such useful periodical works as this. We dismiss the book with the following extract, and with the expression of our ardent wish that a work at once so serious in its design, so catholick in its spirit, and correct in its literary execution, may be perused with the temper which it is calculated to inspire, and especially with the seriousness which the subjects it discusses demand.

"To every one who bears the name of Christ, and is careful not to dishonour the name which he bears to the candid deist, who is honest in his doubts, and sincere in his inquiries after truth; to him, who has proved the instability of worldly gratifications, and is anxious to rest his hopes on some better foundation; to all, who are neither so blind as not to perceive the weakness and dependence of man, nor so unwise as to decline the support and protection of God;-the Monitor affectionately dedicates the following essays.

"He is not vain enough to imagine, that these pages contain a single precept, which has not been a thousand times inculcated, or a single position, which has not been a thousand times proved; but he knows that mankind err more through forgetfulness, than ignorance of their duty; and, in times like the present he believes, that the awful obligations of religion cannot be too frequently enforced.

"He, who shall take up this volume, in the hope of cherishing the peculiar prejudices of a sect, of triumphing over the errours of an opponent, or of gratifying his taste for disputation, will be disappointed. The writer is not conscious of desiring any triumph, but that of truth; of defending any cause but that of christianity; but, leaving the barren field of controversy and idle speculation to others, he has laboured to diffuse those eternal principles, which have received the concurring sanction of reason and revelation. His aim has been, not to perplex but to illustrate; not to dazzle, but to warm; not to be admired, but to be understood; not to irritate the passions, but to sooth and regulate them; not to play round the imagination, but to purify and mend the heart.

"But he is sensible that his offering is full of imperfections, and comes far short of what he could have wished to present to the publick. He feels that he will stand in need of, and hopes to receive their indulgence, while he trusts, that the motives of the work will partly compensate the deficiencies of its execution. The good of his readers has been his main object, and their improvement in virtue will be his best reward."

ARTICLE 24.

An Essay on the Law of Patents for new Inventions, with an Appendix, containing the French Patent Law, Forms, &c. By Thomas G. Fessenden, Attorney at Law. "As the West Indies had never been discovered without the discovery of the mariner's needle; so it cannot seem strange if sciences be no farther developed, if the art itself of invention and discovery be passed over.” Bacon. Charlestown, printed by S. T. Armstrong, 1810. 1 vol. 8vo.

THIS essay furnishes a very respectable account of the law of patents; and, on perusing this little volume, we can find no reasonable ground of complaint against the author, for material omissions, or any incorrectness in method of style.

Perhaps in no country so great favour has been shewn to inventors, as in our own. Patentees have sprung up like mushrooms; and, although we would not throw any unwarrantable obstruction in the way of that class of mankind, who are called by Mr. Fessenden, men of "inventive ingenuity," yet we esteem it an injury to society, and a negative insult upon real merit, to deal out patents indiscriminately to all who apply for them, and for every unimportant innovation.

We are happy in paying proper notice to publications which may contribute, in any degree, to bring this subject, before so vague and little understood, within any thing like use.

The work is commenced with an introduction rather too formal and elaborate for the compass of this little volume.

To any person, who is desirous of obtaining information on the patent law of the United States, we heartily recommend the perusal of the "Essay on the Law of Patents," by Mr. Fessenden.

INTELLIGENCE.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE.

Report on the Progress of the French Language and Literature, from the Epoch of the French Revolution, (1789) to the Year 1808, made by a Commission of the Institute of France, by order of the Emperor Napoleon.

(Continued from page 141)

AMONGST the panegyrists, M. de Boufflers, M. François de Neufchateau, M. Cuvier, Portalis, have been distinguished by the brilliancy and facility of their style; and the eulogium of Marmontel, a work of great merit, which philosophy and friendship dictated to M. Morellet, appears in particular to have been heard with uniform pleasure throughout. Finally, as it is impossible to quote all, a multitude of productions are sufficient securities to us, that this species of writing will resume the useful influence which it formerly possessed; as well in the French Academy, as in the Academy of Sciences; where more than one celebrated author, a member of both societies, preserved between their different studies that union, which renders sciences, more generally useful, and gives to literature a more extensive direction.

The important branch of history, Sire, will long engage our attention. Not that we pretend to rescue from oblivion, a mass of private memoirs of the French revolution. Defective in point of style, containing besides only pleadings in favour of the different parties; they belong to the class of polemick writings, and we shall discard them indiscriminately. We shall, however, have to give an account of a great number of works. In one, M. Castera, describes an empress, who shone thirty years on the throne of Peter the Great. In another, M. de Segur, in drawing a political view of Europe, during a tempestuous period, communicates to his style the luminousness of his opinions. We shall display the merit of an Abstract of the History of France, a work of M. de Thouret, one of the members of the Constituent Assembly. The period furnishes ús with another superior work, at least for the great qualities of the art of writing. Rulhiere, an academician, now no more,

has related the memorable events of the last century, in those regions, Sire, where your Majesty, accompanied by victory, has dictated a glorious peace. Although this posthumous work remains incomplete, we shall discover, in every part of it, the stamp of a genius improved by labour, and at times uncommonly splendid. We shall not forget an interesting publication of M. de Beausset: the life of that immortal prelate, who enriched our language by Telemachus, combined eloquence, religion, philosophy, and was at the same time simple in his genius, his piety, and his virtue.

Voyages and travels form a part of history. We shall follow through North America, the steps of M. de Volney, who formerly, in traversing Egypt and Syria, wrote one of the finest works of the eighteenth century, and a master-piece of its kind. Able men have collected the annals of the sciences, or drawn a faithful view of human opinions. M. Naigeon, completing the great labour commenced by Diderot, describes the luminous progress of ancient and modern philosophy: M. Bossut, interests by his diction, in the History of Mathematicks: with M. de Volney, eloquent Reason interrogates ruins, accumulated during forty centuries: with M. Dupuis, a judicious Erudition searches for the common origin of religious traditions. Here we find again, a profound and rapid sketch of the progress of the human mind, the last work, and nearly the last sigh of Condorcet, a will made by a sage in favour of humanity.

Before the art of writing was applied amongst us to the history of the sciences, it was known to what an elevation it could attain, even in the sciences the object of which is the study of nature. Buffon had taught it; and we shall have an occasion to remark, how well his worthy continuator, M. de Lacepede, has benefited by the lessons of so great a master. We shall see Lavoisier, and Fourcroy diffusing over chemistry that clearness, which is the first quality of style, and the most necessary for instruction. We shall next examine whether the theories, relative to the different arts of imitation, do not offer in the same light very remarkable improvements. Our researches will not be fruitless. We shall remark particularly, with what ease and elegance M. Gretry has treated the musical art, which he has long honoured by compositions, the melody and truth of which can never become obsolete.

We shall not proceed to poetry without taking a rapid view of novels, a kind of writing which resembles history, by the recital of events; the epick by an action wholly, or partly fabulous; tragedy by the passions, comedy by the representations of society. We shall not notice a heap of frivolous compositions of no character; but we shall appreciate the wit and talents of several ladies, who follow with distinction the steps of the illustrious female, to whom we are indebted for the Princess of Cleves. We shall remark Atala, the ornament of a considerable work, in which M. de Chateaubriant illustrates the Genius of Christianity. As early as the first year, we find the best, the most moral, and the shortest of the novels of the whole period, the Indian Cottage, in which one of our great surviving writers, M. Bernardin de Saint Pierre, has united, as in his other works, the art of painting by expression, the art of pleasing the ear by the musick of speech, with the supreme art of adorning philosophy by the graces.

Poetry will first present to us the eminent and sublime species consecrated Sire, to celebrate the men who form the destiny of nations, the heroick poem. The poets capable of attaining the Epopée, are not less rare than the men worthy of being adopted by it. Five master-pieces only produced within thirty centuries, are a sufficient proof of it. If within the period which we have to consider, we perceive scarcely one laudable, but defective attempt, the Helvetians we may indulge in higher expectations, warranted by the poetical talents of M. de Fontanes, who now shines as an orator at the head of the legislative body. In proceeding to the Hero-comick poem, we shall not forget the extreme circumspection necessary, in certain subjects, and at the same time to pay the tribute of praise justly due to one of our best poets, M. de Parny. After original compositions, follow imitations and translations, in verse, of some celebrated epick poems. Amongst the imitators, M. Parceval de Grandmaison, to whom we are indebted for the Epick Amours, and M. Luce de Lancival, author of Achilles at Scyros, must be distinguished from the crowd: but translations of the greatest merit will more particularly engage our attention. Virgil and Milton themselves seem to speak our language; and, thanks to a living classick; thanks also to Monsieur de Saint Ange, an able and laborious translator of Ovid; we shall