ART. VIII. Numa Pompilius, &c. i. e. Numa Pompilius, fecond King of Rome. By M. DE FLORIAN, Captain of Dragoons, Gentleman of the Chamber to his S. Highness the Duke of Parma, and Member of the Academy of Madrid. 8:0. 418 Pages. Paris. 1786. THIS HIS work is an humble imitation of the Adventures of Tele machus; and if it has real merit in point of correctness of ftyle, purity of fentiments, elegant fimplicity in the expreffion of those fentiments, and many other good qualities, which render a moral romance inftructive and entertaining, it is not a little recommended to indulgence (if indulgence were wanted) by the delicate modefty of its Author. M. DE FLORIAN is afraid, above all things, of being, in the least, fufpected of having defigned to contend with the immortal Author of Telemachus; and he has taken an ingenious method of removing all fufpicion of this kind; for in an engraving that faces the title, we see Minerva upon an altar, holding in her hand a book open, on the upper part of whofe page is written the word Telemachus. On the loweft ftep that leads to the altar, a Genius is reprefented as proftrated before the goddess and the immortal work of Fenelon, and prefenting a book, not open, on whofe cover is infcribed the word Numa. All this expreffes elegantly the modefty, and at the fame time the laudable ambition of M. DE FLORIAN; and it is evident, that though he has not, and indeed could not, without great prefumption, have flattered himself with the hope of producing another Telemachus, yet he has endeavoured to attain, as nearly as might be, the fpirit, and to pursue the fteps, of its illuftrious Author. He follows Fenelon (non paffibus aquis) with unequal fteps; yet he walks in the fame path with dignity, and alfo with applaufe; for the first edition of his work was fold in a few months, and a fecond is juft published in two fmall volumes, enriched with thirteen plates elegantly engraved. It may be thought that M. DE FLORIAN lay under difadvantages, even from the choice of his hero; for though there are re- ́ fpectable lines in the character of Numa, and fignal inftances of wisdom, capacity, and public virtue in the course of his government; yet his reign does not abound in events fufficient to furnifh materials for an epic poem. But it is the education of Numa, and not his reign, that conftitutes the principal fubject of the prefent work. The great end our Author has in view, is, to represent a young prince, feduced, for a time, by ambition and love, recovering from his delufion, convinced of his deviations from virtue and true glory, and then efpousing a virtuous princefs, and becoming a wife and pacific fovereign. This plan is well executed; the fable of the poem (for fuch we may call it, APP. Rev. Vol. LXXV. L 1 though though written in profe) is well contrived: the incidents are numerous, entertaining, and affecting; and the morality that prevails through the whole work, is pure and elevated. ART. IX. Defcription générale de la Chine, &c. i. e. A general Defcription of China, containing an Account of the prefent State of that Empire: in two Parts. The firft includes a topographical Defcription of the Fifteen Provinces into which the Empire is divided, the Defcription of Tartary, of the Islands, and tributary Countries which are under its Jurisdiction, the Number and Situation of its Cities, its Population, the various Productions of its Soil, and the principal Details of its Natural History.-The fecond Part exhibits a Summary of the recent Accounts which have been transmitted to Europe of the Government, Religion, Manners and Cuftoms, Arts and Sciences, of the Chinese. The whole compiled and digested by the Abbé GROSIER. Large 8vo. 798 Pages. Paris. 1786. THIS HIS title fufficiently announces the general contents of the work. The details are curious, inftructive, and entertaining, and form, without doubt, the most accurate and complete account that has yet been published (within fo moderate a compass) of the Chinese empire. AR T. X. Recherches fur la Caufe des Affections Hypocondriaques appellées commu nement Vapeurs, &c. i. e. An Inquiry into the Caufe of the Hypocondriac Complaints, commonly called Vapours. To which is added, a Diary or daily Account of the State of the Body, as it is affected by the Temperature of the Air, and the more or lefs perfect State of Perfpiration. By M. CLAUDE REVILLON, M. D. Member of the Academy of Sciences at Dijon, and Correfpondent of the Royal Society of Medicine at Paris. ΤΗ HIS fecond edition of a work published in 1770 *, may be confidered as a new work, as the Author has been induced, by new obfervations and experiments, to change, or at leaft to modify his opinion with refpect to the caufe of the diforder called vapours. Formerly he confidered this difeafe as the effect of an irregular or diminished perfpiration. At present, he thinks that the electrical fluid which is diffufed through the atmosphere, has a fingular influence on the nervous fyftem, and therefore concurs in a great measure in developing the symptoms of hysterical and hypochondriac diforders. His obfervations on this fubject are worthy of attention, particularly thofe upon the different winds, which, by augmenting or diminishing the electricity of the atmosphere, and the infenfible perspiration of the * See Rev. vol. Ixiii. p. 136. human human body, have a confiderable influence on those who are afflicted with the diforder in queftion. The diary, added by the Author to this new edition, which contains the fate of his own body for above two months, fhews M. REVILLON's weight at different hours of the day, the quantities of food he took, the quantity of matter he evacuated by fenfible excretions or infenfible perfpiration, and the agreeable or difagreeable fenfations he felt at different times. The ftate of the atmosphere, and the variations of the barometer, are placed in a collateral column with this diary. ART. XI. Hiftoire d'Herodote, &c. i. e. Herodotus, tranflated from the Greek (into French), together with hiftorical and critical Obfervations and Remarks, an Effay on the Chronology of Herodotus, and a Geographical Table. 8vo. 8vo. 7 Vols. (72 Livres). By M. LARCHER, Member of the Royal Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres. Paris. 1786. HE ERE is one of those translations which must be diftinguifhed from the multitude. M. LARCHER poffeffes all the qualities of a tranflator and a critic, and the Public will certainly crown with their approbation, this new difplay of his erudition and critical fagacity. Some copies of this work have been published in 4to, on fine paper. ART. XII. Theatre des Grecs, i. e. The Grecian Theatre. By F. BRUMOY. A new Edition, enriched with fine Engravings, and augmented by the entire Tranflation of the Greek Tragedies and Comedies, of which there were only Extras given in all the preceding Editions accompanied alfo with Comparifons, Obfervations, and critical Remarks. By Meffrs. DE ROCHEFORT and DU THEIL, Members of the Royal Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres. Volume I. 8vo. Paris. 1785. Vol. II. 1786. ANOTHER tranflation of great merit. Father BRUMOY plucked only fome of the most beautiful flowers from the tragic poets of Greece, and gave them to us as nofegays, in his much and juftly efteemed work. The editors of this new and augmented edition of that work exhibit to us the whole garden, in which, indeed, weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot, but which, nevertheless, prefents a noble and a beautiful enfemble. To the three celebrated difcourfes on Greek tragedy which Father Brumey had prefixed to his work, M. DE ROCHEFORT, the new editor, has added a Differtation, in which he describes and developes, with folid erudition and good tafte, the genius and fpirit of the Greeks in refpect to the drama: and to each piece he fubjoins a critical examination and valuable notes, founded on the principles laid down in his differtation. He has L12 alfo also given us these pieces, according to their chronological order, that the reader may perceive the progress of the drama among that ingenious people, who have been our inftructors and guides in all the fine arts; and he has made a judicious choice of the beft tranflations of those pieces, of which Brumey had only published extracts: his own verfions are the beft in the collection; and we are proud to call him the French MELMOTH. There are many interefting points of view in the Differtation above mentioned. The Author fhews, among other things, the intimate connexion that the arts in general, and more especially the dramatic art in Greece, had with morality and religion, which form the effential bafis of true political science and good government. Hence poetry, painting, and music, were employed in all the great religious feftivals; and tragedy had always a diftinguifhed place in the folemn feafts of Bacchus. Tragedy, fays he, produced remarkable effects of a moral and religious nature, on the minds of the people, and (according to his explication of a difficult and obfcure paffage of Ariftotle *) by exciting terror and pity, purified the mind from the irregularity and excels of fuch paffions, and the dejection and anguish they occafion. We had formerly an opportunity of fhewing, that this explication of the paffage in Ariftotle is unfatisfactory, erroneous, and still more obfcure and forced than the passage itself +. As the word afruara in this paffage fignifies calamities or fufferings, and not paffions, the meaning of Ariftotle is evidently this, that, by exhibiting certain calamities on the ftage, tragedy may tend to remove fuch calamities out of human life, by exciting the pity and terror of the audience at the representation of them. On the whole, this additional difcourfe does great honour to the erudition, the judgment, and the heart of its Author. M. DE ROCHEFORT, through the whole tenor of it, difplays a very extenfive knowledge of the Grecian drama, in its origin and fpirit, in all its modifications and improvements; and he fhews (what renders him ftill more refpectable in our eyes) that fenfus decori et honefti, that innate tafte, improved by culture, for moral beauty-for what is honeft, decent, and virtuous, without which erudition and science are of little confequence, nay often become pernicious to the true improvement of human nature. The remainder of this first volume contains three tragedies of Æfchylus, tranflated by M. DU THEIL; accompanied with critical remarks, and a life of the poet, by M. DE ROCHEFORT. The other four tragedies of Æfchylus, and the Ajax of Sophocles, form the contents of the second volume. The Ajax comes Δί ἑλές και φόβω περαίνεσα των τοιύτων παθημάτων καθαρσινο + See Monthly Review, vol. Ixiv. p. 555, 556. forth forth in the tranflation of M. de Rochefort, who has prefixed to it the life of the poet, accompanied with judicious obfervations on the difficulties which attend the tranflation of the Greek poets. It is with regret that we learn, that these are the laft aids which the Grecian Theatre is to expect from the labours of M. DE ROCHEFORT; who, for reafons unknown, has renounced any further concurrence in this undertaking, and proposes to publish apart his tranflation of Sophocles. To lofe fuch a co-operator, who tranflated Homer with applaufe, and is, at this day, one of the leading men in French literature, muft be detrimental, if not fatal, to the progrefs and fuccefsful execution of the work before us. ART. XIII. La Science des Canaux Navigables, &c. i. e. The practical Science of navigable Canals, or the Theory of their Construction, Part I. dedicated to the King. By M. DE FER, Captain of Artillery, correfponding Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Turin, of the Academy of Dijon, &c. 2 Vols. 8vo. Illuftrated with feveral Plates, Paris. 1785. M. De la Lande published a heavy folio volume on this fub ject in 1779, which met with but feeble marks of approbation, even from those who had in other refpects the most favourable opinion of his abilities. The work here announced, when finished, will confift of eight volumes; and the two, now published, have met with the beft reception. Though it is more especially defigned to indicate practicable and eafy methods of eftablishing a general interior navigation in France, of altering the corvées, and introducing a defirable economy into the execution of all thofe plans and undertakings that are carried on at the public expence, yet it is of fuch a nature as may render it useful to other nations. Those who have a profeffional inducement to examine what is offered as an improvement in the branches of internal commerce, induftry, and agriculture, in the laying out of public roads, and in the promoting internal navigation, will here find views and materials that may deferve their attention. ART. XIV. Efai Analytique fur l'Air pur, et les differentes Efpeces de l'Air, i. e. THE HE numerous experiments that have been made, for fome years paft, on the different kinds of air, have induced this ingenious philofopher to bring together the refults of thefe experiments, and to establish, upon all these facts and results, cer L13 tain |