ing this revifion, and the Count's opinion of it. His prefent Majefty is alfo highly praifed for the protection which he gives to arts and sciences in general, and particularly to the academy of Berlin, of which he has made the Count DE HERTZBERG Curator. See an English tranflation of this MEMOIR in our Review, vol. 78. D. 534.

III. On the Univerfality of the French Language. By M. SCHWAB. Of this Memoir, which was written in German, we have an abridged French tranflation by M. MERIAN. It is divided into three parts. In the first and fecond, the author inquires into the caufes, that have confpired to render this language thus prevalent in Europe; and in the third part, he confilers whether it is likely to continue fo. On this subject, we have more than once been diverted by the effufions of national vanity, which will certainly not be diminished by this tribute of a German philofopher to the prejudices of the court of Berlin, in preferring a foreign language to that of their own country. We are very ready to allow our ingenious and volatile neighbours all the merit which they really poffefs; we give them credit for their progrefs in mathematics and natural philofophy; we admire the easy levity, with which they fkim the furface of things in the lighter parts of literature; and we willingly do juftice to every work, however trifling, which they may produce; but when, because their language is cultivated in most countries of Europe, they conclude that it is entitled to fuch preeminence, by its intrinfic merit, beyond that of any other nation, they muft excufe our failing at their egregious vanity. In gratifying this propenfity, M. SCHWAB is not fparing, though he does not forget to mention the local and political caufes, that have contributed to render their language generally prevalent. On one of thefe, which indeed reflects no great bonour on them as a nation, M. MERIAN thinks the author has not fufficiently infifted: this is the revocation of the edict of Nantz; in confequence of which, their language was carried into the various countries that afforded refuge to the exiled proteftants, and greatly diffufed by the writings of men of genius and learning among thefe unfortunate fufferers. What Horace justly afferted of the Greeks, M. SCHWAB has, in his motto, applied to the French; though their language is lefs calculated, than most others, for fublime poetry:

CIOUS.

GALLIS ingenium, GALLIS dedit ore rotundo
Mafa loqui.-

M. MERIAN's obfervations on the fubject are candid and judi He gently infinuates the inutility of the queftion, and reprehends the national vanity, which fuch difcuffions tend to folter.

To

To the diffufion of fcience, a modern language, generally underflood, is highly ferviceable; and from circumstances, entirely independent of any fuperior merit, the French is the most convenient for this purpofes and is therefore adopted by the academy, which, as a fcientific body, is, properly fpeaking, of no country.

IV. Concerning I. A. DE THOU. By M. WEGUELIN: fecond Memoir. This memoir contains a rapid, but judicious, fketch of the principal events and circumftances related by that hiftorian.

V. On the Periodical Courfe of Events. By the fame. By this expreffion, is meant a recurrent series of national and public events, which carry mankind back again to the point whence they fet out, and reftore them to their primitive condition, with refpect to their knowlege, manners, and focial advantages. M. WEGUELIN endeavours to prove that the notion of fuch a feries, which is derived from the regular revolutions obferved in the world of nature, is entirely without foundation; becaufe the various modifications of the character, opinions, and circumstances of mankind, in different gradations of knowlege and civilization, render the order of events, in the moral and political world, very different from the regular courfes of the phyfical fyftem.

After an

VI. On the political Vocabulary. By the fame. attentive and repeated perufal of this memoir, we find ourselves unable to comprehend its utility, or to difcover any thing in it, that repays us for our labour. The author's object is to prove that the political terms, Union, Society, Liberty, Public good, Republic, Monarchy, and Defpotifm, do not exactly correfpond with the nature of their objects: becaufe national union neither is, nor can be, like that of friendship between individuals; political focieties are different from private affociations; republics have not a community of property like the Spartans, &c. His difcuffion of thefe very interefting and important fubjects, is diffufe and intricate beyond any thing which we ever read.

VII. Supplement to the Memoirs concerning the Causes of the Diverfity of Languages, and the Origin of the German. By the ABBÉ DENINA. Of thefe memoirs, fome account is given in the Appendix to our feventy-fifth volume, page 489. In this fupplement, the Abbé adduces a great number of words, the derivation of which, he thinks, will confirm the opinions there maintained.

VIII. On the Character of Languages, particularly those of mo dern Europe. By the fame. This is one of the molt candid and judicious memoirs we have ever read on a subject, on which, from unavoidable circumftances, it is difficult to write and decide with impartiality. Exclufive of prejudices, either natural

or

or acquired, in favour of any particular nation, there is alway a fecret preference of that language, with which we are best acquainted; and we often imagine the greateft elegance and precision to be in that in which we have acquired the greatest facility of expreffing ourfelves: while other languages, perhaps of equal intrinfic merit, from our not having cultivated them fo early in life, or to fo great a degree of perfection, appear to want thefe advantages, merely because we cannot enter into thair spirit and idiom. Hence, alfo, we are apt to confound the ftyle of authors, with the language in which they write; and the taste of fome individuals, with the national genius and character. This is an error, of which M. DENINA accufes Count DE RIVAROL, in his differtation on the univerfality of the French language. Befide, as the Abbé well obferves, moft of thofe, who difcufs the merits of foreign languages, decide concerning them, fometimes from hearing them ill pronounced ; and often, either from the appearance of their orthography, or from general principles, which admit of many exceptions. Thus the Italians have a notion that the German language is intolerably harfh, becaufe thofe, by whom they hear it fpoken, come chiefly from provinces, in which a vicious pronunciation prevails; and because they fee that many words begin with feb or fchw; without reflecting that the fch of the Germans, like the Tfch of the Poles, is a fingle confonant, fcarcely more harsh than the z of the Italians. Thus, alfo, fome Frenchmen have concluded the Dutch language to be infufferably difgufting, incapable of any beautiful or elegant expreffion, merely because the diphthongs oo and or frequently occur in it. But these critics would do well to confider what awkward founds would refult from fome of the fofteft expreffions in their own language, if read according to the rules of the Italian, Spanish, or GerFor inftance, the words leurs beaux yeux, if read by a foreigner who was ignorant of the French pronunciation, would be transformed into the harmonious founds of Lé-ours Bé-a-ouT g-é oux.

It has been fuppofed, that the languages of cold countries are more haifh, than those of more temperate climates; but the Swedish language is fofter than the German; and of this, the pronunciation is much rougher in the fouthern, than in the northern provinces: the Polifh is very pleafing to the ear; and it has been obferved that, of all the modern languages, none fo nearly refembles the Greek, with refpect to melodioufnels, as the Ruffian.

The languages, which our ingenious author here examines, are the Italian, Spanish, French, German, and English; and after all,

See Rev. vol. Ixxi. p. 577、

he

me fays, it is difficult to determine which of thefe, has an abfolute or intrinfic fuperiority over the reft. With refpect to relative stility, the French, from the local fituation of the country, and From political circumftances that have rendered the ufe of it general, has an advantage, which, for thefe reafons, it will probably long retain.

ART. III.

Hiftoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, &c. i. e. The History and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, for the Year 1786; extracted from the Regifters of the Academy. 4to. PP. 799. Paris. 1788.

HE hiftorical part of this volume contains two reports T of the Commiffioners appointed to fuperintend the eftablishment of four hofpitals in Paris. Their first report, which gave an account of the abufes in the economy of the Hotel Dieu, was noticed in the Appendix to our feventy-eighth volume. The fame fpirit of philofophical benevolence, which we there admired, fhines with equal luftre in the reports before us. One of them contains an account of their obfervations on the economy of the charitable inftitutions of this kind in England, which they highly praife; and they propofe the Royal Hofpital at Plymouth, as the model for thofe which were to be eftablished in Paris. That fome of the moft refpectable characters abroad thus applaud and adopt our mode of relieving the diftreffes of difeafe and poverty, is a circumftance highly pleafing to us as Englishmen; and we hope it will infpire our countrymen with a generous emulation to render thefe benevolent eftablifhments as complete as poffible, by removing every imperfection that yet attends them, and cheerfully adopting every difcovery that may contribute to their improvement.

L

Under the article of Obfervations prefented to the Academy, we are informed that a letter had been received from the late M. DE VALOIS, dated from Mocha, by which it appears that this gentleman had found the northern inclination of the magnetic needle to be, at Cochin, 10 degrees, and at Mahé 9 degrees. M. MONNIER, the reporter of thefe obfervations, concludes that the most likely method to difcover the node of the magnetic meridian, or the point in which it interfects the meridian of the earth, would be to make obfervations in various parts of the Ethiopic ocean, near the coast of Africa.

We have allo an account of magnetism, communicated, by earthquake, to a fteel bar, which was fufpended by filk cord

For our account of the Memoirs of this Academy for 1785, fee the ift Article in our Appendix to the 79th volur. Review.

the magnetic equator; the direction of the earthquake was from eat to weft, and the end of the bar which pointed to the we became its north pole. A fimilar bar in the fame room, which was fufpended in the magnetic meridian, was not at all af fected.

This part of the volume is clofed with two Eulogies, the one of Dr. GUETTARD, a botanift and mineralogift, the other of the Abbé DE GUAY, F. R. S. a mathematician. The lives of ftudents are feldom interefting from variety of incident; but thefe panegyrical pieces are rendered entertaining by the eloquence of their compofer, and the ingenious fcientific ultrations which he has interwoven with them.

GENERAL PHYSICS.

A Fourth Memoir on Electricity, in which two principal Prototies of the Electric Fluid are demonftrated. By M. CoULOMS. In our account of M. COULOMB's former memoirs (vcl. Ixxviii. p. 612. 621.) we informed our readers of the principle on which his electrometer is founded; with this inftrument, be purfues his refearches, and, in the memoir before us, endeavours to eftablish the two following propofitions: I. That the electric fluid diffufes itfelf in all conducting bodies, according to ther figure (i. e. we suppose, in proportion to the extent of their furface), and does not appear to have any elective attraction, er affinity to one body in preference to another. II. That whea a conducting body is charged with the electric fluid, this is only diffufed over its furface, and does not penetrate into its interier parts.

To demonftrate the former of thefe propofitions, M. CorLOMB adduces two experiments, which, though made with much appearance of accuracy, feem to us, even by his own deductions, to prove nothing more than what has frequently been observed by others; that an infulated conducting body, when electrified, will communicate to another infulated conducting body, no electrified, and placed in contact with it, fo much of its electncity, as hall render them in equilibrium with respect to caca other: and that the celerity, with which this partition is made, depends, not only on the conducting power of these bodies, but alfo on their relative magnitudes, and the manner of their contact. Whether thefe two experiments are fufficient to establi the whole of the propofition which he advances, we leave to the determination of chemical electricians.

In order to prove his fecond pofition, M. COULOMB infulated cylinder of wood, of four inches diameter, in the furface of th.hich he had bored holes, each four lines in diameter, and the me in depth; a final degree of electricity being communi ated to the cylinder, an infulated piece of gilt paper, about a