margin of the candle; from which they little, bit of chalk near the flame from a return to the flame, and continue these wire attached by a silk string to the motions till they are either burned or arm of a stand, the fame attraction and run off along with the melted wax. repulfion was observed by M. Hemmer. Thefe ofcillations are very beautifully These bodies fometimes only approachfeen, if a little powdered charcoal be ed the flame, and at others they rushed ftrewed upon the melted wax-a tallow fairly into it; they even paffed through candle does not fhew them fo well. If it, and were repelled on the oppofite there be an oblong particle among the fide to the distance of feveral lines: in reft, it will approach the flame by its this cafe, they did not traverse the boend, never by its fide; and fuch par- dy of the flame to regain their former ticles prefent their ends, in fome cir- ftation, but coafted it at a fmall distance cumftances, alternately, and of courfe in a circle. Our author found, by the turn perpetually round on their journey application of M. Volta's condenser, to and fro. Even when the melted and M. Sauffure's electrometer, that wax has a convex form, the particles the electricity of flame is always negamove up the hill both to and from the tive; and this he imputes to the evapoflame; and, when the wax runs off, ration and production of elastic fluids. they will often move from the margin In all proceffes of this kind, negative toward the wick against the ftream, be- electricity is produced, according to M. fore they run down the candle. It is Hemmer. He remarks that, in two not uncommon to fee particles fix them- experiments, M. Lavoifier and M. De felves to the wick after a number of La Place found the vapour of water ofcillations; and the fame thing takes pofitively electrified: but he afferts, that place in electrical experiments with they were deceived by the condenfer. light bodies, when they have projec. Dr Priestley, too, when he could difting points, which throw off the elec- cover no electricity produced by effertricity on one fide, as faft as they re- vefing mixtures, was unprovided with an electrometer fufficiently fenfible, ceive on the other. By fufpending a bit of tinfel, and a REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS. An Apology for the Bible; in a Series of to pass immediately to a ferious and Letters addreffed to Thomas Paine, critical examination of the facred wriAuthor of a book entitled the Age of Reafon, Part the Second, being an Inveftigation of True and of Fabulous Theology. By R. Watfon, D. D. F. R. S. Lord Bishop of Landaff, and Regius Profeffor of Divinity in the Univerfity of Cambridge. 12mo. 4s. fewed. Evans. There is a coarfe copy fold in Edinburgh at 9d. MR Paine having perufed the Scriptures of the Old and New Teftament, has conceived various objections to them, and has expreffed these with boldness, and of ten with indecency. The conduct to be pursued by the opponent of this popular writer was not to honour him by exchanging railing for railing, but by treating with dignified contempt and chriftian felf-command, his vanity and his levity, tings; for his objections being fairly proved to originate in ignorance and mifapprehenfion, the pertnefs and selffufficiency with which he has offered them, recoil on himself and augment his difgrace. It is in this way that the Bifhop of Landaff combats this modern champion of Infidelity. His Apology forms a valuable work on the authenticity of the Bible, and ought to be read by all. It proves what the right reverend Author advances, that the really learned are in no danger of being infected by the poison of infidelity; and it will no doubt confirm the wavering faith of many. Many inftructive extracts might be made from this very valuable work, but we hope the following short extracts will induce fuch of our readers as have not seen the book to read the whole. Mr Paine confiders it an infurmountable moral objection to the authenticity of the Scriptures, that they describe the Ifraelites as exterminating the Canaanites by the exprefs command of God, This he afferts is fufficient of itself to deftroy the facred authority of the Bible. Bifhop Watfon thus replies to it: "I am aftonished that fo acute a reafoner fhould attempt to disparage the Bible, by bringing forward this exploded and frequently refuted objection of Morgan, Tindal, and Bolingbroke. You profess yourself to be a deift, and to believe that there is a God, who created the univerfe, and established the laws of nature, by which it is fuftained in existence: You profefs, that from the contemplation of the works of God you derive a knowledge of his attributes; and you reject the Bible because it afcribes to God things inconfiftent (as you suppose) with the attributes which you have discovered to be long to him; in particular, you think it repugnant to his moral juftice, that he fhould doom to destruction the crying or fmiling infants of the Canaanites.-Why do you not maintain it to be repugnant to his moral juftice, that he should fuffer crying or smiling infants to be fwal lowed up by an earthquake, drowned by an inundation, confumed by a fire, ftarved by a famine, or deftroyed by a peftilence? The Word of God is in perfect harmony with his work; crying or fmiling infants are fubjected to death in 'both. We believe that the earth, at the exprefs command of God, opened her mouth, and fwallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with their wives, their fons, and their little ones. This you efteem fo repugnant to God's moral juftice, that you fpurn, as fpurious, the book in which the circumftance is related. When Catania, Lima, and Lifbon, were feverally deftroyed by earthquakes, men with their wives, their fons, and their little ones; were fwallowed up alive-why do you not fpurn, as fpurious, the book of nature, in which this fact is certainly written, and from the perufal of which you infer the moral juftice of God! You will probably, reply, that the evils which the Canaanites fuffered from the exprefs command of God, were different from thofe which are brought on mankind by the opera tion of the laws of nature.-Different ! in what?—Not in the magnitude of the evil-not in the subjects of fufferancenot in the author of it-for my philofophy, at leaft, inftructs me to believe, that God not only primarily formed, but that he hath through all ages executed, the laws of nature; and that he will through all eternity administer them, for the general happiness of his creatures, whether we can, on every occafion, difcern that end or not." The Bishop finihes his examination of that part of the Age of Reason which relates to the Old Teftament, in the following beautiful and masterly manner: "You conclude your objections to the Old Teftament in a triumphant style; an angry'opponent would fay, in a ftyle of extreme arrogance, and fottifh felffufficiency." I have gone," you say, through the Bible (mistaking here, as in other places, the Old T.ftament for the Bible) as a man would go through a wood, with an axe on his fhoulders, and fell trees; here they lie; and the priests, if they can, may replant them. They may, perhaps, ftick them in the ground,. but they will never grow."-And is it poffible that you should think so highly of your performance, as to believe, that you have thereby demolished the authority of a book, which Newton himfelf efteemed the most authentic of all hiftories; which, by its celeftial light, illumines the darkeit ages of antiquity; which is the touchstone whereby we are enabled to diftinguish between true and fabulous theology, between the God of Ifrael, holy, juft, and good, and the impure rabble of heathen Baalim; which has been thought, by competent judges, to have afforded matter for the laws of Solon, and a foundation for the philofophy of Plato; which has been illuftrated by the labour of learning in all ages and countries; and been admired and venerated for its piety, its fublimity, its veracity, by all who were able to read and understand it? No, fir; you have gone indeed through the wood, with the best intention in the world to cut it down; but you have merely bufied yourself in expofing to vulgar contempt a few unfightly fhrubs, which good men had wifely concealed from public view; you have entangled yourfeif in thickets of thorns and briars; you have loft your way on the mountains of Lebanon; the goodly cedar trees whereof, lamenting 3 U 2, the your rage against them, have fcorned the the madnefs, and pitying the blindnefs, of ed than the great pyramid, by which even the period of the fummer folftice cannot be afcertained; because the shadow is then too high to be diftinctly perceiv ed. Yet the celebrated chronologist Vignoles fuppofes that the priests calculated the equinoxes by means of the py ramids; but he would never have form ed this opinion, had his plans of thofe monuments been as exact, and his maps of Egypt as good, as thofe now pub Pbilofophical Differtations on the Egyptians and Chinefe Tranflated from the French of M. de Pauw, Private Reader to Frederic II. King of Pruffia. By Capt. J. Thomson. 2 Vols. 8vo. 128. Boards. Chapman. THE leading defign of the work is to compare the Egyptians and Chinese in a variety of particulars, in order to prove that the latter did not borrow their inftitutions and cuftoms from the former; and the refult of his inquiry is, that no two nations ever lefs refembled each o ther. In the procefs of his refearch, the author takes a wide compass, and brings before the reader a great variety of curious facts and ingenious obfervations. M. de P. examines the ftate of population, with refpect to both countries; and he concludes that China is much lefs peopled in proportion to its fize than Germany, and that the accounts of the extent and population of ancient Egypt have been greatly exaggerated. The character of the Chinese architecture is found to be directly oppofite to that of the Egyptians. It is denied that China affords any monuments of great antiquity, and that any credit is due to what the Chinese hiftorians relate of the flourishing state of their country under the ancient emperors. On the contrary, the architecture of the Egyptians is fhewn to be of high antiquity, and to afford indubitable proofs of ancient greatnefs. We fhall copy the author's ingenious research concerning the ufe of the pyramids of Egypt, as a fpecimen both of the work and the tranflation: "THE largeft of the pyramids, fituated in twenty-nine degrees fifty minutes and fome feconds north latitude, begins towards the vernal equinox to afford no fhadow at mid-day beyond its bafe; and thofe, who then walk round this huge mafs of ftones upwards of five hundred feet high, never lofe fight of the fun. The architects must have foreseen this effect, proceeding from the pyramidal form of the edifice; and the meridian fhade during one half of the year is confined to the northern face, without ever reaching the earth. Thus nothing more imperfect, as a fun-dial, could be invent lifhed. "It fhould be remarked, that the Egyptians obferved no determined proportion between the breadth of the base, and the height of the pyramids. As their dimenfions varied fo confiderably, no idea could be had of having recourfe to them, in order to find out the equinoctial days; which, according to Macrobius, were indicated by fimple styles, or, as others pretend, by water-clocks. One fact was entirely unknown to Vignoles: the pyramid, called el Harem el Kieber el Koubli by the Arabs, has a base much broader, in proportion to its height, than the great pyramid of Memphis. Thus beginning much fooner than the other to caft no fhade at mid-day, it cannot ferve in any manner to indicate the equinoxes. Befides, it may be appofite to afk, what means were employed by the priests of Thebes, who had no pyramid in all their country, whatever Abulfeda has afferted to the contrary; and yet their college was the firft in Egypt, as well for aftro nomical knowledge, as in point of antiquity. "We must not therefore attribute views to the Egyptians, which they could not have entertained without dif covering a total want of common sense. For surely a fimple dial-pin is better a dapted to afford exact indications in fuch matters, than any mass where the fhade must be greatly impaired. "The pyramids, as well as the obelifks, were monuments erected in honour of the Being who enlightens the univerfe; and this determined the priests to give them a particular pofition. Sepul chral cells might have been constructed within thefe edifices, fufficient to contain the bodies of all the royal family. Yet only two apartments are hitherto discovered, and one fimple cheft, which, in oppofition to the opinion of Strabo, many enlightened travellers, fuch as Doctor Shaw, do not conceive to be a farcophagus, where any carcafe was ever de: depofited; and, in reality, the thing is what Ctefias and Diodorus Siculus re- "The priests of ancient Egypt, by determining fo very accurately the pofition of the pyramids, have enabled us to afcertain, that no variation has taken place in the direction of the poles. In vain fhould we look on the whole furface of our globe for any other means of obtaining this information. Had Chaldea ever poffeffed edifices equally folid with thofe of Egypt, fome prodigious ruins would fill be found there: but from being formed of brick and bittumen, all the higher parts foon fell afunder; and fome remains are difcovered only at a few feet above the foundation, where the tenacity of the bittumen has been preferved by the humidity. This is most remarkable in a place fuppofed to be the fite of a temple of Belus; but fuch matters do not deserve inveftigation. Befides, in no country do we find Chaldean ftatues or monuments; while all the cabinets of Europe are furnished with Egyptian antiquities. We may confider as the greateft exaggeration late of an obelisk, attributed by them to Semiramis, of which no perfon however could fpeak from his own knowledge. Egypt, on the contrary, must have exhibited more than eighty of the large fize. The operation of erecting them was not very difficult among people, who, from having transported many fuck maffes, had acquired an experience, which Fontana wanted, when he employed fix hundred men, and one hundred and forty horses, upon that of the Vatican. The power of the cables and capftans being known, it is calculated, that this force would have been fufficient to raise ten thousand pound weight more than was neceffary on that occafion. As the Egyptians did not place their obeliks on fuch elevated pedestals as those fo improperly employed at Rome, they might, with four hundred men and eighty horfes, have managed any monument of that kind even with capftans alone. The ftory, told by fome authors, concerning one of the Pharaohs, who, they fay, tied his fons to the top of one of thefe ftones to make the workmen more cautious, is too notoriously abfurd to require refutation. By examining attentively the form and pofition of the obelifks of Egypt, it is easy to perceive, that they could never be intended as gnomons, according to the opinion fo prevalent in Europe. Two were placed at the entrance of the temples; and when thofe buildings could be approached by different ways, the number of such spires was augmented in proportion. This is evident at the present day, in the ruins of the temple of Phyla; in that of Thebes; and at the supposed tomb of Ofymandyas; a word evidently composed of Mendes and Ofiris. “Thus, we find, that nothing like gnomons was the object; otherwife the abfurdity is evident of placing them fo near each other, that their fhadows muft frequently be confounded together. Befides, the upper part, called the pyramidium, could not give any precife indication without the addition of a globe, like that employed at Rome under Auguftus and Conftantius. Nothing of the kind, however, is mentioned by any ancient author, as having been practifed by the Egyptians; and we fee, by the paintings taken from the ruins of Herculaneum, and ftill better by the Paleftrina Mofaic, that the obelisks are invariably re a reprefented without a globe, or any place to infert a ftyle, or bar. When a Roman, named Maximus, was prefect of Egypt, he cut away the point, in order to place a globe on the obelisk of Alexander: and this must have appeared to the Egyptians as facrilege. Thus the members of the Academy of Inferiptions at Paris were very ill informed, when they made their report to the Academy of Sciences, relative to the antiquity of fupporting the globes with obelifks for fuch was never the practice of the Egyptians." Mifcellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Efq; with Memoirs of his Life and Writings compofed by himfelf: illuftrated from his Letters, with occafional Notes and Narrative, by John Lord Sheffield. 4to. 2 Vols. 21. 10s. Boards. Cadell jun. and Davies. THE natural and reasonable avidity, with which the remains of celebrated authors are fought, is peculiarly ftrengthened when a picture of the character, the manners, the difpofitions, and the ftudies of the writer, forms a part of thefe interefting papers. The narrative, however, of the life of an eminent author must be infinitely more intéresting when written by himfelf. As compofitions of this kind perhaps needs fome apology, Mr Gibbon writes as follows: "A fincere and fimple narrative of my own life may amufe fome of my leisure hours; but it will fubject me, and perhaps with justice, to the imputation of vanity. I may judge, however, from the experience both of paft and of the prefent times, that the public are always curious to know the men who have left behind them any image of their minds: the most scanty accounts of fuch men are compiled with diligence and perufed with eagerness: and ftudents of every clafs may derive a leffon or an example from the moft fimilar to his own. My name may hereafter be placed among the thoufand articles of a Biographia Britannica and I must be confcious that no one is fo well qualified as myself to defcribe the series of my thoughts and actions. The authority of my mafters, of the grave Thuanus and philofophic Hume, might be fufficient to juftify my defign; but it would not be difficult to produce a long lift of ancients and moders, who in various forms have exhi biced their own portraits. Such portraits are often the mott interefting parts of their writings; and if they be fincere we feldom complain of the minuteness or prolixity of thefe perfonal memorials. The lives of the younger Pliny, of Petrarch, and of Erafmus are expreffed in the epifties which they themselves have given to the world. The Effays of Montagne and Sir William Temple bring us home to the houses and bofoms of the authors: we fmile without contempt at the headstrong paffions of Benevento Cellini, and the gay follies of Colley Cibber. The confeflions of St Auftin and Roffeau difclofe the fecrets of the human heart. The commentaries_of_the learned Huet have furvived his Evangelical Demonstration; and the memoirs of Goldoni are more truly dramatic than his Italian comedies. The heretic and the churchman are ftrongly marked in the characters of Whifton and Bishop Newton, and even the dulnefs of Michael de Marolles and Antony Wood, acquires some value from the faithful representation of men and manners. That I am equal or fuperior to some of these, the effects of modefty or affectation cannot force me to diffemble." We will not refume any thing of the life of Mr Gibbon, as an account has already been given in vol. 58. p. 87. The following trait of his private character, in a love connection, appears interefting: "I hefitate, from the apprehenfion of ridicule, when I approach the delicate subject of my early love. By this word I do not mean the polite attention, the gallantry without hope or defign, which has originated in the spirit of chivalry, and is interwoven with the texture of French manners. I understand by this paflion the union of defire, friendship, and tenderness, which is enflamed by a fingle female; which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her poffeffion as the fupreme or the fole happinefs of our being. I need not blush at recollecting the object of my choice; and though my love was disappointed of success, I am rather proud that I was once capable of feeling fuch a pure and exalted fentiment. The perfonal attractions of Mademoiselle Sufan Curchod were embellished by the virtues and talents of the mind. Her fortune was humble, but her family was respectable. Her mother, a native of France, had |