Herodotus, and Dr. Steuart's elaborate work on Salluft +. The former having proceeded to a fecond edition, appears with many valuable additions and improvements. Of the latter, we fhall speak more distinctly in our next Preface, when we fhall have clofed our examination of its contents. Of modern history we have nothing in this Volume, except that of the English Navy, by Mr. Derrick . Nor have we been much employed on Antiquities, except in viewing the controverly between Mr. King and Mr. Dutens, on the Antiquity of Arches; and in commending the very elegant Specimens of ancient Ornamental Architecture, which Mr. Tatham fome time ago prefented to the Public. A work which scientific men had juftly appreciated, before it hap pened to attract our notice. BIOGRAPHY. Here we have rather a more copious harvest. The Life of Beattie by Sir William Forbes, itfelf fills up a confiderable space; and fo fills it, that while we admire and love the poet and philofopher, we contract little lefs esteem and affection for his biographer. But we contracted them, alas! only to join, almoft immediately, the honourable and amiable train of friends, who attended him to his last abode. Dr. Drake has fucceeded in giving new intereft to the lives of Steele, Addifon**, and their coadjutors, fo often written before, for various purpofes, and parti cularly to accompany their periodical Effays. A more exact difcuffion of their style, humour, and peculiar or fimilar talents has enabled him to effect his defign in a pleafing and instructive manner. Mr. *No. III. p. 245 + No. VI. p. 585. ‡ No. IV. p. 377. No. III. p. 279.No. V. p. 535. 1 No. II. p. 105. Iil. p. 298. ** No. II. P. 147. Dutens Dutens has added his name to the lift of Autobiographers.. We will not fay that we fhould willingly have written of ourselves, all that he has written of himfelf; but we will fay, unequivocally, that they who seek for amufement, will be fure to find it in his Memoirs, and frequently united with inftruction. The Life of James the Sext, which we noticed in our first number †, is an ancient and anonymous tract, published originally, but with fome alteration, in Crawfurd's Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland; and now republifhed from an old MS. with reference to the Controverfy refpecting Mary Queen of Scots. We have given fome curious inftances of the differences between the Memoirs and the Life, by printing them in parallel columns. TOPOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. We travel with the Topographer, fometimes more agreeably than with the profeffed Tourift; an illuftrious inftance of which occurs in the Magna Britannia of Meffrs. Lyfons, the beginning of a large and important work; and fuch a beginning as augurs well of the parts which are to fucceed. It is fomewhat fingular that the alphabetical arrangement, which the Authors have taken for their compilation, has led them, in the first instance, to three counties, not one of which had yet been made the fubje&t of a regular County Hiftory. The Defcription of Latium, (which we have attributed, and we believe rightly, to a Lady, fingularly well qualified for fuch a tafk, Mifs Cornelia Knight) contains a judicious niixture of ancient and modern topography; with fuch references to claffical authorities as must please the ftudious, and inftruct the lefs accomplished reader. The account of the Commerce and Navigation of the Black Sea, fuppofed Memoires d'un Voyageur qui fe repofe." No. V. p. 479. + No. I. p. 66. to to be the work of Mr. Eton*, contains fuch information as the name of that intelligent Traveller will flamp with authority. The book which Dr. Pinckard has entitled Notes on the West Indies †, may be confidered as holding a middle place between Topography and Travels, though the most important part of it is his Account, from obfervation and very painful experience, of the dreadful Yellow Fever. When we meet with Mr. Barrow, we come to a well tried fource of original and pleafing information, and his work on Cochin-China, is clearly not unworthy of him. The additional information on Africa, which, as an ancient author has faid, femper aliquid affert novi, is alfo very acceptable. Mr. Carr's Stranger in Ireland § is, like his "Stranger in France," a a pleafing and lively book; and, unlike fome English travels in that country, will please the Irish by its candour, no less than the English by its information. The books which remain in this clafs may be more curforily mentioned. They are four in number: Mrs. Wakefield's Excurfions in North America¶; the Belgian Traveller, by the Author of the Revolutionary Plutarch ** ; Kotzebue in Italy ††; and Helms's Travels from Buenos Ayres ‡‡. All these have merit in their respective styles; and the firft, though apparently an ideal excurfion, is as inftructive as any among them. 1 PHILOSOPHY. We cannot better begin this head than by fpeaking of the Philofophical Tranfactions, a work of more established fame than any that the reft of Europe *No. I. p. 93. + No. I. p. 42. ‡ No. V. p. 512. No. IV. p. 359: || Brit. Crit. vol. xxii. p. 129. II. p. 217. ++ Ibid. H ** No. IV. p. 446. No. ++ No. VI. p. 678. has has produced. The firft, and the beft of its kind. Two parts have been analyzed in our present Volume. We found confiderable merit in the Lectures on Zoonomia, by the late Dr. Garnett †, a work in which the principles of Philofophy are applied, in part, to medical admonition. The other works we have here to notice, are either of a mixed kind, or confined to fome diftinct branch of science. Mr. Olinthus Gregory's Treatife on Mechanicst, theoretical, practical, and defcriptive; Mr. Dalby's first Volume of a Courfe of Mathematics §; and Dr. Jamefon's Mineralogy of the County of Dumfries, are all works of fcientific merit, though the two firft are more diftinguished in their refpective branches, and lefs liable to critical objections. The clear and inftructive Converfations on Chemistry, which we ascribe without hesitation to Mrs. Bryan, deferve a very favourable remembrance; nor thould Mr. Galpine's Compend of British Botany** be omitted, being oneof the moft ufeful companions that a ftudent can take in his pocket. In the philofophy of the human mind, called Intellectual Philofophy tt, Profeffor Scott has eftablished a permanent reputation, by reducing to elementary analyfis that very difficult branch of knowledge. Dr. Gillies's Supplement to his Analyfis of Ariftotle ‡‡ twas mentioned in this volume, only to defend it from illiberal and unjuft attacks; which it was not very difficult to do, against an affailant who wants knowledge almost as much as he wants candour. + No. VI. p. 619. i. e. 1805, Part II. and 18c6, Part I. No. IV. P. 427. See No.I. p. 1. and ‡‡ No. IV. POLIFICS. We have had little lately to do with this fubject, unless the difcuffion of neutral claims and belligerent rights can be fo termed, As a remnant of that topic, we have noticed, in this volume, the Speech of Mr. Randolph, in the American Congrefs, reprinted here, with an able Introduction by the Author of War in Difguife. The two rival pamphlets, the Inquiry into the State of the Nation, and the Anfwer to the Inquiry t, both anonymous, are written with ability; the preference will generally be given to the one or the other, according to the political connec tions of the reader. The latter has fince been aug mented by a Supplement. Mr. Canning's Speech § on the Repeal of the Additional Force A&t is a difcuffion of political principle, rather than of mere arrangement, and, as fuch, may be here mentioned. MEDICINE. Works of this clafs, lately examined, have refembled fmall dofes, rather than continued and con nected courfes of difcipline. They have come fre quently, but they have been foon difpofed of. We begin with a fubject of very extenfive intereft, as extenfive as the gout, whofe dominion who has not felt or feared? To this extent fhould reach Mr, Hunt's Salutary Cautions against the rafh and perilous practice of affufion; founded, as it appears, on a falfe theory, and more likely to deftroy the patient than remove the malady. We perufed, nearly No. I. p. 39. No. III. p. 326. + No. II. p. 186. No. III. p. 3250 together, |