mination of Aptenodyta, from 'inraμas, whence 'aπTùv, incapable of flying, and duvw, to dive, or fink, which make aπrnvodurns, and denotes a bird which dives, and never ufes its wings for flying. We have much zoological difcuffion in this Memoir, and very particular descriptions of the various forts of Aptenodytas (it is a very uncouth word, Mr. Forfter!) that come under this general denomination. These accurate and circumftantial defcriptions are accompanied with four plates, representing, with their natural colours, four forts of the bird in question, the Chryfocome, the Patagonian, the Papua, and the Antartica.

MATHEMATICS.

MEM. I. Rules for defcribing the Lunar Disk at a given Time. By M. ABR. G. KAESTNER. In this learned and ingenious Memoir the Academician inquires what, in a given time, is the phase of the Moon, and the aspect of her spots; as also, in what fituation thefe (pots appear at the ecliptic, or the other circles, which we conceive in the heavens. This inquiry is of use in eclipfes of the Moon, to foretel the order in which the fpots enter into the earth's fhadow, or emerge out of it, and alfo in other lunar obfervations. The formulæ, or rules, which conduct M. KAESTNER in the folution of thefe queftions, dife cover a geometrical spirit and genius of the first order.

MEM. II. Concerning the various Attempts of Architects to determine, by Analysis, the beft Form of a Fortification. By M. ALB. LUD. FRED ME:STER.-MEM. 111. Concerning the Method of calculating the Effect of Cannon in Sieges and Battles. By the fame. We recommend the perusal of these two Memoirs to all the fons of fulphur and nitre.

HISTORY and PHILOLOGY.

MEM. I. Concerning the Era of the Teutonic or German Language in the Statutes and Conftitutions of the Empire. By M. J. CHRIST. GATTERER. The Academician proves, in this Memoir, that the Edict, or Conftitution, published by the Emperor Frederic II. at the Diet of Mentz, in 1235, was the firft Imperial edict compofed in the German language. This has been generally believed; but it never was fo fully proved before.

MEM. II. A Differtation concerning Chriftian Mummies. By M. WILLIAM FRANCIS WALCHIUS, Profeffor of Church Hiftory at Gottingen. There is plenty of erudition in this Memoir. The matter treated in it is curious: and the learned Author, while he difcuffes the question, whether the Chriftians in Egypt preferved their dead in the form of mummies, illuftrates feveral particulars, relative to the practice of the Egyptians in embalming, burying, and preferving the bodies of their deceafed friends. It appears, from the teftimonies of ancient authors, that the Egyptians were the only people who preferved their dead in the form of mummies; it alfo appears, that they pre

ferved them in their houfes,-to which the general inundations of the Nile may, perhaps, have given occafion: it appears, moreover, that Kircher, Caylus, and other antiquaries of note are mistaken, when they affirm, that the art and the cuftom of forming mummies only took place in thofe ancient periods of the Egyptian monarchy, that dated long before the first appearance of Christianity; for M. WALCHIUS proves, from the teftimonies of Lucian and St. Auguftin, that this method was in ufe in their times. From hence it is poffible, that the Egyptians, who embraced Chriftianity, may have practifed the cuf tom of reducing their dead to the form of mummies. And thus the idea of thofe, who maintain that the Chriftian as well as the Pagan Egyptians had their mummies (with this difference, that the former buried them, whereas the latter kept them in their houses), is not to be rejected as void of all probability: but this is very different from a proof of the fact, which has been afferted by few, if any, modern writers, except Chifflet and Bingham. Our Academician, after fifting a confiderable number of fentences from Athenagoras, Origen, the fragments of Dionyfius preferved by Eufebius, and Athanafius (for it seems Clemens of Alexandria fays nothing about the matter), calls out Ignoramus: but a particular examination of two mummies in the collection of Drefden made him incline to the notion, that the Chriftians had their mummies, and that thefe two were of the number. Winkelmann, who has defcribed and illuftrated thefe remains, is of a different opinion and fo is the ingenious Author of the following Memoir.

MEM. III. Some Gleanings from Antiquity on the Subject of Mummies. By Profeffor HEYNE. The preceding Memoir treated of Chriftian mummies, or rather of mummies of Christians; in this M. HEYNE treats of mummies in general, and fhews a great deal of learning in enumerating the difficulties that remove all hope of coming at any competent knowledge of the Egyptian fepulchres and Mummies. Nevertheless, he says many things pertinently on the fubject; but he avoids telling ftories on flender authorities, or retailing facts upon dubious evidence, in which refpects he ftands eminently diftinguished from the vulgar tribe of Philologers. There is really an abundance of good erudition and ingenious reasoning and investigation in this Memoir. It contains the most learned account of the origin and the different kinds of mummies we have ever met with, as alfo an excellent fummary, illuftrated with the true fpirit of criticism, of what Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus have related concerning the Egyptian manner of preferving bodies, and making mummies. It is, however, remarkable, that none of the mummies now known, and kept in the collections of the curious, answer to the defcriptions given by these two hiftorians.

Our

Our Author does not conclude from thence, that thefe mummies are pofterior to the times of Herodotus and Diodorus: they may have been ancient, but not defcribed: were they modern, fays our Academician, they would probably bear some veftiges of Perfian or Grecian manners; but this is not the cafe; for every thing, fays he, that we meet with in thefe mummies is entirely Egyptian, and expreffive, only, of the religion of that 'country.

MEM. IV. Concerning the Changes that have taken place in the Perfian Religion. By M. CHR. MEINERS. After having treated, in three preceding Memoirs, concerning the perfon, character, and doctrines of Zoroafter, the learned Academician, in this fourth and laft, gives us a general hiftory of the Perfian Theology, in all its varying afpects. Many learned men have gone over the fame ground before him; but, it seems, they have left him room enough to expatiate, without his being obliged to follow their footsteps: for, fays he, they have all, either built a favourite hypothefis upon the ruins of the moft refpectable re'cords of antiquity; or, when they have gone to work with more impartiality, they have accumulated the accounts of writers of all ages with little method and judgment, neither attending to the refpective weight and authority of the Authors they have confulted, nor diftinguishing the periods in which certain doctrines and rites prevailed. From this negligence has arisen the moft difgufting confufion of doctrines and rites totally different, in the accounts that have been given of the Perfian religion. It may be fo-However, as our Academician tharply cenfures his predeceffors in this line, it may be juftly expected that he will do better and accordingly we think the Memoir before us a mafterly sketch of the ecclefiaftical hiftory (if we may fo call it) of the Perfians.

It is divided into three Parts. In the first, the learned Profeffor inquires into the primitive religious worship of the ancient Perfians, and points out the changes it underwent from the imitation of the customs and facred rites of other nations, before they were fubjected to the dominion of the Greeks. In the fecond, he relates the changes that were introduced into the Perfian theology, during the period that elapfed between the conquests of Alexander and the government of the Arabians. And in the Taft, he fhews by what means the Perfian religion, which, in the two precedings periods, had been much corrupted, was, after the final fubverfion of that empire by the Arabs, so totally changed, that fcarcely any of its ancient features remained.-We muft not pretend to follow our Author through all the mazes of this learned and ingenious difcuffion; but we cannot help bearing teftimony to the perfpicuity and precifion for which it is commendable. In the first part, he confiders the Perfians as of Scythian

Scythian origin, and as following the theological opinions that were adopted by the ancient Scythians and Celts, worshipping the Atmosphere as their Jupiter, the Sun, under the name of Mithras, and regarding the earth, the water, and the fire (the two last of which were beheld with a peculiar and equal veneration) as partaking of a divine nature. He defcribes the fimplicity of their worship in antient times, and the alterations it underwent, before Alexander's expedition, by the fuperftition of their Kings and Princes, and the culpable and corrupt negli gence of the Magi. This was remarkable in the reigns of Darius Hyftafpes, and Xerxes; of whom the latter, more especially, was deeply infected with the Grecian fuperftitions. This infection was fpread foon among the lower orders, and occafioned the introduction of new objects and methods of worship into the kingdom of Perfia. Among other curious things, in the fecond part of this Memoir, are our Author's difquifitions concerning the fuperftitious rites that were added to the worship of Mithras, which, as he proves with learning and judgment, were neither invented in Perfia, nor introduced by Zoroafter, nor known among the Perfians before the time of Alexander; but were contrived by a band, or rather a people of robbers, composed of fugitives from almost all the Eaftern nations, and who, for many years took up their chief refidence among the rocks and in the caverns of Cilicia. The abfurd inventions of this banditti paffed into the hands of the Greeks and Romans, who adopted the rites and ceremonies, and even gods, of all the barbarous nations, and embellifhed them with new names, inventions, and decorations. He fhews alfo, that the Perfians during the whole period of their fubjection to the Greeks and Parthians, neither worshipped new Gods, nor erected temples and images in honour of their ancient deities. He, however, acknowledges, that, not long after the domination of the Greeks, they confecrated chapels to Fire, and made feveral innovations in their

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orfhip of this divine object, and in their former manner of sacrificing, which are here particularly enumerated. When the Parthian yoke was broken, and the Magi, who had been reduced by the Parthians to the condition of jugglers and fortunetellers, refumed their ancient dignity with the returning independence of their fovereigns, attempts were made to reform the Perfian worship, and to bring it back to its ancient fimplicity and purity. Thefe attempts were not without fuccefs, as feveral fuperftitious abufes were removed, though fome new inventions were also introduced, which did not favour of a spirit of reformation. All these are accurately related by our learned Profeflor. But it is in the third part of this Memoir, that we fee the total fall of the ancient religion of the Perfians; first per

I

fecuted

fecuted by the Arabians, and then deformed with the fuperfti tions of that people, and thofe of the Indian nations.

MEM. V. Concerning the Successors of Ptolemy VII. Euergetes II." &c. By M. J. REINOLD FORSTER. This is a learned attempt to reduce to a chronological order the hiftory of the Ptolemies on the throne of Egypt.

MEM. VI. Concerning the Religion and the Language of the Sabaans. By M. MATTH. NORBERG. The Sabæans, who are the fubject of this Memoir, are thofe, who are known under the denomination of the Chriftians of St. John the Baptift. The investigations that have been hitherto made of their religious tenets and language, have been attended with great difficulties, and have not difpelled all the obfcurity that covers this part of ecclefiaftical hiftory. The very learned Author of this Memoir has thrown new light upon this fubject, by a careful perufal of certain curious MSS. in the Library of the King of France, which contain the religion and laws of the Sabæans, written in their ancient language. From what he met with in these manuscripts, he concludes, that the Sabaans, are not to be confidered, with refpect to religion, as Chaldeans, because they do not worship the Sun, Moon, and Stars; nor as Jews, becaufe they do not expect a Meffiah; nor as Chriftians, becaufe they confider Christ as a falfe Meffiah: he is of opinion that their religious fyftem is a medley of Chaldæifm, Judaism, and Chriftianity, and the reafons on which he founds this hypothefis are both plaufible and ingenious. The account, moreover, which he gives of the Sabæan religion (and which he received from a learned Maronite, who lived long in the moft intimate familiarity and correfpondence with the members of that fect) is interefting and curious, as are alfo feveral fpecimens of the manufcripts already mentioned, which are here printed in Syriac characters, accompanied with notes, and a Latin translation.

Upon the whole, this volume is replete with elegant and interesting erudition, and does honour to the learned and judicious members of the Society of Gottingen.

MONTHLY

CATALOGUE,

For SEPTEMBER, 1783.

POLITICA L.

Art. 9. A Letter of Advice, addreffed to all Merchants, Manufacturers, and Traders, of every Denomination, in Great Britain, concerning the Tax on Receipts, which is to take place on the First Day of September next; in which the oppreffive Partiality of the Tax, and the lawful Means of avoiding it, are plainly, fairly, and honeftly fet forth, and made clear to the meanest Capacity., By Oliver Quid, Tobacconist. 8vo. 6d. Kearfley. 1783.

HERE is a tribe of authors, fwarming about this great town, who fedulously watch the times, and catch the occafions living Rev. Sept. 1783.

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