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 ftate 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. 7 Vols. (72 Livres). By M. LARCHER, Member of the Royal Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres. Paris. 1786.

HE

ERE is one of thofe tranflations which must be distinguished from the multitude. M. LARCHER poffeffes all the quali ties 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.

Théatre 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 Extracts 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 promifcuous shoot, but which, nevertheless, prefents a noble and a beautiful enfemble.

To the three celebrated difcourfes on Greek tragedy which Father Brumoy had prefixed to his work, M. DE ROCHEFORT, the new editor, has added a Differtation, in which he defcribes 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

alfo given us thefe pieces, according to their chronological ori der, that the reader may perceive the progrefs 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 Brumoy 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 basis of true political science and good government. Hence poetry, painting, and mufic, were employed in all the great religious festivals; and tragedy had always a diftinguished 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 ftill more obfcure and forced than the paffage itself +. As the word ranuara in this paffage fignifies calamities or fufferings, and not paffions, the meaning of Ariftotle is evidently this, that, by exhibiting certain calamities on the stage, tragedy may tend to remove such 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 taste, 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 firft 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 φόβε περαίνεσα τῶν τοιέτων 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 observations 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, must be detrimental, if not fatal, to the progress and fuccessful 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 subject in 1779, which met with but feeble marks of approbation, even from those who had in other respects 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 efpecially defigned to indicate practicable and easy methods of establishing a general interior navigation in France, of altering the corvées, and introducing a defirable œconomy 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.

Effai Analytique fur l'Air pur, et les differentes Efpeces de l'Air, i. e. An analytical Effay concerning pure Air, and different Kinds of Air. By M. DE LA METHERIE, M. D. 8vo. 474 Pages. Paris. 1785.

TH

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 eftablish, upon all these facts and refults, oer

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tain and general principles. He confiders fire and pure air as two elementary principles which have a remarkable affinity to each other, and whofe different combinations form all the aeriform fubftances that have been obtained by the operations and experiments of modern chemifts. The details into which he enters, relative to thefe combinations, and the different kinds of air, or aeriform fubftances, that are derived from them, are curious and interefting: they exhibit several new facts, and are fingularly recommendable for the method and precision of their arrangement.

ART. XV.

De l'Esprit du Gouvernement_œconomique, i. e. On the œconomical Spirit of Government. By M. BOESNIER DE L'ORME. 8vo. Paris. 1786.

THOUGH we cannot adopt all the opinions held forth in

this work, yet it abounds with ingenious points of view, and contains a variety of obfervations and facts, which a wife statesman may turn to his profit, and that of the public. The Author's great object is national felicity, and we believe him fincere in his zeal for its advancement. To point out its true fources, he treats fucceffively of the right of property, and the origin of fociety; of agriculture, arts, manufactures, and commerce; of the union of the different operations of industry in one great end; of the functions of government; and the advantages that arife from the unequal diftribution of landed property.

Voyage en Suiffe, ou Tableau biftorique, civil, politique, et phyfique de la Suiffe, i. e. Travels through Switzerland. By M. MAYER, 2 Vols. 8vo. Paris and Amsterdam, 1786. (7 Livres 4 Sols.)

THE

HE motto of this book, if we were to devife it, would be, multum in parvo, much folid matter in a small compass. M. MAYER is not one of thofe fuperficial travellers who are pleasantly expofed in the following comparison :

Never by tumbler through the hoops was showin

Such skill in paffing ALL, yet touching NONE.

Far from it: he bears all the marks of an attentive obferver, an acute reafoner, a spirited painter of the objects he exhibits; but his political reflections on the Helvetic conftitution are, undoubt edly, the most fhining parts of his work. He has profited, indeed, confiderably, by the travels of his predeceffors, particularly the accurate and judicious Mr. Coxe, and he does not difdain to make an ample ufe of their labours; but he has added more than the widow's mite to the treafure of information which we already poffefs with refpect to Switzerland. He has gone over the ground, with their books in his hand, and with ardent curi

ofty

ofity in his eye. In fhort he writes away, adding, correcting, and modifying; and exhibits a complete view of Switzerland, as if nobody had defcribed it before him.

ART. XVII.

Leçons elementaires de Mechanique, i. e. Elementary Lectures on Mechanics. By the Abbé JANTET, Professor of Philofophy in the College of Dole. 8vo. 454 Pages. With 9 Plates. Paris. 1785.

אן

IN this work, remarkable for the perfpicuity, precifion, typographical neatnefs, and the extenfive knowledge of mechanics, which it difplays, the Author fets out by laying down the elementary principles of the science of mechanics. He deduces from one fingle propofition the general laws of the balance: he afterwards points out the center of gravity, the laws of uniform motion, the principal difcoveries of Galileo, and the descent of heavy bodies. He explains the theory of central forces, and the application of that theory to motion in conic fections: he demonftrates that, by the laws of gravity, the planets can only defcribe conic fections: he treats also of the motion of the center of gravity, of the percuffive powers of bodies, and the obftacles with which bodies in motion

may meet.

The principle of equality of pressure (which is proved by all the experiments made upon fluids, though not perhaps fufceptible of demonftration by reasoning) is a truth whence the whole science of hydroftatics may be deduced. It is, accordingly, from this principle, that the Abbé JANTET derives the laws of the equilibrium of incompreffible or elaftic fluids, fubjected to the free action of their gravity, and the laws of the equilibrium of fluids with the folid bodies, which are immerfed in them. A general view of hydraulics, with fome of the plaineft doctrines relative to the motion of fluids in the various directions that are obfervable in water-works, to the percuffion of Aluids and the refraction of the rays of light, which pafs from one medium into another, terminates this useful work.

ART. XVIII.

Idylles, ou Contes Champêtres, i. e. Idyls, or Rural Stories. By Mademoiielle LEVESQUE. 16mo. Paris. 1786.

IF

F the name of this young lady was not prefixed to her work, we might have conjectured that Gefner was her fire; for the foul of Gefner feems to breathe in her charming poems. The fweet ferenity of the rural fcene, the various beauties which it exhibits, the mild and peaceful virtues of which it is the afylum, the lovely affections that conftitute the comfort of domeftic life, are the fubjects on which this virgin mufe, in her fixteenth year, pours forth her chafte, tender, unaffected trains. Thefe ftrains,

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