the inkstand, but closes them again directly, and afterward dips his pen in it with the utmost exactness: when it has been removed without his knowlege, he continued to carry his hand and pen very rapidly to the place where it had ftood, till he came to the level of its height, when not finding it, he complained of the deception; and, opening his eyes, perceived the inkstand, and replaced it where it had ftood at first. From there, and feveral phenomena of the like kind, the commiffioners infer that, in this patient, the office of the fenfes is not, during fleep, fufpended with refpect to fuch perceptions as relate to the objects, concerning which his imagination is intenfely employed. In order to difcern objects, and to determine thofe accidents of relative locality, which memory could not fuggeft, he is fometimes obliged to open his eyes; but the impreffion thus received, however rapidly made, is fo lively, that it needs not to be repeated; for the idea is thus as diftinctly represented to his imagination, as if he continued to behold the object that excited it. Thus all his fenfes feem to be fubordinate to his imagination; to be, as it were, concentred in the object, concerning which it is employed, and to admit of no perceptions, except fuch as have fome relation to it. The commiffioners exprefs their disbelief and contempt of the pretences, made by fome, to produce fomnambulation by animal magnetifm; concerning which, their fentiments agree with thofe of the commiffioners of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Paris, to whose report they refer their readers. Sow. ART. XVI. CAR. LUD. L'HE'RITIER, Dom. DE BRUTELLE, Cornus. Specimen Botanicum, &c. i. e. A Botanical Effay on the Genus Cornus, containing Defcriptions and Figures of fuch Species of it as are little known. By CHARLES LEWIS L'HERITIER, Baron DE BRU TELLE, &C. Royal Folio. pp. 15. 6 Plates. Paris. 1788. OTANY cannot, by any means, be more improved han by monographical defcriptions. Linné, well knowing their confequence, has admitted many of them into his valuable collection, intitled Amanitates Academica; and in feveral parts of his writings, he points out the advantages which are to be derived from them. The genus, which is the subject of this effay, has been long known to botanifts and gardeners; but an elaborate defcription of it has not hitherto been given to the public; and it is on this account that the author, as he fays in the introduction, has undertaken to illuftrate it. He does not attempt a complete hiftory of the genus; and as the European fpecies are well known, and have been accurately defcribed by other writers, he is the more diffufe on thofe fpecies that have lately been found in America. The fpecies are, ift, Suecica; 2d, Canadenfis; 3d, Florida, 4th, Mafcula; 5th, Sanguinea; 6th, Sericea; 7th, Alba; 8th, Circinata; 9th, Striata; 10th, Paniculata; 11th, Alternifolia. The fpecific characters, fynonyms, place of growth, and du ration, are affigned to each; and very minute defcriptions, with elegant engraved figures, are given to the 2d, 6th, 8th, 9th, Ioth, and 11th fpecies. Obfervations and remarks are allo! added, fhewing the reafons for diftinguishing the fpecies, and pointing out fome mistakes of former writers. With respect to the ufes of this genus, the author refers his readers to other books for more particular information than that which he has given. He recommends a decoction of the cornas florida, as endowed with a febrifuge quality, not inferior to that of the chincona officinalis. The wood, he alfo fays, is used by fome modern Indians for arrows, as it was, formerly, in Italy: Volat Itala cornus Virg. Æn. ix. 698. CAR. LUD. L'HE'RITIER, Dom. DE BRUTELLE, &C. Sertum Anglican, &c. i. e. An English Garland, or Defcriptions of fuch rare Plans as are cultivated in the Gardens near London, especially those in the Royal Gardens at Kew. By CHARLES LEWIS L'HE'RITIER, Baron DE BRUTELLE, &C. Royal Folio. Paris. 1788. LTHOUGH we have received only a few fheets of this A work, we are induced to make an early mention of it, because the circumftances of its publication reflect much honour on the French nation in general, and on the cultivators of botany in particular. A learned foreigner, to whom fame had reported the flourishing ftate of gardens in England, came to vifit them, and contemplate the rarities with which he had heard they were filled. With the unwearied labour of fifteen months, he procured drawings of the most valuable and leaft known plants, not, fays he, without much admiring the gardens; which, both on account of the vast quantity of plants that they contain, and the induftry with which they are cultivated, juftly deferve the praise bestowed on them. The work is dedicated to the English nation, with the following compliment, which we give in the author's own words as a fpecimen of his manner of writing: Genti autem Anglica hoc plantarum fuarum fortilegium fpecia tim offero et dedico. In illos enim laus debet redundare e quibus profecta eft. Suadet etiam gratiffima animi recordatio quæ femper infra beneficium erit. Juvat enim prædicare, et meminiffe amo, quam omnes omnes me comiter exceperint; quam viri do&tissimi in explicandâ divitiarum ubertate, fe præbuerint faciles et commodos; quam ftudiofi præfertim homines artis botanica officiofam mihi operam navaverint. Accipiant igitur Angli botanici, iique foli, nova quæ in hoc opufculo defcripfi genera, nɔn ingratium, ut fpero, nec ignotum munufculum. Velint meo labori arridere; mihique liceat, ut hoc opus illorum nomine infignitum, et vere fplendidum teftetur gratum animum æternumque memorem.' The fheets which have been communicated to us, confist of thirty-fix pages; thirty-two of which contain the names, specific differences, fynonyms, &c. of the plants which are afterward to be defcribed; and the other four, minute descriptions of the firft two plants on the lift, with two plates. The plants Witheringia folanacea, and chloranthus inconfpicuus, are two new genera of the clafs tetrandria monogynia. The firft is a native of South America, and is named after Dr. Withering, of Birmingham, whole fuccefsful labours in the fcience are well known. It flowered first in Lord Petre's garden, and is now cultivated at Kew. The chloranthus, so called from the green colour of its flowers, was brought from China, by Dr. Lind, and is now in Kew Garden. R-m. ART. XVIII. Der Brabische Mentor, oder die Bestimmung des Menchen, &c. i. e. The Arabian Mentor, or the Deftination of Men. Crown 8vo. PP 379. Cleves. 1788. THIS HIS work, originally written in Arabic, was tranflated, in the twelfth century, into Hebrew; in which language it has been thrice printed. The laft edition was publifhed at Frankfort in 1741, under the title of Converfations between a Prince and a Penitent;' and from this Hebrew text, it is now tranflated into German. The Hebrew tranflator, Abraham Levy, a Jew of Alexandria, had added to the original, many poetical notes, which M. BERGHANS, the German tranflator, being himself no poet, has thought proper to omit. It is fuppofed that the work had been written in Arabic feveral centuries before the age of Mr. Levy, who made his tranflation in the year 1776. The author appears to have been well acquainted with the fcriptures, and the Platonic philofophy. By the learned, his work deferves attention as a literary curiofity; and by the unlearned, it may be read with edification as a book of piety and morality. Yet in Chriftian countries, the morality of this Arabian is familiar and trite; and in his performance, we find but little of what we chiefly wished to find, viz. circumftances characteristic of the author, or defcriptive of the manners of his age and country. We We learn that fome copies of this work have been imported, for fale, at the price of 4s. 6d. by Mr. Young, No. 11, Bridges-ftreet, Covent Garden. ART. XIX. Morale di Moisè, ad Ufo dé Principianti nella Lingua Italiana, &c. i. e. The Morals of Mofes, for the Ufe of Beginners in the Italian Language. Tranflated from the original French of the Viscount DE TOUSTAIN, by the Abbe CURIONI. 16mo. PP. 84, with Preface of 54. 2s. 6d. bound. Paris. HE neceffity of putting into the hands of his Italian Ticholas, a book that might be at once eafy, fuitable to their capacities, and fit for young perfons of different conditions, induced M. CURIONI to chufe what he deemed the fitteft for his purpose, from the French, in which language he found the prefent little work. The Morale di Moisè, is a very fhort abftract, or abridgement, of the Pentateuch; and may eafily be comprehended by children. It contains, at least, as much of the history as of the moral precepts of the great Hebrew legiflator; a circumftance of of which the title gives no intimation. R-m. ART. XX. Vom Geift der Ebräifchen Poefie. On the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry. individuals must be tried only by thofe laws, which they are fuppofed to know and acknowlege. This principle, which ought to form the bafis of all literary as well as civil judicature, is adopted by M. HERDER as the foundation of his criticisms; and he frequently reminds his readers of the injuftice, as well as the abfurdity, of eftimating the merits of Hebrew poetry, by a comparison with that of Greece and Rome; and of forcing it into a conformity with the regular productions of nations, and ages, more refined. To judge rightly concerning the Books of the Old Teftament, we muft go back to the age of the writers of them; we muft fuppofe ourselves in their circumftances; we muft adopt their ideas; and view men and things in the light in which they furveyed them. This, our author observes, is the only way to catch the spirit of their poetry, and to comprehend the true meaning of their expreffions. In the first volume of this work, the fubject is treated in a feries of dialogues; a form of compofition which we do not think well adapted to a topic fo extenfive. Of this the author feems fenfible, and, in the fecond volume, has diftributed bis remarks into differtations, This diverfity between the two parts of of the fame work, is rather a difadvantage to the whole, many excellent remarks being thereby deprived of that relative force and propriety, which they would have acquired from a more regular connection, and more judicious order of arrangement. In judging of the work before us, we must confider its writer, not as a theological, but as a poetical and philofophical critic. He makes no oftentatious difplay of rabbinical literature, and enters not into the minute difquifitions of verbal interpretation; but confiders his fubject in a light that renders it interefting to every reader who has a tafte for polite learning. In explaining paffages of fcripture, he furveys them merely in an historical view; and, by examining and abftracting the rhetorical and poetical language in which they are expreffed, he endeavours to afcertain the plain facts which they are defigned to tranfmit. In this process, however, he has fometimes taken liberties of which many of his readers will difapprove; and it muft be owned that, in a few inftances, his explanations are founded rather on plaufible conjectures, than on folid argument, In his first dialogue, he vindicates the Hebrew language from the objections ufually made against the ftudy of it; he examines its ftructure, and, from its abounding in verbs and verbal nouns, he argues that it is peculiarly adapted to poetry; the chief excellency of which is action and fcenery. This leads him to take a fhort view of its etymology; after which, he explains the conftruction of its poetry, and the parallelifm of fentences, which is peculiar to it. In the next dialogue, M. HERDER inveftigates the earliest opinions of mankind concerning the Deity, creation, providence, the angels, and Elohim. His ideas on thefe fubjects are truly philofophical; and he speaks of them with a dignity of manner, and fublimity of ftyle, that feem to be infpired by a deep fenfe of their importance. He expofes, with juft contempt, the abfurdity of those, who reprefent religion as originally derived from the terrors and apprehenfions of mankind. Thefe, he allows, may have been the fource of the fuperftitious notions and practices which were afterward introduced; but he maintains that the religious fentiments of the earliest times were liberal and fublime. As inftances of the exalted notions of the Deity, entertained by the patriarchs, and, by them, tranfmitted to the Jewish poets of later ages, he refers his readers to the ninth chapter of Job, and the 139th pfalm. M. HERDER is of opinion that the term Elohim was used, by the moft ancient Hebrew writers, to fignify intellectual and fpiritual beings; to whom, each in his respective sphere, they fuppofed that the immediate care of creation was committed by the Deity. They were, he thinks, confidered as a kind of Genii, or guardian fpirits, and of a rank inferior to angels. In fupport |