love. His defects. Whether he has brought the mufical drama to the utmost perfection poffible. Chap. XII. Present decline of the Italian opera. Its general caufe. Parallel between the mufic of the ancients and moderns. Reafons for the perfection of the ancient, and intrinfic inconvenience of our musical fyftem. Chap. XIII. Particular caufes of the prefent degeneracy of the opera. Firft caufe. Want of philofophy in compofers. Defects in their compofitions. Reflections on the modern use of inftrumental mufic. Examination of recitative, and air. VOL. III. . Chap. XIV. Second caufe of degeneracy. Vanity and ignorance of fingers. Analyfis of modern melody. Reflections on popular judgment, and the variety of mufical tafte. Chap. XV. Third caufe. The almost total ruin of lyric poetry. Character of the most celebrated dramatic lyric poets fince Metaftafio. State of the comic opera. Chap. XVI. Difcuffion of pantomime dancing, in application to the theatre. Whether it should be retained or banished from the opera. Chap. XVII. and laft. Attempts at reforming the mufical drama. Tranflation of a letter to the Comte de Caylus by the Abbé Arnaud, in 1754, on the subject of dramatic mufic. Reply to a criticism, on this work, inferted in the Encyclopedie-Journal of Bolognas you Such are the contents of thefe volumes; in which, though there are many admirable reflections, yet, as they are written with the spirit and prejudices of a man of letters, who underftands and feels the beauties of poetry more than those of mufic; and as the Author's hiftorical information is fometimes defective and erroneous, the work feems to furnish frequent and intereft. ing opportunities for difcuffion, and mufical criticism. ART. VIII. Collection des meilleurs Ouvrages François, compofés par des Femmes; i. e. The Works of celebrated Frenchwomen: Selected by Mademoiselle de Keralio. 8vo. 3 vols. Paris, 1786. TH HIS Work may be confidered as a repofitory for the volumes, of which three only are published. These contain the lives of Heloife, of Chriftina of Pifano *, and of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre; together with their letters, hiftories, *This Lady was born in the fourteenth century. Toward the close of it she became a writer, and compofed feveral vifions and allegories. They who are acquainted with the writings of Bunyan, may form a tolerable idea of her manner. Sometimes, however, the is much fuperior to him. Heloife and Marguerite de Valois are fufficiently known. Pp 2 and and poems *. Extracts from the writings of other learned Ladies are next intended to be given; after which it is purposed to print the entire productions of Mademoiselle de Montpenfier, Madame de Villars, Madame de Sevigné, Madame and Mademoiselle Defhoulieres, &c. &c. &c. Mademoiselle de Keralio confines herself almoft wholly to the literary hiftory of Frenchwomen. She has given a fhort narrative of the most confiderable among them, with fpecimens of their feveral works. Many of thefe fpecimens are taken from MSS. in the library of the King of France, and are valuable not only on account of their antiquity, but, frequently, from their intrinfic merit. She very fenfibly obferves in her preface, and by way of apology for the present publication, that though the hiftory of French literature has been given by feveral able writers +, it is yet much too voluminous for the generality of readers, and particularly women; many of whom, for whatever reason, confider books as calculated rather for amusement than for ftudy, and who, confequently, feldom enter on the perufal of the larger and more elaborate works. She farther remarks with refpect to the prefent undertaking, that it has been engaged in, not only for the ufe of the before-mentioned persons, but from a defire of perpetuating the names of the feveral Frenchwomen who have dipped themselves in ink, and whose productions, the thinks, will thew to what an eminence the fex is capable of attaining, when they devote themselves to the noblest of all purfuits, the culture and improvement of the mind." 6 It is now acknowledged (fays fhe, with becoming enthusiasm) that study is no way incompatible with the female character, but that, on the contrary, it awakens the livelieft emotions, and fixes the happiest propenfities in the breaft: that it inclines the woman of fenfibility to a love of folitude and retirement, the ftate, according to our Authorefs, which is immediate and proper to her sex and that even to those who are engaged in the actual commerce of the world, a knowledge of books, provided they make not a particular difplay of it, will render them, however powerful their charms, additionally amiable in the eyes of all men; in fine, that it will give to them that modefty, and agree *To these are added fome poetical pieces of Francis the First, King of France. They are felected more for the purpose of fhewing the ftate of literature among the French, in the fixteenth century, than for any particular excellence in point of writing: though it muft, at the fame time, be acknowledged, that many of them breathe a tendernefs and delicacy of expreffion which could scarcely be expected in a warlike King, and in an age in which the progress to civilization and refinement was but flow. + Of which number are Bayle, Niceron, Chauffepied, Felibien, &c. &c. to whom Madle de K. acknowledges her obligations." ableness ableness of behaviour, without which beauty is merely as 'painted clay.' Such are our Authorefs's fentiments refpecting the qualities which the wishes to fee predominant in her fex. Milton, in his immortal work, has faid, Nothing lovelier can be found In woman, than to ftudy household good." But the Ladies of the prefent day are of a different opinion. They are eager to establish their power in the world of letters, though not to rule in it with abfolute fway. While, however, to a fondness for literature, they unite the domeftic virtues which are fo peculiarly graceful in the fex; fuch virtues, in fhort, as are discoverable in the ingenious writer whofe production is now before us, we will willingly allow them all they can demand-May they be diftinguifhed according to their wishes! In a word, may knowledge and virtue contend for empire in them. Thus fhall they live refpected, admired, and beloved by all! The hiftory of the progrefs of letters in France, from their origin until the fixteenth century, and which makes a confiderable part of the prefent work, is at once both curious and interefting. To trace the developements and unfoldings of the human mind, the gradual advances of a people from a state of barbarism to that of (comparatively speaking) elegance and refinement, is a task to which the pen of few can be fuppofed equal. Mademoiselle de Keratio, however, has acquitted herself in a manner that does her honour. In writing the eulogium of her country, and countrywomen, fhe unwillingly prefents us with her own. Her narrative is, for the moft part, elegant, concife, and clear. In giving an account of the language of the ancient Gauls, our Authorefs proceeds, on the grounds cf Hotoman, and others, in maintaining that it was undoubtedly the Greek. This opinion, which is particularly fet forth by fundry writers, is very ably confuted by Pelloutier † in his Hiftoire des Celtes; in which work he has likewife fully proved, that the old Celtic, or Gomerian, was the primitive, and, for a confiderable fpace of time, the general language of Europe. A former publication was infcribed by Madlle de K. to her Father; the prefent is dedicated to her mother, and in a strain that evinces the excellence of her head, and of her heart. As the Gauls are certainly known to have defcended from the Celts, it is pity that Madle de K. did not take this very ingenious writer for her guide. He has further laboured to fhew, with wonderful accuracy and precifion, that all the European nations came originally from the Celts. The remarks of Mademoiselle de Keralio on the literary effays of the fifteenth century, at which era the glimmerings of polite literature may be properly faid to have firft appeared in France, difplay an acuteness and talent for criticism, which are rarely met with in her fex. Her inquiries, likewife, into the particular and comparative excellence of Heloife and Chriftina, the former of whom was of the twelfth century, and the latter two hundred years pofterior to it; together with the preference which the very juftly gives to the abilities of the wife of Abeilard, notwithstanding the remotenefs of the times in which the lived, are so many proofs of the folidity of her judgment, and of the correctnefs and elegance of her tafte. This Work, which is prefented to the public as a pile erected in honour of the genius of the women of France, is to be followed, we are told, by another in memory of the abilities of thofe of England and Italy. We wish fuccefs to the ingenious and amiable Projector. ART. IX. Nouveaux Memoires de l'Academie Royale, &c. i. e. New Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Berlin, for the Year 1784; together with the Hiftory of the Academy for that Year*. 4to. 606 pages. Berlin. 1786. TH HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY. HIS part of the volume before us opens with an eloquent difcourfe of M. FORMEY, in which that ancient Academician celebrates the eminent qualities of the late Monarch (then alive), and thofe of Meffrs. Daniel Bernouilli, D'Alembert, and Euler. This is followed by the prize-queftions propofed by the Academy, and the names of the perfons to whom the prizes were adjudged. The article of ASTRONOMY contains extracts of letters received from feveral eminent men in that line, but no difcovery of confequence. The medical, chemical, optical, and meteorological articles, together with the books, manuscripts, and machines, that were prefented to the Academy in the year 1784, exhibit nothing either new or peculiarly interefting. EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. Mem. I. Experiments made with a View to discover the Proportion in which different Fluids are dilated by different and known Degrees of Heat. By M. ACHARD. The experiments related in this memoir are ingenious and fatisfactory; their results are exhibited in feveral tables, with great precifion and perfpicuity. The fluids that have been brought to trial in this feries of expe * For our account of the Berlin Memoirs, for 1783, fee Appendix to our 75th volume. riments, riments, are mercury, diftilled water, folutions of fal ammoniac, and decrepitated fea falt in diftilled water; fpirit of mindererus, the liquor of terra foliata tartari, aqueous spirit of fal ammoniac, cauftic spirit of fal ammoniac, fpirit of wine highly rectified, Hoffman's mineral anodyne drops, dulcified fpirit of nitre, oil of vitriol, concentrated vinegar, faturated folutions of iron in nitrous and marine acids, a folution of mercury in the nitrous acid, faturated folutions of lead and zinc in the fame acid, a faturated folution of zinc in marine acid, faturated folutions of the regulus of antimony and cobalt in aqua regia; the vitriolic, nitrous, and marine ethers; the oils of wax, amber, turpentine, lavender, lemon- rind, annifeed, caraway, mint, olive, fweet almonds, &c. Mem. II. Refearches made in order to discover an exact Method of measuring the relative Quantities of Phlogifton, contained in a given Sort of Air, fo as that the Degrees of the Phlogification of the Air may be reduced, by that Method, to just and numerical Proportions. By THE SAME. M. ACHARD has undertaken to prove, in this memoir, that none of the eudiometers, hitherto in ufe, are adapted to answer the purposes for which fuch inftruments are defigned. The errors which take place, when the degree of falubrity of any portion of air is meafured by these inftruments, are occafioned by the methods employed to phlogifticate the air which is to be examined. This our Academician endeavours to prove, by fhewing the inconveniencies which attend the methods of phlogifticating the air, whofe falubrity is to be afcertained by mixing it, in a certain proportion, with nitrous air, as has been done by Dr. Priestley and M. Fontana; or with inflammable air, which is the method of Volta, or with fulphur and filings of iron, which was practifed by Scheele. According to our Author, the only way of obtaining a good eudiometer, or of determining with certainty the mephiticifm of the air, is to find out a method of faturating it completely with phlogifton, without expofing it to any other alterations, independent on thofe which the phlogifton produces. M. ACHARD, after many fruitlefs attempts to difcover fuch a method, found, at length, that Kunkel's phofphorus has all the qualities that are requifite for that purpose. Its great inflammability, which furpaffes, confiderably, that of all other bodies, renders it capable of burning in the air, as long as the latter is not totally faturated with the phlogifton; and as this phofphorus contains, excepting the phlogiston, no principle that is volatile, and capable of combining itself with the air, or making it undergo any alteration, its combuftion produces in the air no other changes than thofe which are derived immediately from its combination with the phlogifton, and are totally independent on any other caufe. PP 4 Mem. |