with good fuccefs. That which is most novel in the substance of the dialogue, is the recommendation of what the author calls mental Speech, which means, that the perfon who intends to fpeak, should make a previous rehearsal within himself, rifing, and ufing proper action, but without articulation; ereploying only" the clear and ftrong perception of his own mind." The particular mode of doing this is explained in p. 15. Different methods, however, are adapted to dif ferent minds, and each perfon who defires to fpeak, muft, befides attending to the general precepts, exercise himself in that way which he finds most efficacious, for collecting his thoughts, and arranging his expreffions. This author feems well to have confidered his fubject, and writes upon it with difcernment and good fenfe. He fometimes ufes an affected word, as narrate, fuafion, &c. but lefs in the dialogue than where he fpeaks in his own person.

ART. 56. A Treatife on the Culture of the Apple and Pear, and on the Manufacture of Cider and Perry. By T. A. Knight, Esq. 185 PP. 12mo. Proctor, Ludlow; Longman, London. 1797.

This treatife is the refult of numerous experiments in the culture of the apple, and of experiments lefs numerous with regard to the pear. We are informed, that "no kind of apple, now cultivated, appears to have exifted more than 200 years; which term does not exceed the duration of a healthy tree" (p. 7). The conclufion, from many experiments, is," that all plants of this fpecies, however propagated from the fame ftock, partake, in fome degree, of the fame life, and will attend it in the habits of their youth, their maturity, and decay; though they will not be any way affected by any incidental injuries, the parent tree may fuftain, after they are detached from it" (p. 17). This is the author's favourite idea; and, doubtlefs, it deferves much attention from perfons converfant in orchards. The obfervations on the manufacture of cider, are acknowledged to be little more than a detail of the practice of the most skilful, in this matter, among the Herefordshire farmers, p. 93.

The poffcript, concerning agriculture in general, is one of the moft intemperate, and inflammatory invectives against tithes, which the illtimed avarice of landlords has lately uttered. It refts, after all, upon the fuppofition, that the excefs of our imports of corn beyond our exports, is a proof of declining agriculture. But Mr. Howlett has torrected this error. See our Review for February, p. 149. He must be not a little prefumptuous, who fancies that his fingle judgment is likely to be more accordant with the laws of the land, than "the decisions (as they are, with an unjuft fneer, called) of our most equitable Court of Exchequer" (p. viii). Of the mifchievous tendency of the remarks concerning Ireland, at pp xi, xii, perhaps the author himself is already convinced. Or rather, as those remarks are, in a confiderable degree, applicable to England alfo, he may be one of thofe, who would put themselves under the protection of France," in order to be exempted from the tyranny of our tithe-laws! We doubt whether are English farmer would go along with him.'.

FOREIGN

GN

FOREIGN CATALOGUE.

FRANCE.

ART. 57. Origines Gauloifes, celles des plus anciens peuples de l'Europe, puifées dans leur vraie fource: ou recherches fur la langue, l'origine, et les antiquités des Celto-Bretons de l'Armorique, pour fervir à l'histoire. ancienne et moderne de ce peuple, et à celle des Français. Par le Citoyen La Tour d'Auvergne Corret, Capitaine d'Infanterie. Paris, au Vme de la République; 340 pp. 8vo.

There muft certainly be fomething epidemic in the predilection for etymological difquifitions. After fuch a feries of predeceffors, we here meet with another Bas-breton, who undertakes to oblige the greater part of the inhabitants of Europe, and of Afia, to acknowledge the Celts as their original progenitors. That he should confider his own countrymen to have been originally Celts, is indeed very natural and just; we must likewife own ourselves indebted to him for the information which he has communicated in regard to fome particular ufages which still prevail among the defcendants of this people; they ftill wear trowfers bragou) intermarry with ftrangers, and have thicker crania than the other fons of men. More interesting to the hiftorian would be fome other notices, were they fufficiently to be depended on, and had they been the refult of accurate inveftigation. Such are the obfervations made by the author, that the Bifcayan language is radically different from his own; and that, on the contrary, the Arragonians exhibit a ftriking refemblance to the inhabitants of Lower-Britany, in their language, manners, and habits. Mr. La Tour had been an officer in the army of the Pyrenees, and was, according to his own account, on his return taken prifonner by the English, He had on this occafion an opportunity of remarking the agreement between the Welsh language and that of Lower-Britany.

All this is, however, of trifling moment, when compared with his other difcoveries of a very different defcription. According to our author, the Maffagetæ, Scythians, Sclavonians, Germans, &c. are all incontestably fprung from the fame Celtic mother; and he eftablifhes the truth of his pofitions by etymological deductions, against which, as our readers may themfelves be convinced from a few inftances, no reasonable objections can be urgued. The Maffagete derived their name from their ufual weapons, the club; the Umbrians, in Italy, ufed the fame arms, and the inhabitants of Lower Britany were hardly acquainted with any other mode of defence. It cannot, therefore, be doubted, that the Maffagetæ and Umbrians were both originally Celts. So again, p. 36, the Spartans had

thicker

thicker crania than the other Greeks, because they intermixed with the Celto-Scythians, p. 192. The Goths muft unquestionably be of Celtic original, becaufe, in the author's language, the word Corz fignifies ancient. In confirmation of this opinion, Mr. La Tour appeals to the authority of Strabo, for, in his apprehenfion, the Geta and Goths were the fame. The Saca, beyond the Cafpian Sea, muft, he conceives, likewife have derived their name from the Armorican word Sack (Sagum); of course, the Saxons were Sag fons, that is, Sacarum fili. To the Danes alfo, in their turn, the honour is attributed of being defcended from the Celts. Den fignifies a man, and march, an horfe; the compound term Denmark, therefore, denotes a men on borseback; now there are horfes in Denmark. In the fame manner we are to understand, that the Marcomanni were men on horseback, and that by Margrave is meant a general of horse. It might be worth while to fhow, with how great readinefs our author can cite the ancient claffics; for, contrary to the practice of his countrymen, he not only ventures to place notes under the text, but fometimes even prefents us with notes where there is no text; or to inform our readers, on his authority, that there is a poem, containing many Celtic fongs, in the Erfe language, called the Edda; or laftly, to prefent them with fpecimens of his own correct, and elegant, latinity, with which the work is occafionally embellifhed, as, for inftance, where he tells us, that Hungaria fic dieta eft ab Hunnibus; but even of a good thing one may have too

much.

ART. 58. La Politique d'Ariftote, ou la Science des Gouvernemens. Ouvrage traduit du Grec, aves des Notes hiftoriques et critiques. Par le Citoyen Champagne, Directeur de l'Inftitut des Bourfiers du College de l'Egalité. Tom. I, LXVII and 424 PP. Tom. II, 469 pp. 8vo. Paris. 1797.

A tranflation of Plato's Republic has lately appeared in France, in which would be found, contrary to the evident object of the undertaking, the hiftory of their own Ochlocracy delineated with a degree of exactnefs that may ferve as a warning to future times. Still more folid and appropriate information might have been derived from the Politics of Ariftotle, in which all the political experiments made by antiquity, with fo much expence and danger to themselves, are stated, arranged in the moft luminous order, and duly appreciated. This work prefents the refults of the most extraordinary induftry, employed in the collection of facts from the hiftory of upwards of one hundred and fifty people; and of not lefs wonderful fagacity, by which the author was enabled to reduce them to certain general principles.

The tranflator has been for fome time engaged in preparing a new edition of the Greek text, which, as we are informed in p. LIX, is nearly completed, though from the circumftances of the times, he does not expect that he fhall foon be able to announce his work: " fallu y renoncer," fays he, "car nous revenons à grands pas vers ce tems du treizième fiécle, où l'on difait chez nous : graecum eft, non legitur." He does not, however, entirely give up the hope of publifhing this edition, as appears from p. LXI, where he obferves that:

66 quant

"quant aux notes fur le texte même, je les reserve pour l'édition grecque je défire de trouver des tems plus heureux afin de la donner.” Befides all the best editions, Mr. Ch. has likewife confulted the tranflation by Le Roy (Paris, 1568), to the notes on which he owns himself to have been more indebted than to the verfion itself, which is too literal, and, therefore, often unintelligible. Of the greateft part of the diff culties, he found the folutions chiefly in Ariftoile himself. The Politics are founded on the Ethics; these and the Metaphyfics must be carefully ftudied by an expofitor of the Politics, if he wishes to ascertain the true fenfe of his author. The tranflator likewise acknowledges his obligation to the more recent, we believe often equally imaginary and dangerous, difcoveries of modern politicians. Je déclare, franchement," fays he, " que je me ferais cru incapable de traduire et d'interpreter la Politique d'Ariftote, fi je n'avais eu l'avantage d'avoir trois grands et profonds commentaires, que Le Roy et Heinfius n'ont pu confulter. Ce font l'Efprit des Loix, le Contrat focial, et notre revolution, le plus étendu et le plus inftructif de tous.”

The Introduction contains fome curfory remarks on the methed ob. ferved by Ariftotle, on the causes to which his obfcurity is to be ascribed, with an analyfts of the whole work, in which the connection between the feveral parts is pointed out; to each book is likewise prefixed a more particular account of its contents. What Ariftotle might likewife have naturally expected from his readers, but what cannot, in general, be looked for in the readers of the tranflation, is here fupplied. Thus, for inftance, to the fecond book, the object of which it is to oppose the principles of Plato, in regard to legiflation, is prefixed a view of his doctrine on that fubject, taken both from his books de Republica, and from thofe de Legibus; a tranflation of the remains, which are faid to have been preferved from the tables of Charondas and Zaleucus, being likewife fubjoined as a conclufion to the whole. But the promise made by Mr. Ch. in Tom. I. p. 371, to present his readers with a verfion of the Conftitution of Hippodamus, has not, we obferve, been fulfilled.

1

The tranflation, though formed on the French model, and therefore retaining but little of the natural fimplicity of the original, is, however, for the most part tolerably exact. Our readers will be able to judge of the author's manner, from his verfion of the following paffage, in the latter part of which it muft, at the fame time, be remarked, that the tranflator has fomewhat mifreprefented the fenfe of the original: "Il y a plus. N'eft il pas vrai qu'on reffent un plaifir in exprimable lorsqu'on peut fe dire: ceci eft à moi? Ce n'eft pas une illufion, que l'amour de nous-mêmes. Ce fentiment eft gravé dans nôtre ame par la main de la nature. L'égoïfme, voilà le genre d'amour qui eft justement décrié, parcequ'il n'eft amour de foi, mais une paffion defordonnée de foi, paffion funefte, qui entraine l'avare vers fon argent, et tous les hommes vers l'objet de leurs défirs." L. II, 3. So again in the defcription of Hippodamus, L. II, 6, p. 122, "Il porta une longue chevelure frisée avec art; il était révêtu l'hiver,, comme l'été, d'une tunique fuperbe, doublée de fourrures prétieufes," fcarcely one half of thefe traits are to be found in the Greek text. Hippodamus wore his hair long, contrary to the custom of orderly and fober perfons; and a fim

ple

ple garment (ions arks) which, even during the fummer, was made of a warm ftuff. That it was lined with furs, and that thefe furs were of the most expenfive kind, is entirely an addition made by the tranflator. That he has fometimes ufed ftronger terms than what the original authorized was, perhaps, chiefly owing to the impreffion made on him by fome recent events, as, for example, where he fays, L. V, 5, that " les démagogues par leurs violentes harangues ameutent contre eux (les riches) la claffe qui n'a rien,” Tè mandos imάyorres; or p. 22 (Tom. II.) "les gardiens de l'état flattaient baffement le peuple,” for εδημαγώγουν.

"The Notes are of two kinds. In thofe placed under the text, the opinions of Ariftotle are compared with those of modern writers; fuch as Rouffeau, Montefquieu, and Mably. To the end of each volume are annexed others of greater length, in which not only the peculiar expreffions of the author, but likewife hiftorical, literary, and antiquarian matters, are ably explained; while fome again are of a political nature, and intended to defend or controvert the notions of Aristotle. Upon the whole, we do not hesitate to say, that but few obscure paffages occur in this equally efteemed and difficult work, on which fome light has not been thrown either by the tranflation, or by the motes with which it is accompanied.

GERMANY.

ART. 59. Publii Terentii Afri Comoedia fex. Ad fidem optimarum editionum recenfita, (by Brunck.) II, 492 pp. in l. 4to. (Pr. 15 Rixd.) Bafil, 1797.

The celebrated author of this not lefs ufeful than fplendid edition, has, in general, followed the text of Bentley, not only in those paffages in which he had endeavoured to restore the genuine reading from MSS. and ancient editions, but likewife in thofe where he was obliged to have recourse to conjectural criticifm. He has frequently, however, not fcrupled to vindicate the common lection, or to prefer some of thofe fupplied by Bentley's MSS. Upon an accurate attention to the whole, it appears to us that no new MSS. have been collated for this edition, nor many new conjectural emendations fuggefted for the improvement of feveral ftill corrupt paffages; (for example, Adelph. IV, IV, 1-9; comp. Heimann de Metris, p. 187.) Confiderable, and, in our opinion, generally judicious alterations, have been made in the divifions of the fcenes; as, for inftance, Andr. III, I, 10, where a new fcene commences with the words, quod remedium nunc buic malo inveniam? In those changes likewife which depend on an intimate knowledge of the metre, the prefent editor has thown himself to be scarcely inferior to his predeceffor. We are forry, however, to obferve that, in fome refpects, the confideration of the accommodation of the reader has been facrificed to typographical elegance, inasmuch as the words are neither marked with metrical accents, according to the manner of Bentley and Reiz; nor is the number of verfes noted either in the margin, or at the top of the page. Jena ALZ.

ART.