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Befide the nebula here defcribed, the Author gives an account of other appearances of a fimilar kind, which have been noticed by former aftronomers, but which are not now to be feen. It is natural to fuppofe that fome, at least, of these phenomena have been comets, which were vifible only through a telescope, and which, on account of their immenfe diftance, could be feen only in a very fmall part of their orbits. MEMOIR II. Extract of a Journal of a Voyage into the Indian

Sea, undertaken by Order of the King. By M. Le Gentil. M. Gentil was fent to obferve the tranfit of Venus, in the year 1761, in the Eaft Indies. Having through various accidents been prevented from properly obferving this important phenomenon, which happened while he was at fea, and before he could reach the coaft of Coromandel; his zeal for the object of his miffion induced him to submit to a voluntary banishment of eight years continuance, and to remain in the Indies, in hopes of obferving the tranfit of 1769. Fortune, however, completely fruftrated his fpirited and laudable intentions with regard to this object, and in a manner peculiarly vexatious. It gives us pain to relate that this zealous Aftronomer, after having upon the whole traverfed no less than 10,000 leagues, and after having waited eight years in the Indies, in order to have a view of the fun on the morning of the 3d of June, 1769, for the space only of a few hours, or even minutes, was at laft completely disappointed. The fky, which had been clear every morning during a whole month preceding the phenomenon, and which continued fo almoft to the very inftant of abservation, was then fuddenly obfcured, and the fun completely screened from his view, in confequence of a tempeft, which lafted precifely the time of the tranfit: for to increase, if poffible, his mortification, as foon as the tranfit was fairly over, the clouds difappeared, and the fun fhone out bright; as it continued to do for feveral days afterwards.

M. Le Gentil appears, however, to have employed the long interval between the two tranfits, in making many useful or curious obfervations, relative to Aftronomy, Navigation, Geography, and Natural Hiftory. A few of these are related in this Memoir, which is only an extract from the journal of his voyage, the whole of which he intends hereafter to present to the Public. We fhall briefly relate one or two particulars.

During his refidence in the Indies, M. Gentil took fome pains to inquire into the manners, customs, and religion of the Indians, and efpecially into the ftate of Aftronomy among them; having received fuch accounts of their skill in that science, as greatly excited his curiofity. He became ftill more interested to profecute this inquiry, on being an eye-witness to the facility and dispatch with which one of thofe whom he calls the Tamoult

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Tamoult Indians, improperly termed Malabars,' calculated an eclipfe of the moon, which he propofed to him at random. The whole process, comprehending all the preliminary elements, did not coft this Eaftern Sage three quarters of an hour.

M. Gentil immediately became his difciple, devoting one hour in a day to the ftudy of the Eaftern aftronomy. Though he was obliged to receive all his leffons through the medium of an interpreter; yet he was in a fhort time enabled to calculate a lunar eclipfe, according to the method of his inftructor, which appeared to him to be very fimple and eafy. With respect to its exactness, he obferves that the error, in feveral eclipses of the moon calculated by the Indian rules, does not exceed 25 minutes of time. The tables, on which these Indian aftronomers found their calculations, will be published in the account of the Author's voyage.

Though it does not appear from any of the remains of antiquity, that the ancient Chaldeans and Egyptians had any knowledge of the preceffion of the equinoxes, the Bramins are well acquainted with it. They fuppofe that the fixed ftars move annually 54 feconds toward the Eaft. On this bafis their aftronomical calculations are founded; as well as their belief with respect to the age of the world, and the period of its future duration. It is difficult to determine whence they could derive their knowledge of the preceffion; as they are not converfant in practical aftronomy, or regular obfervations, and attend to eclipfes from no other motives than thofe of religion. If we suppose that they have derived it from the ancient Brachmans, who had difcovered it in confequence of a long feries of accurate obfervations; it fhould follow that the annual apparent motion of the fixed ftars is flower now than it was formerly. The Author endeavours to throw fome light on this dark fubject, by noting the conformity between the aftronomical periods of the modern Bramins, and thofe (the Neros, and Saros) indicated by Berofus, the Chaldean. He at length fuppofes. that the Chaldeans muft probably have been acquainted with the preceffion of the equinoxes.

We meet in this Memoir with another ftriking and well authenticated proof of the grand alterations or derangements which this globe has fuftained in fome former period. On vifiting Don Antonio de Ulloa, at the Ifle de Leon, that gentleman, well known by the fhare he had in measuring a degree under the equator, fhewed the Author fome petrified fea-fhells which he had himfelf taken from a large bank or collection of them, at the top of the Cordiliers. At the place where this bed of fea-fhells has been depofited, the mercury in the barometer stood only at 17 inches, one line, and a quarter; and accord

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ingly indicated this collection of marine exuvia to be elevated 2200 toises, or French fathoms, above the prefent level of the fea.

MEMOIR III. On the Inequalities in the Light of Jupiter's Satel lites, and on measuring their respective Diameters; together with a Method of rendering the Obfervations of their Eclipfes, made by different Aftronomers, and with different Telescopes, comparable with each other. By M. Bailly.

We shall not dwell on this Memoir, as we have already [in our 50th volume, May 1774, page 353] given a pretty full account of the Author's letter on the fubject of it, addressed to Mr. Maskelyne, and published in the 63d volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions. We fhall only obferve, that by M. Bailly's ingenious application of diaphragms to the apertures of telescopes (firft proposed by M. de Fouchy) and by his attention to the feveral causes which affect the time of a satellite's apparent immerfion, he deduces the inftant of its real immerfion, its diameter, &c. whatever may be the height of the fatellite above the horizon, its diftance from the fun or earth, the magnifying power of the telescope, or the goodness of the observer's eyes.

The remaining Memoirs of this clafs are-A continuation of M. du Sejour's New Analytical Methods of calculating Eclipfes of the Sun; being his Ninth Memoir on this Subject :-A Fourth Memoir, by M. de la Lande, on the Theory of the Planet Mercury:-Obfervations on the Comet of 1764, and of the fecond Comet of 1769, which is the 59th of those whofe orbits have been calculated; by M. Meffier:-Observations on the Eclipfe of the Sun on June 4, 1769, by M. Meffier, in which he obferved very evident Inequalities on the Edge of the Moon's Difk, fimilar to thofe formerly obferved by the Prince de Croy, at Calais : [See our 37th vol. September 1767, p. 173]-Some Obferyations on the laft Tranfit of Venus, by the fame Aftronomer; and on the Sun's Parallax, by M. de la Lande; together with a few other aftronomical obfervations of lefs importance.

This volume contains no less than four Eloges; thofe of the celebrated Morgagni, M. de Mairan, M. Fontaine, and M. Petot.

B..g.

ART.

ART. VI.

Delle Antichita di Ercolano, Tomo Sefto, o fia, Secondo de Bronxi.The Antiquities of Herculaneum. Volume the Sixth †, being the Second of the Bronzes. Folio. Naples.

THIS

HIS volume contains 101 folio plates, and 31 fmall ones, in which are represented 190 bronzes, three models in clay, and one view of an ancient building difcovered in the excavations now carrying on at Pompei. Many of thefe ftatues are nearly the fize of life; nine are coloffal, and two equeftrian. They have not all of them the fame degree of merit, but they are, with very little exception, all in a good style; and many are wrought with fuch extreme delicacy, and exquifite tafte, as to ftand in competition with the most excellent of those ancient marble ftatues that continue to be the admiration and delight of the curious: fo that the royal museum of Portici, in respect of ancient bronzes, as well as paintings, may juftly be efteemed, of all others exifting, the most copious, and moft

curious.

Thus much is faid of the originals; of the engravings we obferve those performed by Campana, Nolli, and Fiorillo, after the drawings of Vanni, and Cafa nova, are the beft; the other draftsmen and engravers are in general below criticism.

It muft appear unaccountable to thofe who perufe this royal publication, that in Italy, long the feat of the fine arts, and at prefent not deftitute of good artifts (witness the Italian fchool of painting published at Rome by Hamilton *) the protection and munificence of a fovereign, fhould not have produced a more excellent work than this before us; efpecially when they confider the materials from which it is compofed, fo highly interefting for the beauty of workmanship, and the curiofity of the fubjects reprefented.

The prints of this, as of the former volumes, are accompanied with defcriptions, and thofe defcriptions are illuftrated by notes; the whole by a fociety of litterati inftituted for that purpofe by the King of Naples, and called the Herculanean Academy. That the English Reader may form fome judgment of the manner in which thefe academicians acquit themselves of their task, we fhall give a tranflation of what they fay of the first plate, which it is evident, at the first and flighteft view, reprefents a Jupiter.

For our account of the preceding volumes, fee Appendix to Review, vol. xlvi. See Rev. vol. lv. p. 241,

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There will be, for the reafons elsewhere explained, a propriety in beginning our collection of bronzes with this little idol of Jupiter t, for so the majestic afpect alone of our figure would authorize us to name it. He is also refpectable ‡ for his abundant treffes, and his thick bushy beard §, but the thunderbolt, of which a fragment remains in his right-hand, the

• Deds, onion in apxn. God, the mark, fign, or token; also the beginning; fays Hefychius. In effect he himself remarks the custom of the ancients, that in the beginning of whatsoever action, they repeated ós, Otós, God, God: as Euftathius alfo obferves, Il. B. v. 481. p. 258. and perhaps that part of the bowels of the victim which they called Deus, and when found entire accounted a good omen, (Statius Th. v. 176, where the scholiaft) had that name, because it was the beginning of the inteftines (as Kufterus explains σημείον ἡ ἀρχὴ of Hefychius) and was the frft to be infpe&ted. Now as among other statues those of the gods deferved the first place, fo among thefe, the principal is certainly that of Jupiter, who perhaps was the one only god with the wife men among the Heathens, who expreffed their notions of the true Deity in fuch manner as was permitted them, living as they did in darkness, to conceive it. (Minut. Felix 18, and his commentators.) See also note 2, plate I. of our 4tb volume of the paintings.

+ It was found in the excavations at Portici, when they were firft undertaken.'

Homer defigning to make Agamemnon appear the moft refpectable of all the Greek captains who went to the fiege of Troy, describes him thus, Il. B. v. 477.

μετὰ δὲ κρέτων ̓Αγαμέμνων

Ομματα, καὶ κεφαλὴν ἔκελος Διΐ τερπικεραύνω

*Αρει δὲ ζώνην, σέρνον δὲ Ποσειδάωνι.
દે

'Mongft thefe food Agamemnon, like he flood,

His

eyes and head, to Jove the thunderer,

His arms to Mars, to Neptune his high chest.

On which Euftathius remarks, p. 258, τρία ἦν ὁ ποιητής φαίνεται τῷ βασιλεῖ προσμαρτυρεῖν, τὸ ἀξιωματικον, τὸ πολεμικὸν, καὶ τὸ γεραρὸν, ὅ καὶ αυτὸ πρέπον ἐςι μάλισα βασιλεῖ. Three things therefore it fould from the poet attributes to a King, authoritative, warlike, and majestic, even this being greatly advantageous to a King."

$ Phornutus de N. D. 9, thus describes Jupiter, magoáyvo, ♪ αὐτὸν τιλείς ἀνδρὸς ἡλικίαν ἔχοντα ἐπεὶ ετε τὸ παρηκμακὸς, ἔτε τὸ ἐλλιπες ἐμφαίνει. They reprefent him in the figure of a man of perfe& age, fince he does not appear to be either old or young; for the reft, fee the notes (2 and 3) of the 2d plate of the first volume of bronzes.

Jupiter is moft frequently represented with the thunderbolt in his right hand. See Staverer to Albricus, D. Im. 2. Homer's Iliad r. v. 184, defcribes him with the thunderbolt in both hands, xws περοπὴν μετὰ χερσίν.

ufual

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