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orbits of the inferior planets, Venus and Mercury, interfect the orbit of the fun round the earth; but thofe of the fuperior ones, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Georgian Sidus, extend beyond. It was objected to this theory, that when the earth intervened between the fun and a fuperior planet, its greater attraction would deprive the fun of his attendant; and in this manner all the fuperior planets, in time, would become, like the fun himself, fatellites of the earth. Our lecturer extricated himself from this difficulty, by that felicity of invention, which is the true token of genius. In my fyftem, fays he, there is no attraction; for in the various denfities of ether, which furround us, every body finds its own leyel :---thus the earth, moon, and fun, have ftationed themfelves; and as for the ftars, they may be compared to cork or feathers, that float on the furface of the univerfal fluid. I thought the elucidation quite fufficient, but he proceeded,---fire, air, and water, confirm my doctrine!

Admirable conjecture! faid I to myself, revolving in my mind these lines—— Ignea convexi vis, et fine pondere cœli Emicuit, fummaque locum fibi legit in arce. Proximus eft aër illi levitate, locoque. Denfior his tellus, elementaque grandia traxit, Et preffa eft gravitate fui. Circumfluus humor Ultima poffedit, folidumque coercuit orbem. How great wits fometimes jump together! This man certainly never read either Sanchoniathon, Trilmegiftus, or Ovid; yet he thinks like them! I am half inclined to be a Pythagorean!

He continued his lecture.---Newton's philofophy teaches, that the equatorial poles always point to the north and fouth poles in the heavens: now if the earth moves in a pofition round the fun, vertical to the poles of the ecliptic, how is it poffible that the poles of the equator fhould always point to the fame part of the heavens? Here the old gentleman fmiled.It was afked in reply, if he confidered the infinite distance of those points in the heavens, which we called poles; and the fmallness therefore of the annual parallax of the earth's orbit? By his anfwer, it was conjectured, that infinite diftances and minute parallaxes, had never entered into his conception. To put the matter beyond a doubt, it was enquired, if he knew the properties of a triangle? It was a three corn red figure: fo is my hat-but could you, faid I, by having two fides of a triangle given, and one angle; or two angles and one side; find out the other

fides and angles? Here, I am forry to say, our lecturer was quite at a lofs; and though he could talk very fluently of ecliptics, poles, and equators, he knew nothing of trigonometry; nor confequently, of parallaxes. The honeft citizen and his fon fhook their heads; nor did the high polish of the brafs circles, or the number and beauty of the wheels, attract any longer their complacent regards.

Our attention was now called to another part of the room, where the flux and reflux of the tides were explained. Unfor tunate Aristotle, why didst thou not live to fee our days, and fave thyself from the martyrdom of ignorance!--A glass sphere was here exhibited, nearly filled with water, and made to turn round on an axis, like the earth in the center of the universe; which it was meant to reprefent. If, in the forementioned orrery, the works of nature appeared intricate and confused; in this machine, by way of atonement, I fuppofe, they were beautifully fimplified. Obferve, faid the lecturer, as he turned it round, how the water uniformly finks to the bottom, and retreats from the top!→→ this is the whole theory of tides. An intimation was thrown out, that as water fhewed fuch a difpofition to defcend, and the earth was equally devoid of a glafs cafe, as it was of attraction, there was fome danger on his plan, of the ocean's running off into infinite fpace, and inundating the fun, moon, and ftars. To this, our lecturer replied, that the ether formed an impenetrable barrier round the earth, which kept every thing in its proper place. This laft fentence caught the ears of the already exasperated citizen; and he exclaimed vociferously, "Ether impenetrable! How the duce then can your fyftem move? Give me back my money---you are an impoftor, I perceive, and know no more of aftronomy, than the horfe I ride. My money, I fay, or I'll expofe you to all the world."

This was a fally of intemperate refentment; heightened it fee.ns, by fhame and difappointment: and therefore not to be juftified, or excufed. But to judge difpaffionately-Mr. MARTIN, from his pertinacity in argument, his ingenuity in fubterfuge, and his happy affurance, would be able to defend his fyftem, more to the fatisfaction of the world at large, than the modett Sir Ifaac Newton, hould he rife from the dead, as I at first thought there was fome danger of, could his. It is highly popular, and encumbered with neither problem, lemma, nor calculation.

I have thus given you our morning's hiftory; and can only fay, " meritis expendite caufam." I will venture one hint, on the fuppofition of the venerable Newton's being thorn of his honours by this bold tonfor, and conclude.-Mirabeau was placed in the pantheon of worthies, at Paris; but afterwards, on the difcovery of demerit, removed, to make room for Marat :-fhould not the ftatue of Sir Ifaac be removed alfo from Weftminster Abbey, and that of his rival be fubftituted in its place, with this infcription underneath?

God faid, let Martin be, and all was light! I am, Sir, &c.

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To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.
SIR,

Yours corto your infeful mifcellany, have very commendably employed themselves in amufing and edifying the public on the curious fpeculation ftarted by the aftronomer LALANDE (in the Number for Nov. p. 328), concerning the fall of heavy bodies from great heights; but fome of them have much mistaken the nature of the experiment, and the calculation from theory. LALANDE mentions the refult of the experiment, as communicated by his correfpondent at Boulogne, in Picardy. He fays the body was dropped from the top of a tower, of 247 feet in height; that the body fell 8 lines to the eastward of the tower's bottom, or of the plumb line; and that theory gives only 5 lines for the quantity that ought

YOUR correfpondents, in feveral num

to be. He rightly adds, that this experiment is very difficult to make, as indeed it must be, from the very delicate nature of it. We muft fuppofe that it was often repeated, and that the 84 lines is a medium among all the refults. It is to be wifhed, however, that the duration of the fall had alfo been accurately taken, and given us, along with the other number in the experiment.

Then comes your other correfpondent, T. P. from Bath (Number for Feb. p. 26), who quite miftakes the nature of the experiment, and thence fets down a collection of crude and erroneous affertions, quite befide the purpose. If the earth have a rotation, on its axis from west to eaft, then the body must fall to the eastward of the foot of the tower, not to the weft, as he fancies; and if by experiment the body is found to fall eastward from the tower, this will prove the motion of the earth, as LALANDE obferves, and it must revolve from west to eaft; fuppofing the body not fenfibly impeded in its fall by the refiftance of the air. For, the body can only fall ftraight down in the perpendicular direction, when the earth has no diurnal rotation. When the earth has a motion, then the body is acted on by two forces; that of gravity, in the perpendicular direction, and that of the earth's motion, in a horizontal direction from the top of the tower; in which cafe it is well known, that the real path of the body is in an oblique direction; from whence it happens, that the body would fall just at the foot of the tower, if the tower moved with a parallel motion, from AB to DE; but, by reafon of the circular rotation, the top of the tower moves fafter

than the bottom, the former having revolved through BD, while the latter moves only through AF,

D B

E

A

and the tower having come into the pofition DF, when the body falls at the point E, by the diftance EF before, or caftward, of the tower.

Next, in the Number for March, p. 96. W. S. of Derby, with a proper idea of the experiment, very neatly and nicely explains the nature of it; and in a few words corrects the crude ideas of T. P.

Laftly, in the Number for May, p. 272, Edmontonienfis, seeming to be much pleafed with the explanation of W. S. inftitutes a calculation

calculation of the experiment from theory, feemingly founded on the fame principle. But, only half understanding the matter, partly through mistakes in principle, and errors in calculation, he has inadvertently made a great number of blunders in his calculations. First, he changes 263.433 feet into 43.3 fathoms, inftead of 43.9 ; and this error runs through all the reft of the work. Then he fuppofes LALANDE made the experiment at Paris; whereas that author fays, he had the experiment from another perfon at Boulogne. Next he adds the height of the tower to the radius of the parallel of latitude, inftead of to the radius of the earth; thereby making the direction of the tower to be in a right line with the former radius, inftead of with the latter. Laftly, he makes 0.936 inches, English measure, equal to 8.77 French lines, instead of 10. 524 lines, as it ought to be: thus making the quantity of deviation, by theory, more than double of what LALANDE makes it.

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PROCEEDINGS at large of the NATIONAL INSTITUTE of France, on the 4th of January, 1799, as published by the Secretaries. (Continued from our laft Number.)

NOTICE of the Labours of the Clafs of Literature and Fine Arts, by Citizen ANDRIEUX.

CITI

NITIZEN SELIS has communicated to the clafs a letter which he wrote in the country, addreffed to Citizen GAIL, profeffor of Greek Literature in the College of France, relative to the tranflation of the Idylls of Theocritus which this laft has given to the public. Citizen Selis, after fome reflections on the kind of writing called the Idyll, makes it his business to investigate the manner peculiar to Theocritus, the moft antient of the poets that we know in this kind; he highly commends, the fimple, natural, and even ruftic manner of that paftoral writer. He acknowledges that he prefers it to the noble and affecting, but rather studied graces of the Bucolics of Virgil; and if he compares it for a moment with the madrigals of Fontenelle's Shepherds, it is only to cenfure, with a frank averfion and a generous indignation, all the turns of fineffe and all the purfuit of witty points which the French author has lavished in his pretended paftorals. Thus Citizen Selis would guard us against the dangerous mania of running after falfe wit, and bring us back to nature, from which we too often deviate.

This letter will indicate to young ftudents in literature the neceffity of exploring the fountafa-head, of ftudying the

beautiful fimplicity of the antique among the Greeks, who, for two thousand years, may claim the prerogative of being our matters and models in all the arts of imagination.

Horace framed a precept to this purpofe, in his time:

Vos exemplaria Græca, Nocturnâ verfate manu, verfate diurna. It is of Theocritus and of Virgil that BOILEAU has faid:

Que leurs tendres ecrits, par les Graces dictés, Ne quittent point vos mains, jour et nuit feu illetés.

Citizen DUTHEIL has given an account to the clafs of the contents of a manuscript Greek volume in the National Library, very important, not only for the quantity, but, alfo for the nature of the articles which are found in it. Thefe ar

ticles, moft of them anecdotes, are to the number of fixty-eight. Some appear to be collections of letters or of hiftorical and oratorical pieces; others are treaties or poems, at prefent totally unknown. The moft confiderable of thefe different tracts, are referable, it is true, to what are called the middle ages, even to the laft century of the Lower Empire; but they are not the lefs interefting on that account, as all that period of the civil, political, and literary history of the Greeks ftands much in need of illuftration.

Citizen

Citizen LANGLES, after having laid before the public a Tatar-Mantchou grammar and dictionary, propofes to give the explication in a feries of notices, of the Tatar-Mantchou works now in the National Library. Of these there are more than three hundred volumes.

This language is not only rich in the productions of those who speak it, but alfo abounds with translations from Moghol, Thibet, and Chinese works; it may fupply in a great measure our defect of the knowledge of the Chinese language, fo famous for its 'difficulties. In fact, fince the year 1644, that a dynafty of TatarMantchou princes have reigned in China, their language has been introduced into the country, and the beft or most famous bocks of the Chinefe have been tranflated. It is in the Tatar- Mantchou language, that the emperor of China, Kien Long (the fame to whom Voltaire addreffed an epiftle in verfe, probably better written than thofe of his majefty), has compofed poems in which he makes himself a defcendant from a virgin who became pregnant by the favour of heaven, after having ate a red fruit. In the National Library are alfo the poem of Mouk-Den and that of The, works of the fame illuftrious poet who is perhaps yet alive. At least he was fo in the fecond and third years of the republic, at the time of the embaffy of Lord Macartney: he was then 85 years

of age.

Citizen RIBOUD, an affociate member of the Inftitute, has tranfinitted to the clafs two infcriptions found at Bourg in the department of Ain. He there found the ruins of a tomb erected by a difconfolate widow, to her fpoufe, whom he had caufed to be embalmed, in order to preferve his precious remains. Our fellow member MONGEZ has proved that these infcriptions were tickets, notes, or titles affixed by an empiric to a balm which he vended, as a restorative for the eye-fight. The analogy of these infcriptions, with many others already known and explained, leaves little room to question the verity of this laft conjecture. Citizen Mongez has taken occafion to prefent us with fome explanatory remarks on the fearcenefs and price of the real balm of Mecca, or balmı of Judea, which was the opobalfamum of

the antients.

Citizen PEYRE has read a memoir on the danger of conflagration, to which the national library is expofed by the vicinity of the treafury, and of the other buildings which furround it; but especially by that of the theatre of arts. Our fellow-member

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Citizen BERENGER, an affociate mem. ber, has tranfmitted to the claís, a cantata, to fet to music for the festival of the foundation of the republic.

Citizen LEBLANC has read a difcourfe in verfe on the neceffity of the dramatic, or of the pathetic, in all kinds of poefy.

Citizen DUCIS has read an epiftle, addreffed to Citizen LEGOUVE, on this fubject: We ought not to mingle the horrible and the agreeable in the arts.

Citizen COLLIN HARLEVILLE has read an allegorical poem, in two cantos, intitled, "Melpomene and Thalia.”

Citizen GIBELIN, an afiociate member, has read a memoir on the antique ftatue, known by the name of "Gladiator of Borghese;" a bronze of which is to be feen in the garden of the Tuileries. It is pretty generally understood, at prefent, that the name by which this antique figure is defignated, is not the propereft one. When it was difcovered in the ruins of Antium, the right arm was wanting. Thofe who had it in charge to replace it, deceived by appearances, put the hilt of a word into the hand of the arm which they were reftoring. This first mistake produced many others. Our fellow-member, MONGEY, proved, in a differtation publifhed but lately, that this pretended gladiator is really an athlete. Citizen Gibelin admits this explication, and pushing it further, propofes this question: What is this athlete doing? His conjecture is, that he is playing at ball. This be founds on the circumftances of the ftatue's afpect being directed into the air, on the movement of the left arm, on the attitude of the body, but particularly on a fact which firft fuggefted this idea to him, and which ftruck him, as he expreffes it, like a ray of light. Thus he relates the matter himfelf.

"It is neceffary (Citizen Gibelin is fpeaking) that I recall to my memory the time of iny studying at Rome; that time, the remembrance of which is always dear, when the imagination, aroufed by youthful ardour, eagerly receives the impreffions which are to influence it during the reft of life."

"Allow me to transport you for an inftant into thofe places, inceffantly prefout to my memory, which nature seeins

to have embellished to ferve for a model to the fine arts, among that people always great, although then in a state of fubjection; and whofe magnanimity, never totally ftifled by defpotifin, ftill manifefted itself in its ceremonies, in its spectacles, in its festivals, and even in its public games."

"In the fine part of the season, the inhabitants of Rome fometimes reforted to the Vatican, or on the Quirinal, about a most extensive area; here they enjoyed a spectacle which its resemblance to thofe of the antient Romans ennobled to my view. Select men, remarkable for their beauty and gracefulness, hurled to a very great diftance a ball, which other players threw back with no lefs dexterity than force. But among thofe whom the favour of the acclamations distinguished the moft, a beautiful man, a native of Pefaro, had by much the pre-eminence."

"The elegant proportion of his body was not concealed by his garments; he was almost naked. The multitude, tranfported at the vigorous and unexpected percuffions of the Pefarefe, made the air refound with a cry of univerfal joy. The young elèves, my fellow-ftudents in the arts, were ftu

dying in the midst of these paftimes; they were obferving the ftrongly inclined attitude, the velocity, the beautiful difplay of the mufcles, the enchanting grace of this divine player. I heard them exclaim around me : "ab! qu'il eft beau! qu'il eft fuperbe! C'est le gladiateur, voila le gla diateur!" How beautiful! how fuperb! 'Tis the gladiator, fee the gladiator! On the return of each movement, which was repeated every time that he threw his ball the first, they conftantly re-echoed the fame acclamation."

"This ftriking obfervation leads to a very fimple reafoning: if the most natural attitude of a beautiful man, an excellent player, throwing the ball, refembles fo perfectly the pretended Borghefe gladiator, why not this figure reprefent a player at ball?”

New matter for conjecture, new subjects of exultation are preparing for the amateurs of antiquity and of the fine arts; they may rely, with coufidence, on the bravery of the army of Italy; and the King of Naples, by his rafh aggreffion, feems to have intended himself, that the antiquities of the mufeum at Portici fhould follow to Paris thofe of the capitol.

ANECDOTES OF EMINENT PERSONS.

Interesting and Original Anecdotes of the French Revolution; to be continued in a regular feries from its commencement to the prefent period, and including its fecret biftory.

CUSTINES.

remember thofe events will do justice to

this affertion.

When the American war extended itfelf to France, Cuftines parted with his regiment of cavalry, in order to command a regiment of infantry on the other side

WAS Cuftines, who was condemned of the Atlantic. This exchange, which

and executed as a traitor, really a traitor? Was he a culprit or a victim? This is a question which still remains undecided.

Defcended from a rich and illuftrious family, colonel of a regiment of dragoons, which bore his name, as it had before borne his father's, he enjoyed fome degree of confideration before he had done any thing to deferve it; the reputation of the father being, as it were, reflected upon the fon. What the one had done in Hanover, was, through ignorance, attributed to the other, who was not then old enough to perform any memorable act. Nor was there much better foundation for the addition he made to his military reputation, by taking Spires, Worms, and Mentz; cities which, as every one knows, were not defended, and before which it was only neceffary for his army to fhew itself. The perfons who

excited fome furprife, was, in fact, no great facrifice; and was attended by confequences that exhibited him in no very favourable point of view. He had the misfortune to wound the honour of an officer of fmall fortune, who was a captain in his own regiment, and who demanded fatisfaction. Out of prudence, or for fome other reafon, Cuftines had the ftill greater misfortune to refuse it, or rather to promise it only on his return to France. The captain, in defpair, fhot himself. The ruin of this officer, who was much esteemed by his brethren in arms, excited fo much indignation in all the officers of the regiment, that they tore off the colonel's epaulettes upon the parade. The court thought proper to take no notice of this event; but it remained a terrible stain upon the character of Cuftines.

Several years after, on his return to
France,

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