the taste of the English nation not to attribute to them the honour of its invention. Such then is the opinion of Mr. Laurens respecting the origin of masonry in England and in Europe; its end, as given in p. 28, is the true worship of God, fidelity to oursovereign, and charity to our neighbour. The Abbé Baruel, in his Memoirs of Jacobinisni, published about eight years ago, sufficiently proved how these objects were perverted, and that the words liberty, fraternity, and equality, so often in the mouths of free-masons, had for a long time been invented, in order to become, at the end of the eighteenth century, the rallying signals of the Jacobins, Our author does not deny this statement of the Abbé's; he says it may or may not be true; but he assures us, that it was unknown in the order to which he belongs.

We shall not detain our readers any longer on this subject, but sball conclude this article by recommending the perusal of this work to those who are fond of mysteries and secrets; yet we must apprize them that they must not expect the discovery of the grand secret, Mr. L. having on this head observed the profoundest silence,

ART. 22.-Le Suicide, ou Charles et Cécilie, &c.

The Suicide, or Charles and Cecilia, by Madame Fleury, Author of Montolais and Helena, D'Herbert and Virginia, &c. 3 Fols. 12tho. Paris. 1806. Imported by Deconchy.

CECILIA is in love with Charles. Charles is married to Julia, whom the author dispatches by making her kill herself in consequence of remorse for having committed adultery with Monsieur Clairville. Her loss is soon forgotten and the lovers are united. Charles paid the last homage to Julia; he shut himself up in his closet, took her portrait, covered it with kisses and tears, locked carefully up again, and, fixing his seal upon his writing desk, ̈ wrote to M. and Madam D'Arlis a letter of great tenderness, requested their consent to his marriage with Cecilia, and implored their blessings, as he regarded them as his parents. They quickly return a satisfactory answer, and write letters of congratulation to the family of Blondel, and all parties are satisfied,

Cecilia soon recovered her health, and preparations were made for her marriage. The happy day at length arrived, when our beroine became the spouse of him who had cost her so many tears. Her beauty and aflability merited the love of her husband, who regarded her perhaps with more affection than Julia. He indeed preserved the remembrance of the latter, but did not suffer it to interfere with his happiness. A fine boy came at the end of the year to augment the delight of this lovely couple, and they afterwards had many children, who all resembled their parents;' of whom we now take our leave, wishing them all the happiness a bounteous author can bestow.

ART: 23.-Contes Moraux pour l'Instruction de la Jeunesse, &c. Móral Tales for the Justruction of Youth, by Mudume Le Prince de

Beaumont, extracted from her Works, and published for the firstTime in the Form of a Collection. 3 Vols. 12mo. Paris. 1806. Imported by Deconchy..

AN entertaining and judicious selection.

ART. 24. Traité d'Education physique des Enfans, &c.

A Treatise on the physical Education of Infants; to which are prefixed," Instructions on Convulsions, and on the Means of preserving persons of both Sexes from them. By Doctor Sacombe. Paris. 1806. Imported by Dulau.

THE English are not the only people who are duped out of their money and their health by the plausible or impudent pretensions of quackery, pre-eminent as we fear they are in credulity and liberality of this sort. In his advertisement, le Docteur Sacombe very sagely. remarks, that the accoucheur, being the person who views the operation of moral and physical causes, during pregnancy, on the or ganisation of the embryo; who observes the mode of its passage from the uterus, receives it, and gives it, as it were, the first impulse to life, is necessarily much better qualified than any other man, to understand and to cure the diseases of children. This inference is perhaps rather convenient than strictly logical; but it serves to an- › nounce that le Docteur is a priest in the temple of Lucina. The instructions respecting convulsions which follow, consist chiefly of short observations, extracted from about a hundred authors, from Hippocrates down to Dr. Sacombe'; but which apply to tetanus, and other convulsive diseases of adults, as well as to the convulsions peculiar to children. Having perused these through forty pages, we arrived at a more extraordinary piece of sophistry than even that which the advertisement contains. The author observes, that flowers of zinc, and other excellent antispasmodics, cannot surely care convulsions which originate from constipation alone; nor can musk and camphor subdue those which arise from acid impurities in the stomach; and castor oil, &c. so far from removing convulsions, which are produced by flatulency, will tend to increase the source of irritation. From these truthis, which plainly evince the necessity of warying the remedy with the various causes of the discase, the author deduces this singular conclusion: These reflections will, no doubt, be sufficient to convince tender and enlightened parents of the necessity of one general, simple, and methodical mode of treatment, and of adopting an antispasmodic remedy, which may, in all cases, fulfil the indications, and subdue the mobility of the nerves !'—Accordingly, we are immediately informed, that the ANTISPASMODIC MEDICINE is only to be had of Madame Sacombe, à Paris, rue de la Tixéranderie, No. 67, &c.; a medicine which has been well known in either hemisphere for upwards of twenty years, &c. p. 44.

In the short treatise on the education physique of children, there are some rational observations, conjoined with a greater number of

prejudices and absurdities, but conveyed in that lively and poetical style, which French writers have the peculiar faculty of assimilating with grave subjects. The author affirms, that it is dangerous for a child to sleep with its nurse, or any adult person, because the nurse or adult will insensibly rob it of its vigour, as parasitic plants feed and flourish on the substance of those to which they attach themselves. For what is life? La vie est ce fluide éthéré, ce féu élémentaire, acide et phosphorique, en un mot cet ocean de lumiere, dans lequel nagent tous les mondes, qui du sein du soleil, sa source féconde, vieut inonder la terre, &c. Animaux, végétaux, mineraux, s'animent, végètent, s'amalgament à mesure qu'ils sont saturés de ce principe vivifiant.' P. 60.

. A certain portion of this principle is possessed by every creature which comes into the world, and life consists in the constant evaporation of it, more or less rapid according to eircumstances;' and as this principle has, like heat, a tendency to equilibrium, if an older animal lies in contact with a younger, the latter nccessarily communicates to the older a portion of its superabundant vitality. Therefore it is dangerous, &c. Q.E.D.

After having given the reader these specimens, we leave him to judge of the physic, the logic, and the philosophy of le Docteur Sacombe.

ART. 25.-Histoire de L'Astronomie, ancienne et moderne, &c. History of Astronomy, antient and modern. By J. S. Bailly. 2 Vols. Svo. Paris. 1805. Imported by Deconchy.

THE name of Bailly is well known in the astronomical world from his excellent history, and in the political world from the part he took in the French revolution, his popularity at one time, his subsequent fall, and lamentable death. His history was first given to the world in five volumes quarto, too voluminous for one, and too expensive for another class of readers. To abridge such a work would have been an useful undertaking, but the French editor of this publication has performed a better task, and if he disclaims any merit on this account, we may allow much to his modesty, at the same time that we would bestow on him the palm for real and useful industry. Hej has given in two volumes octavo, the substance of Bailly's work, in the words of Bailly himself, those parts only being omitted, which would not be interesting to the generality of readers.

Of the five original volumes, the last contains too much scientific matter, and matter foreign to the object of this work, to be adopted. in it. Of the other four volumes, the essential facts given in them are all faithfully preserved, the reasoning and conjectures founded, upon them are admitted with that caution which the size of these volumes made necessary. Abstract calculations and whatever might deter the general reader from perusing the work, are omitted. la. fact it contains the substance of Bailly's history, affording sufficient information for those who are not very deeply versed in philosophy,

and communicating in a very pleasing manner general knowledge of the principal topics in the science of astronomy,

The French excel much in this art of communicating knowledge, and it is an art by no means to be neglected. A few only can extend the hounds of science, but why should their discoveries be con fined within a narrow circle of readers? The French have their abstruse writings as well as any other nation; but they bave the happy talent of diffusing knowledge beyond any other nation. The uni versality of their language is greatly in their favour, and the person who abridged this history of Bailly, has the satisfaction of knowing that it will be read in every part of Europe. Thus the fame of his favourite astronomer will be extended, and the labours contained in his five volumes, will no longer be confined to the studies of the curious and the scientific.

It is needless to enter into the detail of this abridgment, as it would contain the history of astronomy, from the carliest to the present times, and besides, the contents of the greater volumes have been sufficiently criticised since their first appearance. Nothing is omitted which can interest the general reader, and they who have studied astronomy as a science, will with pleasure pursue its history in this abridgment. We could have wished that the editor had considered the improvements in astronomy since the time that Bailly wrote; but as he professed only to follow his author, we are to thank him for what he has selected, rather than blame him for not having added more to the original history.

GERMANY.

ART. 26 Die Alterthümer der Mannussöhne, aus der feder des Grafen R. C. zur Lippe.

The Antiquities of the Sons of Manaus. By the Count de Lippe. Leipzig. 1806.

THE count is a better patriot than antiquarian, and he is one who is fond of praising the past, of which he knows but little, by way of censuring the present generation, of which perhaps he knows tou much. He remains firm to the supposed excellence of ancient man-.. ners, when fidelity and truth were the characteristics of his nation. Unfortunately for the author, he does not scem to have attended to any thing that has been written by his cotemporaries on this subject, and German, Scandinavian, and Gaelic antiquities are perpetually, confounded together. Every source is the same to him; the limits of German antiquity are undefined by him, and the institutions of -the middle ages, such as the Hanse Town and the orders of knight hood, are brought without reason into the picture of the original founders of his race. It is not to be wondered at then, that we con tinually met with erroneous conceptions, such as that our remote ancestors worshipped the one true God under the name of Tuisco; and under the name of Mannus they represented Adam, the original..

.: father of the human race. Germany was peopled very early after the confusion of tongues, by Aschkenas, a son of Gomer. The Germans set so great a value upon the shield, that in all their songs their kings were called Skjoldanger, that is, Shield-bearers. The Germans adored the seven planets, the religion which they received from Noah and Japhet. Freeholders had the right of appearing in the general assembly, before the state of the burghers or peasants was admitted into it. But the author does not recollect that in this, as in many other instances, he produces no proof of his assertions. When were the states of the burghers and peasants introduced? The author attends more to morality than to history; his reflections are noble and pious, he turns with horror from the corrupted manners of the present race, to raise to the skies the innocence, simplicity, and pure virtue of their rude forefathers. Unfortunately for him, these pretended virtues have been estimated by more accurate enquirers, and in the present day he might have employed himself better in pointing out the benefits of civilization, and the advantage of living when such improvements have been made in arts and science, over a life spent in the woods in the midst of grossness and barbarity.

2

ART 27-Struensee, cine Skisse, &c.

Sketch of the Life of Struensee, by H. H. L. van Held. Sto.
Berlin. 1805.

THE fate of Struensee, who once held the post of first minister of Denmark, and whose fall was connected with that of the unfortunate Matilda, a princess of the blood royal of England, is well known to all our readers; and on taking up the present work, we flattered ourselves that time had brought to light some new circumstances relative to this extraordinary character. We were soon released from this mistake, and instead of the life of Struensee of Denmark, we found that his brother had furnished the materials of this work. Struensee, our hero, was of the class of Gelehrters, as they are called in Germany, or of literary men, from which be was transformed into a political character, which he lost by his brother's melancholy fate; thence he was, after some time spent in retirement, converted into a commercial man, and he became the head of a bank at Elbingen. This situation he quitted to be placed at the head of the customs and excise in the Prussian dominions, and this post he held with great credit to himself, and the unbounded confidence of his sovereign, to his death.

Such a situation does not promise much of very great importance to the general reader; and what might be beneficial to the statesman, is omitted, from the apprehension that this is not the time to give a proper detail of his actions in a political department. Struensee had certainly a head for business, and he conceived it possible to introduce regularity and order into his department, yet, acknowledging the necessity of reform, he left the Augear stable to be cleansed by others. The author accounts for this from the dread which his here