emitting the works of several authors of the least general interest, Chaucer and Spenser, and also some of inferior merit, the publisher has been enabled to afford, at a moderate expense, the great mass of English poetry; including a great number of poems which have hitherto formed no part of a regular series.

The edition will consist of forty-four volumes; to which are added five, supplementary to the main work.

It will be printed in an elegant form, similar to the English copy, and upon paper of the best quality.

Each volume will contain from one to five engravings, amounting in all to one hundred and eleven; which the publishers engage to have executed by the first artists, and in the best manner.

The price to subscribers will be one dollar and twenty-five cents each volume, delivered in neat boards.

The first number of Mr. Elliott's work on the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia, (already announced in this Journal, vol. 7, page 189,) will be published in this present month, and the subsequent numbers at intervals of two months. Subscriptions for the work will be received by M. Thomas.

FOREIGN LITERATURE, SCIENCE, &c.

(From Recent British Publications.)

FRANCE. Five years since the Class of Sciences of the Royal Institute of France proposed as the subject of a double prize, the theory of the planets whose eccentricity and inclination are too considerable to allow of the exact calculation of their distances by methods already known. The class did not require any numerical applica tion, but only analytical formulas, yet disposed in such a manner, that an intelligent calculator might be able to apply them with certainty either to the planet Pallas, or to any other hitherto discovered, or which may hereafter be discovered. Two memoirs only having been received, in which the authors have not sufficiently conformed to the intentions expressed by the class, it has prolonged the time for another year. The prize will therefore be adjudged in January 1817, and consist of a gold medal of the value of 6000 francs (2501.) Essays must be written in French or Latin, and none will be received after the 1st October next.

As nothing worthy of the annual prize founded to reward researches undertaken for the advancement of galvanism has been received, the class suggests the following points as still wanting to complete the theory of this important part of science. As it has been determined in a great number of cases what combinations result from the action of a calculable electricity, it would be im portant to determine, on the contrary, what measure of electricity results from the different combinations in which bodies pass to a

A tolerably complete set sensible and calculable electric state. of experiments undertaken with this view, would probably possess considerable interest and utility. Another phenomenon not less interesting, and which particularly concerns the animal economy, is that which manifests itself when alternate portions of nerves and muscles of the same animal, or of different animals, are capable of forming a circuit, the contacts of which produce the same excitations that result from a circle composed of metals, inThis experitermediate between the muscles and the nerves. ment might, perhaps, by its developments, tend to throw new light on the still obscure theory of the nervous influence on the organic actions, and on the result of these actions.

M. QUATREMERE DE QUINCY has just published a work in folio with fifty plates, mostly coloured, under the title of The Olympian Jupiter, or the Art of Antique Sculpture considered in a new point of view. It comprises an essay on the style of polychromian sculpture, an explanatory analysis of the toreatic, and the history of the statuary art in gold and ivory among the Greeks and Romans. The author has subjoined the restoration of the principal monuments of that art, and a practical demonstration or revival of its mechanical processes. In this performance he has found means to combine the solidity of science with the charms of ingenious hypothesis.

In the night of the 22d of January, M. Pons, assistant astronomer at the Observatory at Marseilles, discovered a comet in the northern part of the heavens, between the tail of the Little Bear and the head of the Cameleopard, at about 241 deg. of right ascension, and 86 deg. north declination. The fogs prevented this comet from being observed at Paris, till the 1st of February, on which day, at eight o'clock p. m. it had 59 deg. 57 min. of northern declination, and 341 deg. 25 min. of right ascension. This comet exhibits no trace either of tail or nucleus, and it is not discernible with the naked eye.

Abbate ANGELO MAJO, some of whose recent literary discoveries in the Ambrosian library at Milan we have already noticed, has just published a hitherto unedited work, for which the world is indebted to his researches, under the title of Q. Aurelii Symmachi Octo Orationum ineditarum Partes (90 pp. 8vo.) Symmachus, a celebrated Latin orator, flourished about the middle of the 4th century, and was admired by his contemporaries for his eloquence. He wrote and delivered a great number of orations, as we learn from the testimony of Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, Cassiodorus, Photius, and Nicephorus, but especially from the collection of his own letters, the only performances of his that were yet known, as all his oratorical works were given up for lost. Fortunately, two copies of considerable fragments of eight of his

orations, have been preserved in a MS. in the Ambrosian library. They consist of four panegyrics, two addressed to the emperor Valentinian I, one to Gratian, and one to the Roman senate. The four others are to private persons, to the father of the orator, Trygetius, Synesius, and Severus. They bear the stamp of their age, and are full of fire, fancy, bold images, ingenious antitheses and sentences, and great erudition. The learned editor has annexed another fragment of an ancient orator, likewise discovered in a MS. of the same library, together with some variations to Pliny's panegyric from similar sources. He has also accompanied this first edition with an excellent introduction; critical and historical notes, and fac similes of the characters of the two MSS. in which these treasures have been so long concealed.

GERMANY. A new journal for astronomy and the sciences connected with it, began to be published with the present year, by Cotta of Stutgard. It will appear in monthly numbers of from two to six sheets, so as to form about 48 sheets annually. The names of the conductors and contributors afford the pledge of a work of sterling value. The editors are M. VON LINDENAU, director of the observatory of Seeberg, and professor BOHNENBERGER of Tübingen. They have secured the assistance of the most eminent German astronomers and mathematicians, as Beigel, Bessel, Brandes, Bürg, Buzengeiger, David, Ende, Gauss, Gerling, Harding, Heinrich, Horner, Ideler, Mollweide, Münchow, Nicolai, Olbers, Oltmanus, Pasquich, Pfaff, Soldner, Triesnecker, Wachter, and Wurm; and baron Zach, who is in Italy, has promised the support of his contributions.

A friend on the Continent has transmitted to us a small tract in Latin, just published at Münich, by the chevalier DE LANG, lately keeper of the archives of the kingdom of Bavaria. Its contents, wholly extracted from the papers of the provincial superior of the Jesuits, recently discovered at Munich, exhibit a most frightful picture of the enormities committed in the latter half of the 17th century by the monks of that dangerous order, in the education of youth in Germany. "Never," says our correspondent," was tocsin more seasonably sounded than in this tract, and all Europe must feel obligation and respect for the author, who, animated by the love of truth, and fearless of consequences, scrupled not to affix his name to the title. Whilst even in France disguised Jesuits are already again playing their atrocious game, and many, in other respects, worthy characters immediately about the person of Louis XVIII have expressed their opinion, that the neglected youth of France cannot be reclaimed except by the Jesuits; whilst even at Vienna itself, the superior authorities are consulted respecting the practicability of recalling the fraternity-this Cave Canem is no superfluous warning. Lang's tract ought to be cir~

culated in every country in Europe, and above all, to be laid upon the pillow of every sovereign."

The lectures held by Dr. Spurzheim in England have drawn considerable attention to the system of craniology founded by Dr. Gall. To such of our readers as are interested in this subject, the following notice, communicated by Dr. MARTINS of Münich, of a volume of imp. fol. just published there by Dr. SPIX will be acceptable. It is entitled: Cephalogenesis, sive Capitis ossei Structura, Formatio et Significatio per omnes Animalium Classes, Familias, Genera et Etates digesta,atque Tabulis illustrata, Legesque simul Psychologia, Cranioscopiæ ac Physiognomoniæ inde derivate. The head is here considered in its evolutions throughout the whole series of animals, from man to the insects, at all periods of life, from the embryo to old age. Its relations to the other parts of the human body, and its functions as the principal organ of the soul, are illustrated in a new manner; and the work contains also a critical review of all that has appeared on the subject. Of the engravings nine are shaded, and nine in outline for demonstration. They are from drawings by the masterly pencil of Koeck, painter to the academy, of Münich, celebrated for his admirable designs for the works of Sömmering, Wenzel, Fischer, &c. They exhibit exact representations of the skulls of animals of all classes, and afford an accurate medium of comparison, which discovers the laws followed by nature in the formation of the different varieties of the head. By the evidence of these laws the author has attempted to solve the wonderful problem involved in the structure, composition, and proportion, of that part of the animal frame. Psychology will thus obtain a true foundation in nature itself; cranioscopy and physiognomy will be reduced by some new measures to laws both simple and comprehensive; zoology will be enriched with views and principles of the greatest importance with respect to the classification of animals; and the whole of natural history will be improved by the discovery of an organic law, hitherto overlooked, which the author calls Lex Circuitus Organorum.

Dr. MARTINS farther informs us, that the king of Bavaria has it in contemplation, to send a scientific expedition into the interior of America.

DENMARK. The academy of arts and sciences in Denmark has, in consequence of an observation in a prize essay laid before it, appointed a committee to investigate the asserted efficacy of tannin as an antidote against all poisons, whether mineral or vegetable.

NORWAY. WALENBERG, in his Journey through the Laplandic Alps in 1807, observes, that the limits where the region of snow commences, are found to be gradually higher as you quit the north pole and travel towards the equator, whilst they rise to a still

greater and more sudden height on reaching the southern hemisphere.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.-A Reply to Mr. Ricardo's Proposals for an economical and secure Currency. By Thomas Smith. Mr. RICARDO's pamphlet proposes three questions: the first asks, whether the bank shall be required to pay their notes in specie on the demand of the holders; and the other two regard the profits of that institution. This gentleman proposes to prevent the rise of paper above the value of bullion, that the bank should be obliged to give their paper in exchange for standard gold, at the rate of 31. 178. per ounce. Mr. Smith thinks that it would not be necessary to employ any force to oblige the bank to take gold at the price mentioned, and that the bank would be, in a very different sense, obliged to Mr. Ricardo to let them know where they could get it, and our author has no doubt that they would be ready to enter into a contract with him to give their notes in return for all he could furnish at that rate.

Mr. Smith considers that there are two principles which Mr. Ricardo would have been acquainted with if he had taken the trouble to read the existing pamphlets on the same subject: the first is; "that the price of bullion is entirely regulated by the issue of bank notes;"-the other, which Mr. Smith opposes, is, "that the precious metals are the standards of value and of currency." Lord Lauderdale insists that the term value, whatever might have been its original sense as it is used in common lan. guage, does not express a quality inherent in any commodity; and his lordship argues further, that there is nothing which possesses a real intrinsic or invariable value, and that the possession of no quality, however important, can confer value.

LEGISLATION.-Idea of a new Law for the Civilized World, recommended to the consideration of France, Great Britain, and the American States. By the author of a letter written from Athens, &c.

THE writer of this pamphlet considers that the question of war is a subject of too much importance to be entrusted to kings and ministers, and he proposes, that before any determination upon it be made, the opinion be collected of the community; assuming that the French cabinet were to decide on war, the following expedients he recommends should be adopted.

As soon as the ministers have decided on hostile measures, the minister of the interior will cause to be opened several great books: one set will be inscribed Oui, the other NoN. Two of these, that is, one of each description, will be sent to the prefect of each department, to be laid open at his residence for the reception of signatures. The individuals signing must be possessed of certain descriptions of property to be explained.