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under circumstances that favour their generation. Thefe, he fays, chiefly occur in spring, after the grafs has, in fome degree, covered the ground, by which the dung is fhaded from the fun, or early in the autumn, after the hay-crop is removed. This laft is unquestionably the most convenient, and leaft objectionable period for the purpofe in queftion.

The MISSIONARY SOCIETIES of Scotland, in correfpondence with thofe of Eng land, are appearing to establish at Glafgow a feminary which is to be appropriated for the inftruction of perfons offering themselves for foreign miffions, in thofe parts of knowledge which are deemed indifpenfibly requifite to qualify them far the undertaking. A news-paper, in connection with thefe religious focieties, and exclufively devoted to moral and religious purpofes, has recently been fuccessfully eftablifhed in London, under the title of "The Weekly Regifter."

We learn that Mr. FRY has been favoured with numerous valuable communications, for his propofed Pantographia, which is intended to exhibit fpecimens of upwards of four hundred different alphabets, and oral languages. Notwithstand

Recent researches among the records in the Tower of London, and in the library of the faculty of advocates at Edinburgh, have difcovered fome of those ancient documents of the hiftory of Scotland, which were fuppofed to have been loft in confequence of the depredations of Edward I. and of Oliver Cromwell. It is not improbable but more may yet be found. Even the lift of the titles of a feries of charters of the twelfth or thirteenth century, is now neceffarily invaluing the terms of the fubfcription are alable, on account of the light which it is capable of throwing on the laws and manners of those times. A catalogue of fuch titles of charters, the first fruit of the new difcoveries here announced, has been juft published under the aufpices of Lord Frederic Campbell, by the learned William Robertfon, efq. keeper of the records in the register-office at Edinburgh.

ready fixed, the author has determined to
embrace every article w ich may be re-
commended as ferviceable to the cause of
literature, or gratifying to curiosity. We
are happy in being enabled to prefent our
readers with a fpecimen of this unique and
very promifing work, felected from that
part of it which is intended to exhibit the
early state of the Greek alphabet;

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O U I K X L J L M M MY

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and from right to left; as well as by the ftate of the Greek alphabet at that time: for we obferve that Simonides had not then introduced the ufe of the H for the long E, nor the 2 for the long O. Some time after the pillar had been erected, and most probably long after the town of Sigeum had come under the power of the Athenians, which happened about 590 years B. C. the firft part of the infcription was again engraven near the top of the pillar, with the H and 2; which, in the original, are fupplied by E and O, and where the H is ufed only as an alpirate, as in modern languages.

The authenticity and accuracy of the copies of the infcriptions relt on the molt fatisfactory evidence: they were first taken by a learned Greek, under the Direction of Dr. William Sherrard, the British conful at Smyrna; then by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Lille, Chaplain to the British Factory there, and fucceffor to Chihull; and again at Chifhull's requeft (when about to republish his account of this celebrated infcription) by the Rev. Barnard Mould, who fucceeded Dr. Lifle. The exact agreement between all these copies evinces the accuracy of each of

them.

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YEAR КУМ:АХОД
ΕΥΣΤ: ΕΑΝ ΔΕΤΙΠΑ2+
MIAANIMO

ΣΙΛΕΙΕΖ: ΚΑΙ ΜΕ ΠΟ
TAX:207021421
HATEV Фот

This is the original infcription; in the reading of which we fhould obferve that every fecond line is read from right to left; which manner of writing was called Belgopndor, as imitating the turn of the oxen at the end of each furrow. This union of the European and Eaftern manner of writing in the fame piece, was rarely ufed after the time of Solon, who probably adopted it, to give his laws an air of antiquity. We cannot imitate the manner of writing, without types caft on purpofe, which appears to be unneceffary, as the original is given.

From the accuracy and beauty of the fpecimens given above, we venture to prefume that this performance will be compleated in a manner highly gratifying to the learned world. We earnestly hope

indeed, that the public encouragement will amply keep pace with the great exertions of the ingenious author.

In a Voyage into the Belgic Countries, published not long ago by the celebrated FORSTER, the author, fpeaks of the fcarcity of wood of every kind and efpecially of that for fuel, with which Europe is threatened. He imputes the growing evil to the great and almost fudden wafte of this valuable neceffary of life, and goes fo far as to fay, that unless immediately and effectually checked, it will ftop the progrefs of civilization, and fruftrate the efforts of reafon and philofophy in ameliorating the condition of mankind in Europe. However well or illfounded thefe apprehenfions may be, they appear to have excited the attention

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France and the Low Countries to fo deferving an object. Complaints have been made of the profufion of wood confumed in the public offices of France, for which no better reason can be given than that the afhes (now rendered doubly valuable on account of the quantity of falt-petre manufactured in every part of the republic) are the perquifites of the officekeepers.

A very novel phenomenon we obferve

in the French book trade. From the extraordinary scarcity of ready money prevailing in the republic, the bookfellers in general are ruined, or at leaft unable to make purchases of manufcripts; and the few who have money, prefer applying it in the funds, where they can gain an intereft of forty per cent. for fpecie. The confequence is, that foreign bookfellers repair from diftant countries to Paris, to purchase the copyright of the most valuable French writers, and they could not enter into a more profitable fpeculation. Thus Mr. VIEWEG, of Berlin, has lately purchafed and imported into Germany, the copyright of "Mercier's New Picture of Paris," in four volumes, a work that contains a number of interefting effays; it is reprinting at Berlin, and a tranflation into German is preparing, by Citizen CRAMER, now at Paris.

There is now in the prefs, at Weimar in Germany, one of the most valuable and extensive works that has appeared for a number of years, in the department of literary hiftory, entitled, "The Univerfal Repertory of Literature, from the Year 1791 to 1795;" being a continuation of the former Repertory from 1785 to 1790, in three volumes, quarto, one of which is already published, the fecond to appear in Eafter, and the laft at Midfummer; the fubfcription price of the whole, eight Saxon dollars, or about twenty-eight fhillings fterling. It confifts of a fyftematic regifter of all the critical, general, or particular journals, of any value, and refpectability, published in Europe during this period; of an alphabetical index of all the books that have appeared within the fame time, together with their prices, and likewife of the individual treatifes and Effays contained in periodical works, with regular reference to the "Syftematic Register;" and of alphabetical tables of the principal fubjects treated of in the different claffes of books, according to the following fyftematic arrangement. 1. Theology. 2. Juridical and statistical literature. 3. Medicine, including physics, chemistry, and natural

history. 4. Metaphyfics and education. 5. Mathematics, including naval and military tactics, economy, arts, and manufactures, and the commercial sciences. 6. Hiftory and geography. 7. Criticism and the Belles Lettres. 8. The hiftory of literature, general and particular, including mifcellaneous works; and, 9. An univerfal alphabetical index of books publifhed in this period, with the prices, to which is prefixed a portrait of Dr. HERSCHEL. For the accommodation of purchafers, each of thefe nine departments is to be fold separately.

The arts of every kind, whether liberal or industrious, appear to meet with every encouragement in France at this time; that of printing feems in full activity. The C. C. DIDOT and HERHAN have gone beyond our logographic attempt: they have inftituted what they call stereotype printing, i. e. the form to be printed off is compofed of folid pages. They are not caft in a mais, but firmly cemented or foldered together, after they are compofed, fo as that no part may be loofened by the action of the prefs or the adhefion of the paper. We can easily conceive that the text may thus be preferved more perfect from the ordinary accidents of printing; but it is not fo certain that the economy of the art will receive any advantage therefrom; fince it must of neceffity employ a vaft additional quantity of metal, and the folid forms must be very liable to be defaced. There will be a faving in paper undoubtedly; as fo much need not lie on the fhelves of the bookfeller, but till the total of the advantages and difadvantages are taken into the account and fairly balanced, we fhall hefitate to pronounce this novelty in the art an improvement.

Profeffor FAUST, of Buckeburg, in Weftphalia, ftands, at this moment, in a confpicuous point of view. Of his various philanthropic works his " Catechism of Health" is faid to deferve a place among the first elementary books, But his favourite plan, and which occupies him at this moment, is the entire extirpation of the fimall-pox. He confiders it as a fimple epidemic disease, whofe duration and prolongation are the effect only of ignorance in the people, and indifference in governmeuts, and that it ought to be made to disappear like the leprofy. He points out the way by which he conceives this daily fcourge of the human race, faid to fweep away one twelfth of the population of Europe, may be removed. fhort, the profeffor is defirous to perfuade

In

the

the legislature of the different ftates of Europe, that by a confentaneous act of authority they might decree the extinction of the fmall-pox as easily as France decreed the abolition of royalty. J. C. G. JUNCKER, profeffor of medicine at Halle, and the poet REINEIKE, have feconded the humane views of Profeffor FAUST in his laudable defign; they have together in concert prefented three_different addreffes to the congrefs at Raftadt, upon the neceffity of taking general measures againft the fmall-pox: C. LENZ has also presented one of a like tendency to the French Directory: it is therefore probable at least that an experiment may be tried how far the hope will be realized of extinguishing this loathfome and frequently fatal disease, and with it doubt lefs, as the means cannot be more difficult, the mealles. Profeffor JUNCKER has formed a fociety of more than a hundred and fifty phyficians, German, Dutch, and Swifs, who have folemnly engaged unitedly and perfonally to employ all their energy for ftopping the ravages of thefe pefts of the younger age*.

There has been published at VENICE, a work of fome importance in the fcience of OPTICS, by a philofopher, whofe name is AMBROGIA FUSINIERI. Its object is to prove, that the refiftance of the refracting Media, and by no means the laws of Newtonian attraction, can alone account for the phoenomena of the refraction of light.

In their hopes of Oriental empire, the French have been induced to apply, with extraordinary zeal, to the ftudy of the living languages of the caft. The Perfan, the Arabic, the Turkish, and the Armenian languages form a particular courfe of instruction, which is taught at the NATIONAL LIBRARY in Paris by a different profeffor for each language.

The French, as was announced in the laft Monthly Magazine, have formed a national inftitute at Cairo. In the uncertainty and the difficulties of their prefent fituation in Egypt, this inftitution can scarcely appear otherwife than ridiculously premature. And yet we cannot but view with respect a scientific and literary activity, of which the ardour is not to be repreffed, even by fuch hardships as thofe of the Egyptian expedition of the

The Cow Pox, which continues to be practifed by fome of the principal phyficians in London with unvaried fuccefs, will, perhaps, effect more towards eradicating the Small Pox, than all the well meant projects of the German profeffors.

French. The lift of the members of this. inftitute contains, among others, the illuftrious names of Monge, Bauchamp, Berthollet, Dolomieu, and Denon. The following questions were proposed at their first meeting: 1. How improve the flructure of ovens for the preparation of bread to the army? 2. To find a fubftitute that may be used instead of barley in making beer? 3. What are the best means for clarifying and cooling the waters of the Nile? 4. Are wind or water mills the more fuitable for ufe in Egypt? 5. What are the fitteft refources to fupply the French army in Egypt with gunpowder? 6. What is the prefent ftate of legiflation in Egypt? and how may it be ameliorated? 7. To produce a plan of general regulation.-At the fecond meeting of this inftitute, Andreoffy, one of its members, reported, concerning the article of gunpowder, that Egypt had always received its fupplies of fulphur from Venice, that its charcoal was fupplied from the burning of the stalks of the lupine, that, however, faltpetre is fufficiently plentiful in Egypt, where it is found both in native veins and also manufactured, as in Europe. The faltpetre of Egypt he farther reported to be à nitrate of potash, and not like the French faltpetre, nitrate of lime; the stalks of Turkey corn are ufed in its preparation, and it is purified with white of eggs. The gunpowder is manufactured by workmen who remain naked while they are at work. It is of an excellent quality, and cheaper than gunpowder is in France. The Egyptian gunpowder was formerly an article of exportation to Leghorn. The Beys poffeffed no large magazines of gunpowder. At the third meeting of the inftitute of Cairo, Berthollet read a memoir on the formation of Ammoniac; Sulkowsky read a description of the road from Cairo to Salehieé; fome converfation took place on the subject of mills, in which water-mills were concluded to be the fittest for ufe in Egypt. Berthollet read an account of the analyfis of the gunpowder of Cairo, in which he fhewed it to contain only of faltpetre, and to be, as to its other ingredients, a mixture, of fulphur, charcoal, earth, and muriate of foda, which requires to be lixiviated anew before it can be fit for ufe; Monge read a memoir on the monuments of antiquity in Cairo, in which he propofed that a particular vafe of granite, covered with hieroglyphics, fhould be fent to France.

32

The literature of GERMANY is ftill fo much more under the influence of men of

trade

trade than of men of genius and science; and its ancient fpirit of laborious compis lation ftill retains fo much of its wonted afcendency, that extracts, abridgements, and compilations from the fucceflive, new literary productions, continue to fill a very large proportion of that multitude of volumes with which the German prefies inceffantly teen. The French narrative of the voyage of M. de la Péroufe; thofe details which were communicated in the English newspapers concerning the African travels of Mr. Mungo Park; a French publication by the brothers D'Arbois, on the ifles of Corcyra and Ithaca, and on the Egean fea; Waaftrom's thort account of the colonial establishment of Sierra Leone and Boulama, on the western coast of Africa, have excluded almost all other articles of importance, from the two lateft numbers which have fallen into our hands, of one exceedingly refpectable German journal.

By the progrefs of events in the Turkih dominions, and by the late defcent of a Ruffian fleet through the Black Sea, the attention of the inhabitants of Germany appears to have been, in a particular manner, turning upon thofe parts of the globe. We find in a recent number of a German periodical work a very curious hydrographical memoir, concerning the navigation and the coafts of the Black Sea, which has been produced to gratify this temporary curiofity. The publication of a valuable German map of the Black Sea, with great and important alterations, was announced in our laft

number.

That spell of myfticifm which involved the writings of KANT, and to those who delight in the unintelligible, proved their best recommendation, now begins, in fpite of the extravagancies of his pupils, to be gradually difpelled. KANT perceived the reafonings of Malbranche, Berkley, and Hume to have rendered the belief of the reality of things, material or spiritual, incompatible with the old metaphyfical doctrine,--that ideas are the only medium of communication between the human mind and all other things. He was anxious to give a new ftability to the first principles of human knowledge. For this end, he diftinguished all our knowledge into the two claffes of (1.) primary, original, perhaps innate knowledge, which must be poffeffed and believed before we can make any progrefs in obfervation and rentoning; and (2.) experimental knowledge, founded upon that which is primary, and difcoverable by reasoning and obfervation.

The former it is, in his opinion, an indifpenfible law of our exiftence, to be lieve, without demanding thofe proofs, of which it is, by its nature, unfufceptible. The latter is never to be received by the mind without the most rigorous difcuffions of reafoning. KANT's primary knowledge is equivalent to the knowledge of fentiment in the Savoyard Curate's Confeffion of Faith, by ROUSSEAU,to the First Truths of BUFFIER,-to the Common Senfe of REID, BEATTIE, and OSWALD,--to those inflints and fenfes which are fo multipled in the writings of Lord KAIMES. His experimental knowledge, which every perfon recognizes, as acquirable by reafoning, observation, and experiment. But, KANT, in expreffing his doctrines, was led to use the technical language of Wolffius, of Leibnitz, of Burgerfdicius. He himself delighted, like Ariftotle, to speak in the language of abftraction and generalization; religiously avoiding the inaccurate terms of common life and hence arifes the greater part of his obfcurity. Emulating Bacon, he withed to comprehend all human knowledge in his arrangements. In the attempt he was obliged to invent new terms, and to apply to objects, many new definitions, the very accuracy and truth of which give them often an air of odd and uncouth peculiarity. Like the late Dr. Hutton of Edinburgh, he seems to have accuftomed himself to meditate much more than he read and hence he fails to employ with eafe the language of books. He has certainly often erred in ranking among the primary principles of knowledge, truths, which are but fecondary and experimental; nor are thofe reafonings always juft, from which he deduces thofe which he accounts to be truths of experiment. But he is, undeniably, a great man, and the first metaphyfician in Germany. It is in this light that KANT's philofophy is now viewed among his fellow-countrymen. Thofe who would understand his works ought to be, firft, familiarly converfant with the metaphyfical writings of Locke, Hume, Reid, Condillac, Leibnitz, Wolffius, and Bacon, otherwife they will read KANT in vain.

:

The favourite feats of German literature are till Leipfig, Gottingen, Jena, Weimar, Hamburgh, Berlin, Vienna, Frankfort. Thefe places, either as eminently commercial, as the feats of univerities, and the refidences of men of letters, on account of particular establishments of printers and book fellers, or for other reasons, have become to the litera

ture

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