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From thefe, and other confiderations, equally judicious and conclufive, our Academician fhews the fophifts and feeptics of our day, that if they love mankind, and wish to promote their well-being, they fhew their love and zeal in a ftrange manner, fince it is impoffible to make their fellow creature a more pernicious prefent, even with refpect to their happiness in this world, than the inftructions of atheism and infidelity.

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But what do you mean (fays our Academician, to render the dilemma complete) when you tell us that you love mankind; pity their mifery; and are defirous of inftructing them in matters that concern them effentially? Such language in your mouths is the moft fenfelefs jargon that can well be imagined. What is man, whom you are so much concerned about in your fyftem, and in your estimate of human nature? He is a mufhroom-the infect of a fleeting moment-who fprung from nothing, and is returning to nothing. The affociations of men, their plans and fettlements, are fimilar to what pafles on an anthill, and their pleafures, pains, hopes and fears, are no more than modifications of a tranfitory dream, which is called Life.Why then do you trouble their dream, with your dejecting fophiftry, when you have nothing real to give them in its place? Leave them peaceably in the ftate in which they are, if it be lefs unfupportable than that which you prefent to them. When the galley-flave gets into a temporary flumber, in which fancy places him at a delicious repaft, is it not an act of cruelty to interrupt his dream, and to awaken him from the pleafing delufion? he will foon enough return to the fight of his galley, and the labours of his oar.-To Beings who are born to die, and whofe life is fo fhort and mixed as ours is, no fuch effential fervice can be done, as to encourage them in their paffage through human life with the hopes of immortality, and to animate them to duty by the profpect of a future ftate of retribution and reward: and he that opens the abyfs of anihilation to mortals in this ftate of labour and trial, ought rather to be confidered as the deadly enemy, than as the gracious benefactor of the human fpecies-We recommend to our Readers M. de Luc's excellent Difcourfe on this fubject, in the first volume of Letters Philofophical and Moral, &c.

M. FORMEY obferves, that the perfons, who affume the character of thinkers, and confider themselves as capable of inveftigating truth, form two diftinct claffes. One clafs is compofed of those who fay, We have difcovered new truths, and we mean to publish them.-The other claís is compofed of the heads and rulers of the community, who answer, Ye have only invented errors, and we prohibit their propagation The former raife, on this, a great outcry, and fay, We groan under the yoke of oppreffion, and, inflead of argument, authority and power

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are employed.-Our Author fteps in between the two parties, and by conciliatory ways and means endeavours to check the fpirit of tyranny and perfecution in the one, and of rebellion and infolence in the other. What he says to the thinkers comes, effentially, to this: Gentlemen, authority and power cannot render a bad argument good, nor can they render a good argument bad yet what is there in authority and power, that fhould hinder truth and justice from being on their fide? The rulers of the people have the privilege, and may have the capacity of thinking, as well as you;-and they are especially intrufted with the peace and happinefs of the community, which is not your cafe. It is therefore very fingular, that, if certain opinions may endanger or promote the well-being of their fubjects they who are intrufted with that well-being, and clothed with authority to maintain it, fhould be deemed incompetent judges of fuch opinions, and that you, who have no fuch charge and no fuch authority, fhould decide and act in fuch a weighty matter, without any restraint In matters of a civil and temporal kind, that perfon, who maintains himfelf provifionally in his profeffions, until a decifive, peremptory, and conclufive fentence is pronounced ag anft him, is allowed to act juftly :-transport this method of reafoning to the great conteft between religion and irreligion, which is likely to continue always depending, and fee what will be the conclufion! Why fhould they, who maintain the cause of religion, who are perfuaded of its happy influence on manners and on public felicity, and have establifhed it as one of the principal fupports of legislation, and as preventing a multitude of evils, to which the influence of human laws cannot extend, why, I fay, fhould they permit your invafions and outrages; and that, when the goodness of your caufe is, to speak in the mildest terms, far from being afcertained? if, oppofing a religion, which is profeffedly founded on argument, and is only supported by authority, you aim at the eftablishment of a civil government which renounces the protection of a Supreme Being, and rejects the fuccours of religion; you have only to withdraw to other regions and other climates, where you may found ftates, and govern them according to your fancy: but you must not think yourselves authorized to difturb fyftems of government actually established, by propagating principles which evidently tend to their fubverfion. You have not, on your fide, the voice of the people, which, alone, could give you a fpecious pretext to unhinge the conftitution under whofe protection you were born, whofe advantages you have enjoyed, and to whofe laws (ot confequence) you are obliged to fubmit. You fay, your doctrines are truths:

your rulers fay, they are errors-who fhall judge? The people, in general, whatever may be their rights, will not judge

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for themselves, and fince they will be led, it feems much more rational, and more conducive to the public good, that they fhould be led by their rulers, than by every innovator who ufurps the name of a philofopher.'

We have here given the fubftance of M. FORMEY's reafoning: thofe who defire a more ample illuftration of his principles, will be fatisfied by recurring to the original paper, which, it is poffible, may be publifhed feparately, as hath been the cafe with many of his academical pieces.-We hall only tranfcribe the obfervation which concludes the prefent Memoir: it is as follows: The grand fecret of legiflation, and the basis of all good government, confifts in maintaining with one hand, a pure and plain fyftem of religion, adapted to form men to the practice of every virtue, and to confirm them in the obfervance of every duty, and to crufh, with the other hand, fuperftition, fanaticifm, and infidelity, when they attempt to DOGMATISE.'But, under the pretence of this crushing, what milchief has not been done to mankind! What have they not fuffered from the horrors of perfecution!

V. Memoir. Concerning the Problem of Molyneux; the VIth Memoir. By M. MERIAN. By M. MERIAN. We have formerly * feen_how differently this famous Problem has been folved by different perfons, and what refpectable names are found on the oppofite fides of the queftion. Molyneux and Locke maintained, that the man born blind, however accustomed to handle the globe and the cube, during his state of blindness, would not be capable of pronouncing, by mere infpection, when he recovered his fight, which of the two objects was the globe, and which the cube. Bishop Berkley came to the fame conclufion, but he arrived at it by a different road from that in which the two great men already mentioned had proceeded. Our Academician looks upon the principles on which Berkley founded his folution, as much more folid and philofophical than thofe of Locke and Molyneux. If he affirmed, like them, that the man born blind would not be able to diftinguish the globe from the cube by his fight when he had recovered it, he did it upon this principle, that the fenfes of fight and touch have nothing in common, and that there is no point of refemblance in the fenfations they produce. The illuftration and proof of this theory form the fubject of the prefent Memoir.

Vi. Memoir. Concerning different bodily Conflitutions, and their different Effects. VII. Mem. Concerning the Influence of natural Caufes upan the Conftitution. By Doм. PERNETY.There is nothing either new or uncommon in these two Memoirs, which contain, nevertheless, a judicious compilation of

* See Rev. vol. Iviii.

P. 539.
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what has been hitherto published on the fubject. Hippocrates, the author of the Philofophy of Nature, and the author of a book, entitled, Of Man and Woman, confidered phyfically, in the State of Marriage, are the principal fources, from whence our Academician has drawn his materials.

VIII. Memoir. Concerning a Metaphyfical Problem. By M. CASTILLON. This Problem was proposed to M. de Castillon by one of the most celebrated Members of the Academy of Berlin, and it is expreffed in the following terms: "Either the "number of ideas in the Divine Mind is finite or not :-if it is "not finite, then there exifts actually an infinite number of "ideas, which is a contradiction: if it is finite, then there is "an infinity of ideas, or fources of knowledge, of which the Deity is not poffeffed :-For example; if we calculate the "motions of any given number of bodies, we can always add to that number, even without end; confequently "besides the number of bodies of which the ideas exift in the Divine Mind, there will be, on the fuppofition, "an infinity of other fyftems which the Deity does not per"ceive."- -We have met with many proofs of M. CASTILLON's profound knowledge in metaphyfics, natural philofophy, and mathematics; but in his condefcending to folve the Alimfy problem now mentioned, we have a fignal mark of his complaifance and meeknefs: this paltry problem, however, which folves itself, has given the candid and learned Academician an opportunity of regaling the lovers of metaphyfical difcuffion with feveral judicious obfervations relative to the knowledge of the Divine Mind.

BELLES LETTRES.

1. Memoir. Confiderations on Homer. By M. BITAUBÉ. Thefe Confiderations will add little or nothing to the ftock of knowledge which, our claffical Readers must have already acquired with refpect to the Grecian Bard. Much noife has been made in the controverfy about Homer's learning, which fome have exalted beyond measure, while others have gone into the oppofite extreme. M. BITAUBÉ, in our opinion, treats this part of his fubject with judgment, intelligence, and the erudition that was neceffary to throw light on the matter. It is certainly in modern times only, that a proper eftimate has been made of the learning of Homer. From the Platonics, who in their philofophical fuperftition refpected the fables of antiquity as the receptacles of myfterious Wifdom, down to Mr. Pope, whofe excellent judgment did not exempt him from all exaggeration here, the learning of the immortal Bard was too high rated. Modern critics, fays M. BITAUBÉ, have contributed much to put him in his true place, and have fhewn, that the art he poffeffed the moft, was that of ftriking the imagination, and touching the heart, Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged,

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obferves our Academician, that Homer was one of the most learned men of his age; which may be true, without faying much for his erudition. It is certain that his Iliad and Odyffey have tranfmitted to us all that we know of the ftate of the arts, morals, legiflation, &c. among the Greeks at that early period.

II. Memoir. Concerning the Patriarch Photius. By M. WEGUELIN. II. Memoir. A Differtation concerning the Electoral Septemvirate. By M. de FRANCHEVILLE. This Differtation, divided into Three Memoirs, is defigned to prove, that the institution of the feven ancient Electors of the Empire was owing, not to Otho III. as hath been fuppofed, but to Otho IV.; who settled this bufinefs in the year 12c8, at the diet of Frankfort. Be it fo.

ART. III.

Nouveaux Memoirs de l'Academie des Sciences et Pelles Lettres de Berlin. Anneé 1778 8. 4to. Printed at Berlin.

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HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY.

HIS volume begins with the Eulogy of Voltaire; of which we gave an account in a former Review *, with the refpect that was due to its royal Author, and the freedom which is an inviolable privilege in the republic of letters. The other articles, worthy of notice in the hiftorical part of this volume, are as follows:-Obfervation of a total Eclipfe of the Sun, made June 24th, 1778. By Don ANTONIO d'ULLOA.-A Defcription of the Uranometer, an Inftrument, newly invented, which produces an Effect equal to that of a quadrant of a radius of fixty foot. By M. SILBERSCHLAG. The conftruction of this curious inftrument would be fcarcely intelligible, without the plates, which the Author has here fubjoined to his defcription of it. To thefe he has added the folutions of fome important problems, to fhew with what facility and accuracy the moft difficult aftronomical operations may be performed by means of this inftrument.-Obfervation of a particular Variation of the Barometer. By M. ToALDO, Profeffor of Aftronomy at Padua.-Natural philofophers are generally agreed, that the action of the moon produces, in our atmosphere, tides analogous to those of the ocean, but have denied that the effect of fuch an alteration in the weight of the air, as thefe tides muft occafion, can be obferved in the barometer. Of this number is the celebrated Abbé Frifi, as appears by his learned Treatifes de Gravitate et de Cofmographia. The acute Philofopher who now addreffes us, having calculated this alteration of the weight of the air, and having found it equivalent to of a line in the barometer when produced by the action of the fun, and to 43 when produced by that of the moon, concluded that this vari

* Vid. Rev. Vol. Ix. p. 67 and 144.

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