VI. Oeuvres Diverfes de M. Le Comte de Treffan, i. e. The Mifcellaneous Works of the Count TRESSAN, Lieutenant-general of the French Armies, Member of the Royal Academies of London, Paris, Edinburgh, Berlin, &c. &c. 8vo. The amiable and refpectable Author of these productions has been chiefly known, hitherto, by pieces of poetry, which rather fuit the rofycoloured noon of life, than the grey evening of reflection, maturity, and experience, at which he is now arrived, and which he employs in pursuit of folid fcience and true philofophy. He appears here in the character of a wife and tender parent, who brings to light, for the ufe of his children, thofe treafures of practical knowledge and experience, which he has been collecting, for fifty years paft, in his intimate correfpondence and converfation with the moft knowing men of the prefent age. The principal part of the Publication before us is entitled Reflexions Sommaires fur l'Efprit. It is curious enough, that after having read with great pleafure this agreeable and excellent piece, we know not how to tranflate its title, fo ambiguous and idiomatical is that Proteus-word Efprit, which in the treatife before us fignifics mind, knowledge, fpirit, and talent, and affumes, throws off, and changes, thefe different fignifications in the ten different chapters that compofe it, with as much eafe and rapidity, as Harlequin changes his drefs. This will appear when it is confidered, that in thefe ten chapters the elegant and ingenious author treats firft of Efprit in general, which here must be MIND, as the objects he confiders are, fenfations, thought, genius, memory: he then treats of acquired E prit, which is, evidently, knowledge, because here he speaks of education, history, ancient and modern literature. He proceeds to treat of the Eprit of arts and fciences, by which he understands, as he tells us himfelf, an ardent defire of acquiring the knowledge of them, of cultivating and improving them, of the Efprit of focicty, juflice, veracity, and beneficence, which means the nature and habitual exercile of thefe focial virtues, and the Efprit of poetry and tafte, which denotes their eflential qualities and chara&ers. The account which Monf. de Treflan gives of himself, and his early ftudies, in this piece, is highly entertaining. The other materials that compofe this volume are, feveral difcourfes delivered in the Royal Society of Sciences and Belles Lettres of Nancy, and a collection of poems, which were the ingenious, tender, and amorous productions of his early youth. Among thefe difcourfes there is one, that was compofed by our author in honour of the memory of his friend Maupertuis, in which the reader will find an admirable analyfis of the works of that celebrated philofopher, and another which contains an hiftorical portrait of king Stanislaus, the modern Antoninus, who always honoured Monf. de Treflan with peculiar marks of his eftcem

and

and friendship. We are informed that the modefty of this learned and agreeable author conceals from the eve of the public a work of great merit, the fruit of long obfervation and ftudy, in which fome of the most important and intricate branches of natural philofophy are treated with a masterly hand. VII. L'Esprit des Apologifles de la Religion Chretienne ou Reunion des Preuves les plus fenfibles et les plus Convaincantes, qui ont fervi pour fa Defenfe, &c. i. e. The Sum and Substance of the Writings of thofe that have defended the Chriflian Religion (for fuch is here the Meaning of the Word Eftrit) or a Reunion of the most palpable and convincing Proofs that have been employed in its Behalf, with Arfwers to the chief Difficulties that have been alleged again! it, by an Ecclefiaftic of the Diocele of Rheims. This is one of the most comprehenfive and judicious compilations we have lately met with, in favour of revealed religion, though it is not exempt from the defects that accompany all publications of this nature, which come from the pens of Roman Catholic writers, who comprehend the peculiarities of their religious inftitutions in their defence of the Chriftian religion in general. The first volume of this work contains an examination of the books of Mofes, of the antiquities, laws, and manners of the Hebrews, of the records, that afcertain the marvellous circumftances of their history, and of the authenticity, infpiration, and canon of the books of the Old Teftament. The Author likewife anfwers, in this volume, all the objections drawn from the improbability of the facts and the equivocal fenfe of the prophecies. contained in the Old Teftament, as alfo from the intolerance of the Jews, the inaccuracy of their chronology, and the limits of their knowledge in metaphyfics and natural hiftory. In the fecond volume we have a concife view of the various marks that diftinguifh the infpired writings of the New Teftament from the fpurious gofpels and epiftles, which appeared in the firit ages of the church; and this is followed by the ufual proofs of the miffion, miracles, and promifes of Chrift. The third exhibits a representation of chriflianity drawn from the doctrine of its Divine Founder, in which the author fews, that of all the fyftems of religious legiflation, that have ever appeared, that of the gofpel is the purelt and the most conformable to the rules of the wifeft fyftems of civil polity, that the general tenor of the Chriftian precepts is adapted to every ftate and condition of life, to every form of government, and has a manifest tendency to promote the tranquillity and happinefs of every nation that receives and practiics them. This part of the fubject is well treated, and expofes the abfurdity of thofe aukward and injudicious defer ders of Chriflianity, who reprefent it as a fyftem, unconnected with the interefis, concerns, and relations of a prefent world, and thus really render us doubtful whether we are

to

to look upon them as the fanatical friends or the difguised enemies of the caufe which they maintain.

VIII. The first and fecond volumes of the Supplement to the celebrated, but very defective French Encyclopedie or Dictionary of Sciences, Arts, and Trades, have been lately pubJifhed under the following title, Nouveau Dictionnaire, pour fervir de Supplement aux Dictionnaires des Sciences, des Arts, des Metiers, in Folio, at Paris, and at Amfterdam, 1776. It was indeed neceflary to compose a Supplement to the work in queftion, not only on account of the new difcoveries that have been made in the arts and fciences fince its publication, but alfo to rectify the glaring errors, and fupply the many defects, which have attended the execution of this great undertaking. This latter confideration engaged, fome years ago, an active and knowing man, called FELICE, to undertake the publication of a new edition of the Paris Dictionary at Yuerdun in Switzerland, purged from the atheistical and flimfy metaphysics, and the Popish theology which difgrace that work, and enriched with new and important articles, that had been entirely omitted, or wretchedly treated by the original authors. Mr. Felice's edition has appeared in 4to. and is juft completed; but though many of his Additions are valuable and important, yet all his corrections are far from being happy; and more especially in the branches that regard the Belles Lettres, there are articles changed and new-moulded, which have loft by the change, and were much better in their original form; though all the articles relative to religion, moral philofophy, metaphyfics, and natural and political law have gained confiderably by paffing through the hands of the learned men that contributed to the execution of Mr. Felice's plan. The Paris Supplement, now be fore us, might have derived more improvement from Mr. Felice's edition than it feems to have done; but we cannot as yet pronounce any definitive judgment with refpect to its merit, as it has been but a very fhort time in our poffeffion. It is a book of fufficient importance to deferve an accurate examination, and will, with propriety, compofe a large article, when the remaining volumes are published. In the mean time we may obferve that the two volumes now before us, have received feveral improvements in the fciences of natural philofophy, geometry, aftronomy, natural hiftory, anatomy, phyfiology, chymistry, and literature, from the contributions of Mefirs. D'Alembert, Bernouille, De la Lande, Adanson, Marmontel, and the Marquis of Condorcet. The Swifs editor had aug

This nobleman has been lately chofen fecretary to the Royal Academy of Sciences in the place of Mr. de Fouchy, who has refigned.

mented

mented the quarto edition of the work with biflorical and biographical articles, which, in our opinion, do not come within the fphere of a dictionary of fciences, a few names, perhaps, excepted, of illuftrious men, who have made important difcoveries, or formed new fyftems for the advancement of human knowledge in the prefent Paris Supplement the like method has been followed; and Mr. Turpin has been entrusted with the execution of the hiftorical branch.

IX. We have now before us the Obfervations relative to Natural Philofophy, Natural Hiftory, and the Arts, by the Abbé ROZIER, for the months of May, June, and July, 1776, which, among feveral papers of great merit, contain the following; viz. in the number for MAY, A Differtation of M. de Morveau, which is defigned to reconcile the principles of Staabl with the mo dern experiments relating to fixed air :-The extract of a memoir of Mr. Baldaffari, Profeffor of Natural Hiftory and Chemistry at Sienna, concerning the vitriolic acid, found naturally pure, concrete, and uncombined. In the number for June, A compendious defcription of the manufacture of basso relievos, made of factitious alabafter, at the baths of St. Philip in Tuscany, by Mr. Latapie.An account of the baptifms, marriages, and burials of the city of Lyons, from the ft of January 1750, to the 31st of December 1774, by an Academician of that city. These two pieces are very curious in their different kinds. The firft defcribes a moft fingular manufacture eftablished in Tufcany, in confequence of the uncommon properties of a stream at the baths of St. Philip, which carries in its current a peculiar kind of fand. This fand, when it is collected and condenfed in the cavities of any body that is employed to oppofe its courfe, acquires the nature, hardness, and colour of alabafter, and affumes the forms of the cavities in which it is thus collected. The ingenious Mr. LATAPIE, convinced by repeated experiments of this fingular property, had moulds made of feveral fingle figures, and even groupes, and by holding them, in a certain manner, against the current of this ftream, collected in their cavities the fand in question, and thus formed balo relievos of beautiful alabaftar. Thus his fuccefs has enabled him to eftablish a manufacture, which will render the fine!t productions of fculpture more eafily attainable than they have hitherto been, and much more precious by the accuracy of the copy. The fecond of these pieces, which relates to the marriages, baptifms, and burials of the city of Lyons, is a matter of a much more ferious and important nature, when confidered in the conclufions deducible from it. In the number for July there are 13 articles, of which the most confiderable are, Researches concerning accidental colours, by Mr. Goddard. -An effay upon the causes of the faltnefs of the fea. A memoir concerning the phlogifton confidered as the cause or principle of growth, life,

and

and deftruction in the three claffes of the productions of Nature, by Mr. SENNIBIER of Geneva.-An effay on the poffibility of dividing any given angle into three equal parts, without employing any thing more than the rule and compass for this purpose, &c.

POLAN D.

X. The governors and heads of the univerfity in Warsaw, finding the great fcarcity of proper elementary books on the feveral branches of fcience, have very judiciously published an invitation to the literati in general to engage in this uteful work, fuggefling proper hints for the execution of the defign, and promiling confiderable premiums to those who produce the beft works of this kind, either in the Latin or French languages, or, if written by a native, in the Polish tongue. This invitation appoints the following fubjects for fuch elementary works; mathematics; natural hiftory; agriculture; natural philofo phy; logic; eloquence; and a compendious general defcription of arts and feciences.

Perhaps it might be of fervice to literature if this idea were adopted and extended, and premiums given by refpectable focieties for the beft productions in the fitnces or in polite learning.

MONTHLY

CATALOGUE,

For NOVEMBER, 1776.

MEDICAL.

Art. 15. An Efay on the Nature, Caufes, and Cure of the Rheu matija: Being an Attempt to form an exalt Theory of the Disease, Go 8vo. 15. d. Robinson. 1770.

HE Author, who is a member of the Faculty, having in the early part of his life been cruelly haraffed by the rheumatifm, was very naturally led to inquire minutely into the nature, causes, and probable means of curing this difeafe. He fucceeded in his own cafe, and has fince been inftrumental to the relief of many; particu larly by attending to the different caufes by which this diforder is produced, and the very different habits or conititutions of thofe affe&ted by it. He here communicates his reflections, and the refult of his extenfive practice in this difcafe, to the public, or rather indeed to the faculty, who may undoubtedly profit from fome of his obferva tions; though he is much too luxuriant in theo etical reafonings. Ilis imagination feems particularly to run away with him, in an appendix to this Effay; where he undertakes to criticife the medical treatment of the late Mr. Sterne, during his lat illness; without knowing the patient, or any particulars of the cafe:-in fhort, on fcalce any other data than three or four lines contained in one of bis printed letters, to Mrs. James; in which poor Sterne onl: fava, that he has been at Death's door with a pieurify-and that he was bled three times on Thuriday, and blittered on Friday.