unknown to the literary world. The Memoir concludes with fome anecdotes relative to the famous fiege of Calais, in 1346, which do little honour to the memory of Euftache de St. Pierre, and are, by no means, confiftent with the encomiums that have been lavished on him, on account of his heroic patriotism. Memoir on the following Question: Was there, under the French Kings of the First and Second Race, an Order of Citizens to which the Title of TIERS-ETAT, or Third Eftate may be applied? By

M. Gautier de Sibert..

The greatest part of those who have written concerning the ancient government of France, have not taken into their fyftem the idea of different ranks and orders of citizens. One fet of writers have maintained, that, after the conqueft, the Franks were all nobles, and the vanquished Gauls all (Serfs) flaves. Another is of opinion, that, at that period, they were all equally free, but without any diftin&tion formed by nobi lity. Both thefe exclude all idea of a third eftate, an intermediate order between the nobles and vaffals. Our Author acknowledges, that this denomination was unknown during the two first ages of the French monarchy; but the question is whether the thing did not exist, though the name was unknown? This question he refolves in the affirmative, and he proves his hypothefis in the following manner: he evinces, by a detail of facts and natural conclufions drawn from them, firft, that after the conqueft of Gaul by the Franks flavery was not the lot of the vanquished: fecondly, that there was, at that time, an order of nobility, diftinct from the clafs of free men who were not noble: and, thirdly, that these free men formed an order of citizens, to which the name of TIERS-ETAT, or third eftate is applicable. This was an intermediate order between the nobles and ferfs or vaffals. M. DE SIBERT grants that towards the conclufion of the tenth century, the kingdom of France contained, generally fpeaking, but two orders, that of the chiefs of feudal tenures and their ferfs or vaffals; but this ferSvitude was not fo ancient as the monarchy: it arofe, fays our Author, from a concourfe of circumftances and events, which have been carefully exhibited and combined in a work entitled, The Variations of the French Monarchy.

Critical Remarks concerning that Kind of judiciary Trial, that was commonly called WATER-ORDEAL, or the Trial by cold Water. By M. Ameilhon.

It is well known that in this abfurd trial of innocence or guilt the accufed perfon was thrown into the water, and, if his body floated upon the furface, he was convicted of witchcraft, and burnt; but if it funk to the bottom he was acquitted. In thefe trials it happened fometimes that the body floated; and this pretended prodigy was attributed to Satan, abfurdly indeed,

for

ervants.

For this was fuppofing Satan in oppofition to his moft zealous However that may be, a prejudice was generally. dopted, that forcerers were fpecifically lighter than other men, o that it became a cuftom, in feveral countries, to weigh thofe hat were fufpected of magic.-Thefe miferable phantoms of uperftition have been long difpelled; but the facts that certain bodies did really float upon the furface of the water duing thefe trials, has been too precipitately denied. Our Academician admits the fact, nay proves it; but explains it in a atisfactory manner by a natural caufe. The phyfiologifts are greed, that among the multitude of perfons, fubject to hyftes ics, vapours, and nervous complaints, there are feveral that Hoat on the furface of the water and cannot fink. Of this the ngenious French phyfician Pomme gives feveral inftances in his Traite des Affections Vapoureufes, and from hence our Academi cian concludes, that the pretended magicians and forcerers, who floated, when tried by the water ordeal, were perfons deeply af fected with nervous disorders.

Of the Theological Syftem of the Perfians; drawn from the Zenda, Pelhvis, and Parfis. By M. Anqueti! du Perron.

If we do not come at length at a complete knowledge of the religion and morals of the ancient Perfians, it will not be owing to the want of laboured, learned, and voluminous difquifitions. The Abbé Foucher employed many lucubrations upon Zoroaf ter and his doctrine, and covered a prodigious quantity of paper in exposing the errors and defects of Hyde; and the Memoir, now before us, is one of the moft bulky in fize and erudition that we have yet met with on this dark (at beft) ambiguous and cloudy fubject. The Memoir is divided into eight fections.

In the firft our Academician inquires into the doctrine of the ancient Perfians concerning the effence of the firft principle, and more especially the Unity, and endeavours to prove that time without limits is that firft principle from which all things proceed, that it is an active being, exerting itfelf conftantly in behalf of the creatures it has produced, and that it contains all thofe abfolute and relative perfections, that conftitute the effence of the fovereign Lord of the univerfe.

In the fecond he fhews, in oppofition to the affirmations of Brucker and the learned difficulties of Mofheim, that Zorbafter believed in its ftrict fenfe, the creation of all things, that is, the production of beings out of nothing-or without any pre exiftent or eternal materials. In the law of Zoroafter (fays the Eulma Eftam) it is pofitively affirmed, that God (Ormuzd) zoas created by infinite time, with all other things, and that without

emanation.

The fubjects of the third fection are the productions of the firft principle, fome of which have alfo a creating power, fuch as

Ormuzd

Ormuzd and Ahriman, while others, fuch as the firft light, the firft water, and the original fire, exercise their activity on things which already exift.-This fection is curious, but is not ful ceptible of a perfpicuous abridgment.

Still more curious things are exhibited in the fourth section; in which, and in the following, our Author, while he unfolds the Perfian theology, endeavours to point out the true fentiments of Zoroafter. The fubjects of this fection are-the production of the genii of the third order good and evil-their conflicts, the creation of the universe-an explication of the hypothefts of intermediate powers. In the Perfian doctrines mentioned in this fection there are many things that bear a fingular resemblance of doctrines more facred. We fee here tenets that resemble, in several particulars, the Mofaic account of the creation, and the peculiar doctrines of Chriftian theology, relative to the powers and operations of the WORD, the primitive purity and felicity of man, his fall through the feduction of the evil principle, the recovery of human nature, the refurrection of the body, and the reftitution of all things; but all thefe doctrines are interwoven amidst a multitude of fictions and fancies, fome philofophical and fublime, others mean, ignoble, and abfurd, and fome extravagant in the highest degree.

The combats between the good and evil genii-the creation of feuls and their immortality-the production of the firft bull and the firft man are largely related in the fifth fection. The fixth contains the farther combats of the beings produced by the two fecondary principles,-and the Miffin of Zoroafter, whose end and purpose was to render Ormuzd, the good principle, victorious.-The feventh relates to the refurrection of all bodies at the end of twelve thousand years (the duration of this world included) and the events with which it fhall be followed. There are noble and elevated ideas in this fection, though accompanied with a strange mixture of the extravagant and fantastic.

The eighth fection contains two parts: in the first our Academician inquires, Whether it can be proved by the acts of the martyrs in Perfia, that the Perfians under the dynafly of the Safamides were idolaters? and refolves it in the negative. He maintains that it does not at all appear by these acts, that the Perfians paid to creatures the honours due to the fupreme cause; and that these acts furnish feveral reafons to prove the contrary, as we see there that the ftars, the elements, and the other genii, were evidently placed in a perfect fubordination to the goct principle as his productions. In the fecond part he proves by the Zenda, that Mithra in the Perfian theology, was inferior to the Supreme Being, and a genius really diftinct from the fun, and here he has much oppofition to combat, fuch as the opinions of Eubulus, Hefychius, Suidas, Strabo, Cudworth, and Mofheim,

Mofheim, a paffage of Strabo, the oaths taken in the name of Mithra, the infcriptions and myfteries relative to that being, and yet he comes off with a fort of victory; how long he will wear his laurels is another queftion.

An Inquiry concerning the Time when Zoroaster, the Lawgiver of the Perfians and the Author of the Zenda Vefta, lived. By the fame.

After having examined, with attention, all that has been advanced concerning the time of Zoroafter by Briffon, Stanley, I Hyde, Buddeus, Prideaux, Moyle, Brucker, and the English Authors of the Univerfal Hiftory, as well as the ancient Writers of Oriental Hiftory and the Books of the Parfi, our Academician proves that this famous lawgiver and fage lived under Hyftafpes, the father of Darius, in the fixth century before Chrift. He afterwards refolves fome difficulties which have led feveral to place Zoroafter at a period of time many ages anterior to the reign of Darius; and he concludes this learned Memoir by explaining the feeming contradictions that we find among the Greek and Latin writers with refpect to the period in which this great man appeared. We think it fomewhat fingular that in treating this fubject he has not taken any notice of the labour that was beftowed upon it fome years ago by one of his brother-academicians, the learned and induftrious Abbé Foucher. This Abbé, in a long feries of Memoirs, gave an ample account of the religion of the Perfians, both in its ancient and modern ftate, and thefe Memoirs are worthy of attention in every respect *. Their Author acknowledges that there was a Zoroafter under the reign of Darius Hyftafpes; but upon the authority of Pliny he maintains that this Zoroafter was much lefs famous than a more ancient fage of the fame name, who lived under Cyaxares king of the Medes, reftored in the Bactriane the worthip of Fire, was revered by the Perfians as a celeftial prophet, and whofe extacics, prodigies, and revelations, Emade a great noife in the world. His account of the fecond Zoroafter, the Author of the Zenda, appears highly probable, and reconciles the Perfian and Grecian hiftories. He was (fays the Abbé Foucher) an apoftate Jew, a fubtle philofopher, an obfequious and dextrous courtier, who infinuated himself into the favour of Darius Hyftafpes, and his great defign was to reconcile the Hebrew with the Perfian religion by a mixture of the leading and effential doctrines of each, to revive the credit of the Magi, and to accommodate, by a proper colouring, the Jewish religion to the weakness and prejudices of the Medes and Perfians, by taking from it that exclusive character that rendered it offenfive to other nations, and mixing with it the vi

• They are inferted in the 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 30th, and 31 volumes of the work now before us.

fions and reveries of the ancient Zoroafter. This we think by no means a bad key to explain the fyftem of the Perfian theology, ancient and modern.

ART. II.

Hiftoire de Aronomie Ancienne, depuis fon Origine jusqu' à l'Etablifement de l'Ecole d'alexandrie.-The History of Aftronomy, from its Origin, down to the Foundation of the Alexandrian School. By Mr. BAILLY, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Pa. ris, &c. &c. 4to. 1776,

THIS valuable production deferves a particular degree of

notice from the folid erudition it contains, and the order, perfpicuity, and elegance of ftyle which reign in its arrange ment and compofition. The great objects of aftronomy are dif coveries relative to the ftars, the method of diftinguishing those that are fixed from thofe which are planetary, the afcertaining their places, defcribing their orbits, obferving the limits that bound, and the fmalleft irregularities that attend, their courfes, and a conftant attention to the various phenomena which result from the combination of their different motions. M. BAILLI having thus fketched out the nature of aftronomical science, proceeds, in his preliminary difcourfe, to point out the important ufes and purposes which this noble and delightful fcience is adapted to ferve. When aftronomy, fays he, has obferved the celeftial phenomena, and has thereby fixed the number and duration of thofe ages that pafs with an amazing rapidity, and seem to leave no trace behind them; when, by the obfervation of the heavenly bodies, it has difcovered the fize of the earth, afcertained the fituation of the countries and kingdoms it contains, and contributed to extend the influence and operations of trade and commerce to the remoteft parts of the world, it has only attained one of its great purposes ;-another ftill remains, which is, to furnish us with an explication of the celestial phenomena, to reunite the great variety of fubordinate caufes, which depend upon one fimple and univerfal principle, which prefcribes the law to all their motions. Thus proceeded thofe fublime fyftem-builders of ancient and modern times, who enriched fo nobly aftronomical science, with their obfervations and difcoveries; fuch as Hipparchus, Ptolomy, Copernicus, Tycho-Brahe, Kepler, Newton, Caffini, Bradley, &c.

After having, in the remainder of his preliminary difcourfe, confidered the ufual divifions of aftronomy, pointed out the utility of that science as an antidote to fuperftition, and as extending its direction to agriculture, chronology, geography, and navigation, he enters upon his fubject by confidering, in his first book, the Inventors and Origin of Aftronomy.

The