is greatly deceived in regard to the antiquity which he affigns to them, and fhould rather be difpofed to fubfcribe to the opinion of Profeffor Ihre of the university of Upfel, who has fhown that all the Runic monuments hitherto discovered, are of a date posterior to the Chriftian

cra.

We are lefs embaraffed to point out the epoch when these characters ceased to be in use among the northern people. This was about the year 1000. Eric Schroderus, in the preface to his Latino-scandinavian Lexicon, cites the following paffage of an ancient manufcript which he had occafion to confult: Olaus, King of Sweden, attributing to the Runic character the difficulty which the Chriftian religion found in introducing itself into this kingdom, affembled in the year 1001 all the grandees of his own country, when it was unanimously refolved to fubftitute the Roman letters in their place, and the king likewife caufed all the books relative to idolatry to be burnt. Unfortunately the greatest part of those which contained the hiftory and antiquities of the nation was alfo comprized in this general profcription."

We fhall not follow the author in his refearches into the antiquity of certain northern languages, with the relation which they bear to each other, and to the ancient Perfian, Greek, Roman, and to all modern languages. Mr. P. has been very concife, fo that to give our readers a full idea of his work, we fhould be under the neceffity of tranfcribing his book.

But we hall obferve as a proof of the utility of thefe researches, that they have led him to the difcovery of certain hiftorical facts, and enabled him to elucidate others. It is thus that we may hope to penetrate ftill further into the knowledge of the religion, the manners, the ufages, and emigrations of different people.

For example, in analyfing the work of the telebrated Hickes, Mr. P. informs us, after him, that the ufe of juries exifted from immemorial time in Scandinavia, that from thence it paffed to the AngloNormans, and afterwards introduced itfelf into Great Britain.

From the fragment of a manufcript in Runic characters, containing the hiftory of Hialmar, King of Biarmlandia, with a tranflation of which we are here prefented, may be collected fome very curious and valuable information refpecting the manners, the fuperftition, and the literature of the ancient inhabitants of the North.

Efpr. d. Journ

ART. 61. Voyage dans l'intérieur des Etats unis, à Bath, Winchester, dans la vallée de Shenaudaba, St. par M. Ferdinand Bayard. Un vol. in 8vo.

Paris.

After having read the Lettres du Cultivateur Americaine, the l'oyages de Chatellux, and thofe of Briffot, we did not expect that the work of another traveller to the United States would so foon have excited our attention; the prefent author has, however, not exactly trod in the steps of those who have gone before him; he has particularly attached himself to the defcription of the private life, to the occupations and amufements of the people of America. He has obferved likewife the vices which begin to infinuate themselves among the mercantile elaffes, vices which will

faoner

fooner or later bring on a revolution deftructive of the ftate. He enters alfo into an account of the treatment experienced by the negroes, shows clearly, that these unfortunate people do not enjoy that happiness which the Durfé of America, Crevecaur allows them. An anecedore mentioned by our traveller gives us an idea of the application which the planters make of a paffage in the Bible to juftify their barbarity towards their flaves.

Religion has too powerful an influence not to have fixed the attention of Mr. B. he has accordingly not neglected to make himself acquainted with the different fects of North-America: they have almoft all of them that melancholy character which the reformers of the fixteenth century have impreffed on their doctrines. The method ifts, more especially, diftinguishing themfelves by their fanaticifm, and by the alarining effetis which their preaching often produces. We have likewife here an interesting picture of the manners of the original inhabitants of the country, of their battles, their feafts, their fangs of victory, and of their religious opinions.

Ibid.

ART. 63. Précis des caractères génériques des infelles difpofés dans un ordre naturel; par le citoyen Latreille; 1 vol. in 8vo. Paris.

To the time of Fabricius, infects had been divided only according to vague characters, arbitrarily taken from their external appearance. The celebrated Profeffor of Kiel has arranged them in a more certain and fatisfactory manner, after the orders of manducation; but his method likewife prefents fuch difficulties, partly on account of the smallnefs of the organs which form its bafis, and partly because they can feldom be examined in dried infects without deftroying them, that but few naturalifts have entirely followed it. Mr. L. therefore unites in his work the rigour of the characters of the new, with the facility of thofe of the ancient method, and has thus certainly rendered both Ibid. more perfect, than they had heretofore been.

ART. 64. Effai fur les ouvrages phyfica-mathématiques de Leonard de Vinci, avec des fragmens tires de fes manufcrits apporté de l'Italie, lu à la première claffe de l'infiitut national, par J. B. Venturi, professeur de phyfique à modene. Paris, 1797; 4to.

Thefe manufcripts form 12 volumes. Eight of them are nothing more than small cahiers covered with parchment. It seems that L. de V. generally carried them with him, for the purpofe of defigning on them models of machines, geometrical figures, &c. and of fixing fuch ideas as might otherwife have efcapedshis memory. The other four are of Ibid. a larger fize; one of them contains obfervations upon light.

ART. 65. Elémens d'algèbre, par Clairant, cinquième édition, avec des notes et des additions, tirés en partie des leçons donnees à l'école normale par Lagrange et Laplace, et précédée d'nn trité élementaire d'arethmétique. 2 vols. in 8vo. Paris.

This work is difpofed in fuch a manner as to prefent two courses, the one more extenfive and adapted to the use of thofe perfons who are

defirous

defirous of knowing all the improvements made in this fcience, in the prefent times; the other elementary, for the inftruction of those who have yet made little or no progress in it. The additions are made by S. F. Lacroix,

GERMANY.

ART. 66. Lehrbuch der Gefchichte der Philofophie, und einer cretifthen Litteratur derfelben, von Joh. Gottleib Buhle Zweyter Theil.-Elements of the Hiftory of Philofophy, by J. G. Buhle. Vol. II; 575 PP. in Svo. Göttingen. 1797

be

The author had orignally intended to have limited his work to three volumes. We conceive, however, that an alteration must now take place in his plan, as this fecond volume comprizes only the Platonic and Ariftotelic fyftem, and of the latter not indeed the whole, but the theoretic part only. Three volumes more will, therefore, at leaft, neceffary to complete the work. That the author fhould have been particularly full and circumftantial in regard to Plato and Ariftotle, becaufe of their fuperior importance, we cannot certainly but approve. The account of their lives, with the critical and literary notices, refpecting their works, commentators, and other writings, to which they have given occafion, occupies a very confiderable space (on Plate 43 pp. and on Ariftotle, from p. 276 to p. 354) and is, as the refult of much reading and inveftigation, very valuable. This is, more efpecially, the cafe in regard to Ariftotle. The ancient commentaries are conftantly referred to, in a manner, which fhows that the author has not merely copied from others, but that he has depended chiefly on his own judgment; which may likewife be obferved with refpect to the more confiderable modern writers. In a few inftances only we feel ourselves obliged to differ from him, as where he gives to Voigt's tranflation of the Books on the Soul, the unqualified character of valugble, and where he calls that of the Ethics by Jenifche, very defective.

In the Ariftotelic philofophy, the author has, in 257, prefented the outlines of the fyftem, to which, however, he has not altogether confined himself, in the profecution of the work, having adopted an He first endeavours to develop arrangement peculiar to himself. Aristotle's idea of fyftem, of philofophy, and its parts; after which follows his Theory of the Powers of the Soul. To this fucceed Logic, chiefly according to the Organon; Natural Philofophy after the Phyfics, and partly after the book de Coelo, Metaphyfics, and, laftly, Pfychology, which Mr. B. confiders as a neceffary fupplement to Metaphyfics. Jena ALZ,

ART. 67. Johann Rudolph Schlegels Rea. am Gymn. zu Heilbronn, Kirchengeschichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. Dritter und letzter Band. Erfte Abtheilung.-J. R. Schlegel's Ecclefiaftical Hiftory of the Eighteenth Century. First Part of Vol. III.-Likewife with the following title:

Johann

Johann Lorenz von Mofheims vollständige kirchengeschichte des neuen Teftaments, aus deffelben gesammelten gröffern Werken, und aus andern bewährten Schriften mit Zufätzen vermehrt, und bias auf de neuesten Zeiten fortgefetzet. Siebenter Band, welcher die Gefchichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts enthält, von J. R. Schlegel.-J. L. v. Mofheim's complete Ecclefiaftical History of the New Teftament, compiled from his larger Works, and other authentic Writings, with Additions, and continued to the prefent Time. Vol. VII, containing the Hiftory of the prefent Century, by J. R. Schlegel. Heilbronn; 506 pp. 1. 8vo. The continuation of this work, fince the death of Schlegel, has fallen into good hands. Mr. J. J. Fraas, of Fraukenbach near Heilbronn, has not only added to it new collections from the best fources, but he has likewife enriched it with feveral valuable differtations. We did not indeed expect that, after the Remainder of the Hiftory of the Eighteenth Century, as it is expreffed in the title, with that of the reformed church, the unitas fratrum, the Mennonites, &c. had already been given in the jecond and last part of the fixth and laft volume, which appeared fo early as the year 1788, the general Hiftory of the Chriftian Church for the century fhould, in the feventh volume, commence with that of the different miffions, which ought properly to have taken the lead. In fo extenfive a work, however, this error against method will be the more readily excufed. We find indeed, in the fifth volume of the work, a Miffionary Hiftory for this century, but this given in the prefent volume is much more complete.

The volume begins with an account of the Millions of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 11. After fome general obfervations upon them, they follow in this order: I. Tibet, p. 26-40. The author has, from the latest accounts, brought together here much useful matter, though it does not all relate to the Miffion of Georgi's Alphabetum Thibetanum, he feems to have known the title only. II.-V. Tunkin, Cochin-China, Stam, and the Peninfula on this fide the Ganges. We have here likewife authentic and valuable notices, accompanied with useful illuftrations. In p. 106, he obferves, that "however much we may complain against the Jefuits, they have acted, in their endeavours to make profelytes, like men who poffeffed wifdom and a knowledge of the world." The evangelical Miffionaries at Tranquebar, have alío, it feems, vindicated the conduct of the Jefaits in the Eaft-Indies towards the different cafts.

But the Miffion to China," the central point of the Afiatic Miffions of the Roman Catholic Church," is that to which the author has paid the greatest attention, pp. 121-306. He begins with an account of the character of the Chinese, of their language, and of the different religions which have been propagated among them; combatting the ungrounded affertions of Sonneral, and tracing back the hiftory of the millions to its first origin. In this part he has chiefly depended on the authority of the celebrated Hungarian Abbé and hiftorian, George Pray, in his Hifloria controverfiarum de ritibus finicis, ab earum origine ad finem compendio deducta, published at Peft, Buda, and Rafchau, in the year 1789. He has been enabled by means of this work to difcover many errors which Proteftant writers, and even Mosheim himself, have committed in their accounts of modern Chinese ecclefiaftical

5

history,

hiftory. We are afraid, however, that the author may have placed toò unbounded a confidence in the ex-jefuit Pray, nor are we always per fectly fatisfied with the proofs adduced in confirmation of fome of his affertions; as, for inftance, where he denies that the Jefuits ever carried on any trade in China.

Japan is reprefented as a kingdom no longer acceffible to Miffion. aries; we are, however, here prefented with the hiftory of the former miffion, and of its termination, though the author will not venture to pronounce whether the well known letters, which were attended with fuch unfortunate co fequences, were genuine, or otherwife; pp. 306 -326. This is followed with an account of the fuppreffion of the miffion in Abyffinia, and of the ineffectual attempts which were made to restore it; as alfo with fome information refpecting the new miffion at Madagafchar, pp. 326—337, the American miffions, and, p. 415, the fecret mfions from the boly jee among the Proteftants.

From p. 441 to the end of this volume, we have the hiftory of the different miffions fent from countries not Catholic to Tranquebar, Madras, and other Anglo-Eaft-Indian poffeffions; as alfo the Danish mif fions. The history of the miffions is not completed in this volume.

Ibid.

RUSSIA.

ART. 68. Von Gottes Sohn der Welt Heiland, nach Johannes Evange lium Nebft einer Regel dez Zufammenfimmung unserer Evangelien aus ibrer Entfleburg und Ordung, von J. G. Herder.-Of the Son of God, the Saviour of the World, according to the Gospel of John, together with a Criterion by

the Saviour which we may be enabled to judge of the Agreement of

the Gospels, from the Confideration of their Origin and Order; by J. Herder. Likewife with the following title:

Chriftliche Schriften, von J. G. Herder, Dritte Samlung.-Chrißian Writings, by J. G. Herder. Third Collection; VIII and 416 pp. 8vo. Riga, 1797.

The firft fection of this work contains a fort of Introduction. The author, in p. 33, declares himself in favour of the opinion, that John was arrived at an advanced age when he wrote this Gofpel. He likewife vindicates, in p. 29, the authenticity of the 21ft chapter. The fecond fection is chiefly employed in explaining the introduction to the Golpel John I. 118. In the third and fourth fection, Mr. H. proceeds to the elucidation of the Gofpel ifelf, which he divides into two parts. The firft of these includes Ch. I-IX, and the fecond Ch. XII-XXI; in the latter, the Evangelift gives an account of the laft days of our Lord. A complete tranflation of the Gofpel, with a commentary on it, muft not here be expected; it is rather the object which the author propofed to himself, to place the reader in that point of view, from which he might fo confider every part of the hiftory, as to find it most inftructive and edifying. This fection therefore contains many excellent obfervations, chiefly of a practical, together with fome, not lefs valuable, of an exegetical kind.

The