with their own happiness. For it avails little to fay, that some fovereigns have abolished the punishment of death in their dominions, if, perhaps, the punishments established in their room are more fevere, which may very easily be. We should fear for inftance, that the firft of the punishments mentioned in the following scale of our author if at all continued, would be too fevere for human nature. A fcale of punishment by means of imprisonment and labour, might be easily contrived, fo as to be accommodated to the different degrees of atrocity in murder. For example-for the first or highest degree of guilt, let the punishment be folitude and darkness, and a total want of employment. For the fecond, folitude and labour, with the benefit of light. For the third, confinement and labour. The duration of thefe punishments fhould likewife be governed by the atrocity of the murder, and by the figns of contrition and amend ment in the criminal,' One argument used by our author must apppear whimsical to those who do not happen to have heard that there have been actual inftances in America of fuch melancholy enthusiasts. It produces murder by its influence upon people who are tired of life, and who from a fuppofition that murder is a lefs crime than suicide, destroy a life (and often that of a near connection) and afterwards deliver them felves up to the laws of their country, that they may efcape from their mifery by means of a halter,' Dr. Rush concludes his pamphlet by expreffing his full belief of a progreffive ftate of fociety, and gives the following ftatement of its actual amelioration in the courfe of the last two centuries; a statement which we fincerely hope may not be contradicted by any of the powers, who at prefect manage the interefts of this our globe, The world has certainly undergone a material change for the better within the last two hundred years. This change has been produced chiefly, by the fecret and unacknowledged influence of Christianity upon the hearts of men. It is agreeable to trace the effects of the Chriftian religion in the extirpation of flavery-in the diminution of the number of capital punishments, and in the mitigation of the horrors of war. There was a time when mafters poffeffed a power over the lives of their flaves. But Christianity has depofed this power, and mankind begin to fee every where that flavery is alike contrary to the interefts of fociety, and the spirit of the gofpel. There was a time when torture was part of the punishment of death, and the number of capital crimes amounted to one hundred and fixty-one. Chriftianity has abolished the former, and reduced the latter to not more than fix or feven. It has done more. It has confined, in fome inftances, capital punishments to the crime of mur. der der- and in fome countries it has abolished it altogether. The influence of Chriftianity upon the modes of war, has been still more remarkable. It is agreeab e to trace its progrefs, ift. In refcuing women and children from being the objects of the defolations of war in common with men. 2dly. In preventing the deftruction of captives taken in battle, in cold blood. 3dly. In protecting the peaceable husbandman from sharing in the carnage of war. 4thly. In producing an exchange of prifoners, inftead of doom→> ing them to perpetual slavery. 5thly. In avoiding the invafion or deftruction, in certain cafes, of private property. 6thly. In declaring all wars to be unlawful but such as are purely defenfive. This is the only tenure by which war now holds its place among Chriftians. It requires but little ingenuity to prove that a defenfive war cannot be carried on fuccefsfully without offenfive operations. Already the princes and nations of the world difcover the struggles of opinion or confcience in their preparations for war. Witncis the many national difputes which have been lately terminated in Europe by negociation, or mediation. Witness too, the establishment of the conftitution of the United States without force or blood fled. Thefe events indicate an improving ftate of human affairs. They lead us to look forward with expectation to the time, when the weapons of war fhall be changed into implements of husbandry, and when rapine and violence fhall be no more. Thefe events are the promifed fruits of the gospel. If they do not come to pals, the prophets have deceived us. But if they do-war must be as contrary to the fpirit of the gofpel, as fraud, or murder, or any other of the vices which are reproved or extirpated by it.' Mifcellaneous Tracts and Collections relating to Natural History, jelected from the principal Writers of Antiquity on that Subječi. By W. Falconer, M. D. 4to. 73. 6d. Jewed. Cadell. 1793. THIS little volume is the refult of great labour, extenfive knowledge, and accurate refearch. We know the immenfe exertions it must have required, as we have laboured in fome of these purfuits, for our advantage, without expecting to reap the harveft, the fruit of another's toil. As we have thus laboured in the vineyard, we know the advantages of the attempt, and can judge of Dr. Falconer's accuracy. It is with pleasure that we can add our teftimony in his favour in each refpect. As we are, therefore, precluded from criticifm, we shall chiefly give an account of each tract from our author's preface. The The first tract is a calendar of natural occurrences, fuppofed, to have taken place in Greece, nearly in the latitude of Athens. The different columns mark the place of the fun, the corref ponding day of our own months, and the different plants, which come either into leaf, into flower, or ripen fruit at each period. An attempt of this kind was made by Mr. Stillingfleet, and published in his miscellaneous tracts; but the prefent calendar is more full and explicit. An ufeful addition is the cofmical, acronical, and heliacal rifing and fetting of, different stars and conftellations, which ascertain, with greater precision, the period of the events. This part is taken from Geminus; and the reft chiefly from Theophraftus and Ariftotle. The uncertainty of the real extent, and the particular, order of the Greek months, has led Dr. Falconer to adopt the English months. The reafons we shall transcribe: 1. The names and order of the Greek months are so much difputed, and fo doubtful, that it would have required a long previous difcuffion to fettle their places and denomination, a thing inconsistent with a work like the prefent. Moreover the year to which these months were adjusted, was either of the lunar kind, and confisting of 354 days only, or else fomewhat between the lunar and folar year, and containing 360 days; and probably both of them were in ufe at † different periods of time. The calendar, however, was fo incorrectly managed, and the commencement of the lunar year fo irregular (it beginning not at the time of the fummer folftice, but at the new moon fucceeding it, or perhaps the neareft to it, whether before or after) as to create great error in calculating feafons, or dates of natural events. 'Another reason of greater weight was, that the not made use of in calculating fuch occurrences. lunar year was Civil affairs §, fuch The names and order of the Greek months are both doubtful. The Lexicons give two and sometimes three fignifications to each month. Thus ExaToucan is rendered by Bumus, Aprilis vel Junius. Bondou, Junius, Auguftus et September. Hvave, October et Julius; and fo of the others. It is alfo doubted if Exagon be the name of a month, or only an epithet of a time of year. The order of the Greek months that feems moft agreeable to the ancient Greek writers, is that which is given in Spon and Wheler's Travels, and taken from an antique marble preferved at Oxford; and is as fol lows: ← Ex479μ%a1~v. Junius et Julius. rapha, December et Januar. Expog. Maius et Junius.' Selden, Apparat. ad Græcor. Epochas Chronologicus. Antus Lunaris à primâ Lunâ novâ post solstitium æstivum aufpicabatur. Ward's Greek Grammar. $ Civiles anni erant lunares, qui fcilicet feftis celebrandis, magiftratibus incundis, fuch as the celebration of* feftivals, the election of magistrates, the payment of falaries, intereft of money, and all civil contracts were indeed reckoned by the lunar year; but what regarded natural events, as the rife or fetting of t ftars or conftellations, the works of agriculture, the § flowering of plants, and the geftation of animals, together with all tranfactions that regarded the laws of na- · tions, as the duration of ¶ treaties, truces, &c. were reckoned by the folar year. A folar year, or the term of 365 days, is also understood to be meant whenever the space of an entire ** year is mentioned or a series of years. It has been the opinion of some †† ineundis, creditis, ufuris, ftipendiis, penfionibus folvendis, et id genus aliis, ftatis, temporibus, perficiendis aptati. Selden. Apparat. ad Græcor. Epochas Chronologicus. Ariftophanes pleasantly tells us, that these were fo irregularly managed, that the gods themselves did not know them, and that they menaced the moon with their refentment, because that by her uncertain notice of these convivial meetings, they were disappointed of their entertainment, and obliged to return hungry back to heaven. + See Calendarium Gemini -Petav. Uranologion. - Hefiod. Εργ. και Ημερων. 5 Χρη δε δηλονότι της μήνας & προς σεληνην αριθμείσθαι, αλλα προς ήλιον. Galen. Comm. Epid. 11. ** | Οι δε έπλαμενοι γίνονται εκ των ἑκατὸν ἡμερεων και εγδοήκοντα και δύω και προσον Tos Mogie.-Hippocr. de feptimeftri partu. • Ημισυ τε ενιαυτο και της ήμερης το μέρος τω μέρει πος γινομένω περιγίνονται ἡμέραι. Ibidem, Εν γαρ έξηκοντα, μιας δευσης ήμερης, εγγυτατα δυο μηνες εκτελούνται. Ibidem. See alfo Arilot. Hift. Animal L. VI. 20. It is remarkable that Hippocrates, who in divers parts of his work, the Epidemics particularly, has fo much occafion to particularife t mes and feafons of the year, never makes ufe of any of the terms by which the Greek months were distinguished, but expreffes his meaning either by the feafons, as fummer, winter, &c, or by the equinoxes or folftices, or by the rife or fetting of the flars or constellations. Induciæ, fœdera, et quæ funt, id genus, aliæ ten porum durationes. Selden Apparat. **Plato in his Timæus, after faying that a month is measured by the course of the moon, adds ενιαυτος δε όποταν ήλιος τον εαυτε περιέλθει κυκλον. Thucydides alfo, in fpeaking of the duration of the Peloponnetian war, ufes the words Αυτοδικαίτων διελθόντων, which the Scholiaft interprets to mean ten compleat or folar years. Themistius, likewife, speaking of the duration of the Trojan war, fys Ποσα χρονια δε το Ιλιον έαλως δεκα ετεσιν· τετο δε ετιν τοσαίδε περιφοραι των ηλικ Themift. Phyfic: L. IV. Macrobius afo fpeaks to the fame purpofe. Annum vetuftiffimi Græcorum Aunalavra appellabant TOY ATO TE luxy (id eft fole) Ba νομενον και μετρημένον. ff Antiqui Græci annum in duodecim menfes, pro totidem fignis in zodiaco, divilerunt; femperque novi menfis initium fuit, quando fol in novum ingrederetur fignum. Notæ in Theoph, à Bodæo à Stapel. p. 137. learned learned perfons, that the folar year was divided, as well as the lunar, into twelve months, each of which commenced at the entrance of the fun into the feveral figns of the zodiac, and this is confirmed by fome expreflions of Geminus, and particularly by the calendar. of that author above mentioned, which is actually divided in that manner; which divifion is preserved in the calendar here exhibited.' The next is a fimilar calendar for Italy, adjufted nearly to the latitude of Rome, taken chiefly from Columella. Ít is greatly enlivened, and rendered more interefting, by the infertion of correfponding paffages from the Roman poets; and, in the poftfcript, are fome obfervations refpecting storms in Italy. Tempeftas Dr. Falconar has tranflated ftorm; and it occurs very often in the calendar of the fummer months. Storins, however, happen often in fummer in these latitudes; and perhaps the facts he has adduced in fupport of this circumitance, may furnish fome entertainment to our readers. Polybius tells us, that in the first Punic war the Roman fleet was fo far deftroyed by a ftorm, that out of 364 fhips only eighty. escaped. This he attributes to the. obftinacy of the confuls in neglecting the advice. of the pilots, who cautioned them against going along the fouthern coaft of Sicily, as the fhore was too deep for anchorage, and afforded no harbour; efpecially too as the feafon was then the most unfavourable for navigation, the conftellation + of Orion being not quite paffed, and the Dog-ftar juft ready to appear. If we compute this according to the calendar of Geminus, which is nearest to the date of the account, and alfo nearer to the latitude where this transaction happened, it must have taken place on fome day between the fourth and feventeenth of July, the cofmical rife of Orion being mentioned on the 5th, and the rife of the Dog-ftar on the 16th. The calendar of Columella agrees nearly herewith; Orion being mentioned as rifing cofinically as late as the 10th, and the Dog-ftar is put down as rifing on the 17th. Geminus too in the calendar published in the prefent work remarks, that the 19th of July has been noted for tempeftuous weather at fea. Virgil likewise mentions that he had often feen great forms or whirlwinds § arife in Αλλος γαρ εσιν καθ' ήλιον ενιαυτος, και άλλος κατα συλήνην. ὁ μεν γαρ τε ήλιο, ὁ δὲ σεληνης ιδ' μηνών περιέχει a Αν ζωδίων έχει περίδρομην τα ηλιας όπερ εισιν ημέραι τζε Pdyb. L. 1. § 37 * Χε μων κατά θάλασσαν επιγίνεται. Gemin. Ca endar. § Sæpe ego cum flavis mefforem induceret a vis Sublime |