41. An Effay on the Human Soul. 8vo. zs. Becket. The human mind is an object, of which it is very difficult to form a clear and adequate idea. It is, in the language of Horace, nimium lubricus afpici. The author of this Effay has given us a flight sketch of it. He appears to have a lively, and, in fome inftances, a warm imagination. Some of his obfervations on inftinet, memory, recollection, reafon, and other topics, feem to be new, and not unworthy of an ingenious metaphyfician. MISCELLANEOUS. 42. Proposals for an Amendment of School Inftruction. 8vo. Is, 6d. Wilkie. In this treatife the author confiders, firft, how far it may be right to defift from teaching Latin and Greek; and, in the measure they are laid afide, what articles fhould be fubftituted in their place, and how these should be taught. Secondly, how boys ought, agreeably to this plan, to be claffed. Thirdly, how far this plan is applicable to the several-ranks and conditions of youth. Laftly, what difficulties must attend its execution on the part of the mafters, and how these difficulties are to be removed. Under the article of fubftitutes for Greek and Latin, he recommends extracts from the fcriptures, relations and ftories taken from ancient and modern hiftorians, the Lives of good and exemplary men, fome of the beft Voyages and Travels, properly retrenched, poems and works of imagination; and, on every proper occafion, an attention to chronology, geography, &c. This is a well written treatife; and, whatever objections may be raised against the author's plan in general, contains many fenfible and useful remarks. 43. Choice Emblems, Natural, Hiftorical, &c. Written for the Amufement of Lord Newbattle. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Riley. This little performance is not void of ingenuity, and is fufficiently well calculated for conveying inftruction to children. in an agreeable manner. 44. A Mifcellany of Eaftern Learning. Tranflated from Turkish, Arabian, and Perfian Manufcripts, in the Library of the King of France. By M. Cardonne. Tranflated into English. Two Vols. 12mo. 55. ferved. Wilkie. We are told in the tranflator's preface to this Mifcellany a great deal about the amufement and inftruation, the scheme of focial virtues, and the fyftem of moral duties, which the. reader will find in it. It is true that much of thefe may be collected from the various hiftorical, anecdotes, bon mots, &c. here put together; but the fame may be done from almoft every book, provided the reader has abilities to judge for himfelf, and to look beyond the furface. There is scarce any work whatever from which a man of reflexion may not extract fome useful fentiment. If the tranflator means that the moral duties, &c. are here taught by pofitive precept to thofe who are ignorant of them, we may venture to affert that they are better taught by numberless writers of our own, whofe works are not ftuffed with the ridiculous directions which we meet with in the Mahometan morality. The ftories which compofe this Mifcellany may be juftly characterized in Martial's words: Sunt bona, funt quædam mediocra, funt mala plura.' 45. Theatrical Biography. Two Vols. 8vo. 6s. Kearsley. These volumes are publifhed as memoirs of the principal actors and actreffes employed at prefent on the theatres of Drury-lane and Covent-garden, and of several of the performers in the Hay-market. Many of the anecdotes here related are of fuch a private nature, as to admit neither of proof nor refutation. It can therefore be no breach of candour, e'pecially where the character of perfons is concerned, to look upon these memoirs as entitled to no degree of credit, any farther than as the facts they contain are authenticated by other teftimony. Were the truth of them even established beyond doubt, the author of this biographical collection mult ftill be unjustifiable for obtruding upon the public the private hiftory of individuals. The attempt is too impertinent to proceed from any other than the meaneft and most interested motives. 46. The African Trade for Negro Slaves fhewn to be confiftent with Humanity and Revealed Religion. By Thomas Thompson, M. A. 8vo. 6d. Baldwin. We are fo firmly established in the opinion of the universal right of mankind to liberty, that we cannot admit the force of any of the arguments urged by this writer. 47. Five Letters on important Subjects. 8vo. 6d. Owen. The first of these Letters is addreffed to his majefty, on the fubject of attending to the fentiments of faithful writers refpecting the fcience of government. The fecond is directed to the clergy, propofing to them the practice of preaching two charitable fermons yearly, for the benefit of debtors in prifon. The third and fourth are devoted to the lord-mayor, aldermen, &c. of London, recommending an attention to the health of prifoners, and an application to parliament for an act to regulate mad houfes. The fifth Letter is dedicated to Z 4 lord lord North, and refpects an adjuftment of the taxes. Thefe Letters in general are written with decency, and discover a great degree of benevolence. 48. Obfervations on the Sheeing of Horfes, &c. By J. Clark, Farrier. 8vo. is. 6d. Robinfon. This pamphlet contains much ufeful information on the fubject. 49. Memoirs of an Hermaphrodite. 120. 25. Rofon. The production, in all probability, of indigence and perfonal refentment. 59. Memoirs of James Bolland. 8vo. is. 6d. Bladon. The hero of these two performances was lately executed for forgery, and feems to have too long escaped the punishment of the laws. FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 52. Les Secrets du Philofophe. Geneve. THE intention of this work is to do mankind the fame fervice against the modern philofophers, which Pafcal did in the last century, by publishing his fameus Provincial Letters against the jefuits. The work confifts of Ten Letters, the eight firft of which make a kind of novel. The hero is an atheift: having received a Chriftian, but rather a pedantic education, he is first of all connected with a merchant, at whofe houfe he gets acquainted with a profligate man of his own age, and, through his means, with an avowed profeffor of libertinifm, by whom he is initiated into all the myfteries of the fect. His conduct becomes of course foon correfponding with his principles; plea fure is the only divinity, at whofe altar he facrifices honefty, friendship, gratitude, filial affection, and all that is facred. Obliged in confequence to quit his first connexion, he retires to London, and takes refuge in the houfe of another merchant, who is as firm a believer as the fift, and married to a beautiful wo man. Torman, (for fo the young man is called) immediately determines to feduce her, but refolves to prepare himself an eafy conqueft, by curing her first of what he calls her religious pre Judices. Fortunately for him a journey into Italy, which the hufband is obliged to undertake, gives him but too fair an opporfunity, which he does not fail to improve; after fome time fpent ; Spent in making her a convert from Christianity, by a welltimed difplay of all the fophifms which Helvetius, Voltaire, la Mettrie, Mirabeau, Woolton, Bolingbroke, &c. have invented for the purpose, he finds her worthy of being initiated into the greater myfteries: he then informs her, that the foul of man, and that of beafts, is formed of the fame mould that liberty and virtue have no real exiftence; that what we call confcience is the child of early prejudices; that, in fhort, there is no God, or that if there be one, he is too wife to trouble himself with what paffes here below, or to punish it hereafter. The fuccefs is proportionate to the pains taken to obtain it, madam Hebert refifts a little, yields at last, and makes her husband, who dies upon hearing the news, the victim of her weakness and his friend's treachery. Such is the plan of the eight first letters; the ninth is a fhort, but nervous answer to the objections contained in the preceding ones. It fhews that what is commonly called moral fenfe, honour, and human laws, are all alike weak fupports of the virtues of mankind; that religion is the only bafis on which it can ftand unfhaken, and that confequently he who foever endeavours to deftroy this bafis, acts more like a favage than a philofopher. The work concludes with Torman's furprise that there can ftill remain a Chriftian in the world, and an account of the methods he thinks most likely to be fuccefsful in extirpating Christianity for ever; means which have been employed with too great fuccefs, but whofe utmost fuccefs can never obliterate the infamy of adopting them. The whole work is comprifed in an octavo volume of 381 pages, for which we are indebted to Mr. J. Vernet, a clergyman of Geneva; it is written in a lively and elegant style, full of ftrength and dignity: if it does not bring back to religion thofe of her children who have forfaken her, it is hoped it will at leaft fecure to her for ever thofe who are ftill fortunate enough to look upon her in the light of a parent equally well difpofed and able to make them happy. 53. Joannis Friderici Meckel nova Experimenta & Obfervationes de Finibus Venarum ac Vaforum Lymphaticorum in Dulus Vifceraque excretoria Corporis Humani. 8vo. Berlin. A few years ago this author published fome obfervations on the lymphatic veffels, concerning which, by profecuting his experiments, he has now made farther difcoveries. In the first place, he has afcertained a direct communication between the conglobate glands, and the vena cava inferior, by means of abforbent veins; for, upon injecting the lumbar gland with quickfilver, through the lymphatic duct, he obferved the mer cury cury proceed along the branches of the vein leading from the gland to the vena cava, while the lymphatic veffels that rife from the gland were entirely empty. By the fame method of injection, he has evinced, that from the veficulæ feminales, the urinary bladder, the lactiferous veffels of the breaft, and the hepatic duct, an abforption of the liquors fecreted in these organs is actually carried on by the means of a system of veins. These discoveries are of fo much importance to the fciences of anatomy and phyfiology, that we thought the knowledge of its contents would be an acceptable piece of information to our medical readers. 54. Jo. Salom. Semleri Paraphrafis Epiftola ad Romanos, cum Notis Tranflatione vetufta Differtatione de Appendice cap. xv. & xvi. 8vo. Halæ. The character of this writer as an able critic, and a learned divine, unbiaffed by prejudice, is fo well eftablifhed, that his prefent publication would of courfe be received as an interefting performance; but the intrinfic merit of this work, which abounds with claffical and critical learning, muft give it a preference to the numerous publications of this kind, loaded with notes felected from various authors, without judgment or tafte, which are daily obtruded upon the public. 55. Ejufd. Hiftoriæ Ecclefiafiica felela capita, cum Epitome Canonum, Excerptis Dogmaticis, & Tabulis Chronologicis. Three Vols. 8vo. Halæ. Mofheim, in his Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, has neglected to give fpecimens of the different ecclefiaftical writers' manner of treating their fubjects, together with abftracts, to fhew the progrefs of their various dogmata, and the objections which have been made to them: he likewife speaks very little of the coun cils and their acts. Both thefe defects Dr. Semler has fupplied in this work, by judiciously felecting fhort abftracts from the ecclefiaftical writers, without determining on the merits of their performances, or the rectitude of the doctrines they advance. He has alfo given an abridgment of the canons of the church, which appears to be executed with fidelity, and will be of great utility. 56. Ejufd. Inflitutio brevior ad liberalem Eruditionem Theologicam. Two Vols. 8vo. Halæ. The curators of the universities in the Pruffian deminions, having directed public lectures to be given on the arguments in defence of the Chriftian religion; and likewife that a courfe fhould be delivered, whence the students might obtain a 'general idea of the extent of the study of divinity; Dr. Sem ler's |