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Beau, as Secretray to the Academy) we find the fubftance of two Memoirs of M. de BURIGNY, concerning that Tafle for the marvellous, of which the Greek and Latin Hiftorians have been accufed. The other Memoirs which are abridged in this part, are as follows:

A Memoir, concerning the religious, civil, and political Notions of the Ancients with respect to their Hair, and the Beard. By M. GOUTIER de SIBERT. Thefe two objects feem to be of little confequence; but when customs depend upon fentiments and manners, or upon, religious and political fyftems, they may deferve attention, as connected with the hiftory of human nature; and it is under this point of view that they are confidered by M. GOUTIER. He has collected, from a multitude of volumes, all that has been faid upon these two subjects; so that antiquarians and philologifts, as well as hair-dreffers and barbers, will find here ample food for their curiofity. The beard feems to have been more unanimously respected in ancient times than long hair, though it appears fomewhat furprising, that while philofophy was treating it with the moft profound veneration, Scipio Africanus fhaved himfelf without fear or fhame every day. Long hair was but an equivocal object of esteem: when it hung, in filth and flovenly negligence, upon the fhoulders, the fathers of the church treated it with regard; but when it was clean, neat, and graceful, it became an object of ecclefiaftical cenfure; and when highly ornamented, both philofophy and theology anathematized it with feverity, as a symptom of effeminacy, or a mark of reprobation.

Memoir. Concerning the political State of the Gauls, when they were conquered by the Romans. By M. de BURIGNY.

Concerning the Life and Medals of Agrippa. By the Abbé le

BLOND.

Illuftrations and Conjectures concerning fome ancient Roman Laws. By M. BOUCHAUD.

Refearches concerning the City of Lamia, its Inhabitants, the Malians, and fame of their Medals. By the Abbé le BLOND.

Illuftrations concerning fome Medals of Lacedemon, Heraclea, and Mullus; defigned as an Answer to the Memoir of the Abbé le Blond. By M. DUTENS.

Inquiries concerning the Art of Diving among the Ancients. By the Abbé AMEILHON. From fwimming, which this learned Academician treated in a preceding volume, to diving, which is the fubject of the prefent Memoir, the tranfition is natural; and fome will be surprised to find this latter art carried to fuch a degree of improvement as it was in ancient times, if the hiftorians do not exaggerate. Our Academician points out, first, the fervices which divers rendered to the public: he fhews, afterwards, how far they excelled in their art; and he enumerates, in the third place, the different means they made ufe of to fa6 cilitate

cilitate the exercife of their profeffion, and to avoid the dangers to which they were often expofed. Our Academician tells many wonderful ftories of the ancient divers, who were employed on a multitude of occafions, among others, to carry intelligence to and from befieged cities, and even to put trouts clandeftinely on Mark Antony's hook, when he was angling with Cleopatra, as Plutarch relates.

An Examination of the Opinion of J. Godfrey, concerning the Ceremony of conferring Liberty upon Slaves, as performed in the Churches.

OBSERVATIONS on the Hiftory, Records, and Monuments of Cæfarea in Cappadocia. By the late Abbé BELLEY. Thefe Obfervations relate to the geographical fituation and antiquity of the city in queftion, to the fertility of its territory, its government under its own kings, and under the Romans, its religious worship, temples, feftivals, facred games, medals, revolutions, and its prefent ftate.

A Difcourfe concerning the Paffion of Gaming, in different Ages. By M. DUSAULX.

Obfervations on a MS. in the King's Library, which contains the Songs of the TROUBADOURS of Swabia or Germany, from the End of the 12th Century, to the Year 1330. By the Baron ZURLAUBEN. The hiftory of this Manufcript, and a defcription of the figures with which it is ornamented, as relative to the cuftoms and manners of the time, form the contents of this first Memoir.

Indication of a Manufcript which furnishes fome historical Details concerning Robert Count d'Artois. By M. DACIER.

The hiftorical part of this volume is concluded by the Eulogies of the following deceafed Academicians, compofed by M. DUPUY; Meffrs. Fontette, Bignon, and Duclos, the Abbé de la Bletterie, the Earl of Chesterfield, Meffrs: la Nauze, and Capperonier.

XVII-XXI. Memoirs. Concerning the Phoenicians. By the late Abbé MIGNOT. In these five Memoirs, the learned and voluminous Academician pours forth a profufion of erudition upon the government and different revolutions of Phoenicia; and treats, allo, very amply, concerning the laws and the military forces of the Phoenicians, their cities, edifices, domeftic life, marriages, and dress.

Obfervations concerning certain Points, relative to the Religion and Philofophy of the Egyptians and Chinefe. By M. de GUIGNES. This Memoir is defigned to prove that, generally fpeaking, the Chinese were indebted for their knowledge to the Egyptians, and were in the groffeft ftate of ignorance and barbarifm before their intercourfe with this latter people. The learned Academician proves, moreover, that it was not from the Indians, to whom an

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extravagant antiquity is attributed by fome, that the Chinese received their civilization. The following learned and important Memoirs illuftrate farther this curious point of erudition.

Hiftorical Refearches concerning the Indian Religion, and the fundamental Books of that Religion, which have been tranflated from the Indian Language into the Chinefe. By M. de GUIGNES. Thefe curious refearches are contained in Three Memoirs. In the first we have the hiftory of the establishment of the Indian religion in India, Tartary, Thibet, the ifles of the ocean, and in Japan; and in the second and third, an account of its eftablishment in China.-There is nothing more difagreeable to an ardent inquirer, than the contradictory accounts which our (for the moft part ignorant) travellers have given of the Indian religion. Our very learned Academician has therefore ftruck out a new path to come at more confiftent and fatisfactory views of this fubject, and he has illuftrated it by a multitude of facts, hitherto abfolutely unknown, which he has found where few would expect to meet with them, even in the books of the Chinefe. As 1700 years have elapfed fince the establishment of the Indian religion in China, it was natural to consult the annals of the Chinese on this fubject. And here he was informed, not only that the Indians brought with their religion into China, a prodigious number of their books, which were tranflated into the language of that country, but that the Chinese, who on many occafions, travelled into India, always brought back with them books, which, learned Indians, who were numerous in China, tranflated alfo into the Chinese language. Thefe facts authenticate the fources from which M. de GUIGNES has derived his information. This information feems to us curious enough to justify our laying before our Readers a fummary of the principal matters it contains.

It appears then that the person who civilized and inftructed the Indians was Chekia-mouni, who was the founder of the philofophical fect of the Samaneans, and whofe birth is placed by fome in the year 1122, by others in the year 1027, and by others fo far down as the year 688 before Jefus Chrift. Before Chekia-Mouni, the Indians were in a ftate of grofs ignorance, and the Brahmines atteft that they received all their knowledge from the Samaneans. If we fix the birth of this legiflator, even at the first of the three epochas above-mentioned (from which the Bagavadam dates the establishment of the Indian empire), it is certain that civilization and fcience flourished, more or lefs, in other nations before that period. It appears from the accounts of Herodotus, that the Indians were civilized but flowly and fucceffively, and from the records of the Chinese, that the empire of Siam dates the earliest principles of its origin from the 4th century of the Chriftian æra. The Chinese

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taught, about this period, the inhabitants of Siam to build houfes and cities, and the Indians brought thither their books, and their religion. The peninfula of Malaya (the Aurea Cherfonefus of the ancients) was feized upon, in the fourth century, by an Indian Brahmine, who eftablished in it the laws and religion of his country; and it was, alfo, by the Brahmines, that a powerful kingdom was formed in the Ifle of Ceylan (the ancient Taprobana) which, though frequented long by the Greeks, Romans, and other Western nations, for the purpofes of commerce, had not a fingle city in the time of Eratofthenes, i. e. about the middle of the third century before Christ. The Chinese books mention alfo feveral other ifles in the Indian ocean, fuch as Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, where the Indians transplanted their religion, but in a late period. The Japanese, who carry the foundation of their monarchy as far back as the year 660 before the Chriftian æra, acknowledge, that they derived their arts and fciences from the Chinese; but as they were not acquainted with the letters and books of this latter people, before the year 286 of the Chriftian æra, we cannot date higher the real eftablishment of the fciences among them. The Indians carried with them their religion from China to Japan; where, however, it was not firmly established before the middle of the fixth century. As the Japanese make ufe of the Chinese letters, they were furnished with the Indian books that were tranflated in China. All this fhews, that the countries, eaft of the Ganges, were civilized flowly, and in a late period; and we have no proof, that, in any period, they carried the arts and fciences fo far as the Chaldeans, Phoenicians, and Egyptians, who had cultivated them long before.

As to the Tartars, they were always barbarouЛly ignorant, more especially while they continued in their own country, of which we have no hiftorical records. Writing was unknown to them fo far down as the Chriftian æra. By their frequent conquefts in China, they had occafion to make fome improvement in knowledge, and they availed themselves more or less of this opportunity, while they were mafters of that country; but no fooner were they driven from thence, into their native land, than they returned to their primitive barbarifm. About the year 162 before Chrift, fome hords of Tartars marched towards Bactria, and from thence entered India, where they fettled, and embraced the Indian religion. This religion was established in the very centre of Tartary, about four centuries after this, i. e. about the year of Chrift 572; and then many temples were built, whofe ruins, together with those of the fortreffes, which the Chinese had erected in that country, are veftiges of which certain chronological fyftem-makers have availed themselves, to prove monuments of the most remote antiquity.-Such Proofs !

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The annals of Thibet prove the barbarism of that nation about the commencement of the Chriftian æra (what are they yet?), when they were inftructed in the Indian religion by Samtanpoutra, a native of Thibet, who went into India, and brought from thence religious books, and other materials of knowledge for the inftruction of his countrymen.

These researches of M. de GUIGNES, form the contents of his First Memoir, and they are terminated by a Summary of the doctrines of the Indian religion.

The principal contents of the fecond and third Memoirs, which relate to the establishment of the Indian religion in China, are as follows:-It was only fo far down as the year 207 before Chrift, that the Chinese (who were at that time civilized and inftructed in the two diftinct religious fyftems of Confucius and Lao-tfe) made great and extenfive conquests towards the Weft. In the year 126 before the Chriftian æra, their armies advanced as far as Bactria, where the fucceffors of Alexander had founded a kingdom of Greeks, whofe power extended to India, and contributed to fpread the fciences there. This is the first time that the Chinese (as we learn from their own records) heard mention made of India, on occafion of certain merchandifes, which they faw in Bactria; but it was only in the 65th year after Chrift, that they were fully inftructed in the Indian religion, by the means of Indians, who brought into China one of their facred books, which is now in the French King's library. This book was tranflated into the Chinese language, and was followed by more, in procefs of time, introduced by the Indian Samaneans, who were the priests and teachers of that religion, which many of the Chinese embraced, while it attracted but little the attention of their fovereigns, who were indifferent about every kind of external worship. About the end of the third century, the fecret books of that religion, which were not communicated to the people, even in India, were brought into China, but not without much difficulty, by Indian doctors, who lived in a kind of monaftic_community, and tranflated these books (of which M. de GỤ GNES gives here an account) into the Chinese language. Temples were built, and monafteries were erected for both fexes, and the Indian religion, and these connexions between China and India, contributed to the progrefs of aftronomy among the Chinefe, who, in the year 440 of Chrift, had not as yet falien upon any exact method of obferving and calculating. They derived fome light in this fcience from a Samanean doctor, as well as from the aftronomical treatifes they had received from the Romans.

The Indian doctors, however, grew ambitious and enterpriz ing; and in the year 446, the Emperor Tai-Vouti, being in

formed

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