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The volume contains feventy two Cafes, part of them on practical fubjects, but the greater number relative either to phyfiology, or anatomy.

A complete Treatife of Electricity in Theory and Practice; with original Experiments. By Tiberius Cavallo. 8vo.5 s.in boards. Dilly.

TH

HIS Treatife, which feems to be intended as a system of electricity, is divided into four parts. In the first, the author delineates the fundamental laws of electricity, or those which have been invariably obferved by all experimentalists, and are independent on any hypothefis. In the second, he enters into the theory of this curious branch of phyfics; explaining the doctrine of pofitive and negative electricity, the nature of the elearic fluid, with that of electrics and conductors, and the place occupied by the electric Auid The third part is employed on the practical branch of electricity; in which the author, after defcribing the apparatus, and delivering fome rules concerning its ufe, proceeds to recite experiments relative to electric attraction and repulfion, electric light, the Leyden phial, &c. The fourth and laft divifion of the work, or that part of it which is new, contains a short account of the principal experiments made by the author in the courfe of his electric enquiries. The firft were performed with the electrical kite, and from the refult of them, Mr. Cavallo deduces the following general laws.

I. The air appears to be electrified at all times; its electricity is conftantiy pofitive, and much stronger in frofty, than in warm weather; but it is by no means less in the night, than in the day time.

II. The prefence of the clouds generally leffens the electricity of the kite; fometimes it has no effect upon it; and it is very feldom that it increafes it a little.

III. When it rains, the electricity of the kite is generally negative, and very feldom pofitive.

IV. The aurora borealis feems not to affect the electricity of the kite.

• V. The electrical spark taken from the ftring of the kite, or from any infulated conductor connected with it, especially when it does not rain, is very feldom longer than a quarter of an inch, but it is exceedingly pungent. When the index of the ele&rometer is not higher than 20°, the person that takes the fpark, will feel the effect of it in his legs; it appearing more like the difcharge of an electric jar, than the

fpark

fpark taken from the prime conductor of an electrical machine.

VI. The electricity of the kite is in general stronger or weaker, according as the ftring is longer or fhorter, but it does not keep any exact proportion to it; the electricity, for inftance, brought down by a string of a hundred yards, may raise the index of the electrometer to 20°, when with double that length of string, the index of the electrometer will not go higher than 250.

VII. When the weather is damp, and the electricity is pretty strong, the index of the electrometer, after taking a fpark from the string, or prefenting the knob of a coated phial to it, rifes surprisingly quick to its ufual place; but in dry and warm weather, it rifes exceedingly flow.'

These inferences feemed to be confirmed by the experiments which the author afterwards made with the atmospherical electrometer, and the electrometer for the rain. The remaining pages of the volume contain experiments made with the elec trophorus, or the machine for exhibiting perpetual electricity, experiments on colours, and mifcellaneous experi

ments.

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It cannot be faid, that Mr. Cavallo's experiments add much to our knowledge of electricity; but confidered as obfervations attentively made, they may be worthy of a place amongst the materials for perfecting the fcience; and to render this more generally understood, the treatife may prove fubfervient.

The Spirit of Athens, being a political and philofophical Investigation of the Hiftory of that Republic. By William Young, Efq.

800.55.

THIS

Robfon.

HIS work is a feries of mifcellaneous reflections on the hiftory of Athens, from the first population of Attica, to the furrender of the commonwealth to Antipater, one of the immediate fucceffors of Alexander the Great. That is, from the year 1556, when Cecrops is fuppofed to have laid the foundation of the city, to the year 322, before the Chriftian æra.

Befides the wars and revolutions of this republic, the author confiders the legislation of Solon, the connection of Ariftogiton and Harmodius, the oftracism, the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, the character and death of Socrates, and other incidental fubjects.

Ariftotle tells us, that poetry is of a more philofophic, and Goudalotesov didactic fpirit than hiftory.' Poet. cap. 9. Mr. Young fuppofes this to be an erroneous decifion; and, as a demonftration that it is fo, has attempted to deduce a train of political and philofophical inftructions from the history of Athens.

In the preface, having difplaved the advantages of history, he thus proceeds to explain his defign, and the path he has purfued in his investigations.

To paint a forcible and expreffive picture of my subject, I have changed the attitudes of fome figures, I have tranfpofed others, and approximated them to a stronger contrast, or to a more glaring light; many are the anachronisms which this free, or rather libertine, mode of writing has betrayed me into; but the confequence was unavoidable, and I hope this contefion, as it cautions the unlearned against error, may serve to obviate the ftrictures of the critical. My defign is from the annals of men and things to extract the fpirit of character and event, with the narrative to interweave the moral, and to give at once the history and its comment; and in this, my book may be of fome ufe to the young, or to the fuperficial ftudent; it may teach him that the ancient Greek history is fraught with fomething more than apothegm and anecdote,that to know the names of Marathon and Salamis, of Codrus, or of Cimon, to (parfue a metaphor of Mr. Burke's) is merely to know the land marks of hiftory, and not the country,—that to a agacious traveller the country is the object,-its abrupt breaks, its gentler declivities, its culture, and its produce: he must not expect to meet with his acquaintance from the Pantheon; the heroes of fable have found no admittance in this work well were it, if nothing of more importance to the history was omitted!-In my courfe many a flower have I difregarded, that others have flayed to pluck, and perchance, fometimes a fimple have I culled, which another hath neglecied; what I have idly rejected, and what, perhaps, as idly chofen, may equally fubject me to cenfure ;-I humbly fubmit to it, nor will I prolong this preface to deprecate its severity,nor, in the language of deference, to hint pretenfions, nor to jingle a quaint antithefis to public amufement, and to public utility; to fay I wrote for either, were vain as it is falfe;-I wrote the following book to beguile, an idle time, and I know no better reafon for publishing, than because I have qurole it'

The following extract will be no unfavourable specimen of this work. Speaking of the battle of Charonea, in which

Philip

Philip of Macedon got the maftery of Greece, the author fays,

It hath not been unusual to clofe the hiftory of Greece, at this period; had I undertaken to trace the general history of Greece, I should think myfelf now approaching to the most interesting part of my work; I should look with a curious eye into the tranfa&tions and conftitution of the Achæan league; I fhould bufy myself with the Etolians; I fhould pry into the various declenfion of each republic; and build walls to Lacedæmon': even the fingle ftate of Athens, I cannot so readily quit, with the fimple affertion," That the liberties of Greece perifhed at the field of Cheronea :"—that they did, fhould' be manifefted.

Philip, to found the temper of the Greeks, and to prepare them for the Afiatic expedition, called a meeting of their delegates to Corinth, and Athens, and every other city (excepting Sparta) obeyed the fummons, and in general council coincided with the views of Philip, and acknowledged his title to the command in chief.

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Philip lived not to profit of his conquefts; his death was deemed favourable to the recovery of liberty and of power; Demofthenes on the news thereof, appeared in the affembly with a chaplet on his head, and exhorted the people to new ftruggles and oppofition; but the bold and vigilant genius of Alexander gave not this fpirit time to blaze ;--he quickly raised and appeared with a powerful force, and reduced the Athe nians to an acquiefcence in the terms granted them by his father; and then at the head of his veteran army, went forth, to work out under Providence the great revolution of the East.

די.

The twelve years that Alexander was purfuing his victories in Afia, were a golden period for Greece; a man of a polished and erudite mind could not imagine to himself hap pier times,-times when flourished philosophy, art, and every requifite to adorn a life of Attic eafe:-the vifionary might find fellow dreamers in the groves of Plato ;-the fubtile might converfe with Ariftotle :-the grave with Zeno ;-the more cheerful moralift might walk the gardens of Epicurus ;-and the votary of elegant fenfuality might loiter away his noon at the academy of Phidias, and his evening at the table of the witty and luxurious Demades.

It is a curious circumftance that Xerxes, who had yielded to the ftrength of the republic, from the pillage of the city, carried into Afia with him the ftatues of Ariftogiton and Harmodius; and that Alexander, who had mastered the republic,

fent

fent from Afia, and replaced these very statues of the first affertors of that liberty, he had deftroyed. This remark might feem pregnant with little more than conceit, did. it not lead to an observation on the ill policy of Alexander, who, furely was little confiderate of the peace and fecurity of his government, when he fent to Athens this inflammatory prefent,being ever before their eyes a memorial of their past honours, and prefent ignominy ;-ever reproaching them with their abject acquiefcence in a fervitude, fhameful, however light, and ever with this paffive temper strongly contrafting the spirit of their ancient martyrs to freedom.

The conqueror's ill timed generofity may be prefumed, I think, to have had fome fuch effect; for in the laft book of Arrian, remarking a general embaffy of the Greeks addreffing Alexander as a deity, at the fame time I remember an exception (mentioned in the twelfth chapter of the fifth book of Ælian) with respect to the Athenians, who roufed from their fervile complacency, fined the orator Demades for a mere propofal of his apotheofis; and when the heroic king fent his mandate to Greece, ordering each city to receive back its exiles, we find Athens then too (and almoft fingly) oppofing the conqueror's good will and pleafure; and Alexander a little before his death, had collected a mighty force,-(fays Justin) ad delendas Athenas;-but he was cut off in his career of victory, and the Athenians had time to make warlike preparations, wherewith to dispute the fovereignty of his fucceffors.'

The reader will not find many brilliant remarks, many ftrokes of a lively imagination in this work. The author is not like the man, who entertains his vifitors with a romantic landscape, the fight of a beautiful meadow, or a fine garden; but like one, who expatiates on the richness of the foil, the minerals, which is found in his eftate, and the timber, which grows in his woods.

Memoirs of eminently pious Wonden. By Thomas Gibbons, D. D. 2 vols. 8vo. 125. ferved. Buckland.

OF every fpecies of biography, that which relates to pious women is perhaps the most barren, not only of incidents, but likewise of diverfity of character. A great attention to religious duties, meditations on the fcriptures, fervent devotion, and acts of charity, are in general the fubjects of the narrative in works of this kind. But though we cannot therefore expect to meet with much entertainment in thofe writings, they

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