เ claded what the editor calls Non figlie naturali, ma folo adottive de Muratori, as Paulini Poemata, Miffale Gothicum, Sacramentarium Grsgorianum, &c. To the whole is prefixed, the Elogio di Lodovico Antonio Muratori, by Lami; as are alfo to each feparate work fhort literary notices, by the editor, M. Andrea Rubbi. In the fix volumes here announced, are contained the following works of Muratori: 1. Del Governo della Pefte, e della maniera di guardarfene; 2. Relazione della Pefte di Marfiglia; and, 3. Differtazioni fulle antichità Italiane ; in all 75, but of which the 33 only concludes this fixth volume. Ibid. ART. 39. Opere del Maffei. Tom. I.-V. 8vo. In Venezia. We are obliged to the fame editor for this re-impreffion of the works of Maffei, who has likewife prefixed to the first volume an Elegio di Scipione Maffei, by Ippolito Pindemmte, and to each particular work his own introductory account of it. In thefe five volumes are included, 1. De' Teatri antichi e moderni; 2. Arte magica dileguata ;. 3. Arte magica diftrutta; 4. Arte magica annichilata; 5. Della fermazione de' fulmini; 6. Dell'antica condizion di Verona; 7. Verona illuftrata; with an Index to this laft work. HOLLAND. Ibid. ART. 40. Hermanni Arntzenü 7. U. D. Gymnafii Gondani pro Rec tore, Epiftola critica de quibufdam Pindari Thebani Locis ad V. Cl. Jo. Ruardi, J. U. D. in Acad. Groningana Eloqu. Lingu. Gr. et Lui, et Antiq. Gr. Profefforem Ord. Utrecht, 1793. Large 8vo. It is generally known that the Epitome Iliados, of which a new edition has lately been published by Mr. Wernsdorff, bears in the M. S. the name of Pindarus Thebanus, though no fatisfactory reafon has yet been affigned for this extraordinary title. With refpect to the piece itfelf, we may however obferve, that the numerous tranfcripts of it ftill exifting in public libraries, fufficiently prove that it must formerly have been very much read. Of late, feveral eminent critics have likewife condefcended to employ themselves in the improvement of the text of this poem, particularly in Holland, Bondam, Van Dorp, and Van der Duffen, from whom, as well as from de Rooy, we were led to expect a new edition of it. By Mr. van Kooten, we understand likewife, that some progress has been made in the impreffion of fuch an edition. It appears that our author was not acquainted with that publifhed by Wernsdorff, though many of the fame emendations of corrupted paffages have occured to him; as, for inftance, p. 672, where he propofes reading Hinc Phrygas Ajacis, and 417, 281, 639, 690, 698, 699, 854, 945. Agreeably to the nature of fuch works, Mr. A. has allowed himself the liberty of felecting his own paffages, of dwelling on them for a longer or shorter time, as he might judge proper, and of digreffing occafionally to other writers. A confiderable part of this publication is likewife intended to point out the real, or meretricious, poetical beauties of the original, in which our author has thown no fmall share of taste and philological erudition. Among the emendations of paffages fuggefted by him, we approve more efpecially of thefe which follow, as v. 205, Potens fimul ordine Cuneus ire bis undenis tentabat in arma carinis, where, instead of ordine, he reads horrida-arma; Ovid. Metam. IV. 662, where, for æterno carcere ventos, he fubititutes heflernos; of se veral veral in Ampelius, particularly c. 15, Quas ftatuas ei pofuerunt in facie publica, in bafi e publico; and of one in Prifcian. Perieg. 666, where, in the place of Afcalapki regis, he propofes reading Axanthi ripis. It appears that the poet has been principally indebted to Virgil for his language, to which, however, the ingenuity of commentators has, perhaps, not unfrequently given better meanings than were intended by him. Vaderlandsche Letteroefn. ART. 41. Difcours fur l'Egalité des Hommes, et fur les Droits et les Devoirs qui en dérivent. Par M. Pierre Paulus, ancien Confeiller et Avocat Fifcal de l'Amirauté au Département de la Meufe, Membre de Sociétés Hollandoife et Zélandoife, des Sciences à Haarlem et à Flef jingue, de Littérature Hollandoife à Leyde, de la Société-provinciale d'Utrecht, &c. Traduit du Hollandoife. A Haarlein, 1794. If philofophers would deign to perufe this tract with the attention it deferves, they would be convinced that the doctrines inculcated in the Gofpel, which they have fometimes reprefented as incompatible with the plans they have laid down for the purpofe of promoting the happinefs of mankind, fo far from being fo, really involve thofe plans, leading us by the fame principles to the fame point, though by a path fo gentle and fafe, as is admirably calculated to contribute to the general felicity, without endangering the repofe, the fecurity, or the poffeffions of any individual. The immediate motive by which the tranflator was induced to render this effay into a language more generally known than that in which it was originally compofed, is ever likely to be, was, fays he, that the present and future legislators of other nations might become acquainted with the juft demarcation made by Mr. Paulus in the 2d chapter of the 2d fection, of the rights transferred by virtue of the focial pact to fociety, or the aggregate body of the affociation, and of thofe which individuals have still referved to themfelves either tacitly or exprefsly, as perfonal and abfolutely inalienable, and on which, being private and facred property, entrusted to their guardianhip and protection, the nation cannot lay hands without the most flagrant injuftice, and a formal infraction of that folemn contract by which the individuals fubmitted themfelves, in other refpects, to the general will, and the fupreme direction of the focial body. The author has more particularly combated the erroneous doctrine of Rouffeau on this important fubject, which he has shown to be not lefs falfe in its principles than dangerous in its confequences. ART. 42. De Bybel vertaald, omfchreven en door Aanmefkingen opgekeldert door W. A. van Vloten. VII. Deel. The Bible, tranflated, paraphrafed, and illuftrated with Annotations, by W. A. v. Vloten. Vol. VII. 722 pp. in large 8vo. Price 4 fl. 6 ft. Utrecht and Amfterdam, 1793. Ibid. In this volume are contained the author's new verfion of, and commentary on, the Three Books of Solomon, and the Prophecy of Ifaiah, As Mr. v. VI. appears to be intimately acquainted, not only with the original language of the Old Teflament, but likewife with the different exegetical, particularly the German, writers on the Bible, and to poffets, befides, most of thofe qualifications which are required in an expofitor of the Scriptures, we are forry that his merits in this department of literature are not more generally known. Ibid. GEOLOGICAL GEOLOGICAL LETTERS. LETTER V. TO PROFESSOR BLUMENBACH, By M. DE LUC. Birth of our Continents-Proofs of the Small Antiquity of this Epoch. Windfor, July 1, 1794. having been the bed of the fea; fo that the main object of every geological fyftem has been, for a long time, to explain," how the fea, after having been higher than our continents, comes now to be depreffed below them." 1. I have not, in these letters, reverted to that question, "whether this grand change that has happened on our globe has been produced gradually, or by a fudden revolution," because I have fully dif cuffed it in my Letters on the Hiftory of the Earth and of Man, where I have proved, as well in answer to those fyftems that are founded on the idea of gradual caufes, as in a general way, that the birth of our continents has not been gradual, but fudden; and this is what has been alfo eftablished by two of the moft diftinguished geologifts of this age, M. de SAUSSURE and M. de DOLOMIEU. But it remains to deter. mine, what this revolution was; and I proceed firft to cite fome facts, which clearly point out its nature. 2. We have feen that the entire mass of our continents is composed of ftrata, produced from the fea while it occupied this portion of the globe. Thefe ftrata, which we may every where trace without the poffibility of doubt, notwithstanding the various accidents they have undergone, extend every where down to the prefent fea, and at first formed the boundaries of its bafon. These I would call the continental fail. 3. As foon as the fea had changed its bed, the rivers were formed by the rains over the new continents, and arriving at the fea, began to depofit at their mouths the mud they brought down with them: the fea alfo, agitating the fand at its bottom, drove it towards its flores by the the action of the waves. From the effects of these two causes, new Lands began to be formed, which extended horizontally, and fucceffively took the place of the water near certain parts of the original coafts. These new lands are every where as diftinct from the continental foil, as a platform from the houses it furrounds; and their exiftence ferves firit to prove, that the level of the fea has had no tendency to rife fince it has occupied its prefent bed; for, in this cafe, it would fucceffively have overflowed the fediments that were depofited on its fhores. If, on the contrary, the fea had had a tendency to fink, the new lands would have a regular iope towards it, by which we might be able to measure the quantity of its depreffion fince it occupied its prefent bafon: but all the new lands, on every coaft, whatever extent they may have acquired, are fenfibly horizontal. This phænomenon then amounts to an abfolute demonstration, that the fea has undergone no change in its level fince it has occupied its prefent bed. 4. But before the fea occupied this bed, it covered our continents to a much greater elevation. What barriers could then retain it? They could not abfolutely be others than more elevated lands, which occupied the place which the fea now is; and we know evidently, from the quantity of the remains of vegetables and terreftrial animals, which have been buried in our ftrata while yet under the sea, that there did at that time exift fuch lands. Thus, in order that the sea should have retired from the furface of our prefent continents, other continents, which before ferved it for a barrier, muft neceffarily have funk, fo as to leave free the bafon it at prefent occupies. 5. This is a neceffary confequence of the above facts; and its evidence does not depend on determining how this revolution happened; but we fhall foon difcover it, by continuing to purfue the train of caufes established in my former letters, of which I fhall in few words recal to your recollection fuch parts as the subject requires. 6. The ftate of disorder, in which we find all our ftrata, can only be accounted for by confiderable and repeated finkings of the greater part of their mafs, at æras marked by certain traces. These finkings of the bottom of the ancient fea could proceed only from the fucceffive forma tion of caverns within, into which the increafing cruft of ftrata, from time to time, fell down. By this is to be explained that great phænomenon which has given birth to Geology, namely, the disappearance, at the exterior, of a great part of the liquid which formerly covered the whole globe, to a height exceeding our highest mountains. We have alfo found, in this difruption of the caverns, from whence iffued each time new elaftic fluids, the chemical caufe of the fucceffive changes in the precipitations that took place in the liquid, as well as of the co. temporary changes in the nature of the atmosphere, fo vifible from the hiftory of vegetables. Lastly, in the course of thefe operations, I have pointed out an epocha, when, while the liquid covered all the globe, a more rapid enlargement of the caverns under one portion of the cruft of frata occafioned its fudden finking; by which, added to the fimultaneous infiltration of a great part of the liquid in the interior part of the globe, the portion only which had fubfided, remained covered, and formed the firft fea; at the time that the part uncovered became ecame the first continents. Such are the facts I wifhed to recall to your remembrance; I fhall now proceed with the thread of this hiftory. 7. After this first revolution, the lands then produced were for a long time fafe from greater catastrophes, owing to their being exonerated of the weight of the liquid, which, at the fame time, could not make its way beneath them, except at their borders, which ferved as the confines of the fea. In the long courfe of catastrophes that happened to the bottom of that fea, fome of the liquid, from time to time, paffed under the land: but this infiltration was flow; and in proportion as it produced finkings of the mafs of loafe fubftances below, conéretions were formed in them, which gradually multiplied the props, as the cavities increased in fize and number; fo that the exterior cruft now refted only on a foundation to a great depth cavernous. Such was the ftate in which the ancient continents were at the period where I left thofe operations in my laft letter, conformable to the train of stated caufes, and traced through a series of characteristic monuments. 8. But at length, by fome new catastrophe at the bottom of the fea, a great portion of the liquid fuddenly penetrated into the lowest caverns under these lands, and there occafioned a fudden finking of the loose matter, even under the props, beneath the cavernous mass: this then began to tumble in; its demolition gradually extended quite to the exterior craft, the fall of which completed the deftruction of all thefe fupports of the caverns, by which, till then, they had been upheld; and the fea having no longer any barriers, flowed over this portion of the globe, where, in a little time, it fettled itself at the level we now find it. Such then was the cause of this revolution, of which, as we have juft feen, the nature was pointed out by decifive phænomena; and we shall fee it ftill further characterized, by what happened afterwards on the new-born continents. 9. I have faid in my preceding letter, that the laft precipitations that took place in the fea, while it occupied its ancient bed, were thofe that produced our beds of fand and other loofe matters, which cover the ruins of the ftony ftrata on our plains and bills. I will now add, that when the fea had changed its bed, it there continued for fome time, or at leaft renewed, the fame difpofition; by which its bottom became covered with a great quantity of fand. Hence arifes the great refemblance difcoverable between what we call the fea-fand, and the fand of fo many of our bills and plains; and this circumstance very well proves, as other naturalifts have obferved, that the fea has, at one time or other, covered all thefe lands; but this is not a folitary proof; it is connected with thofe that refult from the great heaps of bells and other marine bodies, found in fo many places in thefe fame ftrata, from the quantities of the fame bodies found buried in fome fpecies of flony ftrata, and from the catastrophes that all thefe Arata have fuffered in common together, while yet covered by the fea. It was not then (as fome geologifts had thought) owing to excurfions of the fea upon our continents, that we find them, in fo many places, covered with fand: it was precipitated there from the fea, at the time it covered our continents, and it is by fome continuation of that laft precipitation upon its new bed, that we find it covered with a great abundance of fand. 10. These |