eral arithmetick, both practical and theoretical; originally compiled by T. Dilworth, and revised and adapted to the currency of the United States, by D. Hawley. A new and corrected edition. Troy, New York. Obadiah Penniman & Co. 12mo. 1805.

An introduction to fpelling and reading, in 2 volumes, being the 1ft and 2d parts of a Columbian exercife. The whole comprising an easy and fyftematical method of teaching and learning the English language. By Abner Alden, A. M. Troy, New York. Obadiah Pennian & Co. December 1805.

War in difguife; or, the frauds of the neutral flags. London, printed : New York, re-printed by Hopkins & Seymour, for I. Riley & Co. &c. 1806. pp. 215.

The Salem collection of claffical faered mufick, in three and four parts, confifting of pfalm tunes and occafional pieces, felected from the works of the moft eminent compofers, fuited to all the metres in general ufe. To which is prefired, a fhort introduction to pfalmody. Salem, Massachusetts. Cufhing & Appleton.

The fafety of appearing at the day of judgment in the righteoufnefs of Chrift. By Solomon Stoddard, formerly pastor of the church in Northampton. 12mo. price 1 dol. Northampton, Maff. E. & 8. Butler.

1805.

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Έπεα Πτερόεντα, or the diverfions of Purley. By John Horne Tooke. In 2 volumes, large 8vo. from the latest London edition in 2 vols. quarto. The types and paper have been made for this work alone, and Saxon and Gothick characters, the first of the kind executed in the United States, have been caft at the expense of the publisher at the foundery of Binny & Ronaldfon. The plates, with which the laft edition was ornamented, have also been engraved for this edition by an artift of Philadelphia. Price 2,50 per volume, in boards. Philadelphia.

Lectures on the gofpel of St.Matthew, delivered in the parish church of St. James, in the years 1798,1799, 1800, and 1801. By the Right Reverend Beilby Porteus, D. D. Bishop of London. 8vo. Two volumes in one. The 2d American from the 5th London edition. ampton, Maff. S. & E. Butler. The new American Clerk's Magazine, Hagerstown, Maryland. Dietrick

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STATEMENT OF DISEASES,

FOR JANUARY.

THE weather, during the first part of this month was cold and clear. This was succeeded by milder weather, with rain and frequent snows. Afterwards, extreme cold, continued and heavy snow, rain with violent winds followed by a perfect calm, which has continued through the latter part of the month, attended with a thaw, and a very moist and foggy atmosphere. The last circumstances acter of disorders in the month of will very probably influence the charFebruary.

most prevalent; but even of these Inflammatory diseases have been the number has been small. Among children under three years, there has appeared a severe catarrh; in those above this period, peripneumony; in adults, pleurisy and peripneumony. All these diseases have yielded readily to the power of medicine. Very few instances of fever have occurred, and scarcely any of severe rheumatism. Apoplexy has been unusually com.

mon.

Editors' Notes.

AMONG the few bookfellers, who have tranf mitted to us for our notice or review the books which they have published, we mention with gratitude metfrs. Riley & Co. of New-York. We hope they will not accufe us of neglect in not having yet noticed any of the numerous volumes which we have lately received from their liberality, for in truth the pages destined to reviews, in feveral of our late numbers, have been en

tirely filled with materials, which we have had a long time on hand.

We have been much furprised at hearing, that feveral of our readers believed, that the remarks upon Rev. Dr. Holmes and Mrs. Warren, in the review of the Historical Collections in our laft number, were farcaftick, illiberal, and difrefpe&ful. We certainly never intended to convey fuck opinions, and we know that a critical analysis of the fentences in the review would not justify fuch a construction. Perhaps however we werd obfcure in the compofition, and perhaps fome of our friends were carclefs in the perufal. Wris ters are not always perfpicuous, and readers are not always intellectual.

We may reasonably suspect that, since Abdollatif was the first his torian, Abulpharagius had seen this passage, and has only commen ted upon and embellished it after his own manner. Abdollatif does not relate any of the circumstances which attended the destruction of the library; but what confidence can be placed in a writer who re lates, that he saw what we know no longer existed at that time? * I have seen, says he, the portico and the college which Alexander the Great built, and in which was contained the superb library." Now these buildings were placed in the Bruchion, and since the reign of Aurelian, who had caused them to be destroyed, that is to say, at least nine hundred years before Abdol latif, the Bruchion was no better than a barren wilderness covered with ruins.

Abulpharagius, on his part, places the library in the royal palace. The anachronism is equally appa rent. The royal buildings, being all in the Bruchion, could not have remained at that time. Besides, what signified the royal palace in a country which, for a long time before, had had no kings,and which had submitted to the emperours of the east ?

Vol. III. No. 2. H

As a story is not absolutely incontestible, because it is related by one or two witnesses, some have doubted this. Renaudot, in his history of the patriarchs of Alexandria, has shaken its authenticity by say ing, "this recital has something suspicious, as is very common among the Arabians." At length Querci, the two Assemani, Villoisin, Gibbon, and, in the last place, the author of the German dissertation, have all declared their disbelief of the fact.

Gibbon remarks, that two an nalists, both of Egypt, have not said one word of a circumstance so remarkable. The first is Euty chius, a patriarch of Alexandria, who lived there three hundred years after the capture of the city by the Saracens, and who, in his annals, has given a very long history of the siege and of the events which succeeded. The second is El-Macin, a very veracious writer, author of the history of the Saracens, and who particularly relates in minute detail the life of Omar and the taking of Alexandria. Is it to be conceived, is it credible, that these two historians were ig norant of a circumstance so impor tant; that two learned men, whom such a loss would have greatly in

terested, should not have made any mention of it; men, who lived, who wrote at Alexandria, and one of whom (Eutychius) at an epoch very near the event; and that we should have the first information from a foreigner, who wrote six centuries afterwards on the frontiers of Media?

Besides, Gibbon further observes, how could the caliph Omar,who was himself by no means an enemy of the sciences, have acted on this occasion against his own particular character, while he had only, to excuse himself from such an act of barbarism,the sentiment of the casuists of the Mussulman law? These declare (see the third volume of the Dissertations of Reland on the military law of the Mahometans) "that it was unlawful to burn the religious books of the Jews or Christians, on account of the name of God which they contained, and that the works of profane science, of historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied to the use of the faithful." This decision discovers no spirit of Vandalism.

To these reasons Mr. K. Reinhard adds his own. He remarks, that Eutychius in his annals (vol. ii. page 316) records the words of a letter, in which Amrou gives an account to the caliph Omar of the taking of Alexandria, after a long and obstinate siege. I have taken the city, says he, sword in hand, and without previous capitulation. I cannot describe to you the treasures it contains. Let it suffice to inform you, that I have found four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, forty thousand taxable Jews, four hundred theatres, twelve hundred gardeners selling vegetables. Thy Mussulmen demand the pillage of the city and a division of the soils. Omar, in his answer, dis

approves of this demand, and se verely prohibits all pillage and dilapidation.

We observe, that Amrou, in his official relation of his conquest, seeks, as is the custom in our days, to exaggerate its value and importance. He does not omit a bar. rack, nor a Jew, nor a gardener. How could he have forgotten the library? He whom Abulpharagius describes as a friend of the arts and philosophy? Could he have thought, that this celebrated and ancient monument was not of suffi cient value for him to have taken the trouble to render some account of it? El-Macin also records the letter

of Amrou, nearly in the same words; he says not one word of the library. It may be objected, that this letter was perhaps never written by Amrou, and that the two historians have forged it: but this would be an additional reason, why the library should have been mentioned, had it remained at that time. Would they both have omitted an article, which must have appeared of such vast importance in the eyes of learned men, inhabitants of Alexandria? Would they have prided themselves of appearing better informed on baths, and of kitchen gardens, than of the library? But if the letter be authentick, as its contents give us reason to believe, we must also pay some attention to the answer of the calif, who orders them to spare ev ery thing found in the city.

We may then without much hazard draw the conclusion, that the library of the Ptolemies no longer existed in 640, the time of the taking of Alexandria by the Saracens.

We will adduce still further proof, founded on two writers, nearly cotemporaries of Omar. One of them, John Philoponua

(whom Gibbon and others have confounded with John the grammarian, of whom Abulpharagius speaks), says, in his commentary on the Analyticks of Aristotle, "that in the ancient libraries there were found forty different books of the Analyticks." He does not expressly mention the libraries of Alexandria; but he lived, he wrote in that city, where they doubtless called the libraries by distinction, and he could not here speak of a ny others. We know beside,from Athenæus, Strabo, and Plutarch in his life of Sylla, that the writings of Aristotle had been very carefully collected for the library of the Ptolemies.

But if there still remains a doubt, let us consult the master of Philoponus, Ammorius Hermias, in his observations on the Categories of Aristotle. He lived at Alexandria,before the invasion of the Saracens. "Ptolemy Philadelphus (says he) has the reputation of having made great exertions to collect the writings of Aristotle, and to have liberally recompensed those who collected his productions, in consequence of which many fictitious copies were brought to him, and in the great library there were found forty different books of the Analyticks." It is very certain, that Ammonius and Philoponus both here refer to the Alexandrian library; that, which the former calls the great, being the same, which the latter denominates the ancient library. They both mention it as a thing which had been, and which remained no longer. We may even believe, that they allude to the library of the Serapion; for Philadelphus, who collected with so much care the writings of Aristotle, would doubtless have placed them among a collection which he originated,

and for which he had a great partiality.

If we consult natural probabilities, we shall find them against the recital of Abulpharagius and the existence of a library in the time of Omar and Amrou. The books of the ancients were written on parchment, or on leaves of the papyrus. Those of the library of Alexandria must have been particularly of this last kind, as the papyrus was an Egyptian plant. Now the leaves of the papyrus were very subject to dissolution and to insects, particularly in the warm and humid climate of Alexandria, so that it was necessary frequently to renew the copies. Can we believe, that all the necessary care could have been given to the pres ervation of such a library after the reign of the Ptolemies, in the midst of wars, of insurrections that prevailed, and during which the taste for sciences and letters, as we well know, declined? The manuscripts in parchment, which probably were not numerous,might have lasted a longer time; but all the others must have become, after two or three centuries, food for worms.

Abulpharagius does not determine the number of the books, which, according to him, were burnt; but, says he, they served for six months to heat the baths of the city, and we know that these amounted to four thousand. "Hear and wonder !" adds he. It is indeed an object of admiration; books, which heat four thousand baths, during six months. A wit might observe, that Amrou, having taken the city precisely in the month of May, there could not have been a great necessity of hot water in the baths of Alexandria. The vol umes or rolls of the ancients were not comparable to ours in folio,