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jectures that, for their mode of building, as well as for their aftronomical hieroglyphics, the Gauls were originally indebted to the Indians. The last memoir relates to our author's controversy with Meffrs. De la Lande and Dupuis, who afcribe the invention of the zodiac to the Egyptians.

Obfervations made during a Voyage to the South Seas in the Years 1773 and 1774. By M. LE PAUTE D'AGElet.

This memoir confifts of extracts from the journal kept by M. D'AGELET, when he accompanied M. Kerguelen in his expedition to the South Seas. The particulars here mentioned relate to the variation and dip of the magnetic needle, to the faltness of the fea water, to the variations of the barometer and thermometer, and to the longitude and latitude of fome of the places at which they touched. Among other obfervations that deserve attention, we find that this gentleman suspects the French geographers of an error with regard to the Isle of Trinity, which they have laid down in their maps of the African feas, but which he thinks is really the Ifle of Afcençaon, which, by fome error of reckoning, occafioned probably by currents, has been twice laid down: at least, he found what in the charts is called Trinity, in 31° 53′ longitude from Paris, which correfponds with that in which the Ifle of Afcençaon is placed in the maps.

The fituation of Foul Point in Madagascar is here determined to be 17° 40′ 35′′ fouth latitude, and 47° 20′ longitude.

M. D'AGELET tells us, that the weather in the fouthern hemifphere, between forty-four and fifty degrees of latitude, was very fevere, even during the months of November, December, and January: the mercury in Réaumur's thermometer was feldom more than five degrees above the freezing point in the day-time, and, in the night, generally one or two degrees below it. In the space of two months, there were scarcely two fine clear days fucceeding each other, and our navigators experienced almost continual fogs and ftorms, accompanied with violent rain, fnow, and hail. The barometer varied from 25 inches 9 lines, to 28 inches 6 lines, Paris measure.

The memoir is accompanied with a map of the land which thefe navigators difcovered, and a plan of the bay in which they anchored, fituated in 48 40 fouth latitude, and 65° 50' eaft longitude. The coaft, which extended from 48° 20′ to 49° 40′ fouth latitude, was remarkably barren; and the mountains were covered with fnow, and produced nothing but a yellow arid mols. On the fhore, were multitudes of birds of various fpecies, and a great number of phocæ. The discoverers took

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poffeffion of this difmal place, and called the bay by the name of one of their fhips, Baye de l'Oiseau.

We fear that this memoir must be confidered as a posthumous publication, as the ingenious author failed with M. De la Peyroufe in the year 1785; from whom, we believe, nothing has been heard fince March 1788, when he was at Botany Bay.

Obfervations and Calculations of an Eclipfe of the Sun, June 4th, 1788. By M. JEAURAT.

From Dr. Mafkelyne's obfervation of this eclipfe at Greenwich, M. JEAURAT has computed the following corrections of Euler's and Mayer's Lunar Tables:

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On the Trigonometrical Operations performed in order to afcertain the Difference between the Meridians of Paris and Greenwich. By M. CASSINI.

As we gave, in our laft Appendix, a particular account of this gentleman's larger publication on this fubject, it is unneceffary to detain our readers with this memoir; in which the author expreffes his grateful fenfe of the polite reception that he experienced in England, and his admiration of the obfervatories of Greenwich, Oxford, and Blenheim.

Calculation of the Triangles measured between Greenwich and Paris. By M. LE GENDRE.

This is the continuation of a memoir of which we gave an account in the Appendix to our fifth volume, New Series, page 514 the principles there explained are here applied to the triangles measured in England. M. LE GENDRE thinks that General Roy was wrong in his hypothefis concerning the figure of the earth, in applying corrections of which he did not point out the principles, and in not taking into confideration

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the curvature of the triangles, but calculating them as if they had been rectilineal. He obferves, that the General's calculation of the longitude of Greenwich, which makes it 2° 19′ 42′′, supposes the spheroidifm of the earth to be th; whereas it is probably no more than th; on which hypothefis, the longitude of Greenwich is 2° 20′ 15′′, or 9′ 21′′ of time.

MATHEMATICS.

Memoir concerning an analytical Method of refolving Problems which relate to the Structure of Crystals. By M. HAUY.

The defign of this paper is to deduce, from one general theorem, the various polyhedra, generated by a rhomboid compofed of laminæ laid on each other, the fides and angles of which are fuppofed to decrease regularly by the fuppreffion of the ranks of particles of which the lamina confift. By this method, which was firft fuggefted by Bergman, the Abbé HAUY has inveftigated all the various forms of crystals, which, notwithstanding their apparent diffimilitude, are deducible from one primitive form.

Inquiry into the Principles of the Differential Calculus and particular Integrals. By M. CHARLES.

In a memoir written fome years ago, M. CHARLES fhewed that finite differential equations may, in fome cafes, have two integrals, one of which is not comprised in the equation that is confidered as the general integral of that propofed. In the paper before us, he inveftigates this fecond integral in those cafes in which the differences are infinitely fmall, and fhews that it affords that fpecies of folution, which is known by the appellation of particular integral, and which is only an incomplete integral deduced from an unknown complete one.

New Inquiries into the Conftruction and Limits of Finite Differential Equations of the First Order. By the fame.

The intention of this memoir is to fhew that the solution of a finite differential equation, in which the fides of two polygons are alternately affumed as the locus, correfponds exactly with the fecond integral, which he had before discovered by a method purely analytical.

On Double Integrals. By M. LE GENDRE.

Double integrals are highly useful in finding the magnitude of folids, and in calculating their attraction: an ingenious and fimple method is here given of facilitating the investigation of them, by a transformation of the variable quantities, illustrated by fome theorems relative to the attraction of spheroids.

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The above are the principal articles in this volume: their variety and importance reflect honour on the learned body by which they are publifhed, as they afford a proof that not even political contentions, which are often fo fatal to the interefts of fcience, have prevented thefe philofophers from supporting that character, which their academy has fo long maintained, as one of the most useful and respectable in Europe.

ART. V. Oratio Funebris in Obitum Viri Clariffimi, &c. i. e. An Oration on the Death of ABRAHAM ARENT VANDER MEERSCH, Profeffor of Divinity and Ecclefiaftical History in the Society of Remonftrants in Amfterdam. By PAUL VAN HEMERT, Profeffor of Philofophy and Literature. 8vo. pp. 50. Amfterdam. 1792.

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HIS fpirited oration is an elegant tribute to the memory of a worthy man, whofe abilities and character rendered him beloved by thofe of his own communion, and commanded the refpect even of thofe bigotted adherents to human fyftems, who difliked him on account of his love of free inquiry, and his zeal for rational Chriftianity. He was the difciple of the celebrated Wetstein, whom, in the year 1756, he fucceeded in his profefforfhip. He was not lefs remarkable for his acquaintance with modern languages and with the best writers in them, than for his extenfive and familiar knowlege of the ancients: he tranflated into Dutch the works of Warburton, Sharpe, and Lardner, and wrote a confiderable part of a Dutch Univerfal Hiftory, on a plan nearly the fame with that of our Univerfal Hiftory. He was the author of a great number of anonymous differtations on the controverfy with Calvinifts, and was always the zealous as well as the judicious defender of the community to which he belonged: but his chief work was a Dutch tranflation of and commentary on Eufebius, which was highly efteemed even by thofe whofe religious fentiments were most oppofite to his. The manufcript was fhewn, by the book feller who published it, to Profeffor Voget of Utrecht, a most bigotted Calvinift, who was requested to write a preface to it; with this requeft the Profeffor readily complied, and spoke of the work with the strongest expreffions of admiration. He happened, while correcting the proof, to hear that Vander Meerfch, who was then a very young man, was the author whom he had thus recommended to the public. To have been furprized into fuch an act of candour toward an heretical remonftrant, was more than the good man's Chriftian patience could well bear, and he immediately added this fentence to his preface, 66 Quid

docto

docte periiffe juvat!" or, in plain English, What fignifies learning, when a man is damned!"

In this, as in all the compofitions of Profeffor VAN HEMERT, the Latin is pure and elegant, and the flyle is nervous and eloquent. The following fhort fpecimen will fully convince the learned reader that the work deferves this praise :

Libertatem, fateor in religionis caufa, Meerfchius profitebatur. eamque ut aliis concedebat, fic fibi vindicabat, omniumque virium contentione tuebatur. Hæc ea eft libertas aurea, quânos Remonftrantes jure noftro gloriamur; quæque SOLA chara&erem exprimit atque naturam familia noftræ. Hec ea eft, quâ formularum humanarum patroni gloriari ac fuperbire nequeunt. Hæc ea eft, quam nobis ab ipfo Deo, dein ab Jefu Chrifto, quem unum veneramur magiftrum, datam et conceffam, pro virili femper ftrenueque defendemus, quamque eripi nobis, quoad maneat noftra focietas, nullâ ratione patiemur! Hoc enim, ut cum Tullio gloriabundus dicam, liberiores et folutiores fumus, quod integra nobis eft judicandi poteftas, nec ut omnia, quæ præfcripta et quaft imperata fint, defendamus neceffitate ullâ cogamur.'

ART. VI. Mémoires du Ministère du Duc D'Aiguillon, &c. i. e. Memoirs of the Administration of the Duke D'Aiguillon, Peer of France, and of his Government of Bretagne. 8vo. pp. 392. Paris, 1792. Imported by De Boffe, London.

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'HE fcenes of vice and corruption, with which the hiftory of the French court is filled, must be difagreeable and painful to every friend of virtue: but this difguft is increased when these scenes are detailed by people, who dare not give their publications the fanction of their names, and who, for aught that we know, may deferve our indignation by having prefented to us a series of vile falfehoods, dictated by a spirit of political refentment, or private revenge. Such were our fentiments on reading the prefent memoirs, which are published by we know not whom; nor do the editors condefcend to inform us who was their author; nor how they fell into their hands; though they affert that fome of the facts related could have been communicated to the writer by none except the Duke D'Aiguillon. He appears to be a zealous partizan of this nobleman, who is as uniformly the object of his praife, as every other minifter is of his cenfure. He condemns with great feverity the adminiftrations of Turgot and Necker: but the chief object of his averfion is the Duke De Choifeul, whom he reprefents as a man ready to facrifice every thing to his unbounded luft of power, and whom he accufes of having poifoned Madame De Pompadour, the Dauphin, and the Queen.

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