APPENDIX TO THE MONTHLY REVIEW. VOLUME the FIFTY-SIXTH. FOREIGN LITERATURE. ART. I. fai fur le Despotisme.-An Essay on Defpotifm. London. (Amfter THIS dam.) 1777. HIS Effay difcovers, in ftyle, manner, thought, and ex preffion, a masterly hand; and we are inclined to conjecture, from the general spirit that reigns through it, that it is the production of an Author whofe rank in life is not inferior & to his rank among the good writers of the age. It seems to have been penned with the moft excellent defign-to fhew to a young and virtuous monarch, afcending a throne which had long been dishonoured by ignoble prodigality, luxurious avarice, and all the forms of oppreffion, the frightful confequences of arbitrary measures and licentious defpotifm. A young prince, (lays the Author, in an advertisement prefixed to the work) may, with the best intentions, perfuade himself, by the example of his predeceffors, or by a method of governing which has been confirmed by long cuftom, that no remedies can remove the evils complained of, except measures enforced by authority. But if he does not guard his upright mind against this deftructive error, he will do mifchief in fpite of his own heart, and will find himself difappointed by refources, that fail through their having been too much employed.' The Editor of this work informs us that it was written towards the conclufion of the reign of the late King, and, accordingly, we find, after the advertisement, a dedication, or letter, addreffed to the dauphin. This letter runs in a very uncommon ftrain, and fome extracts from it will fhew us the energy and spirit, which animates this ingenious and patriotic Writer. APP. Rev. Vol. lvi. K k • Your Your flatterers, that is to fay, all those who surround you, have told you, no doubt, more than once, that you brought with you into the world an irrevocable right to the supreme authority. It is this groveling principle of adulation and frenzy, that I mean to overturn.-If you could look back upon your cradle, and your fwaddling bands, this might perfuade you that you were not born mighty, and that it would have been an easy matter to have crushed you before you had either the inclination or the power to opprefs.- Prince! the flave who flatters you, infults you: for he spreads his perfidious snare and reckons upon your weaknefs. The man, who denied your rights and refufed to acknowledge your authority, would do you a lefs fhocking injury, than he who fhould advise you to abuse them; and the perfidy which deceives is as criminal as that which would dethrone you.' It is not easy to give an analytical account of the work itfelf; for though this effay exceeds 300 pages, we have no divifion of the fubject into chapters or fections. The Reader, however, must not conclude from hence that the Author writes without a plan; for this is not the cafe-he has a plan, though it be a masked one, and that plan has diftinct parts, though they are not presented with the precision of a formal arrangement in the tenour of his effay. His plan is to fhew, in the first place, what that paffion is, in the human heart, which produces defpotifm-afterwards to point out and define this principle, and, finally, to form a proper estimate of it, in consequence of this account of its nature and characters. ART. II. Specimen Experimentorum Lagenam Leydenfem Spectantium, &c.—A Spe- WE க our our account in this Article, as it exhibits new facts and new conjectures to the Promethean adventurers in electrical fcience. In the first chapter our Author lays before his Readers the different refults that were obferved by different philofophers, when, in the Leyden experiment, they filled the phial with boiling water. This was found by falabert of Geneva to increase the powers of electricity, while Kinnerfley, Nollet, and Watson, attributed to the boiling water a quite contrary effect. The fecond chapter offers a very probable folution of this feeming contradiction. Our Author employed the boiling wa ter, and not only derived from this method the different, nay contrary refults, attributed to it by the learned men already mentioned, but also happily discovered the particular circumstance which gave occafion to their variations. A phial of green glafs produced the refult mentioned by Jalabert, while a phial of white glass produced that which is mentioned by Kinnerfley, Nollet, and Watfon. Our Author endeavours to reconcile the jarring decifions of these eminent men by the different manner in which the boiling water acts upon thefe different kinds of glafs: he fuppofes that it augments the nonconductive quality in the green glafs, while it diminishes the fame quality in the white; and he afterwards lays down the following theorem (if that name may be given to a propofition relative to a matter as yet fo imperfectly determined) that there is a maximum in the beat of water, which is correfpondent to a maximum of action in the phial, and that this maximum exifts between the warm water and the cold, and not between the warm water and that which boils. In the third, fourth, and fifth chapters Mr. Jelgerfma relates the numerous and diverfified repetitions he made of the Leyden experiment with phials, which differed from each other in the nature of the glafs, the coating, or the application of the latter to the two furfaces of the phial, or to one only, as alfo with phials uncoated, infulated, and uninfulated. Thefe experiments confirm a fact already known, even that circumftances, the most minute in appearance, modify the results, and give rife to irregularities, or at least to variations which muft appear fuch to us, until we know the cause from whence they proceed, and the law they follow, -a degree of information this, which we must not expect foon to arrive at. It is, however, worthy of notice, that the most palpable refults, furnished by thefe experiments, tend to confirm the theory of Franklin, which fuppofes that the effect or eleârical power of the Leyden phial increafes in proportion to the degree in which we can break or disturb the equilibrium of the electrical fluid in its two surfaces. It appears also that the fame bottle, when employed for a long time in experiments, acquires thereby a greater facility of being charged. The trial of this, which the Author Kk 2 Author made in various ways, is curious and interesting, on account of the indication it may adminifter of the powers that electrical bodies exert in these phenomena, as this facility feema to denote that thefe bodies are conduits, and inftruments of condenfation and rarefaction of a fluid diffused through univerfal nature, and not only fo, but conduits, whofe action is facilitated and improved even by the paffage of the Auid through their pores. The fixth chapter contains a circumftantial account of a new and curious experiment, which our Author calls Electrical Renovation, by which he means the renewal of the charge in a bottle, which, after having appeared to be entirely difcharged, exhibits, at a certain diftance of time, marks of electricity, and that in feveral fucceffive inftances, at intervals, which always increase between each trial. This phenomenon is certainly both new and interefting: it is highly worthy of the attention of the curious, whom we refer to the work at large for a more particular account of it, and for the explication which the Author has attempted to give. This treatife does great honour to the industry and penetration of its ingenious Author, whofe youthful ardour in philo. fophical inquiry is tempered with that reflexion, affiduity, and patience which are rarely the concomitants of that early feafon of life. His experiments have been carried on upon a well digefted plan, their modifications are happily diverfified, and the conclufions deduced from them are exhibited with that caution and modefty which are peculiarly becoming on a fubject, as yet fo little known, though it has been treated by fo many and fuch able hands. He might perhaps have taken a more general view of his fubject, and abridged thofe details which fome of his Readers may look upon as tedious, and thus he would have diminished the embarrassment and constraint which follows him in his progrefs in confequence of the mathematical tone which he has adopted in this valuable work. Efai fur cette Question: Qu'est ce qui eft requis dans l'Art l'observer & jufqu on cet art contribue-t il a perfectionner l'Entendement ?—An Elay on the following Question: "What are the Requifites that conftitute the Art of oblerving, and how far does that Art contribute to improve the Underflanding?" By M. BENJAMIN CARRARD, &C 8vo. Amfterdam. 1777. TH HE question, mentioned here, was propofed by the Haarlem Society in the year 1770, and perhaps no question of greater importance to the advancement of real knowledge in general, and of each fcience in particular, has ever been propold by any literary academy. The prize, held out to the emulation emulation of the learned on this occafion, was obtained by Mr. CARRARD, a Swifs clergyman, of distinguished merit in the fpheres of philofophy and theology, which we always love to fee blended together. His difcourfe, after having been confined fome time in the acts of the Society of Haarlem, is now publifhed, with confiderable additions and improvements, and, as it has very uncommon merit in every point of view, we shall give here a particular account of its rich and valuable contents. In laying down the rules which form the Art of Obferving, Mr. CARRARD has been guided by a careful attention to the practice and proceedings of those who have exercised this ineftimable art with the greateft diftinction and fuccefs; an excel lent meshed, and, indeed, the only true one, of forming the / method theory of any art-Accordingly, we find all his precepts and rules, illuftrated and confirmed by inftructive examples drawn from the writings of the moft eminent obfervers in every branch of fcience; and we fee here alfo the fteps that are to be avoided by their errors; for even, in their errors, these great men have a right to the gratitude of their fucceffors. The effay is divided into two parts, which are, indeed, indicated by the queftion propofed. In the firft our Author confiders the qualities, circumstances, and procedure that are requifite in order to the true exercise of the art of observing, and, in the fecond, he examines how far this art contributes towards the improvement of the understanding. FIRST PART. After having defined what he means by obferving, which fignifies, in general, a minute attention to thofe objects that ftrike our fenfes, whether external or internal, in order to acquire juft ideas, and notices of them, and fuch as are adapted to answer the different purposes we may have in view, Mr. CARRARD divides this first part into fix chapters. The first chapter relates to the manner of defcribing the different objects that we meet with in nature, and of their dif covering their properties, whether they appear, of themselves, to our fenfes, or only manifeft themfelves in confequence of preparatory circumftances and proceedings. Here the Obferver, guarding againft all obfcure metaphyfical difquifitions, is obliged to confult the teftimony of his fenfes, and to confine his efforts to the univerfal qualities that belong to all bodies, and the particular properties that characterize the different kinds and fpecies of material beings. Our Author lays down Sir Ifaac Newton's rule for difcovering the former, and imitates his modefty in diftinguishing between univerfal and effential qualitics; thofe qualities which are found by experience in every body, and are neither fufceptible of augmentation nor diminution, are justly reputed univerfal, but they are not, on that account, Kk 3 to |