engage them to fpeak in Public. By James Buchanan, Author of the British Grammar, &c. 8vo. 5s. Dilly.

This effay confifts of a vocabulary of English words, printed in double columns; the one containing the words fpelt as they are usually written, and the other, fpelt in fuch a manner, as the Author conceives may direct the Reader to the true pronunciation of them. Againft the plan itfelf, we object, firft, that the falfe mode of orthography here ufed to facilitate the pronunciation will be apt to vitiate the learner's writing our language, more than it will improve his Speaking it : fecondly, that foreigners and others, who have not a thorough knowledge of the found of our vowels in the fyllables of different words, cannot poffibly receive any benefit by fuch a prepofterous mode of spelling and lastly, that, fuppofing neither of the former objections exifted, Mr. Buchanan himself does not appear to understand how English is pronounced by polite or juft fpeakers. Let our Readers judge, from the following fpecimens:

We name the vowels a, e, i, o, u, y, by their long founds, thus, ai, Re, aree, ō, eu, ry: Awee, rapidly pronounced, is the long found of [i], or as we pronounce the pronoun I.' +

A paffes into the found of fhort in many words, as marshal, filial, human, village, logician, &c. denoted marbil, filyil, heimin, villidh T5-ječfbin, &c.' +

*For it is obfervable that we acquire, and retain, our orthography by the eye, and not by the ear. Thus, in a hurry, we fometimes fee that a word is fpelt wrong, though we cannot, without fome consideration, difcover in what particular letter the fault lies.

+ Awee!-What English, or indeed any French, Dutch, or other foreign reader, would ever difcover the true pronunciation of the pronoun I, by fuch a mode of spelling ?-This is certain, that a common porter about St. James's would think that awee was a good rhime for the pay of an Edinburgh porter, viz. a bawbee; but he would as foon take an halfpenny for a fhilling, as admit that AWEE could ever ftand for I.

1 good fpeaker, though he had given into this abfurd way of teaching, would have written thefe words thus, mar-fbül, fil-i-ul, bimun, &c.

K-n-k

Art. 29.

Art. 29. A Differtation upon the Chronological Difficulties, imputed to the Mofaic Hiftory, from the Birth to the Death of Jacob. By William Skinner, M. A. Vicar of Bofbury in Herefordshire. 4to. 2 s. Baldwin.

Whoever reads the book of Genefis with attention, will find himfelf frequently embarraffed with apparent anachronisms; a full explication of which he will in vain feck for in any of the commentators whom we have confulted. The Author of this differtation has endeavoured to clear up thefe in a manner which appears to us in a great measure new: and thofe, to whom the subject is fufficiently interefting, will not think their time loft in a careful perufal of what he has written.

Mr. Skinner obferves, that critics have generally agreed upon two conclufions, as certainly deducible from the patriarchal history recorded in Genefis; viz. firft, that Jacob lived only twenty years in Mefopotamia: and fecondly, that Judah's marriage with the daughter of Shuah was pofterior to Jacob's return to Canaan. Our Author enumerates no less than fourteen confiderable difficulties, which neceffarily follow from thefe conclufions; difficulties which would be efteemed even abfurdities in any other book. All thefe he thinks may be fairly folved by fuppofing, in contradiction to the above conclufions, that Jacob lived feveral years at, or near Haran, befide the twenty that he ferved Laban for his daughters, and a fhare of his cattle; and likewife, that Judah married, while his father lived in Haran. He endeavours to fhew thefe fuppofitions to be well founded, and attempts to reconcile thofe paffages of fcripture, which might appear either directly, or in their confequences, inconfiftent with them. His folutions are for the moft part ingenious; but we cannot think he has given a fatisfactory answer to all the objections to which his fcheme is liable, without a very extenfive application of a remark he has made in his firft fection, the general truth of which we are not difpofed to contravert, viz. That the facred hiftorian does by no means ftudy to be minutely accurate; that he makes ufe of round or decimal numbers much more frequently than they naturally occur in the common courie of events; that many of the chapters or fections are a kind of parentheses, or epifodes; and that an exact chronological order is not at all aimed at.' One example out of many the Author has mentioned in a note, vid. Gen. 35. where Benjamin is reckoned among the fons born to Jacob in Padan-aram, though it appears in the very fame chapter that he was born near Bethlehem in Canaan.

Upon the whole, the fettling difputed points in antient chronology is a fubject fo dry and unentertaining, that few of our Readers would thank us for giving a more particular account of this differtation; which is however a fenfible and judicious performance. We therefore refer thofe, who are cefirous of a farther acquaintance with Mr. Skinner's treatise, to the tract itself; wherein the Author has delivered his opi❤ nions with proper modefty, and expreffed his fentiments with concifenefs and perfpicuity.

Art. 39. Grammatical Obfervations on the English Language, drawn up part larly with a View to Practice. By the Rev. Mr. Fleming. 12mo. 2 s. bound. Robfon.

We are told, by the Rev. Mr. Fleming, that one reafon perhaps why, in the general method of education, fo little attention is paid to the English language, is the want of a proper Introduction to it; à book fo accommodated, both in fize and fubftance, to the ordinary bafiness of inftruction, as not to give too much trouble to the teacher, or to the youth under his care.We do not pretend, indeed, for our parts, to judge how little trouble in the ordinary bufinefs of inftruction the teacher may chufe to take himfelf, or how much he may lay upon his pupil; but we own that we thought Dr. Lowth's little tract extremely well calculated both for the one and the other. But fuppofing that the public demand may fufficiently encourage the labours of different writers, equally well calculated for the general good, we cannot bestow any great commendations on those of Mr. Fleming; who is, in our opinion, much too indifferent à grammarian himself to take upon him to inftruct others. This Author, indeed, hath many good obfervations in common with other writers on the fame fubject; but yet he is frequently miftaken, either in the implicit adoption of the mistakes of preceding gram. marians, or misapprehenfions of his own. To mention only one or two inftances, in his directions concerning the ufe of participles.Participles, fays Mr. Fleming, are ufed as adjectives to fubitantives. Among other examples of this, he quotes the following;

The Swallow twittering from the ftraw-built fhed

-He smiled to fee the philofopher thus employed.

Now both these examples are falfe; the active participle in the first line, and the pafive one in the fecond, being not here ufed as adjectives; but retaining in both their verbal quality as participles.

Again, in the exemplification of the ufe of participles as fubftantives to adjectives, he brings the following instances;

1 fee no reafon for your being afflicted..

Here being afflicted is fuppofed to be a noun fubftantive. Mr. Fleming however fhould have obferved that the particles a or the, before participles thus ufed, are abfolutely neceffary to entitle them to the denomi nation of fubftantives.

SERMON S.

K-n-k.

1. A Strong Tower; or the Saint's Refuge.-Occafioned by the Death of the Rev. Mr. Daniel Whitewood, of Portfmouth Common, who departed this Life the 26th of Auguft, 1765. Preached on the Common, Portsmouth. By Samuel Meadows. Keith, &c.

2. On the Death of his late R. H. William D. of Cumberland. By F. Webb. Kearfly.

3. On the fame Subject, at St. Thomas's, Southwark, and at the Evening Lecture in Hanover-Street, Long-Acre. By C. Corbyn. Young.

4. On

4. On the fame Subject, by Benjamin Wallin. Buckland. 5. Reflections on the Death of a Prince and a great Man.-At Taunton, Nov. 10. on the Death of his R. H. the D. of C. By Joshua Toulmin. Young.

6. At St. Andrew's, Holbourn, April 18th 1765, on the Anniversary Meeting of the Governors of the Small-pox Hospital. By Richard Eyre, D. D. Rector of Brightwalton, Berks. Woodfall.

7. Before his Excellency Francis Bernard, Efq; Governor, the Hon. his Majefty's Council, and the Hon. House of Reprefentatives of the Province of Maffachufet's-bay in NewEngland, May 29, 1765, being the Anniversary for the Election of his Majefty's Council for the Province. By Andrew' Eliot, A. M. Paftor of a Church in Bofton. London re-printed, by Meres.

Contains a very fenfible view of the duties and qualifications of rulers, on the one part, and, on the other, of the people's duty to their governors.-If we may form a judgment of the preacher from his difcourfe, he is doubtless a good Chriftian, a worthy paftor, and a true patriot.

8. De Artibus et Doctrinis, quibus Theologia Studiofos erudiri oportet. —Coricio ad Clerum habita Cantabrigiæ in Ecclef. S. Maria Prid. Term. poft Feft. S. Michael. 1765. Beecroft.

We recommend the perufal of this fhort, but judicious dif course, to those students of divinity, if any fuch there are, who think that a very moderate share of knowledge and learning is fufficient to enable them to difcharge the paftoral office with credit and usefulness.

11

THE

CORRESPONDENCE.

HE obliging letter from Dr. Luzac, of Leyden, came regularly to hand.-The Doctor is by no means, however, obliged to the partiality of the Reviewer; who was neither deceived in the defign or execution of his ingenious performance; but took that opportunity of mentioning a book, which he thinks -As to the has been much lefs attended to, than it deferves.other pieces mentioned by this Correspondent, they are, or fhall be, taken due notice of in our Appendix.

The Author of the Paper figned PHILALETHES, containing REMARKS on Mr. DE VOLTAIRE, is referred to The Univerfal Museum; or, Complete Magazine; to which work we recommended the faid Remarks,

APPENDIX

TO THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

VOLUME the THIRTY-THIRD.

Oeuvres Philofophiques, Latines et Françoifes, de feu M.Leibnitz, c. The Philofophical Works of the late Mr. Leibnitz, in Latin and French, printed from his Manufcripts, preferved in his Britannic Majefty's Library at Hanover. By Mr. Rafpe. With a Preface by Mr. Kaetfner, Profeffor of the Mathema ticks at Gottingen. 4to. Amfterdam and Leipfig.

A

MONG the various obftacles to the progrefs of true fcience, there is none greater than that fpirit of party, which abfurdly attaches itfelf, to, perfons and hypothefes in general; inftead of abiding by thofe particulat: facts and arguments, which may poffibly give a juft preference to the fyftem they efpoufe, For, however ufeful it may be on many accounts to profecute fcience fyftematically, it is not to be expected, in the prefent imperfect ftate of human knowlege, that the best fyftem which the brighteft genius can form, thould be exempt. from error. Nor, indeed, thould fuch error, even though in a capital inftance, he always deemed fufficient to invalidate the whole of fuch fyftem. It is nature which originally infpires every true genius; the first object of whofe purfuit is undoubtedly the light of truth, however it may be afterwards deceived by the falfe glare, or fpecious appearances, of falfhood. It is certain that Sir Ifaac Newton hath demonftrated the vortices of Des Cartes, as they are reprefented by that philofopher, to be immechanical and vifionary; but we are not to conclude, therefore, that the notion of vortices hath no foundation in nature. Perhaps, if the fubject of the third part of the Principia were ftudied, and as well understood as the firft and fecond, we fhould discover no little reafon to admire that amazing ingenuity in Des Cartes, which the fuperior precifion and fagacity of Newton APP. Vol. XXXIII.

LI

hath