TO THE MONTHLY REVIEW. VOLUME the SIXTY-FIRST. FOREIGN LITERATURE. ART. I. Voyage Pittorefque de la Grece. Chap. IV-Travels through the different Parts of Greece, reprefented in a Series of Engravings. Large Folio. No. IV, Paris. 1779. T may be faid of this noble and elegant work, that it acquires new charms, and new degrees of perfection, as it advances; mobilitate viget. The XXXIId plate, which begins this fourth part, contains a general chart of the ifle of Paros, one of the most celebrated of the clufter called the Cyclades. Its opulence and population gave it a confiderable afcendant over the neighbouring iflands. Attacked in vain by Miltiades, conquered by Themiftocles, poffeffed by Mithridates, and delivered up to the Romans, in confequence of the victorious arms of Sylla and Lucullus, it became the property of a noble Venetiant after the deftruction of the Roman empire, was afterwards invaded by the fucceffors of Mahomet, and fubdued by Barbaroffa, in the reign of Soliman II. The remains of its ancient opulence and grandeur, which still strike the eye of the curious traveller, are rich, precious, and interefting. Columns, ftatues, cornices, architraves, of noble workmanship are difcernible, in great abundance, in the walls of modern buildings, where they are lavished without tafte, and placed without any order or arrangement. There is an old caftle in this island, built of no other materials than the ruins of the moft magnificent ancient edifices. Paros was the native country of Archi * See our account of No. III. in the laft Appendix, vol. Ix. page 509. Numbers I. and II. were mentioned in former Reviews. + Mark Sanudo. APP. Rev. Vol. Ixi. I i locus, Tocus, the Aretin of ancient times, of Agoracrites, the difciple of Phidias, and of Polignotes, Arcefilas, and Nicanor, who carried the art of encaustic painting to a confiderable degree of perfection. This ifland is alfo famous for having furnished the Arundel marbles, which comprehend the principal epochas of Grecian hiftory, from Cecrops to Alexander; and which are justly confidered as one of the nobleft literary ornaments of the univerfity of Oxford. The XXXIIId plate reprefents a Grecian dance at Paros.The XXXIVth the entrance of a marble quarry, in which an ancient baff relievo is placed, exhibiting a Bacchanal figure, ill executed. The XXXVth, which contains an accurate plan of the harbour of Nauffa, where the Ruffians affembled their main force in the laft war, furnishes our Author with an opportunity of entertaining the military reader with details relative to the art of war. The XXXVIth and the two following plates represent the entrance of the grotto of Anti-Paros, its geometrical plan and dimenfions, and a view of its infide. This famous grotto, which, at this time, is fuch an interefting object to the naturalift, feems to have been unknown to the ancients, whom terror, perhaps, reftrained from founding its depth, which fome fuppofe to be above 250 feet. The inhabitants of the ifland never attempted to defcend into it before the year 1673, when M. de Nointel, the French Ambaffador at Conftantinople, went down, with a great part of his retinue, and other travellers, and had mafs celebrated in the loweft apartment of that vaft cavern: the altar, employed on this occafion, was a ftalagmite, whose height was 24 feet, and its base 20 feet diameter. Our Author had also the curiofity to undertake the formidable deicent, and he defcribes, with the pen of a naturalift and a painter, the manner in which thofe maffes of cryftallization, which we find delineated in the XXXVIIth plate, are formed and augmented in their fize and dimenfions. The ftalactites (like icicles, which during the winter hang from rocks that had been overflowed by the fwelling torrents) grow and extend inceffantly, in length, the conic figure, which they always derive from the mechanifm of their formation; while the drops that fall from them, when the filtration is abundant, form falagmites at the bottom of the cavern, which rifing in a contrary direction, exhibit, at first, a range of columns, and at length joining the ftalactites, unite with them in one folid mafs. Notwithstanding the zealous curiofity of our noble and very ingenious Author, M. de CHOISEUL, to get at the extremity of this fubterraneous cavern, he could not engage the inhabitants of the ifland to affift him in this perilous enterprize. They told him that a goat, which went went aftray in the grotto, after wandering a long time, came out in the ifle of Nio. This ftory, however improbable, excited ftill more his curiofity; but he could not fatisfy it. In the XXXVIIIth plate we have a view of the village of St. George in the island of Sciros; and in the XXXIXth a map of that illand, in which Lycomedes is faid to have reigned, when Thefeus, driven from his dominions, fought there a retreat, and perifhed miferably in the attempt. The fuperftition of the inhabitants is ftill more exceffive than that of the other Greeks in the Archipelago; it is nourished by the Monks of the convent of St. George, which are a colony of the monaftic republic of Mount Athos. The fuperior of this convent, who is always fent from Mount Athos, governs the ifle of Sciros defpotically, and ftrikes terror into the inhabitants by an image of his faint, which performs wonders of divination and vindictive juftice; and thus draws ample contributions from the multitude. This convent is furrounded by 365 chapels, whofe faints are a heavy burthen upon the laborious inhabitants. The XLth plate reprefents the inhabitants of the island of Lemnos, the celebrated forge of Vulcan, in ancient times.-It is natural to think that a volcano, or collection of fubterraneous fire, gave occafion to this fable; and, in effect, our Author found, throughout Greece, evident veftiges of the defolations produced by fubterraneous fires, feveral of which burn ftill. But who would have thought, that the Iliad and Odyffey are nothing but the facred and fymbolical books of the priests of Siris (in Lucania); and that their Heroes and Deities are allegorical beings, defigned to reprefent the difafters produced in the territory of Troy by fubterraneous fires, which had before manifefted their terrors in feveral parts of Greece! This new piece of critical, or rather volcanic interpretation, is announced by our Author, as the invention of a Mr. Ciro Saverio Minervino, a learned Neapolitan, who has undertaken to prove it clearly in a work compofed expressly for that purpose,-nay, who intends alfo to demonftrate that Homer was a fabulous being, and that the word Homer is no more than the title of the books, which have been attributed to him.-This propenfity to torment the immortal Author of the Iliad is not new.-He has already passed through the hands of the chymifts, who have pretended to difcern, in his works, all the fecret operations of their art, even the tranfmutation of metals; and he has been made, by fome allegorical theologians, the myftical painter of the events of the Chriftian church, and of the miracles of its founder.-This method of interpreting is fimilar to that of thofe divines and critics in Holland, who follow a certain Cocceius; one of whom, fome time ago, fpiritualized, in this manner, the labours of Hercules; making this hero país for Jefus Chrift, Alcmena for the Virgin I i2 Mary, Mary, and Jupiter for the Holy Ghoft-and the labours of the hero for the exploits of apoftles, faints, &c. Quodcunque fic mihi oftendis incredulus odi. Lemnos was famous, in ancient times, for its labyrinth; which, according to Pliny, was adorned with 150 columns. There are no traces of it now remaining.-But time, which has deftroyed this and other productions of the fine arts, has not effaced the prejudices and fuperftitions of the inhabitants The earth, or clay of Lemnos, which healed the wound of Phil&tetes, ftill maintains its credit in the esteem of the Greeks, who gather it, only one day in the year, with great folemnity and pompous ceremonies, and fend it through all Europe in little maffes, in form of loaves, marked with the imperial feal of the Grand Seignior. It is fuppofed to poffefs great virtues, and some phyficians condefcend to make use of it; but the chymift difcerns nothing in it but common clay. The last plate contains a plan of the port of St. Anthony, which is followed by a tail-piece representing a Vulcan, furrounded with the medals found in the places defcribed in this number. ART. II. Theorie des Etres Infenfibles; ou, Cours complet de Metaphyfique facrie et profane, Sc.-i. e. A Theory of thofe Beings which do not fall under the Senfes (i. e. the five external ones); or, a complete Courfe of Metaphyfies, facred and profane, fuited to every Capacity, and enriched with an Alphabetical Index, which renders the whole Work equivalent to a Dictionary of Metaphyfics or Philofophy. By the Abbé PARA DU PLAUJAS. 3 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1779. T HE title of this work is fingular, but its contents, with all its redundancies and defects, are interefting. The Author calls it the Theory of Beings imperceptible by the Senfes, to diftinguish it from a Syftem of Natural Philofophy, which he publifhed under the title of Theorie des Etres Senfibles -If his ftyle was not too declamatory and verbofe, if the repetitions were not accumulated almoft beyond example, and if fome of the moft abfurd doctrines of the Romish church were not clothed here in a tawdry metaphyfical garb, to conceal their disgusting nudity, we might venture to recommend this work as a useful prefent to the public, and, more particularly, to students, who are entering upon a courfe of philofophy. Such as it is, it is far from being unworthy of notice; and those who can diftinguish between the drofs of philofophy and the pure metal, may nd both inftruction and entertainment in its perufal. They have only to put it into the crucible, and they will be rewarded for their pains. The The first volume contains two treatifes. The firft of these is divided into 15 paragraphs, as our Author calls them, which, in their turn, are fubdivided into chapters, and have for their subject the General Theory of Beings; that is, the moft univerfal and abstract notions of things. The Author here paffes in review the various branches of ontological science, or thofe ideas that relate to being in general; and which, indeed, are the proper introduction to a complete course or system of philofophical science. Here we find the fundamental and preliminary notions, relative to metaphysical abstraction, first principles, the fcientific methods of demonftration, the truth of things, their poffibility, exiftence, effences, accidental modifications, their properties and attributes, their genera and fpecies, their caufes and effects, their effential and accidental relations, their real and formal diftinctions, their univerfality and individuality; as also the nature of space and duration. The fecond treatise relates to certitude or evidence, the bafis of all true knowledge, and which our Author confiders as refulting from four fources of information, from the teftimony of confcioufnefs (le fens intime), the teftimony of ideas, that of the fenfes, and that of mankind: these four kinds of teftimony are examined, difcuffed, and defended, in fo many chapters. The faculty of reafoning, which is a gift of nature, but which art and education are adapted to improve, direct, and render lefs uncertain and fallible in its operations, is the fubject of the first treatife we meet with in the IId volume. There are many excellent things in this treatife of logic, but they are mixed with much verbolity and jargon, and want greatly the hand of a refiner to separate the gold from the drofs. What our Author calls the Theory of the Deity (an improper expreffion defigned to fignify Natural Theology), fills the remainder of this volume, and is divided into two fections. In the first he demonftrates the existence of God,-in the fecond he confiders the intimate fubftance and effence of the Supreme Creator and Preserver of Nature; and fhews that, in that Great Being, there is an effence infinitely fimple, a providence infinitely wife, a li berty infinitely independent, an activity infinitely efficacious, an intelligence, in all refpects, infinite and unerring. In the course of our Author's reafonings on this fublime fubject, he refutes the Epicureans, the Materialifts, and their metaphyfical kinfmen, the Atheifts; he alfo afcertains the exiftence and obligation of a natural law, whofe authority is confirmed, in many inftances, by the diforders which degrade humanity, and are the infractions of a primitive rule, which circumstance alone could render them deformed and deplorable. The blundering Author of the Syftem of Nature, one of the most unphilofophi cal |