FOREIGN LITERATURE.

ART. XV.

1. PHYSIQUE du Monde. i. e. A Cosmological Syftem of Na tural Philofophy (for we know not how to tranflate this title otherwife). Dedicated to the King. By the Baron de MARIVETZ and M. GOUSSIER. Volume I. with a Dictionary of unusual Terms. Sold feparately. Paris. 1782.

To read fome pages, or rather fome paragraphs, here and there in the immenfe volume of Nature, feems all that is granted to man in this prefent ftate, except the idea that can never be banifhed from a truly philofophical mind, of a well connected WHOLE, under a perfect direction. The parts of this whole, and their mutual relations and dependencies, are not commenfurate to human capacity; but if, befide the particular laws that take place in the different claffes of beings, there is a general law, which embraces, connects, and governs the whole fyf tem, an acquaintance with this law may conduct our researches with fuccefs, and facilitate our progrefs in the knowledge of Nature.

Our immortal Newton opened a new field of inveftigation, by unfolding the great law of attraction, so admirable by its fimplicity, and fo extenfive in its application. But the Authors of the work now before us have banished (as far as their authority will go) attraction from the mechanifm of the universe, and more efpecially from the theory of the Moon, and have fubftituted, in its place, a univerfal fluid, compofed of elaftic molecules, in direct and immediate contact. With this principle before them, they think that nothing, but the first at which created matter, and communicated motion to it, remains beyond the bounds of human comprehenfion and philofophical inveftigation. Setting out, fay they, from this primitive action of the Eternal Mind, which reafon muft affirm, as well as revelation, the philofopher may inveftigate with a fteady eye all the actions of fecondary caufes, and the whole feries and fucceffion of effects.' Such is the arduous enterprize, which thefe new-fafhioned Cartefians, thefe new-modellers of the mundane fyftem, have undertaken. Genius and knowledge they do not lack; but whether they have employed them to good purpose, we leave to the judgment of thofe who perufe the work, which is magnificent both in matter and form.

In a Preliminary Difcourfe, we fee the vaft extent of the plan which thefe learned and ingenious Authors propofe to execute. This Difcourfe is followed by a Preface, in which they lay down their manner of proceeding, and the means of fuccefs on which they depend. This Preface again is followed by a Letter, in

which they give a fketch of the plain but new fyftem they endeavour to establish; and then comes a Hiftory of the Cofmogony, in which this fyftem is presented to view with ftill more detail, and with a pleafing afpect.

The work is divided, or may be confidered as divided, into Two Parts.

The 1ft, under the title of Phyfique du Monde, or Cofmological Philofophy, treats of Celeftial Space, of the Bodies that revolve in it, of Motion, Light and Heat, of the Caufes of these great natural phænomena, and of the Laws by which they are governed. After having unfolded the origin, nature, and properties of these laws, in the immenfe extent of the solar system, our Authors Thew how they must have influenced and modified the globe we inhabit, how they determine the different ftates through which it paffes, and how they act upon its fubftance and its productions. Afcending to the firft phyfical cause of all the modifications of nature, to the first ACT of that infinite power of which nature is the effect, they fhew how that fole act of the WILL of its Author gave rife to the fyftem of our univerfe, and produces all that it contains; and point out both the causes and the laws of the exiftence, modes, and deftruction of all those beings which appear but for a moment on this terrestrial scene, though they be connected, by effential relations, with thote which have exifted, and with thofe which fhall exift, and form, in their union, that eternal chain or feries which we call Na

ture.

The 2d Part, not yet publifhed (to our knowledge), is to exhibit the furface of France, as emerged from the bofom of the ocean. Twelve charts will reprefent its emerfions at twelve different epochas; and the chart, which is to contain its prefent furface, will be divided into 45 fheets, reprefenting the topography of that kingdom, that ftable and permanent topography which the efforts of man cannot change, which Nature itself diverfifies only by means which operate flowly, and depend upon the eternal laws, prefcribed to it by its Author. This topography, alone, is a vaft undertaking. Its great lines are the ridges of mountains and the course of rivers; and its details are interefting and immenfe. The Reader will find a large sketch of these details, and a general view of the whole work, in the excellent Preliminary Difcourfe and reface, that make a confiderable part of this itt volume, and do honour to the genius, the pen, and the heart, of M. de MARIVETZ; who writes like a philofopher; whofe manners feem as gentle and amiable, as his genius is bold and adventurous; and whofe eloquence is picturefque and copious.

The rest of this volume is filled with an Effay on the History of the Cofmogony. Here M. de MARIVETZ, with candour, mo

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defty, and the refpect due to the eminent merit of great men, however erroneous their fyftems may have been, examines the theories of the earth given by Burnet, Whifton, Woodward, and Buffon. He inveftigates the theory, or rather the romantic dream, of the last of thefe philofophers, with a degree of patience which we think exemplary, and refutes it with a detail of just reasoning, which we are tempted to think fuperfluous. We fhould not be surprised to learn, that the ingenious Author of the Epochas of Nature, on reading this refutation, fhould fmile, and fay, "I was only joking, and wanted to make an experiment upon the influence of my reputation on the credulity of the Public."

The manner in which our Author treats the Buffonian system of refrigeration, is as folid as it is ingenious; and he proves, by the moft conclufive arguments, that heat is rather progressive than retrograde in our globe. His treatment of Sir Ifaac Newton is liberal and respectful in the highest degree. He fhews that this great man maintained the theory of attraction rather as a mathematician than as a natural philofopher, and used it as a method of afcertaining the quantum rather than the quare; never laying it down as a phyfical caufe, which he feemed rather to feek in the impulfion of an ethereal fluid: confequently the theory of attraction ftill answers its purpose, even in the opinion of our Author. He thinks, however, that the mathematical theory of the celeftial motions will be as clearly and evidently deducible from the laws of the univerfal fluid, as from the bypothefis of impulfion and attraction, and will furnish, moreover, to the latter, that phyfical certainty, which it has hitherto wanted, and which is the true bafis of all our knowledge. Attraction will still act a part; but he will not admit it as an agent, as a phyfical cause.

Among the new ideas we have obferved in this volume, we may place that which the ingenious Author has formed of the cause of the great fiffures or rents that are vifible in our globe, and of the feparations from each other, which the continents feem to have undergone, M. De Buffon accounts for these in his Sixth Epocha of Nature, by three hypothefes, which exhibit an affemblage of chimerical caufes, deduced from suppositions equally chimerical, as our Author proves with the clearest evidence. But what does he fubftitute in their place? He attri butes the rents and fiffures in queftion to the rotation of the earth about its axis, and to the centrifugal force of this flexible globe, which, furpaffing the force of cohefion, makes the globe fwell at the equator: for, fays he, the equator cannot (well and extend itself without a folution of continuity, unless the fubftance of the globe be equally ductile in all its parts; and he proves that these folutions of continuity, thefe rents and fif

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fures

fures, must be perpendicular to the equator, and nearly, if not exactly oppofite to each other in the two hemifpheres of the globe.

Our Author's notion of light and heat, which have given rife to so many dark and frigid fuppofitions, is alfo particular, in fome refpects. According to him, light is a modification of the fubtile fluid alone, and heat is a modification of every fubftance; and they are both the effects of that primitive cause of all motion, which, by the fiat or fimple act of the Creator, refides in the rotation of the fun, who is the great agent, that immediately produces and determines all the motions of the fyftem, in the centre of which he is placed. According to this hypothefis, neither light nor heat proceed by emanation from the fubftance of the Sun: light arifes from his rotation, and heat cannot be confidered as the quality or effential property of any fubftance, but only as a modification of any given fubftance produced by a foreign and external caufe. The intenseness of this modification is relative, and proportionable to the energy and duration of the action of the caufe. In short, the rotation of the Sun about his own axis, is the only caufe of all motion, light and heat.

So much for the 1ft volume of this extraordinary work, which certainly claims attention. It is remarkable for perfpicuity both of reasoning and expreffion; and though it is very far from being fuperficial, it is almost every where level to the capacity of even those who do not belong to the clafs of learned Readers. The ftile is eloquent, perhaps rather too redundant, which may, now and then, expose the Author to the charge of tautology. M. GOUSSIER, author of feveral mathematical articles of great merit, in the French Encyclopedie, has been chofen by the Baron de MARIVETZ, as his affociate in this great work, of which we propofe to give a farther account.

FRANCE.

II. Voyage Pittorefque de la Grece. i. e Travels through Greece, represented in a Series of Engravings. Chapter IX. 1782.(See our late Reviews and Appendixes).

Of the Ten Plates contained in this number, or chapter, the first represents the Temple of Auguftus at Mylafa, a town about three leagues from the gulph that washes the fouth-weft coaft of Afia Minor. This town, now called Melazzo, was famous for its magnificence in ancient times. Of all the temples that difplayed the opulence and taste of its inhabitants, one only furvived the waftes of time and the barbarous fuperftition of the Muffulmans, not to mention the fpirit of devaftation that fome times accompanied the blind zeal of certain Chriftians. even this precious monument of ancient magnificence, which was dedicated to Auguftus and the divinity of Rome, has been

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lately deftroyed, and nothing remains of it but fragments, that have been employed in the conftruction of a mofque. The 2d Plate contains the plan, and the feveral parts of the fame temple, The 3d reprefents an elegant tomb, which is to be seen at a mile's diftance from Mylafa. It is conftructed of white marble, has two ftories, of which the lower was defigned to contain the bodies or ashes of the deceafed, and forms the bafe of the edifice. The bafe is fupported by eight columns and four pilafters of the Corinthian order, and the whole ftructure terminates in a pyramidical form. The four following plates contain the plan, profile, and members of the fame tomb, and fhew the high degree of perfection to which both the folid and ornamental branches of architecture were carried by the ancient Greeks. The view and elevation of one of the gates of Mylafa, with a variety of details relative to this object, are reprefented in the three fucceeding Plates; and the laft exhibits feveral figures of the modern inhabitants of Caria, who keep up the military fpirit and character of their ancestors, and offer their fervices to the highest bidder.-The Temple, Tomb, and Gate of Mylafa are, indeed, noble remains of Grecian elegance and grandeur.

II!. Infruction pour les Bergers et pour les Proprictaires des Troupeaux. i. e. Inftructions for Shepherds, and the Proprietors of Flocks. By M. DAUBENTON, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, &c. This masterly performance, which was compofed by the order of government, and is the refult of obfervations made by this celebrated natural hiftorian and anatomift, during fourteen years, deferves to be tranflated into all languages, and to be in the hands of all graziers. It is written in the method of queftion and anfwer, to render it more intelligible, and to affift memory; and contains a rich treasure of inftruction in evety point of confequence to the propagation, multiplication, health, ftrength, improvement, and perfection of the ficecy tribes. The improvement of their wool is one of the objects that is treated with peculiar care in this publication, to which are annexed two Memoirs, and extracts from four others, read by our Author in the Royal Academy of Sciences, and which are inferted in their collection.

MONTHLY

For

CATALOGUE,

MARC H, 1783.

POLITICAL.

Art. 16. A State of Facts: or a Sketch of the Character and Political Conduct of the Right Honourable Charles Fox. 8vo. is. 6d. Richardfon and Urquhart, &c. 1783.

HIS is a very able reply to the famous ironical "Defence of TH the Earl of Shelburne. The Author inveftigates, with great feverity,

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