controverfy with the weakeft as well as wickedeft of all mankind, is a thing impoffible. This I fhall do indeed, in a fhort preface to the fecond volume. I fhall hang him and his fellows as they do vermin in a warren, and feave them to pofterity to tick and blacken in the wind; and this will I do was the Pope himself their protectore Other bufinefs with them in the way of argument I shall never have any." "I mentioned the fecond volume, it is now in the prefs, I have received two sheets, two more are coming, and they cry out for more copy. Inter nos, I only write from hand to mouth as they fay here, fo that an Eaftwind, a fit of the fpleen, want of books, and a thoufandi other accidents, will frequently make the prefs ftand still. This will be an inconvenience to Mr. Gyles, but I told him what he was to expect; and his hands are fo full of great works, that I may well be fpared, amongst the. first-rate of the fleet, and cruize at my leifure in a lee fhore, fafe from W. and the rest of these GuardaCoftas." "What you tell me of the Society's referring Fourmon's book to Pierce was pleafant enough, as he differs fo greatly from Sir Ifaac Newton, whofe conjectures the examiner takes for demonftrations. A word in your earwhat Sir Ifaac wrote of the Egyptian Antiquities is the moft wretched thing that ever was wrote by any body. But more of that in time. As to the paffages of Mr. Pope that correspond with Leibnitz; you know he took them from Shaftsbury, and that Shaftbury and Leibnitz had one common original, Plato, whose system of the best, when pushed as far as Leibnitz has carried it, must end in fate. It is pleafant enough to fee the different tafte of authors. Leibnitz in his Theodiceè fcheme, objects against Sir Ifaac Newton's theory of attraction, becaufe on that scheme the revolutions of the cœleftial orbs could not be performed without a perpetual miracle. And Mr. Baxter makes that very confideration one of the most recommending qualities of that theory, and has, you know, wrote a large book to prove that there is a CANES virofque perfequentes dum fugit LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. TH HIS Article is only fubmitted as a fpecimen. The author is establishing correfpondencies in feveral parts of Europe, for the purpose of procuring the earliest knowledge of what is going forward, together with foreign books as foon as published. John Bernard de Roffi, profeffor of Oriental languages, and vice-prefident of the Theology Faculty in the Royal Academy of Parma, propofes to publish by fubfcription, "Various readings of the Old Teftament, "taken from an immenfe quantity of manufcripts and 86 printed editions. Illuftrated with continued notes, "both historical and critical, in four volumes. The price of fubfcription to be a guinea a volume, to be paid at the time of fubfcribing." The new materials, by the affiftance and on the confidence of which Mr. Roffi undertakes this work, are, first and principally, three hundred and fifty manufcripts in his own poffeffion; all of them, a very few indeed excepted, hitherto uncollated, and fome of them older than the Bodleian or Vienna manufcripts, the two which Dr. Kennicott thinks the oldeft of all. 2. Fifty or fixty other manufcripts from foreign libraries, which Dr. Kennicott had not an opportunity of feeing, but which have been collated by the author, as far as his plan required. 3. A hundred very fcarce printed editions of the 15th and 16th centuries (forty of them older than the first Maforetic Bibles), and which appear to have been all unknown to Dr. Kennicott. 4. A very copious collection of manufcript and nearly all the old printed commentaries, in both of which it is well known the beft readings are often to be found. 5. Many felect readings from other fources. To these the author means to add, of his own, a Latin Interpretation to every various reading; together with a clavis of his manufcripts, and fhort prolegomena relating to the fountains of facred criticism. Thefe will be given with the first volume. Thefe are the materials; as to the plan, it is different from Dr. Kennicott's. The author propofes to give all the various readings, but to felect and compare only those which seem to him of importance to the caufe of Christianity, those which affect the fenfe of the words, thofe which arefupported either by manufcripts or the Samaritan text, or the oldeft verfions. By this means he avoids troubling the reader with chufing between various readings, which have often arifen from the blunders of ignorant tranfcribers. As there is not, at prefent, any thing in the literary world which appears to be more deferving the attention of the Learned in general, and the Antiquary in particular, than Dr. Hunter's expected publication, it will not, perhaps, be unacceptable to my readers to receive the following fhort account of this work. Few places, in this or any other kingdom, are fo well furnished for the inftruction and entertainment of the Curious as Dr. Hunter's Museum, where, befides the extenfive and coftly library, the anatomical prepa rations, univerfally acknowledged to be fuperior in number and elegance to any collection of this kind in Europe, the minerals, fhells, corals, infects, &c. there is an invaluable repofitory of antient medals, by far exceeding in number and variety any collection of this kind hitherto published. The above mentioned work, in which the Doctor, affifted by Mr. Combe, is at prefent engaged, is a de fcription of the Greek coins of this cabinet, accom panied with engravings of the Anecdota, more accu rately and elegantly done than in any other publi cation. The whole work is intended to be divided into three parts: the firft, which is nearly finished, contains the coins of the antient towns and provinces which struck money independently of regal authority. The nuinber of this part of the collection amounts at prefent, in gold, filver, and copper, to about five thoufand four hundred every coin is briefly though minutely, described, as to the metal, fize, type, infcription, monograms, &c. and the weight of every gold and filver coin accurately marked. To fuch as have already been tolerably engraved, are added references to the books where they are to be found. Thofe which have not been accurately engraved, or hitherto not known, are, as before mentioned, engraved in the plates affixed to this work fifty-eight of these are already finished, and near three hundred and fifty pages of the letter-prefs worked off. In this collection will be found many towns heretofore unknown to medallists. The whole is arranged alphabetically, and will make one large volume in quarto, with near feventy plates, and will be publifhed fome time in next November. The fecond part will contain the Perfian, Phenician, Palmyrene, Samaritan, Punic, Celtiberian, and fuch other antient coins as have characters, which are now but little known. The whole of this collection amounts to above five hundred coins, exclufive of those which belong to the Regal and Roman Imperial Series.. As the variety and exact forms of these letters may be of confiderable ufe to the ftudious in this branch of learning, it is intended to have every coin of this part of the collection engraved with the greateft exactness. Here the curious Antiquary may obferve antient Perfian coins, authenticated by other undoubted remains of Perfian antiquities. He will likewife, from these plates, be inclined to think, if not be quite convinced, that the very antient Perfian letters were the fame, or nearly the fame, as the antient Phenician. Here, for the first time, he will fee Palmyrene coins with |