yfis of Mythology, by J. BRYANT.-4. Vetus Teftamentum ex Editione KENNICOTI-5. Differtatio de Vita et Scriptis Longini, Præfide D. Runkenis.-The fecond part is published; but we have not yet had time to peruse it.

III. G. G. Schillingii De Lepra Commentationes, &c. i. e. Confiderations on the Leprosy, by G. SCHILLINGIUS, revised by J. D. HAHN. 8vo. 1778. Both the Author and Revifer of this work are well known in the republic of letters. Profeffor HAHN, who must not be confounded with the late laborious, but heavy physician of Vienna, who had a name fomething like this, is one of the most efteemed profeffors in the chemical and medical fciences, that at prefent maintain the university of Leyden,

ÍV. Lex Hominum Communis fecundum Mentem Hugonis Grotii propofita et dijudicata: i. e. The univerfal Law of Nature or of Mankind, as it is reprefented by Grotius, examined by HENRY LEWIS WICHERS. Groningen. 8vo. 1777-This is a very judicious examination of the principles of Grotius, and in many refpects, the piece is worthy the attention of those who have a tafte for natural jurifprudence, the important fcience of man, in his moral conftitution, relations, and deftination. GERMANY.

V. GESCHICTE Gustav. Adolphs, &c. i. e. The Hiftory of Guftavus Adolphus King of Sweden, drawn from the MSS. of M. ARKENHOLTZ, and the beft Hiftorians. 2 vols. 8vo. Bref law. 1777. This is rather an old work, corrected and revifed, purged from errors, and difengaged from fabulous and trivial relations, than a new hiftory. In the year 1764 an author, named Mauvillon, publifhed, in French, the Hiftory of Guftavus Adolphus; it is this work, altered and improved in various refpects, that is here prefented to the public, and, indeed, by the corrections and additions, and by the change introduced in to the order of the narrations, it may juftly pafs for a new and excellent work. The accefs which the Author has had to the papers of Mr. Arkenbolt is fufficient to procure an high degree of credit and regard to his work. This worthy man, though not diftinguifhed by his merit as a writer, yet had all the merit that is necellary to conftitute an excellent guide: he knew perfectly the hiftory of Sweden: he was laborious in his researches after anecdotes and MSS. no circumftance that could yield information escaped his attention. Befides, our Author has con fulted the beft Swedish hiftorians, the regifters of the fenate, the archieves of the kingdom, fo that nothing has been wanting to render this hiftory of Guftavus fuperior to any account we have yet had of that great monarch.

M...

APPENDIX

TO THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.

VOLUME the FIFTY-EIGHTH.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. I.

Voyage Pittorefque de toute la Grece.-Travels through all the different Parts of Greece, reprefented in a Series of Engravings. Large Folio. Paris. 1778.

A

Nobleman of high birth, adorned with extenfive knowa fine tafte, and happy talents, has enriched, or rather has begun to enrich, the republic of letters with the fruits of his travels;-for this truly magnificent work is to appear fucceffively in diftinct Numbers, of which only the first is yet published. This noble Author and Traveller had scarcely paffed the period of infancy, when he felt an inextinguishable curiofity to vifit Greece, the ancient nurfe of Sages, Heroes, Poets, and Artists, from whence history has derived its moft fublime materials, where Genius has brought forth its boldeft and fairest productions, and where the human mind seems to have arifen, in many examples, to an amazing degree of dignity and elevation. Accompanied, therefore, with some artists, to whom he had communicated his noble enthusiasm, he undertook the voyage; and, unmoved with the dangers and toils to which it expofed him, he examined every spot of that enchanting country, ftudied all the remains and monuments of antiquity, and took drawings of them himself, or had them delineated under his eye. It is the feries of thefe drawings, which reprefent the prefent ftate of Greece, that he propofes to lay before the Public. We fhall therefore here firft give an account of the general plan of this work, and then take notice of what is con tained in that part of it which is now before us. K k

APP. Rev. Vol. Iviti.

The

The engravings conftitute the principal and effential part of this publication;-the text is merely defigned to illustrate them, and is therefore only acceffory. The whole work will make two volumes, large folio, and each volume will be divided into a certain number of chapters. Each number will confist of a chapter, and each chapter will contain fix, seven, or eight sheets of engravings, according to the abundance of the matter. The fheet will contain only one large print, or two fmall ones of the fame fize with the views of Switzerland lately published, and as well executed. Every print will be accompanied with that part of the text that relates to it, and with what our English artists call head and tail-pieces, analogous to the fubject treated in the text of the chapter, and contained in the print. Thefe ornaments are to be all drawn and engraven by M. Choffard, an eminent artist, particularly in this line: they will contain thofe medals, which are the most remarkable for their rarity, and for characterising either the places, or the facts and events, mentioned in the text of each chapter,—as also the bufts of eminent men, &c. The main contents of each chapter will be pittorefque views, plans, ports, and harbours famous in antiquity, or in modern times, for memorable exploits, even including thofe of the Ruffians in the late war; as alfo the views of ancient edifices and monuments in their present state, measured and marked, as hath been done by the celebrated travellers who publifhed the ruins of Palmyra, and the antiquities of Athens; and finally, the coftumes of every kind, and with all the variety of aspects they bear in the different parts of Greece.-The fubfcription to this elegant work is no more than an engagement to take in the different numbers, and to pay for them upon delivery. The prints alone are paid for at the rate of about 15 pence (30 fols) per sheet, and 30 pence (3 livres) where the nature of the fubjects has required a larger field, and confequently a double plate. The whole work will amount to about 10 or 12 louis dors, and the publication will be finished in the fpace of three years.

The firft chapter or number of this work contains a fine map of modern Greece (in which the route that the Author followed is accurately delineated), and fix plates. The noble Author having embarked at Toulon, towards the latter end of March 1776, on board the Atalanta frigate, commanded by the Marquis de Chabert, arrived, after a fhort and fuccefsful paffage, in the road of Coron. The firft plate reprefents that city and its cattle, which were befieged by the Ruffians in the year 1770. Our Author gives a circumftantial account of that fiege, which the Ruffians were forced to raife. According to him, the city, which had formerly a good afpect, was reduced to a heap of

ruins; and its environs, like the reft of Greece, were laid waste by the tribes of Albanians, which the Sultan had called thither during the last war to repulfe the Ruffians, and reduce to obediSince the peace they have refused to ence the revolted Greeks.

return to their mountains, and have made the Sultan pay dear for the ruinous fuccour they gave him. The Greeks, degraded by their long fervitude, had not the refolution to defend themfelves, even against that band of free-booters, and fell unrefifting victims to their cruelty.

The fecond plate reprefents the Albanian foldiers, who would be ftill perhaps capable of heroic exploits, if they had a Scanderberg at their head.

The third exhibits the women of the ifle of Argentiera or Chimoli, whofe drefs is ridiculous beyond expreffion, and who pride themselves in the thickness of their legs.

In the fourth, fifth, and fixth plates we have a view of the port of Milo, formerly Melos, and that of a cavern, which ferves as an entrance to the fubterraneous galleries of Milo. These galleries are formed of ancient quarries, whofe ftones were formerly employed to build the city. They are, fays our Author, about four feet broad, and fix high. The walls on each fide are covered with allum, which is formed by the fpontaneous operations of nature in that fubterraneous manfion. Here we find (continues our Traveller) the fine and genuine capillary or plume allum, which must not be confounded with the amianthus; though, on a fuperficial view of the two substances, it is easy to fall into a mistake-and some naturalifts have, in effect, confounded them. The ancients efteemed highly the allum of Melos, which is indeed a beautiful fubftance in the state of crystallization, in which it is found in the subterraneous galleries of Melos, and alfo in the grottoes and caves in Egypt, Macedonia, and the island of Sardinia. It rifes in threads or fibres, like those of a feather, whence it derives the name of plume allum: these threads are of various colours, commonly white bordering on green: it is also very rare, even in modern times, and is scarcely to be found any where but in the collections of natural history, that have been formed by the curious. The plume allum, which is known in commerce, is not the subftance here defcribed, but the fibrous and folid afbeftus.

The feventh plate exhibits a tomb of white marble, and of fine workmanship, found in the ifle of Siphanto, and which the barbarous ftupidity of the inhabitants has proftituted to the most ignoble uses. Such is often the hard fate of the most precious monuments of ancient Greece, and fuch are the confequences of brutith defpotifm, which crushes in human nature every effort of curiofity, extinguishes all tafte, difcourages learned industry, and exhibits at this day, in the Turkish empire, degraded

Kk 2

Nature

2

Nature fleeping on the majestic ruins of Genius and Arts, Liberty and Science. But let us return to our Author, instead of indulging these melancholy thoughts. Ought not, however, all the virtuoft to form a crufade of a new kind, to deliver the precious remains of antiquity from the hands of these disgusting barbarians?

The eighth plate contains an elegant view of the city and ifle of Siphanto, formerly Siphnos.-In the ninth we have a reprefentation of the women of that ifle; and in the tenth, a view of Sikino, called Sicinos in ancient times.

The vignettes, that are employed as the ornaments of this first number, are elegant-fome of them beautifully engraved, and, indeed, all of them well executed. The fubject of the firft is an ingenious oblation of fweet-fmelling incenfe to the majestic noftrils of Catherine II. Emprefs of Ruffia, who certainly deferves well of the arts and sciences, and has made the utmost efforts of generofity and munificence to drag them into her dominions they have fent many of their nobleft productions before them, that is certain; but whether they will go themfelves, otherwife than perhaps on a vifit, is more than dubious. Be that as it may, the head-piece reprefents Bellona bounding over a heap of arms and military accoutrements, and followed by Ruffian warriors, who hold up to Grecian flaves the fymbol of Liberty, on which they ingloriously turn their backs. The tail-piece, embellished with various ornaments in a good taffe, contains ancient medals of the principal cities mentioned in the

text.

AR T. II.

Differtations fur l'Organe de l' Ouie de l'Homme, des Reptiles, des PoifJons.-Differtations on the Organ of Hearing in Man, in Reptiles, and in Fifles. By M. GEOFFROY, Doctor Regent of the Medical Faculty, and Member of the Royal Society of Physicians. 8vo. Paris. 1778.

Ε

VERY one knows the infuperable difficulties of compofing a complete theory of hearing, as the action of the mufcles and internal fprings, that render the ear an organ or inftrument of fenfation, is totally inacceffible to the inspection of the anatomift. Learned and laborious obfervers of Nature have, by affiduous and repeated refearches, difcovered the niceft and moft imperceptible fprings of fenfation in the ear; but the motion of these complicated fprings, on which, properly speaking, the fenfation depends, muft always efcape their view, as it is only in its state of infenfibility that anatomifts can examine the internal parts of that organ. This confideration induced the ingenious Author of the work now before us, to employ the aids of comparative anatomy, in order to proceed fome fteps farther