MONNET, who has not only struck out a new method of classification and arrangement, but has moreover ascertained the nature and composition of several bodies, hitherto unknown, or known but imperfectly. The part of this work that relates to the knowledge of the state and properties of mineral substances, will be farther elucidated in a work which M. MONNET proposes to publish soon, under the following title, The Foundation er Principle of Mineralogy-or, Researches concerning the Nature and Qualities of Minerals.

In the remarks on Macquer's Chymical Dictionary, which terminate this work, our Author defends himself with spirit and dexterity against the attacks that had been made upon him in several parts of that Dictionary; and his defence is, at least, ingenious and instructive.

IV. Nouvelles Obfervations fur l'Angleterre: i. e. New Obfervations upon England. By a Traveller. 8vo. Paris. 1779. This traveller is the sensible, judicious Abbé COYER; and these Observations do honour to his penetration, difcernment, and candour. It is not possible to conceive any thing more oppofite to the national spirit, genius, and manners of the French, than what the Abbé observes with respect to the English.

V. Discours prononcé dans l'Academie Françoise, &c. i. e. A Discourse delivered in the French Academy on the third of March, 1779. By M. DUCIS, at his Reception as a Member of that Academy. Paris. 1779. The design of this society, which is rather adapted to improve founds than fense, seems to be abundantly answered by such compositions as the frothy and fulfome heap of quaint wit, far-fetched ornaments, and disgusting adulation, that forms the windy substance of this Discourse of M. DUCIS, in honour of Voltaire. -The Exordium alone, will enable us to judge of the merit of the piece. This part of an oration is usually designed to give us, by its modesty and fimplicity, the pleasure of afcending gradually into the clouds with the subject, instead of being toffed up to them abruptly, as it were, in a blanket, by the author. But M. Ducis has attempted the latter: observe how he begins- The day on which that famous conqueror died, whose presence ftruck the earth with filence, all thrones appeared vacant by the decease of one man, and the universe was for a moment without a master. Thus Voltaire, after having governed, until the age of eighty, the universal monarchy of talents, left, at his death, the fame confufion in the empire of letters, and the throne of genius became vacant. No man dared to step forth, or lay an audacious hand on this immense inheritance of complicated honours and glory, which Europe, for a whole century, had been accustomed to behold with respect, united in him alone. The splendour of his name, which cast a deep obscurity on all other names, eclipses them still; and those, whose temerity and ambition would prompt them to aspire after the glory of fucceeding him, would deserve to hear the following sentence applied to them :

• Soldats fous Alexander et Rois apres fa mort.

Is not this enough, gentle Reader ?

VI., Les Anciens Mineralogistes du Royaume de France, avec des Notes: i. e. (literally tranflated) The Ancient Mineralogifts of the Kingdom of France, with Notes, by M. GOBET. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris. 1779. Price 9 livres 12s. The mineralogifts, here mentioned, are not (as one would imagine at first fight) authors who treat of that branch of natural history relative to minerals and foffils; but the French writers, ancient and modern, who have treated the subject of mines, their produce, situation, and the manner of working them. It seems, that the present king of France turns his views, with peculiar ardor, to the encouragement of this important object, and never, indeed, was there a period of time in which such an object was more adapted to attract all the attention of the Moft Christian King than the present.

The filver mine, that was discovered at Chitry in Nivernois, near three centuries ago, was particularly described in a treatife, published by Fr. Garrault in 1579, and is here republished at the head of this collection. This mine yielded, in certain years, eleven hundred marks of filver, and a vast quantity of lead. The descriptions given by De Malus, and his fon, of the mines in the Pyrenean Mountains, which were discovered in the year 1600, are, indeed, worthy of their place in this work; as also the researches of Savot, concerning the Metallurgy of the ancients, which abound with a folid and valuable erudition: but we cannot conceive how M. GOBET came to disgrace his collection with the filly reveries and fictions of Martine de Bertereau, baroness of Beau-Soleil, whose brain was really turned with the visions of the Alchymists, and whose productions were treated with contempt, even in the middle of the last century. The account given in 1667, by Cæfar d'Arcons, of the advantages that might be derived from the mines of Languedoc, are curious; but the most interesting part of this collection, is that which contains the observations and inquiries relative to the subject under confideration, that have been made in the present century by Reaumur, Hellot, Iars, Le Monnier, Desmarest, de Juffica, count d'Herouville, Gensfane, Courtepee, Monnet, Sage, and many other naturalifts of great merit, who have related their excursions, and published their remarks on the greatest part of the mines discovered in the kingdom of France, and mingled with these accounts several curious observations on other interesting points of natural history. At the fame time, the Prefaces and Notes, with which M. GOBET has enriched this cole lection, render its perusal both agreeable and instructive.

VII. Effai fur la Jurisprudence Universelle, où l'on examine quel est le premier Principe de la Justice and le Fondement de l'Obligation Morale, &c. i. e. An Effay concerning Universal furisprudence, in which an Inquiry is made into the first Principles of Justice and the Foundation of Moral Obligation. By FATHER THOMAS JACOв, Prior of the Jacobines at Paris. 12mo. Paris. 17:9. We are glad to fee Monks writing on such subjects as these, when their productions do not smell of the convent. This Effay, which is a warm attack upon the Encyclopedists of Paris, as enemies not only of Revealed, but also of Natural Religion, would be read with more pleasure and profit, if the Author had treated his subject with more precision. He establishes, on folid foundations, the existence of a law of nature. -He shews that Chriftianity is not only its best interpreter, but also the dispensation that finishes its consistence, its obligation and perfection; but he has not carried the fagacity of the true analytic spirit into his researches concerning the principles of moral obligation. He is far behind the British writers on this fubject.

VIII. Effai fur l'Histoire Generale des Tribunaux des Peuples tant Anciens que Modernes, ou Dictionaire Historique et Judiciaire, contenant des Anecdotes piquantes & les fugemens fameux des Tribunaux, &c. i. e. An Historical Effay concerning the Tribunals of ancient and modern Nations, or, An Historical and Juridical Dictionary, containing interesting Anecdotes, and the most remarkable Judiciary Sentences of Public Tribunals in all Times and Nations. By M. DES ESSARTS, Advocate, and Member of several Academies. Vol. III. 8vo. Paris. 1779. Price 4 Livres. In this, and the two preceding volumes, we have an hiftory of the paffions and crimes of men, at least in their effects and punishment; and as the penal laws, employed by different nations for the discovery and chastisement of offenders, have a connection with the manners and government of each people, and are, generally speaking, no bad prognostic of the national spirit and character, a work of the nature of that before us, when well executed, must be curious and instructive; and such is the work of M. DES ESSARTS. It is, indeed, likely to be voluminous; for this third volume goes no farther than the first articles of letter H.

GERMANY.

IX. De Angyna Polypofa five Membranacea: i. e. Concerning the Membranous Quinzy, or that which is called the Angina Polypofa. By M. MICHAELIS, M. D. 8vo. Gottingen. 1778. The Author of this work is physician to the Hessian troops in the service of Great Britain; a fituation favourable to the ad

vancement of medical knowledge by observation and experience. It is from these two guides, rather than from the perutal of the writings of his predeceffors and contemporaries in the art of healing (with which, nevertheless, he seems perfectly well acquainted), that he has derived his knowledge of the disease here treated, and his opinion with respect to its nature and cause. It is from having opened the bodies of many perfons, who died of this disease, that he deems the membranous quinzy lymphatic in its principle, instead of proceeding from phlegm, as many have supposed; for he found the membranes, in the perfons he dissected, of the fame nature with the polypus of the heart and the large blood vessels, and much fofter and fooner corruptible than phlegm, which contracts a certain aridity and hardness. With respect to the manner of treating this disorder, Dr. MICHAELIS diftinguishes the quinzies into different claffes, according to their different circumstances and symptoms, prescribes what is requifite in each cafe, and confiders, with peculiar attention, those cafes where bronchotomy, or the opening the wind-pipe, may be useful. His history of the disorder is curious, though chargeable with some omiffions: we must not, however, confider as such, his making little or no mention of the authors, who have written concerning inflammatory quinzies, or other branches of that disease distinct from that here treated of.

X. Lobschrift auf Winkelman, &c. i. e. The Eulogy of the late Abbé Winkelman. By CHR. GOTTL. HEINE. This excellent piece, which is in every respect worthy of its subject, on whose tomb the arts and the graces will long weep, was crowned by the Academy of Antiquities at Hesse Caffel. In it the learned and judicious Author, so famous for his merits in classical literature, not only examines the writings of the celebrated Abbé with taste, judgment, and impartiality, but also points out the qualities that constitute the true Antiquary, and the improvements that have been hitherto made; as also those that are yet required in that line of science.

XI. The New Edition of the Abbé DICQUEMARE'S Apronomy, which has lately appeared, with important Additions and Improvements, deserves particular notice. Its new title is, Connoisssance de l'Aftronomie, rendu aiscé & mise à la porteé de tout Le Monde: i. e. The Knowledge of Astronomy made easy and proportioned to every Capacity. 8vo. With Cuts. Paris. 1779. The additions, which diftinguish this edition, confift in several observations; in some articles entirely new, and in instructive notes, relative to the folar atmosphere, the apparent motions of the fixed stars, those of the planets, the parallax, &c. all which objects are illustrated by two new plates. Among the tables, we find one of the annual equation of the fun's mean motion, which

may

may serve to regulate clocks. It is also proper to observe, that the two articles, relative to constellations and comets, are new composed, and new plates added for the illustration of the latter, and that the whole is terminated by an hiftorical and chronological summary of the progress of astronomy, which shews the Reader the state of that science in the different periods of the world, and the discoveries that have been made in each.

XII. B. L. TRALLES DEUTLICHE und Uberzeugende VorStellung, &c. i. e. Clear and perfuafive Confiderations tending to Thew that the Proof of the Existence and Immateriality of the human Soul, drawn from the mutable and fluctuating Nature of all the folid Parts, without Exception, of the human Body, is both highly important and perfectly conclusive. By M. B. L. TRALLES, M. D. 8vo. Breflau. 1779 This worthy and eminent physician, whose medical productions, and particularly his conteft with De Hahn of Vienna on the subject of inoculation, discovered fuch acuteness of head and goodness of heart, has now drawn his pen, in a very advanced age, against the materialists. This curious tribe of speculatifts, whose hypothesis is incapable of positive proof, and destitute of any utility, that can justify the noise they make about it, must be embarrassed at the inconveniencies that arise from supposing the body, in general, to be the feat of intelligence. This form of materialism is not only unphilofophical beyond all expression, but is adapted to excite laughter. A principle of intelligence which is purged and vomited,-dispersed by evacuations, and renewed by beef and pudding, turtle, port, and porter, is (begging leave of manfionhouse metaphyfics) the most ridiculous phenomenon imaginable. Therefore the more plausible writers on the manufacture of fouls, place the feat of intelligence in some of the finer stuff of the brain and nerves, which is not so flux, mutable, and perishable, (according to them) as the groffer parts of the body. It is against this fubterfuge that M. TRALLES raises a warning voice in the work before us. He had proved, in a preceding work, that the inftability of the folid parts of the body, and their perpetual change, are absolutely incompatible with the idea of a thinking being, which must, in its nature, be permanent, and the fame, as long as it remains capable of thought. A learned Profeffor, to obviate this difficulty, represented to him the immutability or permanent state of the nerves and the brain; but our Author thews that the nerves and the brain are as subject to change as the other folid parts of the body, and are dispersed by fecretion, and repaired like them.

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