to what is faid of the Belvidere Apollo; and of the mutilated statue of Hercules, known by the name of Il Torfo; and of fome other ftatues. Laftly, it would have been a great improvement to

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this

1

this work, if the compiler had annexed his authorities to the different articles; and had informed the reader where he might feck for farther intelligence, as well as for confirmation of what was already advanced.

Our readers are not to fuppofe, that thefe few remarks are made with any defign of lowering the reputation of the prefent work. If what we have faid be fo underftocd, it will be underflood in a way very foreign to our intention; which is not to depreciate, but to render more perfect, the New Pantheon. Notwithstanding the inaccuracies which we have pointed out, we fairly can, and therefore do, recommend this dictionary as a ufeful and good book, deferving of public patronage.

The plates, which are 37 in number, feveral of them containing many feparate engravings, are of unequal merit. Some are very good, and a few are very poor.

Pear.

ART. XVI. Mathematical Memoirs refpecting a Variety of Subjects. Vol. II. By John Landen, F. R. S. grave.

410. 8s. fewed.

Win

TH HE principal fubject of thefe memoirs, is that rotatory motion of a body, by which it turns about fome axis paffing through its centre of gravity, while this centre is carried by a progreffive motion along fome right or curve line. The author had particularly confidered this progreffive motion, in the first volume of his Memoirs, publifhed in 1780, and of which an account has been given in our 65th vol. p. 23, &c. This is a fubject, which has alfo been difcuffed by other writers: but the rotatory motion of bodies, particularly with refpect to the most curious and important cafes of it, has not been fo copioufly and fo accurately treated. The theory of this motion has not been fufficiently regarded in our own country; and though many eminent mathematicians of other nations have directed their affiduous attention to it, yet Mr. Landen apprehends, that they have adopted falfe principles, and deduced very erroneous conclufions. To inveftigate and establish the true doctrine of this kind of motion, is the principal defign of the author in thefe memoirs. Accordingly, in the 10th memoir, (the first that occurs in this volume,) he confiders the rotatory motion of a body revolving with a flat face on a horizontal plane, about a vertical axis, atter having been ftruck by a ball moving on the fame plane.

In the 11th memoir, he inveftigates the compound rotatery motion of a fphere.

The 12th memoir contains improvements in the theory of the rotatory motion of bodies. Thefe improvements chiefly re

late

late to the motion of a body revolving about a point, fupported by a horizontal plane, on which that point is at liberty to flide, without any other reftraint than that which naturally arises from the gyration of the body...

The fubject of the 13th memoir, is the preceffion of the equinoxes; to which the author has applied, in a manner both curious and useful, the principles previously established. This memoir comprehends two propofitions. 1ft, From the mean motion of the nodes of the lunar orbit, produced by the fun's action on the moon, to find the preceffion of the equinoxes, caused by the action of the folar force on the protuberant matter of the earth above its greateft infcribed fphere. The principal mistake of Sir Ifaac Newton, in his process for the folution of this problem, (Princip. lib. iii. prop. 39.) arifes from not confidering the centrifugal force of the particles of the revolving ring of moons (mentioned in the computation,) acting in oppofition to the folar force; while fuch ring has a tendency to revolve about a momentary axis, in confequence of the compound motion which it muft neceflarily have, on becoming rigid, agreeably to the fuppofition. From the refult of the author's computation, the preceffion appears to be nearly 21" 12."-In the fecond propofition, he proceeds to deduce the preceffion of the equinoxes, caufed by the folar. force ading on the protuberant matter of the earth above its greatest infcribed fphere, by a direct computation of the effect of that force on that matter, without any reference to the lunar motion. By this method of computation, the annual preceffion, arifing from the folar force, comes out=21′′ 7′′; which nearly agrees with Mr. Simpson's computation from very different principles, in his Miscellaneous Tras:-but Mr. Landen obferves, that Mr. Simplon's reafoning is faulty, though one error is nearly counterbalanced by another. In this memoir, the earth is fuppofed to be of uniform denfity: but as this is not really the cafe, the conclufions deduced from this fuppofition must be corrected from obfervations. By the correction propofed by Mr. Simpfon, the above preceffion of 21" 7" is reduced to 14". Sir Ifaac Newton (ubi fupra) makes the quantity of the annual preceffion, depending on the fun, to be no more than 9' 7" 20", which is not half of what Mr. Simpson and Mr. Landen have found it to be.

The 14th memoir investigates the initial fpontaneous axis of rotation of a body impelled to revolve in free space.

In the 15th memoir, the author confiders the rotatory motion. of a body revolving, without reftraint, about any axis paffing through its centre of gravity; and in the 16th memoir, he compares the rotatory motions of bodies of different forms.

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The

The 17th memoir fupplies fome new theorems for computing the roots of cubic equations.

On the whole, this volume is a valuable addition to the ftock of the mathematical refearches on the feveral fubjects to which it relates. We cannot close the article, without lamenting the lofs which science has fuftained by the death of the ingenious author, fince the publication of this work.

Rees.

MONTHLY CATALOGU E, For APRIL, 1791.

QUESTION OF PARLIAMENTARY IMPEACHMENTS. Art. 17. Letter on the Continuation of Impeachments after a Diffolution of Parliament. 8vo. pp. 18. Is. Debrett. 1791. WE cannot much commend either the temper or the arguments difplayed in the Letter before us. nious attack on Mr. Chriftian's "Examination of Precedents and It contains a very acrimoPrinciples," &c. *. Some of Mr. C's pofitions are mis-stated or mifunderstood. The letter-writer's idea, that a new parliament, in determining whether an impeachment, begun in a former parliament, fhall continue or abate, is to be guided by the circumstances of the cafe, and not by what other parliaments have done before them, is loose and dangerous. In our opinion, it is their duty to declare the law and ufage of parliament, and not to make the law for a particular purpose; and we believe that they who concur with the letter-writer in the refult of the whole question, namely, that the impeachment ftill continues, will not feel themselves much indebted to him for his affiftance.

T.

Art. 18. Review of the Arguments in favour of the Continuance of Impeachments, notwithstanding a Diffolution. By a Barrister. Svo, pp. 123. 2s. 6d. Clarke, Portugal-ftreet.

We have perufed this pamphlet with fingular fatisfaction; and we have no hesitation in declaring it to be the most clear, candid, and masterly difcuffion of the fubject, that has yet fallen under our notice. The author modeftly owns, that a great part of the facts and arguments are drawn from the debates in the Houfe of Commons; and though this may take from the originality of the publication, it adds, in our opinion, greatly to its value for we have here, prefented in one connected form, the whole ftrength of the arguments that bear on the question,

From the examination of the precedents themfelves, the author is ftrongly of opinion that the point has already been decided; and that thofe precedents afford clear authority to fupport the continuance of the impeachment:-but, fuppofing that the precedents are fo equally balanced, as to leave a doubt on the fubject, he

* See our laft Review, p. 335.

proceeds